"She's just being Miley..."

Bless her sweet heart... Miley had a long day yesterday. She was in a new place when she woke up... (Chez Gamble) then had to be in her crate for a few hours while we were at work...(I get off at 12, thank goodness) then she went to our family vet, Dr. Okin, at Valleydale Animal Clinic. GREAT place. Everyone loved her and thought she was the cutest girl, of course. She is currently 8.25 lbs and they expect her to be about 50-60 lbs full grown. Poor baby, she has an upper respiratory infection (resp infxn), which isn't serious now, but must be treated aggressively so it doesn't become something worse. She also has a little bulge by her spaying incision that we're watching...he gave her a shot to help it go down, but might end up having to go back in to fix it. The Dr. did not seem concerned by it... kinda like her resp infxn, just want to get it taken care of now so it's not a big problem later. I had to bring in a poop sample so they could check it for parasites, etc...(could make her sick or even us!) and her poop scan was clear! YAY! Miley ended up getting 4 shots, one of which was directly in her throat! :( It was to help her resp infxn and will run into her lungs. We have an appointment again today at 3pm for another one. Apparently it's not a fun one, b/c they made me go out to start the car and turn on the AC so I wouldn't hear her cry when they put her on her back and gave her the shot. :( I didn't like leaving her, but am glad I didn't hear my ''baby" be upset. Here's a pic of our sweet girl sleeping in the car on the way to the vet...

Last night was much better than the first. We are crate training, so I got online to research some suggestions-particularly for bedtime. 4 websites in a row suggested putting the crate in the bedroom so they will feel like they are "sleeping with the pack." Well, that's not the case...b/c they really just feel like they can see and hear the pack, but are tortured b/c they cannot be with them (us). While at the vet yesterday, I spoke to Ashley, one of the vet techs and practically a dog guru, a lot of questions I had about raising a puppy and how to do the best job possible. She suggested we move the crate to the laundry room, where she'd be close to the door and far from us when she's trying to go to bed and we're still awake. That way, she can't hear us as well and we can't hear her cries for rescue. Eventually, she'll learn to love her crate as her home and it won't be a problem...but, for now, it's nice not to hear the crying when we put her in there for bedtime, b/c it breaks my heart to hear it and I cannot give her positive reinforcement to the whining/crying in her crate. It seemed to work really well last night. Miley cried for a little bit, but eventually sacked out. This morning, she even went in the crate for a few seconds on her own, which shows me that she's learning it's not a bad place... it's her room and safest place. *Other than my arms, of course. :)

Miley is just the sweetest, cutest girl. She's found her reflection a few times in the mirror in the dining room... when you take her outside, she prances around with joy... and I can tell she adores Josh and me already, which makes my heart so happy. I have to admit, I was a little anxious about getting a dog, (me? Taylor? anxious about change? never... haha) but I am so glad we did it. She's such a little blessing to us already, bringing us joy, happiness, and teaching us more responsibility. It's funny how having a puppy around makes you want to clean your house so they don't eat stuff off the floor, etc. Definitely will be a good thing for me so I'll clean more often haha. Aunt Paige (who helped name her) came over to play for a little bit yesterday, as well as her friend, Anna. Miley was very glad to have visitors!

Like I said in the 1st Miley Jean Gamble post, she is a Retriever Mix...but the question is, a mix with what? Josh and I have been thinking maybe German Shepherd or Rottweiler... and the Vet didn't have a solid guess, but thought both of those were great possibilities. She definitely has features of both... I found this picture of a Rottweiler-Retriever mix yesterday and it really makes me think more Rottweiler. It doesn't really make a difference to me either way, I'm just curious. I love her no matter what breed she is and I guess we'll just have to wait until she grows up to get a better idea.... or we could fork up a bunch of $$$ and get genetic testing... but I think we'll just wait and see... haha.

Maybe?