Ava’s face when she hears Mike has to leave for a workation.

Ava’s obedience instructor suggests to all of his students to bring at least 10 types of treats to class.  There were several reasons for doing this.  The treats your dog eats happily at home may not be as satisfying when you’re in a room with ten other dogs who want to smell each other’s butts and play.  The other reason is that people choose treats they think their dog should like rather than finding out what treats they actually like.  Just like humans, some dogs prefer salmon to beef.

Ava is a little miss skinny pants and her eating habits reflect that.  From the beginning, she’s turned her nose up at her food and treats.  What dog smells a liver-flavored “tricky treat”, walks away, and plops herself down on the couch?  Ava.  Because of her finicky behavior, we took her trainer’s advice to heart and bought 13 brands of dogs treats, 4 types of tasty human food, and made 1 homemade dog biscuit recipe.

We actually did learn about her likes and dislikes with this exercise.  Bacon, peanut butter, and cheese are her favorite flavors.  She likes rabbit, but feels kind of “meh” about fish.  Knowing what gets her attention has been really valuable when we work on her on-leash interactions with other dogs and gets everyone more excited about training time.

Adding Ava to our family was one of many things  we had to celebrate this past year. We can’t wait to see what 2014 brings!

Mike was vacationing with his friends over the weekend, so I decided to visit the family farm with my parents while he was away.  Dogs LOVE to visit the farm, so of course I brought Ava along.

She got to smell new things, get muddy, roll in the snow with dead animals, and stretch her legs out. Boy, is she fast!

Sometimes Ava is so excited to go for a car ride that she jumps into the trunk while we’re loading up and WON’T GET OUT!

When Ava first came home with us, she was pretty shy and aloof.  We were told that she was an energetic dog, so I was bummed that she wouldn’t play with me or any of her toys.  We’ve been encouraging her to play by rewarding her anytime she shows interest in her toys, and by giving her a ball filled with her food in the morning and evenings.

Well, she has consistently been picking up her toys and will even play short games of tug with us!  Every day she’s becoming more comfortable, engaged, and playful.

Today we all hopped in the car and drove to Pella, Iowa to see some of Amanda’s family.  Ava loves car rides and we thought it would be fun for her to finally meet some new people.  We spent a little bit of time downtown and then decided we better start heading home.  Mike’s friends were planning a birthday bash for him later that night.

As we were getting close to home, Ava started whining, panting, and pacing in the back seat.  Usually she likes to sit and look out the window or curl up on the seat and relax, so we decided to stop the car and see if she needed to use the bathroom.  She didn’t have to go, but we let her run around for a little while to burn off some energy.

Fast forward a few minutes.  We’re back in Des Moines; about ten minutes away from home.  Ava is still acting weird and all of a sudden we smell a terrible stench from the back seat.  Did Ava just throw up? Even better – she had diarrhea in the car! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MIKE!

In the end, everything worked out.  The mess was cleaned up, Amanda stayed home with Ava, Mike went out with his friends, and everyone spent the next few days recovering.