My Perfect Little Girl

After all the excited posts about Gizmo, I’m sure the radio silence for three weeks was baffling. To be honest, the first weekend we had her I was full-blown freaking out and had nothing positive to say. I think I had read so much about constant supervision, and all the things you’re supposed to do daily, etc. that I just panicked when she got there. We could not leave her unattended at any point, as our baby gates and outside fence were not quite ready, and it took its toll. My poor husband had also taken off Monday and Tuesday to give her more time to get used to the new surroundings before we left her in the crate, and by the end of those 5 days, I think he was considering my pleas to return her. Part of that was her refusal to go outside in inclimate weather – you can only clean up so many accidents in one hour before you want to scream!

But, getting back into a routine, crating her during work and coming home a couple times a day, we quickly got used to her tiny presence. To be fair to her, she is a great dog, truly a wonderful puppy. She is very well-behaved, learns very quickly, does not bark, and took to her crate right away. We got very very lucky, and the past couple weeks have been such a joy. She got a little sick when she first arrived, I think due to the stress, but she settled in great. After just a couple weeks, she knows sit, no, come here, go potty, and is learning fetch and stay. Most of the time she does stand at the door when she has to go, and so far her little baby teeth have not destroyed anything. J She sleeps through the night already, which was a huge step for us and a very welcome change. She does great at the vet, does great at the groomers (not so much when we tried to bathe her but that was most likely errors on our part!). She has put on a little over a pound (she’s now weighs in around 7 lbs), and I can already see and feel the difference. It has been so much fun having friends and family over to meet her – they can’t stop gushing about how cute and well-behaved she is.

Already, she has completely stolen my heart and I’m obsessed. I miss her during the day, and love her snuggly little body at night. She loves other people and dogs, and is the friendliest little girl. I can’t believe how much I already love her, and how easy the transition ended up being in the end. I love how if I'm gone for a second or all day, she still races up to me and crashes into my legs, with her tail wagging so fast I fear she'll take off. It really is true that there is nothing quite like the unconditional love your dog gives you. It's a sweet sweet feeling.

I feel it won’t be long before we can crate her for longer hours, and probably just a matter of months before we can give her a whole room while we’re gone during the day. At first we were coming home every 2-3 hours to check on her, but we’ve already extended that to 4 hours so we only come home once. Well, we don’t always come home – we lucked out with a great dogwalker!! After we got her, I went online to see what I could find for daily walking services, at least while she’s young since we can’t always get home. I wasn’t loving any of our options, but luckily that night there was a note in our mailbox from a neighborhood boy. He had been looking for his first job, and he saw we had just gotten a puppy, and offered his services. The letter was so wonderfully written, we had him right over to interview him. He was flexible and cheap, and he remembered training his own dog so he knew what to do with biting and walking on the leash, etc. It was a perfect fit, and it has worked out so wonderfully for us. I could not be happier with her care during the day, and knowing she is getting plenty of love and exercise, even when I can’t be there.

I am such a huge fan of my little Gizmo, and I am so glad I did not return her after the first day or two. I would have never known what I was missing, and my life would have been just a little bit emptier. It's only been three weeks, but already its harder to remember life before her.