First, I'll start with Phoebe. Phoebe arrived in WI from Alabama about two weeks ago. I brought her down to IL and she stayed with us for about a week until my mom and Bob were home from vacation and could become her permanent foster. She did wonderfully with my three dogs, my daughters and my husband. She is a sweet, happy and outgoing little girl.
Phoebe then transitioned to my mom's house with her three dogs and several cats. Phoebe is doing well there too. She is young and playful and my mom's senior beagle isn't always excited about Phoebe's playful energy but he's accepting it. She is not over the top with her energy level but she does like to play. You can see some videos of Phoebe and Alley playing in prior posts.
Phoebe is still a puppy. She's still growing and is now just shy of 7 pounds. She is still learning to do her business outside. The first day or so that she was with us she did all her business outside but then we realized she probably wasn't fully housebroken. She is doing well from what my mom says. She knows do to her business outside and they're working to continue to reinforce it with her. While Phoebe was at my house I did hear her ring the bell on my back door to be let out one time so I sent my mom home with a bell too and Phoebe has rung theirs too.
Phoebe loves people and greets new people enthusiastically. We went to go see her this weekend at my mom's and she was very exited and started to run laps in the family room. My mom said she's not normally that excited but she was probably just really happy to see our family again. Phoebe also loves to cuddle and has her spot on Bob's lap at night.
Phoebe is a puppy so does like toys. She enjoys rolling the ball and running to catch it. She enjoys chew toys. My mom and Bob keep plenty of toys out for her.
They tell me that Phoebe sleeps in the crate at night and is quiet all night long. She waits until Bob gets up around 7am.
While Phoebe was with us she did really well with the chaos that comes with having two pre-teens in the house. She had no problems with all the noise that a 10 and 12 yr old can make- singing, dancing, shouting, piano, trombone, etc. That said, Alley is fine with all of it too! Also, both dogs are good with my girls scooping them up and carrying them.
Phoebe had her spay surgery on Wednesday and on Friday she was back to her old self and Bob started working with her on "sit." On Saturday he started working with her on "down." From the video below you can see she's doing really well. She is a quick learner!
Now, for an update on Alley. Alley is being fostered by us. She and Phoebe had a grand time playing together when Phoebe was here. They played very nicely. Now that Phoebe is gone Alley has shown us that's she's a pretty low-key girl. She follows me around and rests near me most of the day while I'm working. She occasionally will pick up a toy and play with it or will find a nylabone and chew on it for awhile but after a few minutes she's done. She does like walks and on the days that it's been warm enough she does a 1-mile loop with Holly and me. She walks nicely with a leash and harness.
Alley is not wild about the crate and will whine for the first few minutes but she eventually settles in. She does enjoy cuddling and I've been spoiling her by letting her sleep on our bed at night. She's easy. She finds a comfy spot on the bed and then that's it. She settles in for the night and I don't hear a peep out of her. She waits until I get up to get out of bed. She does love people so I do think her preference would be to sleep on the bed or at least next to the bed of her people.
She definitely knows how to do her business outside. You can read more about that in prior posts but the last few days she's been 100% doing everything outside. I work from home so I let her out several times a day. I reward her when she does her business outside.
When Alley first got here she did not know how to sit and did not know to wait her turn when I was handing out treats. That has all changed. After just a few minutes of working with her she learned "sit" and now she also waits nicely while I hand them out. There is a video of this below. I'll mention that my sheltie-mix Holly is a senior and is probably 14 years old. I don't hold Holly to the same standards that I hold my other dogs to and that's okay in my book. So, you'll see Holly does not "sit" like the others and I'm okay with that.
Oh, I'll add that we weighed Alley today and she's about 11 and a half pounds. She could probably put on half a pound so let's say she's 12.
Thanks for reading and thanks for thinking rescue!
Note- that if you are on a mobile device you might not be able to see the videos below. You may need to log onto a PC. They are worth it so please do!
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| Phoebe in my daughter's arms |
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| Phoebe's eyes are beautiful. They are sort of grey. Hard to see in this picture |
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| Phoebe with my mom's dogs- Mickey, Max and Maggie. |
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| One of the beagles and Phoebe |