How Is Yoshi 2 Years Old Already?

It’s hard to believe that Yoshi is 2 years old now. Thankfully she finally stopped growing! I still can’t believe when we brought her home from the shelter she was this little:

Look at all those wrinkles! So cute! The shelter just called her a hound dog, but when we took her to the vet they were certain she was a bloodhound. She definitely had the coloring, wrinkles, and long ears for one.

But it wasn’t long before she grew into those wrinkles and now we think she may be part pointer.

Can you even believe she is the same dog? Nearly every day we comment on how big she is and that when we got her she was about the size of her head now!

Even though she’s big, she thinks she’s a lap dog. She loves to curl up next to the kids and if she could sit on our laps she would. We are also very happy that she’s a pretty mellow dog. We can have lots of relatives over for one of the kids’  birthday parties and after the initial excitement of their arrival, she’ll just lay around in the middle of the floor.

She has even gotten to the point that when Kora & Logan’s friends come in the house she runs over to greet them but doesn’t jump up to lick their faces anymore. The kids always loved that but Dave and I didn’t want her jumping up like that so we’ve been working hard to get her to stop.

She does bark excessively at every mail delivery vehicle – it doesn’t matter if it’s the regular mail, UPS, or FedEx she has to bark when they arrive. So we are working on that yet too.

The funny thing is when we first moved here she was barking at every car that went by. Back in Cleveland our street was a major cut through for the neighborhoods behind us so it was a very busy street. She was used to traffic and never barked at the cars going by. However our street now has maybe 7 cars a day drive down it. For awhile she would bark at every single one. Thankfully that stopped!

Mostly she spend her day sitting in the window seat watching the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks.

Or she snoozes.

The happiest part of her day is when the kids come home or Dave takes her on walks/bike rides or if she’s getting a treat – she really loves her dog treats! This is a good thing because she has learned to sit, stay, roll over, shake, high five, beg, give hugs, snuggle, and drop the ball. The kids are working on teaching her to play dead and to speak – those are tough ones.

Dave and I are still trying to get her to stop barking every time someone walks down the road or the mail comes. We try saying “Be Quiet” and offer her a treat if she doesn’t bark but I think that’s a tough association for a dog. If anyone has any tips about how to teach her not to bark so much, I’m all ears.

I can’t believe she is 2 already. It seems like she was just a puppy a couple of months ago. We are hoping to get her to the dog park one of these days and we’d like to put a fence of some sort in our yard so she can have some freedom to run around. Her 2nd birthday year will be a fun one and I’m looking forward to many more snuggles, hugs, and high-fives from Yoshi dog.