Kelsea Ballerini loves her dog Dibs, whom she got the day her song by the same name was released. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. The artist says she’s had to say 'sayonara' to the pup for the time being until he learns how to behave himself on the road.

"He’s with my mom for a little bit because he’s out of control and he’s huge and my bus has twelve people on it, and he’s enough for two people,” Ballerini explains to Bobby Bones. "So she’s training him right now. But he’s so scruffy and adorable and just the cutest."

He is the cutest, as her Instagram often shows. The scruffy pup is nearly a year old, as she brought him home 11 months ago, when she posted several adorable photos of the tiny dog, noting that her “heart has officially melted into a puddle."

Dibs the dog was good luck for “Dibs” the single, as it ended up being a No. 1 hit on the Billboard U.S. Country Airplay charts and No. 7 on the U.S. Country charts. It was the second release from her debut album The First Time, followed by her most recent single “Peter Pan,”which is currently climbing the charts.

The singer-songwriter recently played CMA Fest, and is on tour this summer with Rascal Flatts. She accidentally let it slip that after that run is wrapped, she’ll be heading out on her first headlining tour. But not before getting a little good, old-fashioned razzing from her tour mates.

“We finally got past her security and got to say hi to her last week … Well from 10 feet away … It was more like a wave hi. But she seems really sweet as far as we can tell … except for the piercings and the tattoos,” the Rascal Flatts guys said of Ballerini, laughing. “It should be a great summer if we finally have a conversation with her, but Chris [Lane] is great,” Jay DeMarcus added.

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Watch Kelsea Ballerini Sing "Dibs" Acoustic

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