How Does Your Puppy Grow?

It's been three months since Keanani came to live with us, and what a three months. She has grown. She is now about 46 pounds and 21 inches high at the shoulders. That means she has caught up with Kip and will soon weigh as much as Hoku. She has about three more inches to gain Hoku's height. She was spayed on the 4^th and promptly pulled out all of her surface stitches the night of the 5^th. So she lived the next five days when I couldn't see her and nights in an Elizabethan collar. Like all dogs, she figured out how to eat and drink with it and how to make it as obnoxious as possible for her human family. Nothing makes more noise than an E collar banging a crate side at two in the morning. Her adult guard hair is coming in. I've been fascinated watching it arrive. It started at her tail and has now covered most of the middle of her back. I didn't notice a pattern of guard hair development on the Pyrs but that was probably because I was too busy to take the time to notice.

We have made it through much of the teething without any horrible damage. Some dowels on my card weaving loom now have teeth designs on them, but knock wood all spinning wheels have been ignored. My books have taken the most damage; because I was too slow moving them out of the way, the spines of a number of books have been crunched. So there have been times for hitting myself with the rolled up newspaper and saying “I should watch the puppy; I should watch the puppy.”

At the moment one of the favorite “toys” is the fountain on the lanai. I can hear her now making a wet, watery mess as she plays in it with both front feet. She could be into worse things; and if she is like the Pyrs, this delight in water will go away with some maturity. As a matter of fact, having the experience with the Pyrs is a great sanity producer. I keep saying, “She will be an adult LGD; she will be an adult LGD.”

We haven't completely integrated her and the other two dogs, but we are making progress. For the most part, she and Hoku can be together with supervision. The supervision is just because Hoku can still play too rough for a puppy. Kip is a different issue. She is like the mother of a two year old who screams “no” but never carries through. Nani knows Kip won't carry through so she harasses her unmercifully. We have to move in to spare Kip. We do have time with all dogs or Nani and one dog together but we still have days where she is in her exercise pen to keep her separate from the other two.

Last Saturday, she graduated from Puppy Obedience. That means she can play with other puppies without being a problem and she has a small glimmer of what sit, down, come, and heel mean. Stay is still not really part of her vocabulary at all yet. We work on all of these daily as they fit into her normal activities. At the moment, sit is the most understood. By the same token, she is an LGD and she already can decide to blow me away if something is more interesting than my command. Also right now we are into the “terrible two's” where every command from “Mom” is met with a “NO”. With consistent training this shall pass just as it does with human children, but right now it is a pain in the neck.

At the moment, my biggest problem is our first walk in the morning and the last walk at night. We have Cane Toads, lots of them; and they are extremely toxic. They hide during the day in cool, damp holes, but at night, they come out to feed. They are often on the driveway and paths that we walk and they jump in such exciting ways. Every walk in the dark is a challenge as I try to spot them in the flashlight before Nani does. They taste terrible and usually a dog will spit them out immediately; but if they swallow one, it is lethal. My Pyrs ignored them. Maddie picked one up once and spit it out so fast that I hardly knew she had it in her mouth. She then gave me the dirtiest look because I hadn't warned her. I'm hoping that Nani will get to where she too ignores their existence. Hoku now at almost four has finally gotten so she doesn't go after them at every sighting. In the meantime, I have to be vigilant and Nani gets her neck yanked periodically.

She goes with me to Aikido every Tuesday and Thursday. She is a favorite of the children that train there, and the Bichon's are at least tolerating her. She also went to church with me on Holy Thursday. She was cabled during the potluck dinner and behaved extremely well. And when crated during the service, she went to sleep. As she gets more obedience training, she will go with me to other places. However, my ability to take a dog with me here is limited by the weather. If she can't be with me at all times and the outing is during the day, she can't go. Cars are too hot here for a dog to stay in them safely. But I hope to take her more than I have the other two. We shall see.

All in all, she is a delight. I am still feeling so lucky that Clarence found me with that email, and she entered our lives.