Spring Break

Having Lily living with me and Chance for a week is the perfect test to see if we both can handle having another dog living in the house. She has been with us for a few days and it's been going really well! They eat together, play together, and take up the whole entire bed! I do know one thing, Trinity is NOT going to be sleeping on the bed when I get her.

I have a queen sized bed and look at how little room I'd have if I'd tried to squeeze my way in there. Lily is a Great Dane mix, meaning, she isn't even close to being as big as Trinity is going to get. That's why I'm putting my foot down on the idea of my new pup sleeping in bed with me. It may work for the first few weeks, but once she hits five months, I'd have to kick her off. Might as well just get Trinity used to the crate and sleeping on the toddler mattress I got her.

Yeah, I got her a toddler mattress. It was fifteen bucks and it fits pretty well into the crate. It has a slippery covering on it, so if she has any accidents I can wipe the waste right off. Pretty smart, right? I'll put some blankets in there with her too, after sleeping on them for a few nights before I get her. I learned that it's better for a pup to be able to smell their owner on their blankets than it is for them to smell the detergent that the blankets were washed in. It makes sense, so that's what I'm going to do. 

I've been studying a lot on being the "pack leader" or the "alpha". I need to establish this now with Chance before I bring Trinity home because if I can't get Chance to do it, why would Trinity submit to me? Understanding how dogs communicate and how they learn is such an eye-opener! Of course Chance doesn't understand when I say I'm going to be back home later and why he freaks out when I finally do return home. He thinks he's the pack leader and I'm leaving without his permission. Establishing that I'm the alpha will calm his nerves a ton, will make him a better dog and will be me a ton happier with him. I have been giving Chance rules to follow in the house, just to ease him into training a little bit, and it's going very well. I think he likes the challenge and I like that I'm not tripping over him in the kitchen anymore! 

If anyone has some tips that they'd like to give me, I would very much take them! I've been reading everything I can find on the internet about potty-training, off-leash walking, crate training, and training in general. Every book that I've found on training costs twenty bucks or something crazy like that and I really need that to buy the pup herself! Maybe I can find a cheap one on Craigslist or something...

I'm still trying to get enough money together to buy Trinity too and to be honest, I'm freaking out a tiny bit. BUT, I did find out that PetCo has vets visit once or twice a month and the vets give shots to pups, for a ton cheaper than my own vet would cost. I'm so thankful that someone started that clinic! Now, it's only going to cost me $150 for all of her shots instead of $300 like my vet would charge. Of course, I'm going to take Trinity to the vet for a check-up as soon as I get her so I know she has a clean bill of health. It's just a smart thing to do.