What Hath Dog Wrought

Our little Chunk-a-bunk is now 12 lbs and will make her first appearance at Petco tomorrow, so this is possibly her last day here.

She certainly has made a huge leap forward in learning to be a dog this past week. Two things happened.

First, she finally learned how to jump off of the recliners. She has been an amazing puppy, terrified to make that leap the few inches to the ground. Half Pint had no problem leaping off the chair, teeny as she was. She would just put her paws on the edge, lower her head, and fall. Never fazed her. But Chunk was afraid. She would stand and whine and bark and bark and bark, but wouldn't go near the edge of the chair.

I finally started working with her by first raising the footrest slightly so there was a teeny incline and then just standing in front of her encouraging her to jump. Once she finally discovered that nothing painful waited for her on the floor, she began jumping off often. (We had mixed feelings about this, since previously, the way to get the puppy out of the way while you did some cleaning was to plunk her on a chair!)

Now that she can get down by herself, she has become much less demanding that I sit down and cuddle her. There are just too many things to see and dogs to play with, which is the second thing that has happened.

She is now big enough that Lizzie and Sheila will play with her and she would much rather play with a dog than cuddle in a lap (which makes me feel much better about any separation anxiety she may feel after she leaves here). Watching her play with Lizzie is particularly fun as they can "mouth wrestle" for hours.

She's also starting to learn the routine, somewhat. She knows that everybody gets a treat when I leave the house and when I return and she gallops with the other two, sliding into position in the kitchen, waiting her turn to get her piece of MilkBone dog biscuit (I can't give her a whole one because it does bad things to her bowels).

I love watching her invite Lizzie to play. She does this little hopping thing that I haven't been able to capture on video because she usually does it at night when it's too dark. But it's just very cute.

She has learned not to bite so much. A sharp "OUCH!" as she bites on my hand and removing my hand has given her a much "softer" mouth with me. She may take my hand in her mouth, but usually starts licking instead of biting. Also, she seems to have stopped playing tug of war with my pant leg since I started spraying her with a water bottle whenever she did it! (The holes in my pants gave me an excuse to buy myself two new pairs, though!)

She even has learned to go out and come in the dog door. I don't know if she has learned to do it to take care of her elimination business, but she will follow the older dogs outside, and occasionally just go outside by herself for the heck of it.

She doesn't cuddle as much, often now sleeping on one of the dog beds on the floor, but she still does get to the point where she begs to be picked up and the snuggles her head under my chin and gives this huge sigh that seems to indicate "Oh good...you're here. I'm home." If I take her to the recliner and sit down with her, she buries her nose in my armpit and her body totally relaxes as she sleeps for the next half hour or hour or however long I will let her. Her body is getting so long now that it's going to be less comfortable for me to sit with her like that for much longer.

I will miss this little girl, but I'm eager for her forever family to get to know her while she's still so cute. I wonder if people are going to think how small and cute she is, when I look at her and see this big horse of a puppy.