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My daughter and her friend purchased these two dogs (Lulu and Coco) from the Humane Society on May 31 without asking parents first. We have a dog of our own so this makes three. We cannot keep them. But they are too good to go back to a cage. They are two (a "bonded pair") recently spayed (May 30) females. They are sweet, lovable, gentle and calm. They just need a little training, good long walks to get them tired, and vigilant supervision to get them through this puppy/young stage. They are about 35 pounds and possibly litter-mates. It seems they are used to being outside but they know how to settle down and snuggle inside too. Even though they have each other, they pay good attention to humans and want to be with us. They are always at the door when we are going in or out and they really always want to go out. They push hard to break free. Maybe they had a doggie-door in their past... They have made it out several times but they do not run off. They just want to be relaxing in the grass. A fenced yard would be best so they can go out and be free. We do not have a fenced yard so here they always need to be on a leash. They are doing well going on walks with leashes even though they seem to be annoyed with their collars at times. Out on walks they are sometimes timid about sounds or other walkers/dogs approaching. However I have not seen any associated aggression or negative behavior. We have been taking them on lots of walks so we can find time to praise them for doing their business outside. One dog (Lulu) sometimes seems to alert when she needs to go out. The other one (Coco) we are still figuring out. But they both have had a few accidents in the house. They have slept together in one large crate or in separate crates. Either way seems to be fine with them. They have even stayed out of the crates all night on the couch! We can remove their food while they are eating and remove toys when they are chewing them with no possession issues. When they first came home they ate from the same bowl. As we watched them it seemed like they were not competing at all, rather they were getting equal/enough food each. We have started feeding them separately to make it easier to give them their pills. They are taking Doxycycline for upper respiratory infections diagnosed by the humane society vet. I do not notice any symptoms of this respiratory issue. They run and play in a normal happy way.
Being 1 year old, they are still very puppyish. They love to chew shoes and corners of pillows and cords ...really anything is fair game to them. So they require vigilance to correct them and redirect them to appropriate chew toys. But always when caught they quickly relinquish the item and move on. They do not tug or engage in a chase to keep the item. Our dog loves to tear up cardboard boxes so we gave Lulu and Coco one to try. They also loved it. They love to tear up an old tree stump in the yard. They pounce on balls when thrown but haven't done any retrieving. They have loved one of our dog's strong chew toys, sometimes both chewing it at the same time. They like to wrestle with each other; I have never seen this get too rough. They respond well to being corrected and are learning, or possibly relearning, "sit" at the moment. We are training them to "sit" at the door when they are getting their leashes on to go out. They get so excited that getting them both ready to go out is quite a hilarious scene at the moment. But they are getting it. We are also teaching them to "sit" before we put their meals down for them. They are used to sharing the food so feeding in separate bowls is something new for them. Also it seems like they are not used to taking food from hands. Because of that they don't really respond to training with treats. Instead we have been giving good loves and praise as their rewards which seems to be working well. They are just so sweet.
These dogs are awesome and have such great potential. They are curious about situations and people. They just need to become accustomed to their new world.
