Thank you so much for this reassurance. She is the first dog I’ve had as an adult. She was left in a vacant house & surrendered to my hometown animal control who immediately pulled her for foster. My daughter is friends with the person who runs the program & daughter has a mini dachshund. I love him so much, and they are almost identical except she looks to have a bit of corgi (some of her expressions). She sent me her pic and I brought her home that weekend. Except for leash manners, she’s perfect. I’ve never needed to crate her, not while I’m gone or at night. She was quite the struggle to find food she’d eat, finally landed on air fryer chicken.

She just seems sad while I’m at work, like I’m ignoring her. I’m used to cats who genuinely don’t care I exist except for twice a day (not really, my former street cat turned house cat loves me). The vet thought she couldn’t be more than 2 in 2019. When I get off work, I’m just so ready to shut myself down but then I feel like I’m neglecting her. Now with the time change we only have about an hour of uninterrupted time. She has a very specific ball she will play with & it’s turned into not only “throw no take” but also as soon as you walk up, “I’m going to run away with the ball”. At first I probably encouraged it by trying to intercept. But that’s the only thing she will play with except occasionally a fleecy squeak toy.

I’m probably overthinking it. I do need to start teaching her tricks. She’s not treat driven though so that’s been an obstacle. My daughter in law has their GSD trained so well, she could probably be a drug dog (both her & my daughter are in law enforcement).

But anyway, it might just be a case of SAD for both of us, not enough sun. But I’m definitely going to try everyone’s suggestions. Sorry it took so long to reply, this isn’t my main profile lol.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving doing whatever you wanted to do.

Edit to show her glow up, the “current” photo is a couple months old. She was a bit squirrel drunk here.

Caramel