How are the dogs coping?

Otis was raised in my parent's home before Buzz and I moved in together. Whenever we visited his old house, he always seemed to want to stay there. He's allowed on the couches (which he wasn't at our townhouse) and my mom slips him table scraps. My parents were nice enough to fence in their yard for the dogs. I was still nervous because not only were we moving back but Ziggy would be there for the first 5 weeks. Greta isn't the friendliest dog around and I was scared she would hand Ziggy his ass.

So far, so good. I feel like Otis isn't my dog anymore. He is content to lie on the couches all day with whomever happens to be by him. He doesn't follow me around. He enjoys sunning in the yard and sleeps downstairs without a problem. Ziggy and him are pretty tight too.

I'm a little worried about Greta. She follows me EVERYWHERE. She isn't allowed upstairs but we don't have a gate to block her out so although she starts off every night downstairs in her dog bed, when I wake up she's in my bed with me or trapped in Ella's room with her. She has found a spot in the yard by a tree that she likes to dig and she barks at the Golden Retrievers behind the house - but I swear they start it!

The thing I miss about being in Carpentersville is I had a wonderful, free dog park five minutes from home that I've visited for the last five years. Before Ella was born I would go there everyday. I have a lot of nice friends from there and I'm so sad that I only make it there once a week or so. Also, my neighbors LOVED Otis and liked Greta and they would go over there and play with their dogs. They were so sad to see them move away.

Then there's the poop situation. We have three dogs living in the Kane house and they produce a lot of poop. I think it's reasonable to pick it up three times a day - morning, noon and evening. My sister and I take turns and it's worked out well. The problem is my mother...she's like a poop-radar. Every time she finds a poop in the yard she calls us to report it. She called my sis the other day to say, "there's a poop under the Sycamore tree." She doesn't like the poop to sit for more than five minutes. So not only are we picking up poop three times a day, we are also picking it up as Debs Downer spots it. This gets tiresome when you're trying to do other things. She does not want the poop in the garbage outside because it stinks it up. But when we put the poops next to the air conditioner out back she complained that the entire yard smelled of poop. I'm thinking that maybe I'll just start eating the poop so that it's not in anyone's way.

Besides the poop thing and the no upstairs thing and the vacuuming everyday thing I think it's going pretty well with the dogs. But, if you know anyone who wants a neurotic, anxious, curmudgeonly Vizsla and a dog-aggressive, pushy, smelly Foxhound mix, please share.

I am grateful to my parents for taking me, my kid and the dogs in. Many people would have taken Ella and I but NOBODY (and rightfully so) wanted us with my crazy dogs. And we did not grow up with dogs so it's not like they're used to having them.

Swear to God that when we do Pilates, Greta does it with us. We had to keep pushing her out of the way!