First 3 Weeks

I picked up D'Oro Cookie just over 3 weeks ago now (1/27) from the Philadelphia airport. The flight home was a bit challenging for us both! American Airlines wouldn't let us fly with them because she appeared too big for her carrier. I had the Mr. Peanuts carrier, but from the facebook groups it sounds like folks have had more luck with the cheaper sherpa carriers. D'Oro Cookie was only 10.5 pounds, but she's a lot of leg, and she wasn't excited to be in a carrier with someone she didn't know. When she's nervous she freezes with legs fully extended, and I honestly couldn't blame the AA attendents for not letting us fly. They said they require dogs to "stand up turn around and lay down in the carrier", and D'Oro Cookie was frozen with her head cratering one side of the carrier. Fortunately, I was able to get a flight that same day with Frontier, but the downside was an itinerary that required us to spend about 16.5 hours in airports (10 hours in Philly and 6.5 hours in Denver International). On both legs of my flight I slightly opened one of the carrier flaps (once to pet her, 2nd flight to give her a blanket as she was shivering), and she ninja-ed out onto my lap! Take-off was by far the most troubling for her, and she was able to calm down during the flights. But, she also rode on my lap for both flights, so that probably helped too. :-)

D'Oro Cookie's favorite things are cuddles, lap time and napping. Walks are not her favorite, but her paws have now built up some calluses, and she seems pretty happy with 1.5 mile walks. She's great at trying on new clothes and even snow boots don't seem to bother her (as long as they stay on ok). She now has a couple different jacket/snow suits and a performance fleece underlayer. The combination of a fleece and jacket seem to work pretty well, although she still shakes some times.

Other people (including my husband Ken) and dogs make her nervous. Ken's started a routine of feeding her chicken each day though, and that seems to be helping. On our walks, she typically freezes when people approach. It seemed like dogs did not bother her as much as people at first, but then a larger off-leash dog approached her and it was terrifying. And now all dogs are terrifying. We are walking daily, and overall she has improved quite a lot since the first couple of days.

Yesterday she had her first vet appointment, and while I'm sure the experience was terrifying, she was very happy and excited once we returned home. Her teeth have quite a bit of plaque buildup for her age, so we are scheduling a dental with her spay in May.

It has been a lovely first few weeks, and I'm looking forward to turning her into an adventure dog! It will take some time, but I also don't mind if she adventures from my arms or a backpack. :)