Carrot Top

Believe it or not, I have been crafty lately, but I can't post any of it because the holidays are upon us...the craftiness is intended for others, whom I'd like to surprise. I'll take pics and save them for January.

Chewy's graduation from puppy kindergarten is next week. Wish us luck. He has to pass a series of tests to prove that he's actually learned something. They kind of stack the deck against the dogs though. Chewy does almost all his commands perfectly at home, but when we're in class and I ask him to do something, he looks at me like, "Seriously, Mom? Do we have to do this now? Can't you see that I'm in the middle of sniffing Willie Nelson's butt?" (please note, this is Willie Nelson the lhasa apso, not Willie Nelson the human singer).

I learned this week that Chewy loves carrots. Who knew? We had several pounds purchased back when we were trying to do the raw food diet thing. We gave that up partly because our vet advised us to, partly because it was taking an hour to feed him at each meal because we had to grind up the bones and he couldn't eat them unless we hand-fed them to him so he could break them up even smaller with his little puppy teeth. Anyway, we had all these carrots so I was making carrot bread (which did not turn out well) and carrot soup (which did turn out well) and offered Chewy a piece of carrot peel. Five pieces later, I finally gave him a whole carrot. He was obsessed. I didn't dare give him more, fearing that I was inviting GI disaster. But he stares fixedly at me as I eat the soup, waiting for his chance to lick out the bowl. And it's a spicy soup. Odd dog.

We have had one setback this week: Chewy has had three episodes of peeing with excitement upon greeting people. The first was a friend he hadn't seen in a few weeks. That kind of made sense. The second was the vet, and it was definitely excitement not fear. Wacko. Who gets that excited to see someone who sticks thermometers up his butt and sticks him with needles? The third was an employee at Petsmart who is a huge Chewy fan. Or was. He may have lost one there. Anyway, anyone have any tips for nipping this in the bud? One person told me their dog went through that phase and grew out of it. Another said to tell people not to get him excited, but people already don't listen when we ask them not to let him jump on them. Any tips would be welcome.

Last in Chewy news, we bought him one of those cow hooves for chewing on. Holy dead cow foot, those things reek! Chewy looooooooves it. He hasn't been this focused on anything since his first pig's ear. It's fine if he's across the room, but believe me, you do not want a noseful. Thank goodness there are no holiday get-togethers at our house this year. I'd have to fumigate.