Nova's New Outfit

Nova's sporting a new outfit around the house these days.  She is wearing her beautiful and stylish XS Thundershirt and while we are home she will be dragging behind her a matching shoelace!

That is Nova giving me the evil eye for making her wear this ensemble.

Why am I torturing her so?  Well our trainer came by the other day and we decided it was time that Nova was forced to be a little more involved with the family.  Right now it is hard to force her to interact with us because as soon as she sees we want her to do something she runs and hides.  In order to be able to work with her more we are going to attach a long line to her collar when we are home (only when we are home, because it obviously is a huge strangulation hazard).  That way when we want to do something with her I don't have to go chasing after her and grab her.  I think it will actually help her be more independent in the long run because she will be forced to do a lot more on her own this way.  For instance when we go up to bed she will be able to walk with me up the stairs instead of me carrying her.  That brings me to the thundershirt!  With this new way of reeling Nova in I am now able to put the thundershirt on her without a long stressful chase.  If everything goes well I am going to have her wear it for most of the day because it really does help. 

We are using two boot shoelaces tied together for the long line.  It is about 6 feet long and seems to be relatively unobtrusive.  I have had to untangle it a time or two but overall the shoelace seems to be good at not getting caught.

This is a good step in the right direction for Nova.  It is good news that she finally is comfortable enough for us to force her to do more on her own but it is also a lot more work for us.  Not to worry though- I am happy to put in the work for this little one.