Mrsd,

She had the best personality ever. She was so easy to handle - she used to ask for permission to sit on the furniture -- she would look at the couch, look at me, make a tiny little whine noise, and wait for me to say 'Ok, up" before she jumped onto any furniture... and if I said "no" she would listen immediately and go lay on her doggie bed instead.

That particular fish that is in the pictures she did not catch herself, she "helped me" while I was on the dock with the net. Once I caught the fish in the net I put it in that bucket and then she 'caught it' out of the bucket.

She had caught her own fish several times, but she would get so involved in catching them that she almost drowned herself because she stuck her head under the water to get the fish and forgot to come up for air... after that incident, I would help her catch her fish... and she was so good that she would stand on the dock and watch me and wait for me rather than just jumping in to do it herself.

She could go from running around with fish or running and chasing chipmunks -- and in one second all I had to say was "that's enough" and she would immediately stop chasing stuff and follow me inside and become a cuddling lap dog forgetting all about hunting her chipmunks and fish.

She was also trained to poop only in the woods - so that when we were here at home in the condo complex I didn't have to pick up dog poop when I walked her.

She also knew how to stop and wait before crossing the street or driveway. Whenever she got to a curb of any kind she would sit and wait until I said "Ok, go" before walking across the road. Where we live, to get to the woods we had to cross the condo road, and it didn't matter how badly she needed to go potty, she would sit and wait at that curb until I said go.

Teaching her to go potty in the woods and teaching her to stop at the curb took about 3 days each. She was just so smart that she understood things very easily, which made her a great dog because I could teach her almost anything in a short amount of time.


As for grooming - I would take her once a year (at the beginning of the summer) to get shaved. Other than that, I did all of her grooming myself. She was easy to brush, and the only trimming that I did on a regular basis was her hind legs and tail so that her rear-end area wasn't full of fluff. I also trimed her nails and the fur on her feet myself. She needed to be brushed once every 7-14 days, and she needed her nails and hair trimmed every 6-8 weeks.

I could talk about her for hours and hours.

Liz