My goodness, what a difference a month makes! Suddenly all the puppy fuzz has disappeared and Haydée is a sleek, slim, long-legged, short-coated puppy. She probably weighs about eight lbs by this time, not sure. She feels about that heavy when I pick her up to coo at her. Eight lbs is about half the adult weight and she does not really look half the adult size just yet, so maybe I’m off a little. She’s going in for vaccination this Friday, so we’ll see!
Here she is with Morgan. Markings not great, plus that little pink snip still on her nose, but actual head very cute! Expression very cute! Smart and willing, good structure, maybe I’ll show her just in Rally and not in the Breed ring, who knows.
Haydée cannot get on the couch by herself because she thinks the steps at the end of the couch are weird and scary. Beats me why puppies get these notions. She’s fine going up and down the full flight of stairs from the deck to the yard, and I don’t mind lifting her to the couch, so I guess she’ll probably figure out the steps someday, but it doesn’t really matter.
Good news on the housetraining front! Haydée finally made a mistake, so I finally had a chance to say No no, not in this room, not even if this room is far away from the living room. ONE mild correction seems to have done the trick. She can’t be truly reliable at this age, but nearly. Didn’t I say smart and willing? Ah, easy dogs are the best. I do appreciate Cavaliers, who are just generally easy puppies. Of course it’s nice that Morgan, Naamah, and Leda — even the boys sometimes — play with her and keep her exercised and entertaining.
Alas, one non-perfect trait has cropped up. Haydée is a zipper puller. If she finds a zipper on a pillow, dog bed, or cushion, she is very certain that the right thing to do is pull on the zipper and then remove the insides from the pillow, dog bed, or cushion. This is funny, but I am going to have to stitch up yet another pillow this afternoon, as she not only unzipped the pillow, but also broke the zipper.
As problems with a puppy go, however, I think I can cope.
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We had an elderly pug who we got couch stairs for – she never fully figured them out. She knew if she ran at a particular spot she’d end up on the couch, but wouldn’t go back down, so we’d have to move them when we left the house so she wouldn’t strand herself. If we forgot to put them back later she’d run headlong into that part of the couch. (Sometimes getting picked up by someone before impact, so success in her eyes). Sweetest dog, not a lot of brains.
Sarah, I’m chuckling at your pug, but I hope my puppy figures out the concept of “stairs.”
I like how Richard Adams handled animal intelligence in Watership Down, with Blackberry explaining the concept of “a raft” to the others and Hazel straining to wrap his mind around the idea.