This weekend, Staci and I adopted Simon from BREW, a local beagle rescue organization. Staci saw his posting earlier in the week and pretty much fell in love with the little guy, so we headed to the Adoption Day they were having in Alexandria on Saturday. We pretty much made a bee-line from the dorr for him, and once we got a hold of his leash we didn’t let go. So far, he’s been really good as all of us adjust to having him home. We were warned he’s still marking but he’s only tried to mark in the house twice, both time on Saturday. We’re using Markout to train him and it seems to be working. Other than that, he loves to go on walks and when we’re inside he just wants to sleep on the futon in the family room.
He’s crate trained so we want to keep him used to being in his crate at night and while we’re away from home. I built him a crate/dog house on Saturday for him to sleep in and stay while we’re gone from home. He took to it right away, although he didn’t like having to sleep in it in the room next door on Saturday night. He howled and yelped a bit and I had to come into the room to pet him until he calmed down and fell asleep. After that he was fine. Sunday afternoon I went to Patty’s house to pick up and old crate she had from when Buster was a puppy. Last night, we put it next to my night stand and he slept in that, well rather snored, without a problem.
Today is the big test, as we’re leaving him alone for the longest time. His fosters said he was good in the crate for up to eight hours at a time. We’re keeping our fingers crossed. He did well yesterday while we were out for 3 hours. He does get a little anxious when we’re leaving but I think its just part of being in new surroundings with a new pack.