Maggie's grandparents came up from Florida for a visit this past weekend. Over the past week or so we've really been trying to take Maggie wherever we can with us, whether it's running errands (where we're both there and don't have to leave her in the car) or other rooms in the house where we're working. So, with that in mind, Mags went for a ride down to Midway. I wasn't sure how she'd be in the car with two people she'd never met, but she was great.

I brought some treats for my parents to use to bribe her, which seem to have worked out well. My mom sat in the back with her and at one point Maggie was sitting up next to her and leaning on her.

We went on lots of long walks around the neighborhood. Of course, Maggie insisted that everyone walk in front of her, instead of some behind her. She also is really not fond of hoses, sprinklers or little American flags. Otherwise the walks were great and uneventful. On Sunday Maggie even walked with her grandpa holding the leash.

Maggie got two presents - a new safety harness (she probably won't love this, but it's for her own good) and some new beef treats. She really likes the treats - and they fit nicely into her Kong. Maggie had a great visit, and her grandparents got to see she's even more adorable in person! :)

Speaking of the Kong, Maggie has become a real pro. The Kong sat untouched for months, but now she pretty much empties it out every day while we're at work. She's also taken to playing with it more while we're home with her. She's so good at the first one that we bought her the "beehive" version to give her some variety and a new challenge.

I don't know if it's because we've had a few days off, we're bringing her more places, or what, but we've seen some small, yet noticeable progress. A few areas where we've seen some improvement:

Pupcicles - She loves these things, and pretty much has it down to a science knocking them out of the container and gulping them down. Unfortunately these are now about 2 minutes or less of entertainment.

Dinner - The last couple of days she's gotten much quicker at getting up to eat. We put her food bowl in the rack just off of her bed. Typically she'd think about going to it for at least several minutes, sometimes waiting until we left the room. At least for now she's getting up right away and going to it.

Basement - She's learning "let's go to the basement". She still has some work on this, with about 50% of the time her ending up upstairs, but she's getting there. The biggest thing in the basement though is that she doesn't have a bed or brown towel. She doesn't exactly get up and wander around, but so far she's shown that she'll expand her territory somewhat and has ventured across areas larger than her towel allows. We're trying to combine this area with her Kong and hope she chases it further (right now if the Kong goes off of her towel, most times that's the end of the game).

Coming in the house - In the evening we sometimes still have to tell her to come in 8-10 times, but she's getting better at it and is definitely better other times of the day. She's also gotten good about going to her bed no matter the time of day. There for a while at nighttime she'd just run straight upstairs, which wasn't good when it was muddy out and we didn't have a chance to wipe her paws down (this is done when on her downstairs bed).

The car - Kat discovered this one. Because it's harder for Kat to get Mags out of the car, she started pulling her feet out to hang out of the door to try to get her out. Reluctantly, at first, Maggie worked her way out of the car. She still hasn't gotten out on command, but seems to be getting better at it. She really, really loves car rides. Today, Kat decided to bring Maggie down and pick me up from work in the Loop instead of me taking the train. It was hilarious watching Maggie watch all of the pedestrians heading to the train station. She was just very interested and curious watching the masses pass by. I guess this is probably the most people Maggie has ever seen at once.

We're really hoping and expect that with even more time and attention Maggie will just continue to improve. We're looking forward to taking some time off next month to spend another extended stay in Michigan with her - and hope that this time she's not injured for our vacation and we can spend it focusing on her.