6/11/05: Sunny arrived on Thursday the 9th, ironically one of the few sunny days we've had. Sunny is a year old, not spayed and overweight. She has been an outside dog all her life. Due to a family illness after getting Sunny, she never really got the chance to socialize, etc. She is a large dog that overpowers the small children....at this point. I brought her into the kitchen, she met the cat, which she'd never seen before, with no problems. Good old Sam will greet anyone.

She was a little unsure of resident Reba and eventually it took a couple go-rounds, at which point Sunny learned that Reba may be smaller and weigh a lot less, but she is the Queen. Sunny really doesn't know how to play with other dogs or even toys, per se. She is great at running after the ball and in most cases bringing it back and dropping it. She minds very well in that if you call her, she pretty much comes.

I spent the first day home with her. We spent a couple hours on the deck getting brushed and matts cut out. She was/is touchy with her feet and being brushed by her haunches and back - I think mostly due to the fact of so many tangles, etc. She allowed me to cut her nails...took a bit of coaxing, but got it done. Then off to the shower. Let me tell you, the shower doesn't allow a lot of turn around room with "full figured" gals in it. We managed. That night I gated her in my kitchen. Never a whimper or whine. She slept all night til Sam woke her up, and even then she only barked once. No accidents...not a one!!! Next day I gated her in kitchen while I went to work for about 7 hours and no accidents or chewing, etc. At this point I think her signal to go out, is to come and just keep bugging you til you ask her to go out. I'm trying to get her to associate the words "go out and potty" with actually going out and doing it.

My little 5 year old neighbor girl came to check out the new dog, and Sunny was very good with her...a little excited at first, but settled down rather quickly. She doesn't seem to have any guarding issues with food, though when I first put my hand in her bowl she gave a little growl, but has been fine since. Now, the rawhide bone has been different. She is very protective of it. I continue to give it to her for short periods, take it away, give it back and then put it away. She's doing better.

She has the deepest growly sounding bark...hard to describe. She isn't much of a barker though, even when you come home. She tried to play with the neighbor's year old Beagle....I think the noise she makes scared him more than anything. She is a bit of a Velcro girl...where I go, she goes. No interest in interacting with Reba....except to push her outta the way for my attention. She doesn't seem to have any issues with men and goes to my husband readily, as well as my 24 year old daughter.

At this point she needs some socializing and introduction to more dogs to help decide if she should be an only dog or not. Her nickname is "Miss Puddles".....a lot of drool when she gets excited, plays, etc. But she does allow me to wipe her face with the "drool towel" :) For now she is staying in the kitchen another night and then we'll try the bedroom and see how that goes. Meanwhile she has free run of the house when we are home.

She has not chewed on anything inappropriate or even touched the shoes that are everywhere, nor tried to get on any furniture unless you count her paws on the arm chairs trying to reach your hand :) She is just so excited to be around people and can't get enough of being touched and talked to. Today she went for her first ride in the van....what an adventure for her...she just kept looking from side to side like she couldn't take it all in. She hasn't been on a leash much, so she likes to pull. She had had a heavy metal choker which I dispensed with, tried the Gentle Leader which she hated, and so went to a regular dog collar. We'll continue with the GL on and off to see if she will adjust.

She loves to be out and play and I am sure it's difficult in some ways to be confined to a house, but the attention and air conditioning makes up for it, I think. She is so good in the house and no accidents.....just amazes me. This girl will love you from morning til night. I'll update again in a few days. If you think you'd like to meet Sunny, please email Placementragom [dot] org.