Sweet Pea's 2 week checkup

The vet came today, two weeks to the day since her last visit. Sweet Pea was on a strict food schedule and daily 3-walks-a-day exercise routine. Want to know how much weight our 90+ pounds dog weighs now? Ready? 92 pounds. Yup. Nary a pound lost. *sigh*

We are to reduce her food by one cup in the am and pm. She doesn't seem to care; she's not a fan of the dry food anyway. She was also given the all-clear to swim (now that her incision has healed up nicely) so we can add that to her activities. She also seems to be able to jog well with me, so we'll do that too. Not run, just an easy jog.

Tonight we took her to the dog park with the water section to swim in lieu of her evening neighborhood walk. She loved it and got right in, paddling around happily. She then trotted home easily. We hope the new regime will work. The vet will return in two weeks.

We are also going to start Obedience Training with her this Saturday. Once we have a good recall from her, we can start letting her off leash on the trails! She is such a good dog; commands like "Leave it" and "Sit" aren't really needed right away, but a solid "Come!" would be wonderful!

She now sleeps in our bedroom at night and seems much more relaxed when I leave the house. She is settling in!

One week ours!

We have had dear Sweet Pea for one week now and she is getting more and more comfortable each day. Like her sweet headshot? That was the picture from the Humane Society's website that I hadn't ever seen (Ted and I were looking at dogs and saw her just a day after she was relinquished). What a cutie with her pink bandana! It makes me sad too though. Someone loved her enough to put a cute little bandana on her the day they were giving her up? Ugh, makes my heart hurt.

Today she ate well, tucking into her wet food eagerly and reluctantly eating up the dry afterwards. Cutie.

She's been enjoying the dog park in the mornings, though she made it clear today that she was NOT to be mounted under any circumstances! Hee hee. You go, girl. She also goes into any water she sees along the trail, so I hope the next week goes by quickly so we can start obedience school and get her off leash!

The kids are back in school and she is always there to greet them when they arrive back home. She has, sadly, ripped up and chewed a few shirts and books, so the kids need to keep their stuff picked up around here - not a bad thing!

All in all, what she's learned in a week is astounding. What a great gal.

First Vet Visit

Sweet Pea had her first vet visit yesterday and it went quite well. She weighed in at 91.8 pounds, so probably the Humane Society weighed her prior to her surgery. Our first weight loss goal is 10 pounds and she is on a mixture of wet and dry prescription weight control food. She ate the wet food with enthusiasm this morning, so I think she was fed wet food in her old home. At least she's eating! She also peed and pooped! Hooray! (Geesh, it's like talking about a newborn!)

We have her on three walks a day: a morning walk to the dog park to play with other dogs (she's super friendly to everyone and seems to enjoy the girl dogs), an after-lunch walk to the creek path (she LOVES water - I'l have to take a video of her enthusiasm) and an evening walk around the neighborhood.

Today she actually peed on both her first and second walk! This is the first time she's peed more than once a day, so we were very relieved. We used to think she was a chewer but it turns out she's just a picker-upper! If anything is left on the floor, on the stairs, or on a low chair she'll pick it up and take it to her "den" behind the couch. She is so sweet!

Tonight we have our Orientation for Obedience School. We can't treat her til she loses some weight, so we are curious to hear if we should wait to start school or not.

All new things!

Sweet Pea has been very busy learning new things around our house. Some of her recent accomplishments:

• Going up and down carpeted and wood stairs
• Going for walks on a leash
• Tolerating a gentle leader on her face
• Sharing space with a top cat

Keep up the good work, Sweet Pea!

Welcome to the family, Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea, Day 1

Sweet Pea joined our family today, August 9, 2012. She is a 3 1/2 year old purebred yellow lab. We don't know too much about her, but it seems that she has had a few litters and she definitely has a weight problem - we even had to sign an Obesity waiver at the Humane Society! She is very sweet and gentle, though she knows no commands. We will put her in Obedience Training as soon as she recovers from her spay.  She's a great gal.

Paul thought it would be fun to document our 99 pound girl's journey back to fitness and vigor. We will meet with our vet in the next few days to come up with a diet plan for her. Until she recovers completely from her spay (~10 days) we will keep her walks mellow and short, though frequent. She didn't seem to know what stairs were, so a large part of her first afternoon with us was spent learning about stairs. We hope we didn't overdo the exercise today, based on stairs alone!

The kids adore her and she is in severe danger of over-cuddling. Here's to your health, Sweet Pea!