Savvy's Foster Dogs: Rochester, Chateau, and Ellie Mae

I want to start out today by saying what a difference the mood in the house is without Ollie. I think we were all in a little bit of depression yesterday. We pretty much spent the entire afternoon laying on the couch. No one was really up for playing. It was so quiet. I didn't realize how much we would miss Ollie, but we do! Attitudes picked up a bit this morning, but it'll take a bit to completely get used to not having that energy in the house!

So yes, I was a crazy dog lady for a few days. 5 dogs! It wasn't as terrible as I was imagining. Ellie Mae was the newbie, and she is a very good girl. So that made it easy. More on her below.

5 dogs this weekend! Here they are all lined up on the couch. From top to bottom: Chateau, Hardy, Rocky, Ollie, and Ellie Mae.

Rochester is doing well. He misses his play buddy though. All afternoon yesterday he was trying to crawl into my lap, which he doesn't normally do. I can only assume it was because he was sad Ollie was gone. This morning he started to play like he normally did, though. So I think with time his mood will pick back up. Ellie Mae tries to play with him, so maybe that'll help heal his broken heart.

I was crafting this weekend, and somehow Rocky got a red sequin on the tip of his nose.

Rocky wearing his winter jacket. It's a little big on him, he slips out every chance he gets.

Rocky cuddling with Ellie Mae. He has his paw around her!

Chateau is as wonderful as ever. Last week I took her to the vet, and she got such compliments on how beautiful she is. I swear, I can't take her anywhere without someone saying she's a gorgeous dog! I'm a little upset right now, because I had a video of Chateau playing with some toys, and I can't for the life of me find it! She's so funny when she plays. Usually by herself, she'll grab one of the plush toys and jump and toss it in the air and catch it. It always makes me laugh. Hopefully the video is on my memory card at home...if so I'll update tonight. This morning Chateau and Hardy were involved in an epic battle for one of the long plush squeaker toys. Being about 20x Hardy's size, you'd think Chateau would win every battle...not so. Hardy hangs on with all his might and actually ends up with the toy a majority of the time. Chateau sure tries though! She was pulling Hardy all over the house this morning. My smart little guy just holds on until she gets tired or lets her guard down, then he takes off with the toy. Then of course, she takes off after him and it starts all over again.

Chateau wearing her highly reflective winter jacket. She didn't like it at first, but she's used to it now.

Chateau running around outside.

And now meet my new peanut: Ellie Mae! I've decided I want to keep her as long as I can, so I'm only going to say bad things about her. Ellie is gassy! I mean, I don't have proof that it's her...but I started noticing it the day I brought her home. So coincidence? Darn it, that's the only bad thing I can think of...potential adopters, stop reading now! Ellie Mae (I also call her Ellie or Elle depending on my mood) is the sweetest, cutest, friendliest little girl ever. She gets along with all my dogs, and tries very hard to play with them. Though she's still just a puppy, so if the others get a little rough with her I stop them right away. She's not housebroken, but she is very good about going potty outside when I let the dogs out. I also think she's picked up on Hardy's signals (he scratches at the front door when he wants to go out), so she will walk next to the front door before she needs to go. If I'm fast enough, I can get her outside. If not, she has a spot next to the coat closet that she seems to like. I don't have any concerns getting her housebroken soon though, it only took a couple days for her to figure out the front door trick. I'm also working on crate training her, and it's going very well. I threw her for a little bit of a loop yesterday though. Because I had the 5 dogs this weekend, I had her using Hardy's crate. But now that Ollie's gone, I moved her to his crate. So she still goes to Hardy's crate first. But she's getting better. This morning she accidentally crawled into Rocky's crate while he was in there! My heart skipped a beat thinking he would snap at her...but he didn't make a peep! I just coaxed her out and everything was fine. She does whine a little when I put her in the crate for the night, but it only lasts for 5-10 minutes and then she's silent until it's time to get up in the morning.
Right now I'm focusing on getting Ellie Mae house broken and getting her used to having people touch her ears, paws, and teeth. She's pretty good about letting me touch everything, but as soon as I get near her with a scissors she runs away. Something we need to work on. After that, we'll start working on some of the standard tricks. I think she'll pick them up quickly.