Finicky Much? (Updated)

From the day I met Shandi, I knew she had an issue with water and puddles. She was named "Belle" when we first met her at the S.P.C.A last June. When the attendant tried to bring her out of her cage, Belle refused to walk through the puddle that spanned the entire entrance of the cage. The attendant had to pick her up and carry her over the puddle. The next obstacle in Belle's way was the soaking wet floor mat that sat in the doorway of the little room Mike and I were waiting in. Again, the attendant had to pick her up and carry her over.

Since the snow has been melting so much this week (and combined with the rain today), Shandi turns into a totally different dog when it's time to go outside. Now, she's not normally the fastest walking dog (except when she's on a leash...then she strains to run), but when it's wet outside, it looks as though she's aged 70 years. She takes slow, methodical steps, with her head down. If she's able to, she will jump over the puddles. If there's now way to do that, she just stops and sits down and whimpers. She has even refused to go outside a couple of times. That is, until we realized our front stoop is covered and she will happily go out the front door.

Shandi (who, by the way, gets her name from the tv show, Lingo, of which we were huge fans of last year) loves to go for car rides and so this afternoon when I drove Colby down to his grandma's house, of course Shandi wanted to come along. When we got home, she refused to get out of the van and started to whimper and whine. So I had to pick her up and carry her in. What a spoiled, spoiled dog. Maybe she's waiting for me to buy the cute, yellow rubber boots to match her rain slicker?

Update: Tonight, after Shandi was done going to the bathroom, she walked along the garage door, the only dry spot on the driveway. When she reached the end of the door, rather than turning around in a full circle (which would have meant getting her paws wet), she walked backwards along the length of the door. I will say that Shandi is very good at waiting to get her paws wiped off. When she comes inside, she sits down at the top of the stairs and lifts each one of her paws up so I can dry them.