Welcome to new puppy life!

Jessie has been pretty much the all-consuming event in our daily life since we got her. Between hourly potty walks when we’re home, playing fetch and tug-of-war until she’s tired out (no easy feat there), puppy play dates at friends houses, puppy kindergarten, and 3am potty walks, it’s been a bit tiring to say the least. But she is the stinkin cutest puppy you’ve ever seen! Yes yes, I know I’m biased…but I don’t care!

There are so many things that she just naturally does, or has learned to do with virtually no instruction. Things like taking food gently, fetching (at least the go get it and bring it within 10 feet of you part), sleeping (gasp!!) when the car is moving, and sit on command where all easy as pie. Liver and cheese pie! But the real treasure is that finally we have a dog that doesn’t bite people, who understands the basics of doggy communication, and who we can let maul an 18 month old for at least a few moments and have them come away just very slobbery. Not that Jasper wasn’t a good dog, he was. But only if we managed his environment very carefully.

So to date, we’ve learned or are learning the following (excuse me being the proud mom):
Sit
Down
Get your [insert toy name here]
Drop it
Wait
Having legs, ears, mouth, etc handled with no stress
Take treats gently; don’t lunge at treats when offered
Come
Pays attention (or even comes) when you say her name just once
Come NOW (emergency recall, we just started on this one – requires lots of lunch meat)
Recognize other dogs’ “calming signals” (i.e. chill out you’re getting too rowdy on me!)
No biting (that’s a bit of a rough one, she mouths EVERYTHING, but that’s what puppies do)
No stress over her food dish being messed with, taken away, hands in it when she’s eating

At just barely 14 weeks old, that’s just…amazing!!