Zoe Girl Update

Well, she's been here nearly two weeks now and I thought I'd post an update on Zoe Girl. (That's her nickname, by the way, after a Christian music group of the same name...)

Zoe is a *super* smart and very trainable puppy, and I am *so* thankful! Here's the update...

Things she's learned...

• her name (she usually comes when we call her)
• to go potty outside (it's been a week since her last accident!)
• to "sit"
• to lay down and stay while we're eating dinner or working on school
• to sit and wait for her food, instead of rushing at it the instant we set it down in front of her
• to sit and wait while I go in the patio door

Things still to learn...

• not to bark at Jack when he doesn't want to play with her
• not to climb onto the table if we zip upstairs while she's downstairs (she's done this twice, but I have a plan to work on it....muahahaha!!)
• not to run upstairs into the laundry room and steal cat food... for now, we keep a gate at the base of the stairs to prevent this
• to heel instead of lunging at the end of the leash (will be buying a training collar to help with this...)
• etc. (she is a puppy, after all...)

Some really, really good things...

• it's beautiful weather out so she can hang out in our walled-in backyard
• she is *very* trainable
• every time she learns something, it encourages me that she can and will be a very well-trained dog
• we borrowed a book from the library that we used when Jack was a puppy, Dog Talk. It is very good, helping us to see things from a canine point of view when training dogs. :)

So, that's the update! Things are going very, very well with Zoe, despite the fact that I *very* much wanted to give her back after her first night here! :)