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Daisy is an OR due to family circumstances. She is 1-1/2 years old (DOB 12/18/22) 14 inches, 20 pounds, UTD, spayed, heartworm/fecal negative. Daisy had a condition called patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) where a duct to her heart did not close at birth. HSS had corrective surgery performed at TAMU. After a month’s recovery time, she is now back to normal activities.
Daisy was previously an only dog but she has settled in with our two. One of our dogs just ignores her. Our other one, Buddy, is more than twice the size of Daisy and they play together. Sometimes the two of them just take over the whole sofa with their playing. They both love to run outside, running along the fence line and little Daisy keeps up with Buddy and his long legs.
Daisy eats her meals with our dogs and does fine. Of course, her dish is the first one placed down and she does joyful spins as it’s being placed. She doesn’t inhale her food but, if she finishes first, she tries to help the others with their food. Treats are a different story. She inhales her treat and aggressively tries to go after the treats for the others so we have to be extra careful when treats are involved.
Daisy is very food motivated. In general Daisy will follow whoever is up and about, but will definitely follow the one carrying food.
Daisy previously used a doggie door. She’s had to adjust to not being able to go out when she wanted. There were some issues early on so we ended up crating her for a couple of days and she quickly learned to “potty” outside more consistently. It helps that we let everyone out often during the day.
We crate her at night. She balked in the beginning but now goes into the crate willingly. At first there were no issues but then she started to growl and fiercely attack the door to the crate when we closed it. Recently she has started just laying down but not all the time. She doesn’t like to be crated. Fortunately, she quiets down and is quiet throughout the night.
Daisy has lots of vocalizations — sings, whines, trills, warbles, a variety of sounds and of course barks. I say “let’s go out” and I think she hears “let’s bark”! Barks! and not a little, tiny bark. She has a bark that sounds like a bigger dog which could be useful to scare people away from your door. I often picture her in a Flyball relay, barking as she runs to and fro, sometimes it’s almost like that sort of excited barking. I think she would have the speed and agility to do that type of sport, and possibly Agility too. She is very agile, jumps on the sofa, jumps on my lap, jumps over Buddy when he’s lying down, jumps and turns at the same time! I think she is part mountain goat. She jumps onto the back of the sofa, walks across the back of the sofa, ends up balancing herself on the arm of the sofa. Daisy is small enough to easily go under things like the coffee table, sometimes she just lays under it. And sometimes she goes under our Buddy if he’s in the way! Admittedly he is long-legged, but really?!?!
The herding instinct is strong in Daisy. When we head to the door, she’s nipping at our heels. This would be a consideration if there are small children since I could see her herding them.
I make it sound like she’s always moving, but she isn’t. Most of the time she’s just hanging out with our dogs and is often snuggling next to me on the sofa or laying on the floor next to me when I’m working or sitting sweetly on my lap. She usually asks permission before jumping on my lap but sometimes she surprises me and, boom!, there she is sitting on my lap giving me kisses. One of the cutest things she does is to get on top of the back of the sofa and lay down behind my head with her chin on my shoulder, so sweet!
Daisy plays with toys, will fetch and return. And will sometimes vigorously shake them. She drops toys at my feet so I can toss them for her. I think she’s past the chewing phase since I haven’t yet seen any sign of her gnawing on anything other than toys.
I think she would be like to be back to being an only dog. But she does enjoy playing with our Buddy and running with the pack so maybe she would like to be with another dog or dogs, if they’ll play with her. I think she would also be happy having the use of a doggie door again.
