Big Girl!

Sweet Cocoa has had a great week. She has had no potty accidents for about two weeks now and I am just about ready to proclaim her "housebroken"! We are allowing her more freedom and less scheduled pottying to "test" her this week. We have also purchased some Poochie Bells for the house and plan on beginning to teach her to ring the bell to go outside rather than whimper, which is her current method of communicating her needs to us.

Cocoa has also been on several car rides this week, and one day she spent all afternoon with me in the car. She is a wonderful rider, but much prefers to wear her seat belt in the front (with the airbag off) than to be belted into the cargo area if the other dogs aren't with her.

She got her spay stitches out on Monday and she is all healed up. She will get to go to the park with Ben's play group this afternoon and tomorrow she will get to go with the big dogs to Taurus Training for her first Doggy Play Day! It's a great way for her to socialize with more dogs in a variety of ways AND do get some great exercise after several soggy days here this week.

We found out at at the vet this week that she currently weighs 24.3 pounds at ~21 weeks old.

Weekend Report

Cocoa had a busy weekend. On Friday night she came home from her spay and brought Forgotten Friends' Satin with her (since Satin also was spayed on Friday). We kept the two convalescing dogs separate from everyone else that night, and they got along fine. They both slept well all night. They ate the next morning and both seemed to have a very easy time recovering. By lunch, Cocoa had her normal appetite back, but she stepped out of the way when little Satin nudged her over to take some bites from her bowl. No problems sharing the meal.

Cocoa went to the Meet & Greet yesterday-- thanks so much to everyone who came out to see her. I am glad so many other people see how special she is too! We just kind of relaxed at home the rest of the weekend so she can have plenty of heal time. She seems to feel perfectly fine now and it is hard to get her to take it easy like the post-op instructions say! We have to let her out separately from the other dogs so that she keeps her running and jumping to a minimum.

Surgery Day!

Cocoa went to Compassion Animal Hospital this morning to be spayed and microchipped. Dr. Gibson reports that the surgery went very well and we will be able to pick up the sweet girl by dinner time-- yay!

Food Update

Tonight before dinner all five of the dogs were invited to eat from the same dish after a group training period involving treats. There were no problems with Cocoa (or anyone else!). Also, all day we have picked up Cocoa's dish while she was eating and put our hands in her dish without the slightest complaint from her. We will try to get some photos of her sharing a dish.

Cocoa Returns!

Well we had great hopes that Cocoa had found her Forever Family on Sunday, but after a two day trial they realized that she was not the right dog for them due to food aggression issues, so we brought Cocoa back here.

We had not tested her for food aggression issues (never suspected there would be any!) and she had been eating in her crate here (as is our standard method during house training), so we have been testing her on that since her arrival back here (3 meals so far). We currently have 5 dogs here, and we have begun feeding Cocoa outside of her kennel so that she is just eating in the kitchen with the others (only little Cupcake remains eating in crate). So far, there has been NO problem with Cocoa sharing her bowl & food with the other dogs-- she has allowed both Woolie & Luci to eat alongside her from her bowl-- so that is a good sign. We will keep everyone updated if this issue seems to be anything other than a fluke, and we will also make sure that Cocoa shares a meal (via handfeeding and other methods) with another dog every day.

In the meantime, we are delighted to have sweet Cocoa back. And what a surprise for her-- little Terrier-mix puppy Cupcake is now here to play with as well! The two puppies are SO cute together, and really enjoying playing and resting with each other.

Cocoa has had a few accidents since she came back-- a lot of change in a short time for a young pup!-- but we are getting her back in the swing of things today and keeping her on the house training routine. It is amazing, but it seems like she grew just in the short time she was gone! She seems both taller and heavier, but just as sweet and loving as always.

Cocoa's Last Night?!

Today at the Meet & Greet a wonderful family (including a young Aussie!) came to meet Cocoa. They submitted an application for her and TOMORROW morning she will go to visit them at their home. It is possible that this will be our last night with sweet Cocoa. We have loved this darling puppy SO MUCH, and we are so, so happy for her that a wonderful family has found her, even if we are sorry to see her leave.

What's Under All That Fur?

In anticipation of her Meet & Greet today, I took Cocoa to Mud Puppies for the full Spa Treatment this morning. She is a tiny thing under all that fur!! But she accepted her bath and spa treatments (nail trim, ear cleaning, teeth brushing, high-power blow dry, & brushing) very well. Such a good puppy!