Maddie turned officially FIVE MONTHS old on December 2nd. I cannot believe this much time has flown by already even though everyone told me it would.
I am so glad I have taken so many pictures. With a puppy, you just cannot put it off for another day because they will look so different tomorrow.
My 13 and a half pound puppy had grown to 39 pounds. She is almost a dog!
This week I was out of town Sunday afternoon until late Tuesday night. The husband did a great job taking care of everyone and thank goodness for daycare on Monday and Tuesday.
Reagan says "Get away from my bush!"
This week we worked on going up and down stairs and worked on stepping over, climbing onto, and going under things. For example, I might have Maddie walk though a pile of jump poles scattered on the ground (Pick-Up-Sticks). Or walking around, through, and over the metal base under my dog walk. Or climbing onto a large rock. Most of the time she seems quick to try stuff with her front feet, but is not sure how to handle her rear end. With as much as she has grown lately, I can imagine that one must feel uncoordinated as everything gets taller and longer.
I try to find really easy things for her to do so Maddie feels good about herself and builds confidence. I really do not want to be constantly challenging her as that would be no fun for her. So I try to find things for her to be super successful with right away.
One thing that I brought back out this week was shaping with a box. Basically, you click and treat the dog for interactions with a box. Ideally, you do not have an agenda, but simply let the dog offer behaviors for you to click and treat. As the dog starts on a pattern, you can then start to mark only certain things. Working with the box was not Maddie's favorite thing to do a few weeks ago. She did not like that it moved when she would put a foot on the edge of it. I had put it up until this week. The box had shrunk some (or Maddie has grown) and I heavily marked Maddie for using her feet. Eventually, she was stepping into the box with front and rear feet. She did great!
Chilling in the yard
Most of Maddie's baby teeth are gone now. Here is an interesting photo with the bottom canine missing. The top adult canine coming in with the baby canine hanging on behind it still.
I still have only the one tooth that Maddie just happened to spit out right in front of me.
