Mitzi is our little girl that we got from the Dogs Trust almost 3 weeks ago and she is an amazing puppy (she's 1 year, 1 month and 1 day so is that still a puppy?) and is so much more mature than her age!
Today alone she has done 3 things which make me so proud of her and I feel sorry for those that rejected her just because she was missing half her fur (it's pretty much grown back now - it just needs to thicken up and grow a bit longer)! Those 3 things are: a) she knows not to go out of the front door if she hasn't got her lead on, b) she knows the meaning of "stay" and does it and c) she likes raw carrots!
I don't know about you but that's an amazing 3 things from a rescue puppy who has only been with us for 3 weeks (it'll be 3 weeks on Tuesday, yes I *am* counting)! My previous dog, Whiskey, was 17.5 years old when he went to Rainbow Bridge and he wasn't a rescue puppy and I had him when he was a lot younger too and the only time he would do "stay" was in the garden, with his flexi-lead on and constant eye contact. I kept trying to train him to "stay" and he would remember to do it for a week or so then conveniently forget it!
Mitzi does it with no training so she was either trained by her previous owner or the Dogs Trust to "stay" and it was a wonderful surprise when Steven told me about it this afternoon! Apparently he was taking a bag of rubbish out to the bin and had the front door wide open when our little girl appeared. Steven told her to "stay" and she didn't move at all until the door was closed and Steven praised her!
So, with pretty much no training from either Steven or I, our little girl is already house trained, knows "sit", "no", "stay", "come", "good girl", "say please" and "say thank you" (she learnt those last 2 after I said them to her 3 times on 3 different days but that is literally the only training she's had from us).
With the raw carrots, Steven saw a programme on TV a few days ago that said to give dogs raw carrots as a healthy treat so he ordered a bag of carrots with the shopping, knowing that if our little girl didn't like them then I do so they wouldn't be wasted.
When he'd put the shopping away, Steven opened the bag of carrots, broke one in half and offered half to Mitzi. She gladly took it from him and started chomping away on it! Steven peeled the other half and gave it to me... by the time I was half way down my half, Mitzi had finished her half and was looking up at me with her gorgeous pleading eyes wanting the other half! lol
I want to publicly say thank you to those people who rejected Mitzi just based on her fur problem - we have got a wonderful little girl living with us now and you don't! So there!
We are lucky to have Mitzi! She's an incredible little girl who is ours for the next decade!
Amanda, I agree with you, you're lucky to have Mitzi. It's amazing how many pets and even children are left for adoption because they aren't born perfect. Mitzi is definitely responding to the love and devotion you give to her and I'm sure she is very eager to please you and Steven. Thank you for sharing this post. I enjoyed every word.
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