A Rather Overdue Update

Now that Maple is 12 weeks old she is no longer the wonderful, adorable, well behaved puppy.

Yes, she is still wonderful, and adorable, and yes, even well behaved, it is just that she is no longer all three things concurrently, unless she is sleeping.

She has a new nickname - Ninja Puppy. This is from the way she lurks, then runs a convoluted course, then jumps up and attacks Gromit and then immediately runs off again. Gromit takes it all in stride. He is really good with her and will allow her to tackle him down to the ground occasionally in order to humour her. I no longer hear Gromit yelp in pain when Maple bites his ears, so I think that Maple has learned how to either bite softly or just mouth Gromit as she still does like to bite not just his ears, but any part of him, including tail, legs, mouth, cheeks, collar etc. I think Gromit is glad that he is allowed into parts of the house that Maple is not so he can have some peace and quiet.

Today Maple discovered that if she really stretches, and someone leaves something overhanging the kitchen counter, that she can pull it down. So now the dining table and kitchen counter are no longer safe places to leave things out of Maple's reach. Like most puppies, Maple sees anything that is left within her reach as a new toy, so we are being kept on our toes.

Last week she discovered that she can easily jump up onto the sofa. So now our 2 sofas have dining room chairs laying sideways on them when they are vacant of people.

Maple is no longer a quiet puppy. Whether it is because she has learned from Gromit, or whether it is because she has matured slightly, she now play growls when she plays with Gromit. And she has also started, on rare occasions, to bark at him. It is a very odd bark for a puppy as it seems to be rather deep. Of course, she whines, yips, yodels and howls when she is in her crate against her wishes. Thankfully this is not too often. As soon as I say "kennel up!" to her, she happily trots into her crate.

Maple starts puppy pre-school tomorrow night. We are a bit late getting Maple into the class, as unfortunately we had just missed out on one class when Maple arrived home and had to wait for the next class to start. The class is being held at the vet's clinic, so I will weight her when we go in as I am sure that she has grown considerably since she was last there 2 weeks ago.