We picked her up on Wednesday, December 31 and it’s been an adventure ever since - especially since I have NEVER owned a dog.   Thursday and Friday were really rough because she was sick and was not sleeping through the night.  She had horrible diarrhea and was unable to hold it because her stomach was so upset - needless to say we spent most of those days disinfecting her cage and washing her.

Friday morning we took her to the vet and discovered she had an ear infection, kennel cough and a stomach parasite - awesome!  Luckily we were able to get her all her medications and by Friday evening she was like a new dog. 

We have been working diligently on her training.  She already knows her name and will come when you call her.   We have been crate training her and she has only had two accidents in the house.  We are also working on “sit” and fetch/return.

It has been a lot of work but since she has been feeling better (a.k.a. not projectile crapping everywhere and sleeping through the night) the amount of work is right on par with what I had anticipated as a dog owner.  Jeff and I know that the more hard work we put in now will pay off over the next year as she grows so she turns out to be a well-disciplined and loving dog.

This year has been a pretty rough one for me but I also had some good things happen - we bought a house!   I continue to stay positive and work towards making 2009 the best year yet!

EDIT: If you are not featured in this video please do not fret - it was not intentional - it simply means I do not have a photo of you from 2008!

Click here to view the embedded video.