4 Months Old

Dear Cubby,

Boy, have you gotten big!  Very soon you'll be too big to be a lap dog but, y'know, something tells me you'll be one anyway.  I never get tired of holding you and loving on you!

I'll tell ya, since you've been getting older and bigger, your mischief has reached a new high, and I'm sure the worst is yet to come.  You drive me to distraction with your everlasting barking and nipping, and running away from me when you don't want to go back in the house.  Then, in the very next breath, you're licking my face, dropping a ball at my feet, wagging your tail, and looking up at me with your beautiful almond-shaped eyes, and you melt my heart.

In this past month, you've had your first (and, Lord willing, your last) surgery ... no puppies for you.  You came through that just fine, but then you came home and blew out the undercoat all the way down your back!  Wispy fine hair all over the house, even in the air!!  Do you know how hard that is to vacuum up?

From the minute you set your paws into our lives, I've been teaching you what most people would call 'commands' but they're really just good manners for living a healthy, happy life in our home.  You're doing so well with sit, stay, wait, look, leave it, and heel.  You'll need a lot more practice with come, off, zip it, and no bite but I have no doubt you'll get it; it'll just take a little time.  What I can't seem to drill into your head is down.  It doesn't seem to matter how often we drill and drill and drill, you just haven't gotten that yet.

Somewhere in the middle of this past month, your voice changed and now I can hardly tell the difference between you and Sophie.  Maybe that's why you've been barking so much.  It's so different from what you used to be, and perhaps it simply fascinates you.

So here's what we'll be working at in the coming month ... No paws on the kitchen counter!  No door-dashing!  And you will learn how to down!  I hoped your food obsession would work to my advantage in your training, but no such luck.  You get too excited over the treat and forget about the command.  Guess you'll just have to settle for praise, toys, and cuddles, but that's not half bad, is it?