Madison, One Month Later

This past Wednesday marked Madison's one month anniversary with us, one month since we drove to Ft. Lauderdale to pick her up. For the first two days, Madison watched us warily, only moving when we forced her to go outside. Now she follows us everywhere, always wanting to do what we are doing. And she plays! She chases us in the yard and runs after her squeaky toys when we throw them. When she is running and you catch her she rolls on her back to get her belly rubbed. This became important today when Madison snuck out of the deck by slipping between two spindles. She ignored our calls to her as she trotted down the lakefront. We raced after her and Julie finally caught up with her and she promptly rolled onto her back. As we returned home our neighbor yelled out that he was impressed that I still had some speed!!

Kathleen and I have been pretty consistent with the lessons we learned from the dog trainer. We have used the "enough" command and the can of compressed air (we call it a can of whup-ass) to change Madison's behavior toward other dogs and the splashing water around the boat. She has learned to tolerate both. Madison has become a great boat dog. She stayed on the pontoon with us today for 6 hours! She warns us when other dogs are on the sand bar and snuggles up with Julie while she reads a book. We put her in the water and she is a great swimmer! We are not sure she likes it but she puts up with her swimming lessons. And Madison has a boyfriend. She likes Tucker, our lake neighbor's lab. She greets him with a wagging tail and they play as much as possible with Madison at the end of a leash. The next step will be to get them together in our fenced-in yard and let them really play. She has come a long way from the dog who greeted every other dog with intense barking, jumping and growling!