Call us crazy – but we got a second dog.
A puppy, really.
But a big one.
This is Jax. (Ain’t she so sweet looking?) She is a 9-month old Collie mix that we rescued last week. We had been talking about getting another dog for company for Marble; however, we were quickly approaching the time that neither of us would be comfortable taking on the responsibility of training a new dog in the time-frame we had before Peanut makes his arrival. We looked, saw this sweet girl, fell in love with her and brought her home.
Jax is very much a puppy. She is a ball of energy with some minor behavior issues to work on (like jumping and chewing). We’re still working on the house training with her but she is catching on pretty quickly.
What she loves: Marble, trying to be a lap dog, getting her belly/chest scratched, eating.
Jax loves her little-big brother. And Marble is becoming more of a fan of her, too. She loves to play with him. She’ll get her head down, front paws stretched out, her butt in the air and wags her tail – you know she’s ready to play then! She bats Marble across the head and side. Being more than 2 times as tall as he is, Jax towers over the little guy. But he doesn’t seem to mind. He gives it right back to her, nipping at her all over.
There is a problem with Jax. She thinks she’s a lap dog. We’ll give her credit for being able to curl up in a ball about the same size as Marble can, but that’s all the credit she will get. She is about twice the weight of Marble and doesn’t know how to sit still. But she still tries. Silly girl.
She LOVES getting rubbed all over. Her favorite place to get a scratch-down is on her chest and belly. She will become putty in your hands and collapse at your feet in a puddle of puppy cuteness.
Like any puppy, Jax loves to eat. She devours her bowl of food, only sharing a few pieces of kibble with Marble. In the last few days, she has taken to dumping her bowl of food on the floor, eating it from there and then, once finished, picking up her bowl and carrying it around (and then she tries to play with the bowl or eat it). Doesn’t she realize that the bowl isn’t edible? We’ve had to take up the bowl once she’s finished to keep her from destroying it (she is a destructive chewer [you should see some of the toys she has devoured in the last week] so we know she could get through the bowl pretty quickly).
What Jax hates: thunder, fireworks, baths, car rides.
We’re not sure if she has developed a great dislike of thunder because of Marble’s reaction to it or if she was afraid of thunder all along. Marble will huddle in fear next to you as thunder rolls across the sky. Jax is certainly not a fan and tries to get in your lap so you can protect her. (What happened to dogs wanting to protect their humans??) Fireworks sound a lot like thunder, but they scare her more. With the 4th of July festivities that occurred a few weeks ago, she has gotten a good taste of the noise. Jon took her outside on a “business trip” while some folks were setting off fireworks. He reported that she would sit as close as she could to his legs, and side step to try and get even closer as the explosions were going off. Poor puppy.
Jax doesn’t like baths. To be fair, Marble didn’t like baths either when we got him, but he has learned to accept that they are a part of his life and he’s dealing with it. Marble gets his baths inside in the bathtub. Jax, we decided, should get her first bath outside on the deck. Thank goodness we did that. She is a wild thing, running from the water that’s needed to rinse her down. She doesn’t mind the lathering as it’s a full-body scratch that she enjoys. It was quite entertaining trying to get her to be still and get clean. Marble wanted to be out with us while she got a bath. We envisioned him telling her just to suck it up and take it – and get used to it. “These humans love to give puppies baths.” 
I’ve had dogs growing up that can’t be still in the car. Jax takes it to an entirely new level. Her favorite place to be? Under the driver’s legs. And don’t try to keep her in the back seat. Even if you block off the area between the driver and passenger seats, she still finds a way to get up…like between the passenger seat and the side of the car (the area pointed out in this picture). It was hard to be upset with her because I was just so amazed that she could do that! She’s pretty skin-and-bones right now, so hopefully once we put a little meat on her bones, we won’t have to worry about her daredevil escapes.
With two puppies, it certainly has been an adventure the last week and change. For the most part, we are enjoying it. We have a lot of training to do with Jax and some behavior issues to work on (housebreaking, no jumping, etc). However, she has made some good progress in the last week and we have hope that we can get her completely trained in by the time Peanut arrives (t-minus 11-16 weeks and counting). We’ve been thankful that Marble has been behaving very well, even with the bad influence that Jax has been attempting to be. He seems to know that we have our hands full with her and he doesn’t want to add to the trouble on his own (but don’t worry, he gets into plenty of things with Jax – he follows her around to “make sure she’s behaving” and, if she’s not, he may very well join in).
All in all, we are happy with both puppies. Jax is learning to be a part of this family and not the dominating/overriding personality. Marble is enjoying having a playmate (even if we think he’s been asking since she came “when is she going back home?”). And us, well, we’re glad they’re happy. Catch up with us in a few weeks and then we’ll tell you how well it’s going.
