Shiloh's 1st b-day 9/18/2010

We don't typically celebrate pet birthdays around here, but the first one is kind of special.  On September 18th, Shiloh turned a year old. My intention was to supply her with a much needed, new crate liner and a much needed bed that would hopefully encourage her to stay off the couches.  However, that day was rough, and the budget was tight. I decided to settle for a cookie.  A friend of mine stopped by with a deluxe crate, two nice crate liners, a nicer bed than I would have bought and two buckets of toys.  Unbeknownst to my friend, this was Shiloh's birthday. Wow!  I am sure my kids don't get that spoiled on their birthdays.  All of this stuff was hand-me-downs from my friend's sister who raised dogs until her death almost a year ago.  Shiloh and all of us were much appreciative of this shower of cool stuff.

So after 10 months or so of life with Shiloh, this is where we stand.  She is a sweet, affectionate dog who loves her family (so much so that we have to entice her to go outside unless she is desperate to take care of business).  Shiloh still has some destructive habits, but that is to be expected at this age.  She still jumps on people, so we are constantly working on that.  Unfortunately, that means that she is always crated when we have people over.  The good news is that she loves her crate.  When we held Mom's party, we crated Shiloh in the basement and never heard a peep from her.  Wow!  Other than that, I constantly try to keep her off the furniture which I think would be successful if Zach was on board on this habit.  If one person permits inappropriate behavior in a dog, everyone might as well permit it.

I think Shiloh will be the dog for which we hoped.  You know, the dog who excitedly greets the kids when they return from college and sits with them when the tears flow over all that teenage angst stuff.  She is definitely a counter and table surfer and does occasionally drink from the toilet -those were the two things I insisted I would not have in our next dog when we were searching.  sigh