Oh Adolescence!

So apparently our dog has hit adolescence - or the terrible twos - call it what you will.  She is crazy.  She has always been full of energy, and we have learned to deal with it, but this is different.  Stuffed animals that used to stay stuffed now lay decimated on our floor - their insides strewn all about the house and I do mean all about.  We bought her one animal without stuffing and that seems to work, but she can just get them ripped open so fast!  Also, you know how they make balls out of rope - and those are pretty much indestructible for awhile.  NOPE - we have little pieces of string all over our floor as well - the rope ball now looks like a ratty mess.  We can deal with all this - at least she is not chewing on things she is not supposed to - I guess this is just part of growing up!

What we are having a hard time dealing with is her barking!!  She used to be the most precious thing to watch in the yard.  She was so good - she would just lay out in the front yard and watch people and other dogs walk by.  Sometimes she would run the length of our yard with them, but would never bark.  I was so proud of that because barking is a hard thing to stop.  Well, I guess she just hadn't found her voice yet, but now - she barks at the air.  It's awful.  We can't let her outside by herself anymore for an extended period of time because she just barks.  I want to be a responsible neighbor, so until we can get it calmed down - she is inside most of the time - which is hard as well because she has so much energy!  I'm ready for this heat to really break so we can go back to our two a day walks.

She is obedient for the most part - she really is a good dog.  Until about 2 weeks ago she would go straight into her crate when we were leaving - no problem.  Well, we didn't change anything and about 2 weeks ago it turned into a chore.  We have to coax her into the guest bedroom, shut the door and then work with her just to get her to go in.  She will even crawl under the guest bedroom floor and stay where we can't get her!  It's getting better, but my goodness.

No one tells you that they go through another puppy stage as they get older.  She is 7 1/2 months old. We have been told that with her breed we have until the age of 2 - so only 15 more months!  Maybe less if we are lucky.

I have to remind myself each morning that I love my dog!  Raising her is already teaching me a lot about raising children - I never thought that would happen!  Most of the time I just have to look at her face though - her face continues to save her from a lot.  She still has that cute nose she had when she was a little puppy - I think it's even cuter now.

Lucie at about 8 weeks old

Lucie today at about 7 1/2 months old

You can't get mad at this face - well you can get mad, but you can't stay mad! :)