Ella Mae or Marley,Jr.?

I love my sweet sweet girl Ella Mae. She's a chocolate lab that Keith & I got back in September. She has been so much fun, and is such a smart girl. Ryder & Lucy are still getting used to her, but they get better and better with eachother every day.

Now I know that labs are crazy and adventurous, but I work really hard to train Ella to be a good house dog. I can't stand it when people have dogs that stay outside and only see their owners once a day for food & water. To me, that's a cruel way to treat an animal that wants nothing more than to love on you. Ever since we got Ella, she has been an inside dog and has been really good at not chewing stuff up. We can even leave our shoes on the floor without her messing with them. I wish I could say the same for my brush and my hair clips though. We are still working on that.

 It took us 4 months to potty train her, which was rough, but we finally got it! Part of her problem is that she got a UTI that slowed down the process. We had to put her in diapers because she just constantly peed in the floor for a week.

Anywho, we made it through all of that, and now she is almost 9 months old! The last time we weighed her, she was 67 pounds! Hopefully she won't get any bigger, but I bet she does since she is still a puppy. She has learned to sit and lay down, and right now we are working on stay and come. I'm hoping one day she can be a pet therapy dog, and those are the 4 tricks she has to know really well to become one. She learned fetch in 2 seconds, but that's probably because she's a lab and it's in their blood to know how to do that. I love her tons, but I have one SERIOUS problem with her behavior. THIS:

She refuses....and I mean REFUSES to stop digging in this one spot in the yard. I have GOT to figure out a way to get her to stop,because Keith may or may not kill her. (I kid, I kid, but really.....it's bad). There is this one spot in the yard that just stays muddy because she goes over there and just dominates it with her face every time we leave her outside for more than a few minutes. Here is what she has done to it:

Keith had it covered up with an older pot and some boards, but she just pushes those aside and gets to it. PLEASE STOP DIGGING ELLA!!! PUH-LEASE! Everytime she does it I have to go hose her off and I get soaked. At least the weather is warmer now, so I don't freeze when I'm doing it :) Other than the digging, I love her so so much. Isn't she pretty when she is all nice and clean?

The other funny thing about her that drives me crazy sometimes is that she is always in the way when you are trying to get stuff done. If you are cooking or doing laundry, you are constantly tripping over her. She just likes to lay in the weirdest places too, like the doorway (which is right in the way, of course!)

I love this picture. I told her to look at me so I could take the picture, and she decides to only open one eye. Smarty pants ;) The only other crazy thing she is obsessed with is water. I'm talking about drinking from the toilet, running into the bathroom every time you go into it, ripping down the shower curtain and jumping in the shower with you obsessed with water. Yes that really happened, but I don't think you want to see pictures of me trying to get her out of the shower while I'm in it :) In conclusion I'm so glad that we have Ella, if for no other reason that to make us laugh every day. If we can get this digging thing under control, she will be such a great part of our lives for many years to come :)