It's not just about the dog...

So the semester is OVER!  I started this blog as an assignment for class, but now I want to continue it.  In doing so, I am going to talk about our "family" more - not just little Emma.

One thing you must know - I am notoriously terrible about posting to a blog.  I have tried it before and it just didn't work...  but I'm really going to try this time.  I guess I just don't think our lives are that interesting.  We don't have kids and I'm a student.  Our day to day lives are pretty normal (at least I think so).  SO I will start off by "updating" I guess.

Little miss Emma is 8 months old now!  She is an incredibly small corgi - she looks like your normal 6-month-old would look like.  Yes, she still hops.  I just think she always will and I don't mind - just as long as it never becomes an issue for her.  It is a little funny to watch her run after her ball and trip over something.  she literally acts like nothing happened.

We still haven't gotten her spayed yet.  We're waiting till she is full grown at 9 months so we can get x-rays done at the same time.  We're praying that she won't go into heat in the next month...

Our Little Girl

Chad has been working away.  A couple of weeks ago he FINALLY got the transfer he had been asking for for months.  For those of you who don't know,  Chad has been working in Frisco since he moved back to Dallas.  It wasn't a big deal - until we got married and decided to live in Fort Worth.  He was driving one hour and 15 minutes each way.  When he had to be at work at 8 in the morning, he would have to wake up at 5:30 or 6:00 - yeah...no.  So he now works about 5 minutes from our apartment.  In fact, I pass his store on my way to school.  I used to drive if we went anywhere after he got home - since his commute pretty much sucked, but now mine is longer!  I'm just so happy he is closer to home and less stressed!  Of course we're still looking for fire departments, but it's just really competitive and not many are hiring!

15 hours.  That is all that separates me from a Bachelor's degree.  I am unbelievably excited.  Not too sure what I'm going to do after school.  Some things I have thought about are portfolio school, graphic design school, an MBA or just working.  I really have no idea.

This week has been insane with Christmas and with Travis getting married this weekend.  I have been shopping non-stop and now is no exception.  Today eyebrows, shoes, and nail polish are on the list.  I have an appointment at 4:00 so I'm going to run.  I hope to get another post in before the wedding, but no promises!

Until next time!

-Shell

So she barks....

I am what you would call a paranoid (pet) parent. When Emma was a puppy (I know she still is, but I mean a SMALL puppy), I worried about everything. Okay, I still do for the most part, but I digress. I used to worry about her barking.

In the first few weeks we had her, she didn't make a peep. No whining. No crying. No barking. Nothing. She would occasionally do this thing with her mouth where she would open it to bark, but nothing would come out. It was as if she was on 'mute.' I didn't really think there was anything wrong with her, I just didn't understand why she wouldn't bark.

I posted a question on mycorgi.com (a website strictly for corgi owners) asking fellow corgi lovers if they had any takes on my silent dog. The general consensus is that I should thank my lucky stars that she doesn't bark.

Not too many weeks after posting the question, Emma started barking - slightly. She would do a sort of half-bark that wasn't very loud. We encouraged her to "find her voice" by asking her to "speak" for treats and what not. The problem was that the only place she could do that was here at our apartment. Any time we were away from home, we strongly discouraged her barking. I felt like we were sending her mixed messages.

I'm no longer worried that we sent her mixed messages.

The dog barks at everything. Everything. Neighbors going in and out of their door - she barks. Knocking or doorbells on the TV - she barks. Shadows - she barks. Nothing - she barks! Chad took her out last night and I heard her start barking like crazy. When Chad came upstairs, I asked him what Emma went crazy over. "Some one got in their car," he said. The parking lot is on the other side of our building...

There have been countless times she has literally barked at nothing. Possibly the most humorous scenario was a few weeks ago. With the weather "cooling down," we have been opening our patio door more often. At the time, the door was closed but the blinds were open. Emma caught something out of the corner of her eye and started running towards the door barking. At her reflection. We couldn't help but laugh...

It is funny though to notice the different types of barks she does for different situations. When it's just me at home, she does a quiet bark... not too loud. When Chad and I are both at home, she goes into protection mode. Which I guess is a good thing.

All in all, I'm glad our baby has found her voice and that she is protective of us.  Right now she is quietly chewing on one of her bones - but I'm sure 4 AM will be a different story.

Thanks for reading!

God bless!

-Shelley

Pupdate!

Okay, so Emma is now 23 weeks old!  Where did my baby go?!  Now she is a tenacious little dog whose only desire in life is to play - incessantly.  So I know many people are wondering how our little hopping puppy is doing.  Well, she is still hopping.  Anything faster than a slow walk turns into a hop.  However, we think her "knees" are starting to bend a little more!  We don't try to push them or anything, but every now and then we'll just check to see how they're coming along.  I don't know if she's going to keep making progress as she grows, but I'm a little hopeful.  Her legs still do not seem to be bothering her.  We went on a 2-mile walk/run the other day and she was still running when we got back to the car.

We have upgraded her food and water bowl.  They were just getting too small.  Her new ones a little large, but she'll grow into them. :)  We also got a mat for her bowl to sit on.  She's not too sure about that one - so it's a little funny to watch her eat as she stretches her neck over so her feet won't touch the mat.

Emma's favorite toy - in the whole wide world- is a little black squeaky ball that has paw prints all over it.  Her grandparents (my in-laws) got it for her.  Seriously, this is the only thing she wants to play with it seems.  We'll be sitting on the couch, watching TV, then guess what gets dropped on our feet.  And if we don't pick it up, someone starts to bark.  Then she'll try to jump on the couch in a desperate attempt to try and get our attention.  As I type, Chad is on the floor throwing the ball across the room.  Some days I don't mind it so much.  Then there are days like today.  I had a huge project to work on and the incessant squeaking was about to make me chuck the think out the window.  Her other toys of choice include empty coke bottles (coke meaning a variety of soft drinks - for all you non-Texan readers), and a cow we call "ting-ting."  Don't ask.

At this point, Emma has lost all of her teeth except the very back ones.  She has definitely been in pain from it all.  Some days, she could only eat her food if it was wet.  Ice cubes have been a favorite treat as well.  Hopefully this phase will be over soon, but I'm thinkin' those back teeth are going to be the worst ones.

Overall, Emma is doing great.  She's a healthy happy puppy who is staring at me right now with her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth.  Oop...now she's walked to the other side of my feet...  better go play...

I leave you with a video I took of Emma the day after we brought her home.  I think she learned this from, Daddy, but I won't rule myself out of the mix....

Snoring Puppy from Shelley Garland on Vimeo.

God Bless!

-Shelley

A Wonderful Weekend

My dad and stepmom live in Alaska.  Since they've moved up there, I only see them about 4 or 5 times a year.  This weekend was one of those times!  My dad was in Texas for work and decided to drive up to Fort Worth Saturday night to see us.  I was really excited about the trip because my dad has yet to see our apartment and he hasn't met Emma yet!  Unfortunately, it was just my dad on this trip.  My stepmom had other commitments and since it was just a short little trip, they weren't able to make it all work.  But hey, I'll take a visit any day!  I was a little nervous about Dad meeting Emma.  You see, I didn't exactly "share" the fact that we got a dog with them until it was necessary (i.e. I had to tell her to stop doing something while I was on the phone with Julianne).  Not that they're not supportive, they just didn't really think getting a dog was the best idea.    When I told my dad we got a dog, he was silent for about 30 seconds...  so I wanted to make sure that when he met her, he thought she was the most perfect dog ever (and why wouldn't he?).

I will say that Emma did not care for us cleaning the apartment at all.  She has been house broken since about 12 weeks and she peed in our room THREE times within the hour we spent cleaning.  I didn't know I was getting the kind of dog that carried out revenge plots, but here we are.

The only thing I was really worried about was Emma's breath.  It's terrible.  Awful.  Wretched.  Gross.  Because she is deep into teething, her mouth is constantly bleeding.  The blood mixed with her saliva makes her moth absolutely stink.  We bought some "doggie mints" at Petsmart - but they didn't really make a hug difference.  I remembered seeing something along those lines at Target so I went to pick some up a few days later.  Between the two, her breath was actually decent by the time Dad got here.

As soon as Dad started walking up the stairs to our apartment, I opened the door so Emma could run out and see him.  She stated wagging her butt (because she has no tail) so fast I thought she was going to throw her whole body on its side.  Emma loved my dad - and my dad loved Emma.  He spent the hour before we went to dinner playing with her. He kept talking how happy she seemed.  He was thoroughly impressed when he told her to "get her ball" and she went to find it for him.

I really enjoyed my dad being up here.  If anything, I'm a "Daddy's Girl" and seeing him and Julianne only four or five times a year just isn't enough (granted I don't mind trips to Alaska, either).  I'm glad he got the chance to see where we live and meet out precious Emma.  I still feel he probably thinks getting a dog wasn't the best idea, but it also wasn't the worst.  Love you, Dad! 

Thanks for reading!  Until Next week...


God Bless!

-Shelley

Because she can...

I love my dog.  She is amazing, sweet, smart, and everything in between.  This week, however, she decided to "try my patience" a bit.  I have to start out with a little background as usual....

Chad and I went to San Antonio a last week for 3 days.  While we were gone, we left Emma with my in-laws.  She loves it over there.  They have a yard and let her roam the house at night (she likes to sleep on their tile floors - and we keep her in our bedroom at night at home).  Chad and I went over to pick her up last Sunday to bring her home.  Chris (my amazing mother-in-law) mentioned that Emma hadn't eaten anything that afternoon (although there was food in her bowl) so we expected her to be hungry when we got home.

When we got home, we put our normal 3/4 cups in her bowl.  Several hours later, she still hadn't eaten anything.  I need to add here that Emma is deep into her teething process.  Most of her front teeth are gone and the back ones are starting to get loose (dogs loose teeth from front to back).  Sometimes their teeth can bother them so bad that they don't want to eat.  Thinking this might be part of the problem, I put a little bit of water in her food bowl to soften it up.  Oh my gosh!  I have never seen that dog eat that fast (or that much in one sitting)!  10 minutes later, she throws up.  Not a lot, but some.  Puppies can get sick for a number of reasons - one being eating too much too fast. Bingo!  She started acting normal after she got sick, so I thought nothing of it.

On Monday, I decided to not wet her food.  She was fine all day - and then she got sick before bed.  This time it was much more, but still all food.  She had never thrown up that much before, but I still wasn't concerned.  She was acting fine and "everything else" looked just fine...

Tuesday.  I'm sitting on the couch working on my Adobe Flash practical for class (yes, the same class that I am writing this blog for).  Emma is passed out on the other side of the couch with a pillow positioned under her head.  Suddenly, I hear her heaving.  I grabbed her to put her on the floor, but before her paws were on the carpet, she threw up bile on the floor.  Okay - now I was a little worried.  She had not eaten a drop of food or had a sip of water all day! She had also slept most of the day - and wasn't interested in plating.  I was debating whether or not to call the vet, but first I needed to call Chad.  He thought I should call the vet as well and that if they thought I should bring her in, then I should.   And wouldn't you know the vet told me to bring her in just to be safe...

Three hours and $110.00 later, I find out that Emma just had and upset stomach.  No obstruction, no parasites, no viruses - just an upset stomach.  We think that her eating all that food on Sunday night just kind of threw her system off a little bit.  Who knows?  The vet gave her an injection to ease the nausea and sent me home with a box of pills that I could give her should it start acting up again.  I have not given her one pill yet.

As explained in my last post - Emma has a "traveling" problem.  Because she's not "100%" we got her for free (we won't have the option to breed her or show her - which we never planned to anyways).  With that being said - I struggle with spending hundreds of dollars on a dog I got for free.  Please don't think I regret taking her to the vet!  I am glad I was more safe than sorry!  I would do it all over again even if I knew how much it was going to cost me before I left my apartment - it's just a little frustrating sometimes.  :)

Since then, Emma has not gotten sick once and has slowed down on the wet food intake.  She's now 15. 8 lbs. now at 21 weeks of age (I have no idea if that's normal or not). My baby is growing up!  Hopefully we won't be going back to the vet for any unexpected visits until we get her spayed in a month or so...

 Until next week...

God Bless!

-Shelley

Emma's Leg

So if you've been reading my blog, you have noticed I have mentioned that Emma is not... 100%.  She has a bad leg.  I would have written about this earlier, but her "disability" has never really been an issue or interfered with anything.

When we met Emma, she was only 4 weeks old.  At this point, puppies are just learning how to hold their head up and walk around (so they kind of look drunk wobbling from side to side).  They sleep for most of the day and haven't really had a chance to show off their little personality too much.  One area of concern for us is that Emma would turn out to be an alpha female. This is a personality trait that some breeds exhibit where a female (rather than a male) has the chance of having a dominant and aggressive personality.  Severity of this personality trait can vary from growling to literally killing other female dogs that invade an alpha female's territory.  Chad and I will have other dogs while we have Emma, so having a dog with an alpha personality was not an option.

About 2 1/2 weeks after we picked her out, I got a call from Ree (the breeder).  She told be they had noticed a problem with Emma.  I thought, "Oh [crap].  She's an alpha. We can't bring her home."  Ree continued to tell me they had noticed that Emma didn't walk quite right.  Instead of walking, she hopped. "Like a bunny," Ree said.  She told me she was going to take Emma to the vet the following Monday and would let me know what he said, but that this could be a very serious thing that could affect her life.  She also let me know that if we no longer wanted the puppy that she would be happy to refund our money and give us the option of choosing another puppy from an upcoming litter.

After I hung up, I was really disheartened.  I had to keep a smile on my face because I was keeping our nephews for the weekend, but I just wanted to cry!  I called Chad and he was just as upset about it as I was.  There were really only two reasons why we wouldn't take this puppy.  One would be if we couldn't give her the best life possible.  This was why we chose a smaller sized dog as opposed to a large one.  This would also cover and surgeries Emma would need that we couldn't afford.  The second reason would be if her "condition" were permanent.  Chad and I both get very attached to animals and neither of us could handle the thought of having to put her down six months into her life.

I waited as long as humanly possible to call Ree that Monday.  She told me the x-ray the vet took showed absolutely nothing wrong with her leg.  At least nothing wrong with her bones.  X-rays do not show soft tissue.  Puppies have something called growth plates. These are areas in their joints where bones form and they show up as empty spaces on and x-ray.  If Emma had a growth plate injury, it would be permanent and nothing could be done to fix it.  Ree invited us to come out that Thursday to see Emma and help us talk about everything.

We arrived on Thursday and picked Emma up out of the pin.  It was easy to spot her because she was the only one with a serious limp.  We brought her and her brother inside to play and observe her walking.  Here's what we saw...

Seriously, watching these videos takes me back.  She's so tiny!

We all concluded that it was her front left leg.  You'll notice that she falls over when she tries to walk over a foot.  You'll also notice that she is not in any pain.  To this day, she has never seemed to be in pain what so ever.  In fact, she had this attitude of "why doesn't everyone walk like this?  Oh, I guess they're not special enough."  She still has this attitude...

In this picture, You can actually see her left leg turned in (it's the all-white one).

After thinking and praying long and hard, we (obviously) decided to bring Emma home.  Our rationale was that if this were a child, we wouldn't say, "Oh, we'll just wait for the next one."  You love that child for everything they are.  Yes, I realize Emma is not a human, but I still wouldn't reject her just because she has a handicap.

As it turns out, the problem lies within both of her legs.  I took her to the vet several weeks ago for a round of vaccinations and the vet noticed her limping (she rarely limps and is still never in pain when she does) and waned to look at her legs a little closer.  He tried to bend her legs back and NEITHER of them would!  While her right leg does seem a little less tight, it is just as much a part of the problem as her left leg is.  We haven't done any x-rays since her first ones were taken at 6 weeks, but are planning to. 

Every now and then, well notice her left leg turned in completely or limping after a long nap.  She hops rather than runs.  But as I look at her sleep beside me (in the most awkward position possible) while I write this post, I cannot believe we ever thought about not keeping this dog.

Thanks for reading and God Bless!

-Shelley

Trials in Dog Food....

As per my assignment (the primary reason for starting this blog), I put a poll up after my last post as to what y'all wanted me to write about his week.  "Switching Emma's Food" won by a landslide.  Okay, there was only one vote, but 100% is 100%!  So here we go...

First of all, there are a few things you should know (if you don't already) about switching a dog's food.  For one, the switch should not be an overnight thing.  You need to start out with about 1/4 old and 3/4 new.  After two days or so, bump up the ratio to about 1/2 old and new.  Again, keep this ratio for another couple of days before moving to 3/4 new and 1/4 old.  In (you guessed it) a couple of days, you can phase out the old food completely.  If at any point your dog seems intolerant of the new food (diarrhea, vomiting, refusal to eat, etc.), give it up - they won't get used to it.  However, I would like to add that puppies can throw up from eating too fast or too much.

Secondly, choose a good food!  All dog foods have their ingredients listed on the back (or on the side) of the bag.  These ingredients are listed in descending order of use.  In other words, the first ingredient listed is used more than the second and so on and so forth.  A food may claim to use "real chicken", but if it's 10 or 15 ingredients down the list, then it's probably not enough to make a difference.  This is one of those things where you get what you pay for!

Third, choose the proper food for the type of dog you have.  A puppy needs to be on puppy food for about 12 months.  Some formulas are designed for the entire life of a dog (Natural Balance is one of these), but most will have separate formulas for puppy, adult, and senior.  Some brands even have breed specific formulas.

Before we brought Emma home, Chad and I decided we were going to switch her to Science Diet.  Not that we didn't like what the breeder had her on, but I had never heard of it and I thought Science diet was a good, quality food.  When I was in high school, we (my family) fed it to our Bijon per vet recommendation.  We started at 1/4 Science Diet, 3/4 PMI Exclusive (the food fromthe breeder).  She loved the Science Diet and it didn't seem to cause her any trouble.

I guess dinner was good...

But then we got to 1/2 and 1/2.  She started having blood in her stool (which ended up being a round worm....) and then an episode of really bad diarrhea.  I freaked out.  I thought she had Parvo and was going to die (because I'm paranoid like that).  After talking to the breeder (Ree), we put her back on PMI and she was fine.  Turns out Ree wasn't a fan of Science Diet to begin with, but she felt it should be our choice what we fed our dog.  I looked at the ingredients of Science Diet and saw corn was the primary ingredient and chicken wasn't even on the list (chicken by-product meal is not the same thing as chicken).  This wasn't the food for us to begin with (every "expert" I've spoken with has told me you want chicken as the main ingredient).  At this point, Emma was only 7 1/2 weeks old.  We decide that eventually we would try again, but for now we would just keep her on PMI.

*sigh*

I was worried Emma had a sensitive stomach and that was part of why she was so intolerant of the Science Diet.  At home, we do not let Emma lick off the floor ever.  However, as she has gotten a little older, we have noticed she quite enjoys earthworms and has been known to eat crayons when they are left on the floor.  We started thinking that maybe we could try switching her again.  She was now 18 1/2 weeks old.  If you know me, you know that I research things before I buy them. Usually I only do this with "larger" purchases, but Emma's food was no exception.  We decided to go with Eukanuba (You-kuh-new-buh).  They use Chicken as the primary ingredient and are known as one of the best foods around.  I also found out the brand is owned by Proctor & Gamble, and I always love me some P&G!

The only issue we had picking out Eukanuba is that they have three standard puppy formulas:

• Small Breed Puppy - for puppies that will be 20 lbs. and under at maturity (Emma will be heavier than 20 lbs. - maybe)

• Large Breed Puppy - for puppies that will be 51 lbs. and over at maturity (Emma will be nowhere near 51 lbs. - unless we're the world's worst parents)

•  Puppy Growth formula - recommended for puppies 1-12 months (but no weight?  Why not 21 lbs. - 50 lbs.?  I need more direction!!) 

I had the brilliant idea to ask the lady at Petsmart which formula we should go with.  Normally, I find the people at Petsmart extremely informed and helpful - she was an exception. She was nice, but not so helpful.  First of all she told us we needed to buy puppy food.  Yeah, I think got that one down (I was holding two bags of puppy food).  Then she said we were feeding her way too much when we told her she ate about 1 1/2 cups a day.  We are not feeding her too much.  Emma's brothers and sisters were eating that much long before she was!  So after about 5 minutes of telling us about dog food, she said a Corgi is not a small breed.  So I inferred that we needed to go with the Puppy Growth formula.

When we got home, I pulled one kibble out of the bag and gave it to Emma.  She ate it! You should probably know that she is a little picky.  She will not take treats from strangers - only Milkbones.  Chad went ahead and filled her bowl with 1/4 cup Eukanuba and 3/4 cups PMI.  She ate all of the Eukanuba and perhaps a kibble or two of the PMI.  We both thought, "Oh crap.  She is going to get sick!"  All she had on her little tummy was new food that she had never had!  We waited.  She never threw up or acted like she had an upset tummy.  She did nothing but look at us asking for more food.  She still had a ton of food in her bowl, but it was all PMI (the old food).  We repeated the same ratio that evening, this time mixing the two so the Eukanuba wouldn't just be on top.  You see, sometimes when switching food on a dog, they will pick around the new food and only eat the old food that they're used to.  We had the opposite with Miss Emma.  She would grab a mouth full, spit it out on the carpet, pick through it, eating only the Eukanuba.  

 

I was left with a floor full of dog food....

Again, when she was done, she just looked at us as to say, "More, please!"  We knew she was hungry, but we didn't want to risk her getting sick by just switching over.  The next evening, we went ahead and bumped up the ratio to 1/2 and 1/2.  She still only ate the Eukanuba.  We never noticed any change in her stool and she never threw up - it seemed to be working just fine!  By the fourth day, we were giving her all Eukanuba with a splash of PMI on top.  She probably wondered why the heck we were still giving her this food she wouldn't eat!  We finally just stopped wasting dog food. 

Now having been on Eukanuba for a week, Emma seems to be doing great!  She seems to actually be gaining weight (she was the runt of the litter - so this is a good thing) and has more energy - although the energy may be a side effect of her growing up.  I am really pleased with this food.  I feel she is getting the nutrition she needs and is a more energetic pup.  So if anyone needs a bag of PMI Exclusive Puppy Formula that has about a cup missing from it, give me a call! 

God Bless!

-Shelley

A Herding Dog in Cow Town

Howdy, everyone!  So I must begin this post by saying...

GO FROGS!

After a few heart attacks and some *rowdy* fans, my darling Frogs pulled out a win!

My mom and step dad came up (from Houston) for the game - but mostly to see what my mom calls "her grandpuppy."  Chad spent Saturday morning helping his dad out with a football game in North Dallas so I took Mom and Glenn (that's my step dad) to the Fort Worth Stockyards.  Chad had pointed out to me that morning that with Emma being in her kennel all night while we were at the game, we probably didn't want to lock her up all morning either.  I felt bad that I hadn't even thought about that.  Solution: take Emma to the stockyards.  

I wasn't sure if there was a policy towards dogs at the stockyards so I went to their website but didn't see anything about dogs.  I figured at least the street was (more than likely) public property, so we loaded up the car and went.  When we got there, I shortened her leash and tried to sneak past the guard at the parking lot (should he tell me, "No dogs allowed!").  Luckily, he walked away at the last second.  We walked down the street to the train tracks and just about everyone made some comment about how cute she was.  I never know what to do in those situations.  Do you acknowledge that they are talking about your dog or just keep walking?  It's awkward.  

Once we got to the "train area" (because I don't know what else to call it), I told Mom and Glenn to go into any store they wanted and I would happily wait outside with Emma.  Of course each time they went into a store, about 15 or 20 people would swarm around wanting to pet her.  Of course they were mostly kids.  When Emma gets excited, she tucks her ears back and wags her butt so fast it almost throws her whole body off balance.  It's adorable.  She would waddle over to the kids and just smile while they covered her with rubs.  I was shocked at the number of people who had no idea what breed she was.  I have learned that Corgis are not the most well known breed, but seriously.  Only about 3 people said "What a cute Corgi!" (and they were all men).  

*Side story* I took her into Discount tire a few weeks ago (I was leaving for Fort Worth from Houston - that's why I actually took her with me) and as I was waiting in line, a Father and his two daughters walked in and stood behind me.  Emma of course wanted to go play with them.  I told the little girls that they were welcome to pet her if they would like to.  They looked at they dad for approval as he nodded.  While the girls were on the floor petting Emma, their dad asked me, "What kind of dog is she?"  I answered, "A Pembroke Welsh Corgi."  He then proceeded to ask, "What's that?"  I wanted to respond, "It's a dog," but instead I stumbled out "It's a type of herding dog."  Honestly, I had no idea what to say! What do you mean, "What's that?"  Do you think I made it up?  Oh well... back to my main post....

As mentioned last week, Emma has a bad leg leading her to hop rather than run.  This gets her tired out pretty quickly.  She hopped all the way down the end of the shops (about 1/4 mile - maybe - I don't know) then sat and looked at me as to say, "Alright, I'm ready to be picked up, Mom."  I had her walk about half of the way back and then sat to take a short break.  My mom bought a bottle of water for her to drink out of, but she wasn't too sure about this new mechanism.  We got back up and kept going.  About a block away from the car, I decided that she'd had enough and picked her up.  At this point, she had walked about a mile and had been out and about for around three hours.  I have never seen a more exhausted dog.  The whole way home she kept dozing off then would wake up real quick if she heard a noise or something.  It made me relax a little knowing that she would be sleeping most of the time we were gone.  

She was a champ!  Not a single accident (she hasn't had one in two months anyways)!  She was a little slow getting to bed last night, but eventually passed out.  Every time I take her out, I gain a little more confidence in her.  I'm so glad I have a dog that everyone can pet and I don't have to worry about biting or growling.  Can I say I have the best dog in the world?  

I will leave y'all with a couple of pictures of Emma - some when she was younger (since y'all missed the first 17 weeks of her life).  Hope you enjoy!

Taken today - with toys in the background.

Waking up from a nap...

The day we brought her home...  What happened to my baby?  

Sleeping - still her favorite past time.

God Bless!

-Shelley

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

For the past week, we have noticed Emma has a few loose teeth.  This morning I checked her mouth (as I do several times a day) and her two front teeth are GONE!!  I wish I could find them - but I'm sure they're probably somewhere I don't want to search...

All she wants for Christmas...

God Bless!

Shelley

Hello, World!

Meet Emma.  Emma is a 17 (and a half) week-old Pembroke Welsh Corgi.    We are crazy about her.  We got Emma when she was 7 1/2 weeks and have loved watching her grow and learn over the last 10 weeks. So let's go all the way back to the beginning.

Chad and I both grew up with dogs.  Ever since my childhood dog (a beautiful tri-color rough Collie) passed in 2004, I have wanted another dog so bad.  After my incessant begging in high school, my dad told me that when I graduated college, he would buy me a dog as a graduation present.  Well, I didn't wait to finish college to get married so why would I wait to finish to get a dog?!    I stared tossing the idea around with Chad (my husband) and we both decided that we wanted one, but we needed to choose a breed that would thrive in our not-so-spacious one bedroom apartment.  After setting up Dogs 101 on our DVR and doing "extensive" research, we narrowed it down to a few breeds.  First of all, Chad and I are "big dog" people.  I don't care for little "yippy" dogs one bit.  While we would love to have a lab, the breed wouldn't exactly "thrive" in our apartment.  Okay, so a bulldog then!  Oh wait - they cost $2,000.  I don't know if your familiar with the term "newlywed budget," but it doesn't typically entail several thousand dollars for a dog and its subsequent care (...at least ours doesn't).  Enter the Corgi.


Corgis have been described as "a big dog in a little body."  In other words, they are to be trained as you would a Lab or German Shepherd, but females only weigh about 25 lbs. full grown.  Perfect!  There are two breeds of Corgis - the Cardigan Welsh Corgi and the Pembroke Welsh Corgi.  Main visual difference - Cardigans have a tail and Pembrokes do not.  Also, Pembrokes are a tad more personable.  The Queen of England has 16 Pembrokes!  I really thought this could be the breed for us.  I did a quick search and found a few breeders in the area.  One recently had puppies (about a day or two before I searched) so I told Chad that night that I thought I had found the dog for us (and that I thought we were ready for one).  We also contemplated whether or not to adopt.  I completely support the adoption of animals and had actually gone to the shelter here in Fort Worth to see if I liked any of the dogs.  The problem was that we didn't want a small dog, but still had a small apartment.  So why not go through a corgi rescue shelter?  As herding dogs, Corgis have a tendency to herd small children and in doing so, they tend to nip.  We knew that within a few years, we'll have children and it was important to us both to get a puppy so we could nip this habit in the bud (no pun intended...).

Having decided to go through a breeder, I contacted Wits End Corgi in Poolville, Texas - about 30 minutes NE of Fort Worth (**until November 2010, you should still be able to see her picture along with her brothers and sisters**).  Four weeks later we picked out our Emma!  Although it's frustrating when she needs to go out at 5:00 AM or she wants to play when you have a huge test to study for ...or waking up with your legs hanging off the bed so she can be in a certain spot, I wouldn't take a thing back!

Here's a few pictures of her first few weeks of life...

Just a few days old

About 3 weeks old

The day we picked her out

51 days old

Today - She was more interested in watching TV than posing...

In closing, buying a puppy was the right choice for us.  If you can adopt, I recommend that you do.  There are so many dogs out there that need your love.  And hey, you may get to pass on the housebreaking routine!  Shelter and rescue dogs may not look perfect, but their ability to enrich your life is still there.  Emma is not perfect either (she has a bad leg), but that's a topic for a different post....

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

God Bless!

Shelley