Doggy Weekend!

Stella is wiped out. She's so tired that when we got home she came inside, trudged behind the chair in the living room, flopped down, and went to sleep. This is the dog who has never slept outside of her crate (and when she does sleep in her crate it's because I put her in there), the whole month I've had her.

Yesterday we went to puppy class where we worked on "go to your place" and "stay", which will soon be incorporated into this magical bit that involves going to a door mat or rug or some other definable spot, laying down, and staying there until I tell her to get up. If I ever actually pull that off I will be amazed. Puppy class gets hard because the puppies are so little, and so easily distracted. It takes a while for Stella to focus, and then invariably something happens that makes her lose focus and I have to get it back again. Things that really distract her are the mop (it's a puppy class, so there's a lot of piddling on the floor-duh), a couple of the other dogs, and the instructor. I think the instructor has treats made of doggy crack.

Once we get home and practice she catches on really fast. Then we have to work on the same thing with more distractions. This time of year she's totally absorbed by birds, so every time we go outside something that took 2 minutes a month ago takes 5 or 10 minutes because she forgets why we're out there. It's like the dog in "Up"- SQUIRREL!

After class we had a short puppy evaluation at daycare, which was me filling out paperwork and her getting in a room full of puppies to make sure she wasn't going to attack any of them. No big deal.

Then we drove to Alabama to meet Jake. Jake lives with my mom and her partner Karen. Jake is 1 month older than Stella and about 3 times bigger than she is, so we were all slightly worried about how it would go. But it went fine. They played and played and played (which includes snapping, gnawing, biting, body slamming, and RUNNING) until they were both totally exhausted and we had to make them take a time out. Then they wanted to play some more. Then Stella got weirdly territorial about the patio and decided it was hers and she wouldn't let Jake on it. Stella's scrappy. So here are the two of them looking like they're ready to kill each other (how is this fun guys?):

My goodness what big teeth you have!

Did I mention that when we went to a locally owned pet supply store Stella got so freaked out that I had to hold her, and when I put her down she hid under the racks of toys? And then she does this stuff with Jake. Ooooookay.

And here's one of them when then were starting to get worn out.

Awwwwwww!

I was proud of Stella, we stayed overnight and she was very very good. She seems to have everyone convinced that she's an angel puppy, giving lots of kisses and doing her sits and downs just right. When Jake wasn't around she would grab his bone and sit on his blanket on the floor like she belonged there. Poor Jake probably doesn't know what the heck happened to him this weekend!