Bailey will be turning 1 year old soon - if the estimate that she was born in Oct. 2006 is accurate.  Bailey is definitely more of a teenager than a puppy.  Bailey is walking better on the Gentle Leader.  She's doing well with commands like sit, stop, down, etc.  She's still REALLY excited to meet new dogs and humans, but calms down faster now when meeting new people. When someone new comes into the house, we tell Bailey to sit and she doesn't get greeted until she sits.  Then, she gets lots of attention. It doesn't always stop her from jumping up, but she's making good progress.

Bailey hasn't had many chances to be alone lately because of visitors and the entire family being down with colds.  The few times she has been alone briefly outside the crate, she did fine for some.  Twice, though, she left a "surprise" upstairs when she had been outside and gone to the bathroom right before we left.  Pooping in the house while alone can be a sign of simply needing to go to the bathroom, or, it can be a symptom of SA, as if she's letting the humans know exactly what she thinks of being separated.  We'll have to see if or how often it happens again.

If Bailey is loose when alone, she still needs to be separated from resident senior.  We tried an experiment recently.  Foster dad drove off in the car, but Bailey didn't know Foster mom was still home.  Bailey watched out the sidelight and would have liked to go too, but didn't whine or run around the house.  OK so far.  Suddenly, Bailey decided to jump on resident senior and wrestle.  Resident senior's arthritis is much better lately, but she didn't feel like wrestling and let Bailey know.  Foster mom announced that they were not alone.  Bailey was quite surprised, like a teenager caught partying while the folks are gone.  She stopped trying to wrestle and assumed an angelic expression like nothing was going on, honest!

Bailey might have some dominant water-loving genes after all!  Two Sundays ago when it was quite warm, the entire family went to a nearby park and lake.  Of course, resident senior went swimming in the lake - while we held onto her leash.  Bailey surprised all of us by wading into the lake, too - while we held onto her leash.  Bailey, who won't go to the bathroom outside if it's raining.  Bailey, who won't walk through standing water, and who doesn't like the wading pool.  There were other dogs swimming in the lake, too, including our new friend, Sam, a 7 y.o. yellow Lab.  Maybe seeing all the other dogs in the water made her realize water can be fun.