Puppy Update

Raising a puppy has been a big challenge. Our cute little labradoodle is full of energy and mischief. She's sweet and friendly and we all adore her but she isn't the most obedient. She's an escape artist who loves to explore and thinks it's hilarious if you try and call her back or even chase her. Her favourite game is figuring out a new way to escape the backyard and run off down the street. There are a lot of coyotes in our neighbourhood so we always keep a close eye on her and definitely don't trust her off leash yet.

Her house training is finally complete (knock on wood) and we've successfully trained her to knock a bell hanging from the back door with her nose whenever she wants to go out. That actually took a long time because she's a very timid dog and was scared of the bell for the longest time. Now she loves to ring the bell, whether or not she needs to go to the bathroom because she knows it means we'll let her out on her rope. She loves to wield the power of her bell.

She's also a lot better at bite inhibition than when we first got her. She doesn't bite anymore except gently in play. Especially with Hudson. She loves to bite his clothes and pull on him when he wrestles with her. I'm pretty sure she thinks Hudson is just a funny looking puppy because he plays with her just like a fellow puppy.

We also got a surprise when we took her to the vet to get spayed, as we found out she doesn't actually have female reproductive organs. It looks like she's intersex and probably has male chromosomes but never developed external male organs. So we decided to keep referring to her as a she since she still looks like a she.

She can't really be trusted unsupervised around the house yet but she's getting way better than she used to be. She has destroyed many small items left around the house including toys, mittens (hand-knit!!!), a laptop cord, and magazines. At first, she had a really hard time controlling her bladder whenever she was the least bit excited. It meant that whenever we went out and then came back home, she would run up to us and then pee at our feet. Thankfully, this is now a pretty rare occurrence.