She's a Keeper!

Hope came home in February, 2007.

Physically, she had changed a lot. I would say that even though it was shortest time (5 months) that I had seen any of my dogs from when they turned in, Hope had changed the most (Marisa was gone 6 months, Rolie was gone 8 months).  She had finally grown into that big head of hers! Her chest had totally filled out and she just looked so much more mature.  I may be biased, but I think she is a beautiful girl!

Hope had developed some behaviors that I was concerned about while she was gone.  Even as a puppy she was always a rough player, but when she came home, she was even more rough and I would say bordering on aggressive.  She was also forging (ie, pulling forward on leash). I worked with her for the next several weeks on these issues as I was concerned about keeping a dog with this type of behavior because of the impact she could have on my CCI pups.  After a few weeks of diligently working with her on these things, she showed signs of improvement and these behaviors improved.  Maybe the behaviors surfaced due to the stress she was under while in Advanced Training.  In any case, things got better with her over time.  She will probably always play rough, but at least she doesn't act like the angry dog I saw when she came home.

My other concern was for how she would adjust to being at home all day.  Luckily, she had Molly to hang out with.  I could see how their relationship just blossomed, they played together a lot (something Molly normally didn't do, she didn't like the "bratty" CCI pups).  Hope also was a nice bridge for Molly, since she played with the CCI pups, this was nice for Molly as she didn't have to deal with the bothersome puppies anymore as they would play with Hope.

With each day that passed, things became clearer and clearer.  Hope was home and she was meant to be mine.  A few months later, I made it official (in my mind anyway), I was keeping her.