Gabby

Gabby is the chocolate lab that we semi-rescued from down the street. We got her on Sunday night. She's spent 6 years chained to a crappy plastic doghouse, a few years of that, in the mud. Never had a bath. Yesterday was her first vet trip ever..and boy did it show. All shots, possible ear mites, and heartworm. Poor thing.

I just hope the heartworm treatment doesn't kill her. It's a newer treatment and isn't as dangerous as the old one (IIRC, the old one used arsenic), but it's still pretty dangerous.

As you have probably figured, this dog (being an outside dog it's entire life) has never been housebroken or trained at all. Considering all of that, she's doing fine. I'm crate training and she hasn't had a chance to have an "accident". She's starting to learn to walk like a civilized dog and generally just calming down a bit now that she's getting walked several times a day (including a long walk in the evening).

The only real problem we've had is that (being an only dog) she doesn't like to share her toys. We are making some progress there. We went from fights over toys the first two days to her and Amber taking turns (with some prompting from me) with Gabby's favorite (and Amber's second favorite) toy without so much as a growl.

I never realized just how different chocolate labs are from yellows and blacks. Their eyes are different (shape, color), their head is a little different, even their demeanor is a bit different. It's almost a separate breed,.. so says the vet.

The other dogs are slowly warming up. they still aren't quite sure what to make of her. Buddy actually wants to play with her. Pup wants to co-exist peacefully (both fights were with Lil' Pup), and Amber wants the good-for-nothing, attention-stealing, master-hogging, toy thief gone,... she's just to nice to say it to her face. It's obvious Amber is somewhat concerned that she might lose her throne as daddy's princess.. wish I could tell her she has nothing to worry about.