Bella had quite the exciting day today!

Bella has separation anxiety; I work from home so I am usually around, which affords her an escape from the crate and company all day. With her owner gone for over a week I am a little concerned that Bella will regress and her owner will have a struggle with her when she returns. To combat this I have been putting Bella in her crate for short times, maybe a half hour, and then sitting in the other room. At first she was not happy about this arrangement at all, but she is getting used to it. If I put her in there for short time spans and she knows I am around and always come back it will help soothe her anxiety. In fact she is happily sleep in her crate in the other room right now! I did not ask her to go it. Today when I met with my trainer I put her in her crate and walked across the parking lot to the gym. I heard a couple barks but she settled in nicely. I put a couple blankets in the crate for her to lay on and a couple toys she likes to chew. Returned to a happy and not overly excited girl an hour and a half later!

Rolling around in joy this morning

That was only the beginning of her day! After the gym I went to Drip City Coffee to cowork with some other members of the Seattle WordPress Meetup. We stayed there from noon till 5:30 pm. That is the longest I have had Bella out in public. It was good for her socialization. She has made friends with some of the regulars and they like playing with her and giving her treats (Don’t worry mom, they are all organic and good for her!). She did really well. Slept next to the chair a good amount of the time. I tie her leash to a chair leg with room to let her friends pet her. Unbeknownst to me, and even Bella herself, Belle chewed through the leash. Not difficult as it is tiny. Probably one bite for Bella. She bit through at the knot from a few weeks ago when she did the same. There was a couple feet left dragging though and she did not realize she was free and was roaming only the original length I tied off! She ignored the rope toy (pictured above) that she likes to chew on for the most part. Instead she got bored and chewed through the leash twice more! Whoops…looks like I will have to get her a new leash. It was a retractable leash, which is not the greatest for walking a dog that tends to try to pull ahead anyways. I picked up a cool and pretty beefy leather leash from Mud Bay on the walk to the Meetup. I need leashes for when I get a dog anyways. This leash is awesome. It gave me a lot more control over Bella and pretty much put a stop to her trying to bolt when she crosses streets ( for some reason she gets nervous in the street itself and tries to run across often ).

Passed out under the table at Drip City after playing with her friends (other customers)

After working at Drip City for 5.5 hours we headed down to Mud Bay. The employees there adore Bella so I always try to stop in for them to love on her. Then we proceeded the rest of the 2 miles to The Hub where the Seattle WordPress Meetup was. I knew there were going to be 60-80 people there. A brand new environment and all new people! What a great way to socialize. Turns out my buddy Eric is a huge dog fan. He latched on to Bella as soon as I came in and played with her till I got done with my presentation. Bella stayed laser focused on me no matter where I went, but she did not try to bolt away from Eric. The treats I gave him for her helped. She likes him. During my presentation I was on stage about 6 feet in front of her and she really wanted to come up on stage to be with me. Eric had to pull her back a couple times. She was resting her nose on the stage. She did fantastic though! Not once did she show any anxiety and everyone loved her. After the Meetup ended there was a lot of activity with people moving chairs and tables. I dropped her leash and she happily trotted next to me and would stop and visit with anyone giving her affection. I was very very happy with her! Left around 9:30 PM. She was telling me she was tired and wanted to go home.

I am pretty sure Bella is an introvert. She was happy to be home. She picked up her ball and kicked it around the apartment till I got down and wrestled with her. She is a happy, tired doggie 🙂

Here is a play by play of her losing her ball under the couch and giving me the “helpz, I loses my balllllll” eyes.

Almost 10 hours out on the town socializing with new people. What a great day Bella!