Tate Time

Little Tate has touched down like a 5 pound tornado whirling and leaping and leaving toys and irritated adult dogs in her wake.

Trying the leash for the first time and doing great

She's actually a very good little puppy for her age. She doesn't potty in her crate and because we are very vigilant on trips outside for potty time every 45 minutes there haven't been any accidents inside.

Obi is probably least thrilled with her, partly because he's too gentle to do much snarking at her and she likes to steal his toys. Frodo has the same issue. Chima and Sal have no such compunctions and Tate quickly learned that she needs to try to give them space.

Since it isn't fair to the adult dogs to have her mauling them all the time it's my job to run interference and keep her occupied and since she seems to have the attention span of a gnat it's a lot of work.

Attempting to get the adults off the couch to play with her

Pausing to come up with another strategy

Her crate has been set up to be as interesting as possible with squeaky toys and crinkly toys hanging from above and plenty of chew toys for a teething girl. It's important for her development to be out and about though so I'm careful not to overuse the crate. Short stints are enough to give the grown ups time to relax and also to give me time to get some things done without being on constant watch to make sure she doesn't have to potty and isn't bugging the other dogs.

Is she a handful? Absolutely. Young puppies are a full time job that comes with the weighty responsibility of setting them up with experiences that will allow them to grow into resilient, happy adults. She's been here less than 24 hours and we are already exhausted. But she is a nice little gal who I look forward to spending the next several weeks with.