Growing Up?

[Bonnie and Kona]

Owen will be 8 months old on Monday and we are noticing that, while he is still very much a puppy, we are not as overwhelmed by his naughtiness as we had been. This improvement in his behavior started the day we went to his obedience class orientation. hahaha. He is learning new things in his obedience class and getting lots of praise from the instructor. One woman in the class commented that Owen looks like a teen aged boy. Having worked with middle schoolers for several years, I heartily agree. He has a swagger revealing his lack of control of those gangly legs, and a twinkle in his eye that looks like he's ready for trouble.

 

Mind you, he still counter surfs, tries to steal food at every opportunity, and jumps on the furniture, but it is happening only occasionally instead of hourly! Yeah! He only barks for a reason and will stop with a reprimand... no more squirt bottle and soda can with pennies inside. His mouthing and nipping are limited to rare arrival greetings now. Recently we noticed that he wasn't dragging sticks into the house every fifteen minutes, now we actually go days without a stick coming inside. The nice part is that we can breathe between corrections. !

 

Owen is getting cuter all the time. His face is sprouting little wiry tufts and he's fluffing out all over. He still has crazy "bed head" on the top of his head but with the addition of his facial fur it isn't quite as startling. Sometimes he even looks sweet instead of wild and crazy.

 

The best part is Owen is an affectionate, loving dog. We kiss and hug him all of the time and he leans into us like he is trying to hug  back. Whenever one of us begins to cuddle with him he sits quietly and eats it all up.

 

Hooray for Owen!

[Bonnie and Kona]

I may have overstated my case. I cannot say that Owen is "settled". He still paces around like a lion looking for trouble but now he gets scolded much less often as he is beginning to accept that there are some rules. (I think)

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Good to hear Owen is calming down. Maybe there is hope for the Bella monster too. 9 months old now.

[Jodi and Stella]

It's so nice when they start to come into their own.

[Karen and Bridget]

He sounds like a gem!!  We need pictures :)