The Puppy Raising Journey: What a Great First Month!

I know, I know.. it's been quite a while since I posted :) I've been having such a great time with Katrina, I haven't found time to post! She is such a special girl and I know we are going to have an amazing year together, we have already bonded really well :) Katrina is now 4 1/2 months (!!!). I can't believe how fast she is growing up. In honor of her being 4 months, here is a list of the 4 things I love most about her:

1) She is a total cuddlebug. She loves to sit in your lap (especially in the sun) for as long as you'll let her. I swear, she thinks she's a cat :)

2) She's a people-dog. When she see's you, she wags her tail like crazy and gets the wiggles all up and down her body. Her ears quiver with excitement and she tries to kiss your face all over.

3) She has really, really, really soft ears. And a cute little puppy tummy. I love seeing her happy face in the morning when I open up her crate door, and I love how she charges out of there like it's been forever since she last saw me.. plus, what could be better than puppy kisses to wake you up in the morning?

4) She's a smart little girl. Sometimes, too smart for her own good. She's the only dog I've had that's figured out how to open up the x-pen (she lunges her body against the gate, and pushes and pushes until she can escape... then proudly trots around the house).

I know I said 4, but I thought of one other thing she does that I love. She has the certain trot she does when she's proud; she will take her toy and strut around the house with her tail held up high, wagging back and forth. It's hilarious.

Katrina has been making a lot of progress lately! She has been going on more and more outings lately and has stopped refusing to walk (yay! makes outings a lot more enjoyable, for her and me!). In fact, she LOVES walking. Today, we went for a 2 hour outing to a neighborhood restaurant and around town. This week Katrina has been going to lots of new places- the farmers market, Trader Joes, Target, Macy's, and shopping malls. She's learning down and stay, and working on her "come". She is really a mature girl for her age. If things keep going well, I'm thinking that I'll see about her accompanying me to school sometime within the next month or so. I've also decided to join the Guide Dogs speakers bureau- I can talk about Guide Dogs for hours upon hours, so I think that will be a fun opportunity for me and Katrina. A puppy raiser in our club has been involved with the speakers bureau for some time and she told me how she visited a preschool, which sounded like lots of fun.

I have this week off, so I'm hoping to spend a lot of time with Katrina and work on some things with her. Another guide dog puppy from our club will be spending some time with us so that Katrina can get used to other dogs; she's been pretty cautious around dogs before, so I want to help her become more comfortable around other dogs while she's young. There's been a couple times where dogs approached her head-on, and she hid next to me. Lately though, she's been a lot more curious (about everything!). She's walking up to dogs on her own accord and calmly saying hello, which is great to see.

Now, for some photos:

Above, Katrina in my mom's arms. Cuddlebug!

I love the expression on her face.

Katrina holding her puppy teething keys :) I think was probably the only time she picked these up... not sure why, but she really isn't a fan of these. She'd much rather play with an empty milk jug.