We have a new dog. Recca developed a brain problem shortly before Thanksgiving, and deteriorated very quickly. We (ahem, I) decided we were now dog people, so we (that is, I) immediately started looking for a new dog. I found her, at a local shelter. She's mellow and polite, friendly and gentle to the kids, playful outside, and she completely respects the cats. In fact, she's more respectful of our cats and their space than Recca was, and Recca was blind and old.
She doesn't seem to have any real flaws. She is not perfectly trained in every respect, but she comes when I call her, sits, and is perfectly polite about food that's not hers. She's small, so she doesn't take up more than a person's worth of couch. (and yes, she is allowed on the couch. My grandmother would be rolling around in her ash can if she knew. But I want a companion dog, not a hunting dog who lives outside. So she's in, and she sits on the couch with us.)
I'm going to do clicker training in a class with her starting in the next month or so. Just cuz I think it would be fun, and because I don't really know what I'm doing, in terms of training a dog. But so far, so good, and I think she'll be very easy to work with.
And she gets me out of the house in a blizzard, which is really quite an accomplishment.
