Grow, Dog, Grow

This month has been crazy busy, but I thought it was high time for some updates. First, about my special girl dog, B. We entered several trials this past month, and across all the trials this fall, B qualified in 32 out of 34 total runs, including a stretch of 30 straight Q's! I'm still keeping her at the Novice level for a while even though she has now finished all her novice titles, but will probably move her up to Open in a few months.

She has also been enjoying having a little brother to play with. She's been a remarkably good teacher, and it has been interesting to see her in this role so soon after she was the pupil. She is now teaching P all the things that L taught her not so long ago, and it makes me feel a little bit like his legacy is living on.

Which brings me to little P. By the way, for those who said that they will always think of him as "Piglet" - that's fine. We refer to him as The Piglet all the time.

P and B play very well together. They have plenty of wrestling matches which P only wins when B lets him.

But their favorite is to play chase. Some dogs like to be chased, and some dogs prefer to be the chaser, and then some, like B, are happy either way. So far in their relationship, it has mostly been P chasing B. Especially since whenever P tries to take off running, he only makes it a few steps before B catches him. I expect as he gets older and quicker, he may take some turns at being the chasee.

Z is mostly content to watch the youngsters run and play...

But sometimes he will still join in the fun. His gait may be a bit awkward, but he can still run! I think I caught him in mid-bark in this shot.

P has also been reaping the benefit of B having so many nice playmates - he has gotten to socialize with lots of other dogs. So far, he seems remarkably even tempered and confident with other dogs. Nothing much really phases him. He doesn't get overly excited and rude, and he doesn't get upset when he meets other dogs who are overly excited and rude, even if they are much bigger than him.

I took a few pictures the other day of a play date with one of B's friends, the pit mix, who is still just a big puppy himself. It was a smashing success.

P has been great in his puppy kindergarten class, too. He is calm enough that the shy/scared puppies in the class can deal with him, and he doesn't get rattled when the big rambunctious puppies tackle him

We actually have to watch B a little more carefully when her friends come over now - my former shrinking violet now sometimes has to be reminded to not get too rough. She seems to have some proprietary feelings about her little brother sometimes.

Having a puppy has been exhausting, especially with so much other stuff going on right now, but it has been fun, too!

Happy Halloween, everyone!