Somebody Complained...

... that they hadn't seen me on my blog lately. So here I am.

Duncan's life these days seems to revolve mostly around chewing things. Poor little* guy - all four of his adult canine teeth are coming in, while his razor blades baby canines stayed firmly fixed beside them. (Update - one baby tooth finally fell out a couple of days ago. The others have until neutering day, otherwise they'll likely be pulled.) It gives the impression that a shark is attacking when he opens his mouth, but it must really hurt, and he's chewing anything and everything that might help. 

* - Not so little anymore, actually - he weighed in at 10 kg last week!

I think we have a camping-dog-to-be in this little guy. He loves to be outside, and spends as much time as he can prowling the yard, crawling through the bushes and crushing the grasses. And, of course, chewing:

Have I mentioned lately that he's smart? One of the first things we learned in puppy school was "Trade". Duncan has raised trading to a fine art. He will steal a desirable object (well, he thinks Megan's sock is desirable!) and chew it until a trade is proposed:

Then he stops chewing and holds it hostage with his paw while we negotiate. He's very patient; he'll even wait for us to go to the kitchen for the ransom treats. But if the deal isn't good enough, he holds out for more. Yesterday he stole a pool cover clip that cost me at least six treats! Socks are much easier to come by, though, since he learned to lift the lid of the laundry hamper. They can usually be ransomed for one treat when we forget to close the bedroom door.

Chewie protection

So I've mentioned a few times lately that Duncan likes to take something outside with him. We've seen his cat, and random cardboard. Those are both important things, of course, but not so important that they can't be left for someone else to bring in out of the snow. Yesterday, though, he took one of his chewies outside with him. That's it in the photo above, the thing that looks like a tongue.

Here he is, blazing new trails in the snow, just before he decided to leave it for a bit:

 

He got this far away before he decided that it was just too dangerous to leave his treasure unguarded:

So he had to go back and rescue it before blazing on with his new trails:

The snow is melting fast today, so Duncan and I ended up slogging through a lot of slush on our walk. But he's been doing so well lately that we expanded our walk route and went to the park. Google tells me that we went 1.29 km, which is a long way for little legs, and that included heeling past the schoolyard at recess! Here's where we went:

First bath

Duncan had his long-overdue first bath today. We've been holding off since he broke his leg, in case he slipped and hurt it again. But it's been two full months now, and he's been getting scruffier and scruffier, so we took a deep breath and ran the bathwater.

(Why a deep breath? For those who never experienced Kerry's baths, or who have managed to block them from their memory, she hated baths. With a passion. They were Not Fun for anyone involved. Dirty water encountered outside was entirely a different matter, of course. The colder and muddier, the better.)

Well, Duncan seemed to enjoy it! There were lots of treats, of course, and he got to drink from the tap*, but I think he liked the actual bath too. We were able to leave both the shampoo and the conditioner on for the recommended 5 minutes each. Hopefully they'll help reduce his scratching.

* When we first got Duncan, back in the pre-leg days, I put that tiny puppy in the tub a few times to get him used to it before his first bath, which I expected would be long before this. I ran a trickle of water, and he loved drinking from it. And he's obviously remembered that, because since his leg got better, he keeps jumping in the tub and licking at the tap whenever we leave the bathroom door open. Notice the happy look in that top photo?

A little more to the right...

Oh, yes, that's a good spot...

Towelled off. Not sure if he's after the toilet paper or the treat crumbs.

Erin, your room has become a grooming salon.

Snow day II

For some reason, in the last day or two, Duncan likes to take something outside with him. Sometimes it's his toy cat, sometimes it's a chewie, this time it was a scrap of cardboard. 

He has such fun racing through the snow:

There must be something good under here.... 

The Graduate

It's official - Duncan is officially a "Scholar in a Collar", having graduated from Level 1 obedience class last night! Fortunately for him, there was no final exam, and looking cute could occasionally substitute for actual obedience. It was an impressive ceremony, in which each puppy heeled to the front of the room to the strains of Pomp and Circumstance (played by a musical toy dog, naturally) to accept a cookie and a promise of a diploma to come (they ran out of parchment for the printer.) 

We did notice during the classes that the instructor always seemed to use Duncan to demonstrate how to get your dog to stop jumping up (he's good at jumping, being a wheaten), and never used him to demonstrate stays or heeling. Probably just a coincidence. (He actually can stay and heel reasonably well. Sometimes. We heeled past a squirrel on our walk the other day - something Kerry didn't learn until she was about 13!)

Today is a snow day. Duncan took his toy cat for a walk in the yard early this morning, and they both enjoyed playing in the snow. Since then it's gotten several inches deeper, and he's less inclined to break new trails and more inclined to snuggle on the couch. There's nothing quite like a melting dog!

And speaking of couches, his lastest quirk is an extreme fascination with whatever might be hiding between the cushions. As far as I can tell, there's absolutely nothing of interest down there, but he keeps digging and diving into both couches. 

Things I have chewed this week

These boots were brand new last Sunday. By Tuesday hunks were missing.
Glad I bought the Canadian Tire cheapies!

Duncan is teething. At least two of his bottom incisors have fallen out, and the new ones are coming in. We think the new top ones are also coming in, but he doesn't like us looking. And he's working on his molars - you can feel at least one little pointy thing that has broken through the gum, and several more right under the skin. It must hurt. And he's just needs to chew. Anything. Everything. All the time.

So here are a few of the things he's chewed this week:

Toilet paper.
There is no safe place left in the bathroom, except the windowsill.

A book. On Roman Art & Architecture. Have I mentioned he's smart?
Fortunately it was on its way to the blue box. But a very bad precedent in this family!

A box of make-your-own teabags.
Note to self - the kitchen table is no longer out-of-reach.

Mommy :(