Kelly News...Day 1

Kelly is doing amazingly well, considering her life to date and her recent long trip. She is nervous and tense, but curious despite herself.

Miss Kelly climbs stairs as fine as you please! She is currently crated in my dog room and was also very content in my outdoor kennel run with dog house, so I have a nice place to leave her, as an alternative to the crate. When she feels insecure, she aims straight for her crate or the kennel run. She has growled from her kennel run at my dogs when she first came home. They were flocking around and she was nervous. I made my dogs stay away from her crate when she was eating tonight. I stood by it and she was fine.

She absolutely wanted to see the downstairs of my tiny house, so on leash, so we walked around the downstairs (which takes maybe 30 seconds!) and when we came to my straight, steep stairs, we climbed up, then , we climbed back down. She was fine on the hard wood floors. Tail up, very confident! Then we went outside again and she peed. She has been immaculate. Done all of her business on leash, a handy skill!

She is not drinking any water or eating any treats, so I smashed Pet Fresh in her Euk and flooded it with water and she gobbled it down, so she finally got some good liquids in her! Her weight is perfect, so I am going to have to feed her tiny meals. One cup Euk plus some Pet Fresh seems like a lot.

Everyone loved her at the field trial. She interacted well with many humans, although her interaction is a bit clingy and needy. She was afraid of two kids – boys of maybe 9 or 10, whom I asked to pet her. She backed off. She was more confident when Price was walking with her, so she needs to be walked without another dog.

I have put a small airline crate at the foot of my stairs. From there, she can be with us when I am relaxing and watching TV. She will also stay there overnight, as long as she is quiet! She will be able to hear me as my bedroom is right at the top of the stairs and I keep the door open. I want her to learn to be alone.

I also ran the vacuum cleaner when she was in her crate in the dog room and she was OK. Eventually, I will turn on the ceiling fans, open the fried when she is with me, etc.

Tomorrow, she goes to Ramsey, where she and Sydney will hang in the car (not allowed inside), walk around when I have the time and am not showing Soleil and Ozma. I hope to have more friends say hi. This tires her out, so she will be nice and quite when I come home. Right now, she is exhausted, which is good, as I won’t let her off leash yet, so she is not getting any good running in.

~Eleanor Campbell, Eastern GSP Rescue Volunteer