During the time Esther has been with us, we have crate trained her and she doggy-door trained herself.  She was pretty chunky when she arrived and had gotten a horrible flea infestation during her adventures of house hopping so her coat was just terrible and she had quite a bit of hair loss.  She trimmed right down and you would never know that her coat had ever been anything but healthy.  We are firm believers in a high quality diet for our dogs and this is a wonderful example of how that can pay off!  Esther was spayed young and has always been kept up to date on vaccines and heart worm prevention.  We had a dental performed last week.  She did not require any extractions and the pre-anesthesia blood work came back great.  She has a little bit of arthritis in one of her front shoulders but getting her weight down seemed to keep that completely under control for the winter - no meds or anything required. Esther has adjusted to the other dogs but does not understand that she is a dog so thinks they are pretty ridiculous. :)  She is not aggressive with them or anything - just doesn't understand why she is supposed to hang out with them.  She is very, very playful and is obviously used to entertaining herself.  She enjoys toys a lot!  She is very into people and does not seem to be timid around anyone or in any situations.  She loves new people and to say she is affectionate is an understatement.