New dog, lots of questions

Hi everyone,
I'm not new to Dogsey, but I have a new dog. For anyone who might possibly remember me, my sweet huskies are no longer with me for reasons I'd rather not talk about. A lot has happened in the past couple of years and it's been rough.

It's been a couple of years now, so it was time for a new dog and after a lot of reading and searching, we adopted a 4-5 year old female white miniature Schnauzer. Her name is Audrie. She is already spayed, too. She was an owner surrender and was pulled from a high kill shelter by some ladies that do their own rescueing. They pull dogs out and send them into foster care and adopt them out. The shelter had provided no history or information as to why Audrie had been surrendered.

We brought her home last night and she has so far been amazing. We have 2 young children and a cat, all of which she has been super with. She is extremely loving and affectionate. She is already housetrained and has a great recall outside.

Here are my concerns so far:

1. She is overweight. We have always been strict on not feeding dogs people food, but it is obvious that her previous owners handed out people food to her often. She begs with huge eyes and has not touched her own food at all. I'm hoping that she will eventually get hungry enough and will eat it. The foster mama said she was just fed regular dog chow, nothing special. So... do I just keep offering her dog food and hope she eats it once she gets hungry? And never, ever give in to her want for people food, right? Will simply (in addition to daily walks of course!) doing this help her loose weight or could there be underlying reasons for the weight?

2. She follows me everywhere. I know dogs are social and want to be with their people. But she won't leave my side. I'm sure part of it is that she is still unsure of what is going on, as it's been less than 24 hours since she's been home. She's picked me to stick to though. She insists on following me from room to room and always wants to sit on the furniture right beside me or right in my lap. Which isn't always possible because I have a 2 month old daughter who needs my arm space. Will she grow out of this as she gets more comfortable or is it something to be concerned about?

3. She is used to sleeping in bed with her person. Last night she wined while standing with her paws on the top of our bed. My husband is okay with her sleeping with us, but I'm not really sure I like it. I mean, she's allowed on our furniture in the living room so I'd like to have something in our house that is dog free... But he gave in to her whining after only a few minutes last night. She tried sleeping right in between us and on my pillow. For me, that's just way too much. She's great, but I need my space! I tried to keep her at the foot of the bed, but somehow she wormed her way up closer to our heads. Since she is used to sleeping in people beds, would it be cruel to not allow her in our bed? Like I said already, I just really would rather not... And how on earth would I teach her?

4. I've never had a dog that required grooming. I've watched videos on how it's done. Mostly because I wanted to know what exactly she would be going through every several weeks. How do I find the right groomer to take her to? I've tried looking up some of the local grooming salons but none have any reviews. I don't live in a big town, so the salons don't have big websites or anything like that.

I think that's all for now. She is due for her rabies shot so I will be having her checked over by our vet, but I thought I'd post here and get advice from here, too! Thank you very much for any help and advice.

1. weight issues can be a symptom of various conditions but it could just be she's been fed too much & had too little exercise. my old terrier used to do really well on a very small amount of food but now she's older i do have to keep increasing how much food i give her or she's gets underweight. for now i would say persevere with only offering her her own food. if she continues not to touch it a check up at the vets might be a good idea but at the moment it could be that she's hoping to get human food & she could also be a bit unsettled so off her food. plenty of exercise & carefully controlled feeding should sort out her weight issues as long as their isn't an underlying problem

2. as you only brought her home last night she probably hasn't settled in yet so i wouldn't worry about her following you everywhere. if once she's had time to settle in she still does it you could start training her to stay then you can tell her to stay whilst you go into another room & she'll get used to being by herself more & won't mind so much. of course you won't be able to expect her to stay whilst you leave the room the first time you ask her to stay, it's a slow process but she'll get there

3. a crate would be a good idea here. you do need to make sure everyone in your house knows the rules though because if someone lets her out of the crate because she's crying then she'll never be happy in there. to get her used to the crate put things she likes such as food, toys etc in there & maybe her water bowl & leave the door open to start with so she can go in & out as she wants. then start closing it for a short time & giving her treats for being good, i'd suggest some of her daily feed as treats because of the weight problem. also you could stuff a kong with her food & put it in the cage so she has something to keep her busy. you can put tastier things in the kong too but then reduce her daily feed accordingly

4. sorry no idea, have never had dogs myself that need grooming except what i can do

hope some of this helps. good luck & i ope she settle in soon

Aw she sounds a cutey.
Don't really have too much to add from what toobendy says, other than maybe try a comfy, fluffy dog bed next to yours (initially by you bed where you can reach to comfort her and gradually move her to a more 'convenient' spot).

Just wanted to post to wish you well with her (and a little pic would be nice )

Em x