Well, we're barely into week three and, I am beginning to see why Grace's last family returned her; she is quite the handful. That is not to say that I am contemplating sending her packing.

Grace has come a long way as I mentioned in my previous post. She has recently been switched to a retractable leash. She really likes the freedom that it gives her. It's not as heavy as the other one, so it doesn’t scare her.

Also with the retractable one, I don't use the choker. She is used to me following behind her as we walk, so she's not startled to the point that she needs to run and hide like she did the first night.

Since we're on the subject of our walks, I have just begun trying to get her to actually run when outside instead of just sniffing around and going potty.

The way I do it is to run up behind her. At first she was scared by it because she didn't know why I was running up behind her. She would then run a short distance, stop, turn towards me, and cower.

Now, I think she realizes that I'm not a threat, and she runs a little further. When she stops, she no longer cowers but, sniffs the ground. She still looks back while she runs to make sure that it's still me.

I've also realized that she seems to be experiencing some severe separation anxiety. On Thursday, I forgot to stop at the store on my way home. Once I got home, I took her out to go potty. I figured once she had done that, she would be okay.

I put her back in the room and closed the door behind me. I expected to hear some scratching at the door. What I did not expect was the howling that she started.

I walked back in to find her standing on top of her kennel. So, I set up my video camera to record her while I was gone.

I was gone for roughly 25 minutes. When I returned, she had cleared off my dresser, pulled things off the back of my door hooks, and pulled some things off my shelf.

After looking at the video, I learned that for the entire 25 minutes that I was gone, Grace was running around the room in a crazed state of mind. I couldn’t see everything, but I could certainly hear it. That howl I mentioned earlier was fairly consistent. She sounded so lonely.

I cleaned up the mess and sat at the computer. I was in Google mode.

The behavior that she exhibited was exactly what I thought it was: separation anxiety. The Humane Society website has an excellent article on this condition that includes tips on how to work through the anxiety. So, I am in the process of trying some of these tips.

On Saturday, we took our first ‘road trip’. We drove to my Uncle Bill’s house to surprise him for his 50th birthday. After about ten minutes in the car, and some winding road, Grace’s stomach decided it had had enough. Luckily, we happened to have a towel in the car, and I was able to clean up the majority of the mess.

Most of the rest of the trip was good. Grace slept for almost the whole three hours. She did experience a little more sickness once we were off the interstate.

My uncle has a big back yard that Grace fell in love with. It is fenced in, so I was able to take her leash off and let her run free when she had to go to the bathroom.

Our time there was good. Grace was balled up on the couch since she didn’t like all the people that were around, but she did well; no accidents in the house.

The ride home was much the same as the ride up, yet she only got sick once. Poor thing.

So, as you can see, Grace has come quite a long way in the last two weeks. We only have to work on her response to me leaving her alone. That will be the most difficult part, but, once we get past that, everything should be just peachy.

Thanks for reading.