Little Dog goes to school

This morning I dropped Little Dog off at her first day of Doggy DayCare. *sniffle* They grow up so fast, don't they? I safety pinned her little name tag to her jacket and sent her on the big yellow bus; the big yellow bus to the rest of her life. Sigh...
















Here's Little Dog. She's a bit of a handfull. In fact, while i was growing up and asking for a puppy every christmas and birthday of my young life, if i had known that they could ever be like this one, i would have shut my mouth and happily played with my Sit and Spin.
The Boy already owned Little Dog when i moved in with him, and from the start I knew she was more dog than i could handle. But doesn't she look all innocent there, knee high in a pile of snow? Kind of sad-looking with the blizzard's wind in her face? Yeah. She' something.
Nervous and tightly wound, she has the ability to sproing from a deep sleep at any sudden movement in the room, to accompany you to the refrigerator for a glass of water. But she must get into the kitchen first, of course, as she is WAY more important than you. This is truly a benign example; there are plenty of things that piss me off about her more than this issue.
Anyway. The Boy and i are going away this weekend and needed to find a place for the 2 pups to go for 3 nights. Our normal dog-sitter was unavailable* and i had to find someplace new. Now, i've been reading about this Doggy DayCare place nearby for a few months now because it sounds ever-so-cool (if only i could afford it on a regular basis). If i were a dog, i would love this place. They have piles of dogs playing all day long, inside and outside, they don't get crated for any reason but get separated into large pens when its sleepy time or before their owners come to pick them up. They also have boarding or "Overnight Camping"** that includes the regular daytime-playtime. Neato. Sign me up.
All dogs need to have a temperament test before they can stay there so that there aren't any doggy fights and everybody plays well together, yackity-smackity. I had NO DOUBT that Little Dog was going to be a problem. Poor thing is so nervous around new people that all of her hair stands up on her back, her tail droops between her legs and occasionally, oh yes, occasionally she'll just pee. Leak, really. Yay. I must admit that this behavior has improved dramatically since acquiring Big Dog last year, but still it can be a problem.
In the end, our temperament test went pretty well on Sunday, but they still wanted to make sure that Little Dog didn't have a heart attack or anything and suggested we drop her off for a day's worth of daycare before the long haul this weekend.

Her big brown eyes suggested a sort of accusatory abandonment as they walked her to a doggy play room this morning. I know she'll warm up once she gets used to it and she'll be fine. She'll rough and tumble with everyone there and the girls who work there are very nice. They also told me i can call as much as i want, it's no trouble at all.

I'll be calling every hour on the hour. I'm sure of it.

Maybe they'll let me talk to her....

*I am not too proud to say that both of our dogs are a challenge and the fact that the sitter only owns a 2 lb monkey-dog (Brussels Griffon) is not lost on me. Mine are hard dogs to live with. HARD. I'm sure she was not in the mood.

**I know. But its just so cute.