Boots, pearls and stories of a southern girl...: Our 1st week with Bella :)

Happy Wednesday! I hope y'all have had a wonderful start to your week. We have been soooo busy this week. I knew having a puppy was going to be a big responsibility and it has completely worn both Mitch and I out ha! Bella has been the best dog, but she is a puppy ha! I think we are already ready to get out of that puppy stage, but it has been so much fun.

Here is a little update about her...
We went and got her Friday, and we also picked up Michelle's new dog. We picked the dogs up just outside of St. Louis and so we made a trip through Springfield to eat at Lamberts! That was definitely a good choice :) Caleb and Summer also went with us.. it was so nice to have the extra help. Michelle had no idea that Will was getting her the dog, and they were coming over that night to see our dog and we surprised her by decorating the crate!

She was shocked! Now we both have little puppies to take care of :)

Saturday, we took all the dogs to the Farmers Market up on the square and we found out quick that Bella is very shy and does NOT like the heat! Even when we are home, she will not go outside in the afternoon. I don't really blame her when it is averaging 105 outside! I never though I would say this, but I am so ready for Fall. I absolutely fell in love with fall in Arkansas. It is so pretty!

Over the past day, she has began to come out of her shell. She is a very scared dog until she gets to know her surroundings and she is finally figuring everything out. All she does at home is explore the house. You literally cannot take your eye off her for one second! She is the sweetest dog and very calm, but has started bitting. She is catching on quick, but she is still a puppy, so it normal.

One thing we are very lucky with is she actually likes her crate! She goes in it very easy and usually does not bark when we put her in it. She also has been sleeping all through the night. The very first night we had her, we were up a lot, but that was because we had no idea when she would have to go to the bathroom, so we took her out a lot trying to avoid and accident. But after that, we don't take her out at all in the night. She goes to bed around 10 and wakes up about 7! Its so nice and unusual that as a puppy she doesn't bark all night!

Monday night we started our puppy classes! We figured the earlier the better and that is probably a good thing. We are learning a lot and have a lot of stuff to practice on before next Monday. Bella has started to bite the furniture and so our puppy trainer told us about this stuff called Bitter Apple and it is just in a spray bottle and it has no oder, but tastes horrible to dogs. It can go on anything- bed, couch, shoes and even feet/hands. Once you spray that area, the dogs will not bite it anymore! Also if your dog barks a lot, when they bark you can spray it on their nose and they will stop! It has worked well for us! And if your dog is having trouble bitting/barking this is a great investment.

Tuesday Mitch was off work, so he was on puppy duty all day. I think Bella wore him out :) He was out before 10:00 last night ha! They made a trip to Lowes and PetsMart and played all day long! He also bought her a new toy since she was so good!

We are having to make adjustments to having a dog, but it has been so worth it. She is so sweet and I have completely fallen in love with her. We just got back in from playing and now she is asleep (she takes naps a lot)- that is the only reason I am getting to write this ha! We are grilling out streaks tonight when Mitch gets home and probably taking Bella on another walk. We are trying to get her use to her leash- she does not like it right now ha!

Here are a few pictures of her from this weekend..