Bella’s allergies continue to be an issue. At the vet’s suggestion, we have now changed her diet to only poultry and eliminated treats and non-poultry wet food to try to isolate the cause. Bella scratches herself a lot, to the points that scabs will develop that we need to treat with Benadryl or Neosporin.
In addition, Bella continues to suffer from paw infections, in spite of us taking precautions to protect her paws from salt and cleaning them when returning from walks. Currently, her front left paw is infected. We treat the infections with neosporin and bandages, which causes Bella to sulk.
We went to the vet to treat an infection in Bella’s right eye, which was swollen and excreting mucus. She was prescribed eye drops, which cleared up the problem quickly. The vet is aware of the other issues described above and approves with our home treatment.
Bella is docile and sweet. She has been opening up to us and recently became more playful with toys as well as happier spending time with us on the couch, etc. Health issues aside, she is low maintenance and is happy on her own or with people/other dogs.
Bella is walking outside better and shows less fear walking on metal grates. She also zig zags less than previously. We seem to have successfully overcome her housebreaking issues by restricting her to the kitchen when she’s left alone.
Bella has shown some signs of defending the home from solo women. Twice she has begun barking (which she almost never does) when a woman she hadn’t previously met came into the apartment. The dog is literally all bark and no bite and she shows no physical aggression whatsoever. On a different note, Bella has become much friendlier toward other dogs at the park and enjoys romping around outside with them.
As described above, Bella is a bit more vocal than before (changed from zero) plus she’ll occasionally whine for food. On a more positive note, she is less aloof than before and the crate training has helped resolve her housebreaking issues.
We have been taking Bella with us on our errands. Consequently, she has been spending more time in stores, a mall, at the office, etc. As when we first got her, Bella is easily freaked out by loud settings with lots of people. However, she is slowly becoming more comfortable in adapting to these environments, as she has with New York City itself since we received her. See next item below for details on other aspects of her training.
Bella knows “sit”, “come” and “stay”, which she obeys all the time in the house and selectively outside. We are working on “lie down”, which she has steadily been picking up – again, indoors only. We’re also working on reinforcing her obeying “come”. We suspect that Bella knows these commands reasonably well but pretends not to hear them when we’re outside.
As described above, Bella acted defensively whereas she never did before. She’s also somewhat whinier about food. She also has a tendency to get underfoot if she’s walking in an area that is unfamiliar to her.
Bella’s allergies and paw issues have been constant problems, which require a lot of patience and a friendly vet nearby.
