Day 13

When you own a dog, you take on lots of new responsibilities. Its like having a toddler who can't talk sometimes. If you are able to start from a puppy, you learn the joys of saying "NO! DON'T CHEW MY SHOES!", teaching them tricks and/or commands and of course potty training. I thought it was pretty easy to be honest with you. Kelly was so cute and always very excited to see people. Her elation at meeting strangers or just being outside helped me find the joy in the small things of life. Then one day, Kelly started shedding...a lot.

Obviously when you get a dog, you know that dog hair will become a common occurrence in your home, on your clothes and in your car (and not because they ride in the car!). But in the last week, Kelly's shedding has been taken to a whole new level.

I will rub behind her ears and pull my hand away to find its covered in hair. After a few days of this, I decided to start brushing her every day, much to her dismay. She doesn't like to be brushed. I think because we use a wire brush. But we've tried other brushes and this is the only one that actually collects the hair instead of spreading it all over the house. But an hour after I brush her, I'll rub her back and another huge clump of hair comes out. It was so gross!

So today I decided that maybe a good scrub in the tub will help her. She LOVES to be scrubbed-just hold the water and soap please!-and Lucy loves to help. She giggles when Kelly shakes off all the water and talks to Kelly the whole time I give her the bath. Today, I decided it would be Lucy's responsibility to give Kelly her treats during bath time.

For the first time, Kelly came into the bathroom willingly for her first treat. YAH! Lucy was so helpful and I praised her for it. After Kelly gets scrubbed and lets me rinse her face, she gets half of treat #2. Then comes time to dry off-here is where I made my mistake.

I brought the whole jar of treats in the bathroom today. When it was time to dry Kelly off, Lucy wanted to give her a treat. I opened the jar and said "Just one more treat, OK Lucy?" then I looked away. In that one second, Lucy had grabbed a whole handful of treats and proceeded to feed them to Kelly! Kelly, of course, knew this was not normal and did her best to gobble them up from Lucy's hand as quickly as possible. I yelled "NO!!! Lucy stop!!!" only to have her reach her other hand in for more treats. By the time I was able to close the jar and take the treats out of Lucy's hands, I have no idea how many Kelly got. Needless to say, today was most likely Kelly's favorite bath EVER!

I'm hoping this bath will help her shedding problem. I don't know if I can keep up with the vacuuming and dusting every day! Does anyone out there have any suggestions for me????