To Big Bear again- Nova's First Vacation

That right there is a picture of the first time I ever saw Nova pant because she was hot/happy/exhausted.  Not because she was so stressed out she was foaming at the mouth.  So the short version of this vacation is that Nova was with us, and had a good time.  I could not ask for anything better in my life right now than this little dog enjoying herself.

The long version is that as with all things Nova it was a little more complicated than that, and the rest of us had a BLAST!  Lets stick to the Nova part for this post and I will give you all the great vacation pictures tomorrow- sound good?

I was a little worried about taking Nova with us.  The few times we have left for one and two night camping trips I had people stop in on her here at the house.  We went on one week long vacation and Nova's favorite people (who are some of my favorite people too) stayed at the house with her.  When we got Nova me and Ben agreed she was going to just have to live our life with us.  Just because we had a timid and scared dog did not mean we would stop camping and going away for weekends, or having dinner parties and people over for game night.  It might mean that sometimes Nova stays here, and is a little lonely, or that sometimes she has less freedom than the other dogs, but either way we were going to keep living our life.  That is not to say that we would not make accommodation for her.  Believe me- I feel like my whole life is turned upside down accommodating her sometimes- but it means we were not going to let the rest of the family suffer because she was around.  Overall she has adapted pretty good to living here.  Pushing her (gently) to participate in family activities has only yielded good results so far.  So I loaded her pen and bed into the car, put her in the car bag, and toted the little thing off to a cabin in the woods with us.

My decision to take her was helped by the fact that we were traveling with the previously mentioned "Nova's favorite people".  Or should I say Nova's favorite person and his girlfriend who Nova also likes a little more than most people.  In the higherarchy of people in Nova's brain it goes a little something like this.

#1 Favorite Person on the Planet- Annie (me)

#2 Favorite Person, only person she ever liked the first time she met him- Paul

#3 Person who she will cuddle with in a pinch- Missy (Paul's Lady)

Everyone Else On The Planet

#1 Most Hated Person- Ben (Mr.DogInTheDesert)

 

Both of my chihuahuas love Paul for some reason.  I don't really know what it is but I think he needs a T-shirt that says "Chihuahuas Love Me."  I can't really blame the dogs for loving these fine folks- the humans in the house think they are pretty cool too- I just don't really know what it is about Paul in particular that Nova finds so appealing.  What I really don't know is why Nova HATES Ben so much.  But that will have to be another post entirely.  We are here to talk about Nova's vacation.

She did great.  I think in the end she actually liked seeing some new stuff.  For the most part she hung out in the cabin.  At night we would sit around the barbecue grill cooking and Nova had a good time coming out and chilling with me.  Mostly I held her and she perked up a little bit, looked around, and chilled out.  She got so relaxed she decided to take a selfie with my front facing camera but *someone* had to photbomb it.  Thanks for being creepy Paul.  Maybe that's why Nova loves him so much- he has her strange sense of what is socially appropriate.

When we went off for the day she stayed in her pen with her bed from home.  She didn't seem to mind much- and actually we spent a lot of time chilling in the cabin- so most of her weekend looked like this.

When Ben was not around it looked like that except that she was not staring at him.  She is getting better and better with him, but still always wants to know where he is.

Overall I am glad I brought Nova.  She was getting a little bored and under-stimulated sitting around the house all the time.  A change of scenery seemed to do exactly what I hoped it would- challenge her, interest her, and get her out of her shell a little bit.  Living with us she is going to be in for new adventures so getting her used to it now- and slowly- is what needs done.  I was prepared to sit in the cabin with her the whole week if I had to.  There was a possibility that this would be less vacation and more dog training in the woods, but I was ready for that.  Like everything with Nova so far she surprised me, stepped up to the plate, and while she was timid about everything new she did manage to find a safe space and enjoy herself a little bit.  If you told me she would be on vacation in June when I met her in December I would not have believed you.  Now knowing her abilities and tenacity I wouldn't be surprised if she is doing obedience in a room full of people next year.

Be sure to check out our next post about how fun Big Bear was.  Here is a little taste of how amazing of a weekend we had-

More to come everyone.