Izzy...Izzy...Izzy

I used to watch those commercials where an entire family is chasing a puppy around the house to get a slipper or whatever away from it. I think they were usually for insurance companies. I always thought that it was amazing that they could train a puppy so young to do that.

Hah! As if they need training.

Just put anything within her reach and Izzy will snatch it away. She can do it with amazing speed and stealth. I will set my gloves down and before I can even sit down to put my shoes on, she has gotten one of them and is running away. Then, the only thing is to ‘trade up’ by swapping a treat for the glove or whatever item she happens to have. Manipulative little bitch. Her favorites are the pot holder of mine and Paul's slippers. It occurred to me this morning that the latter could be put to good use if we actually trained her to get Paul's slippers. She's more than half-way there!!

It has really, really been raining here for the past couple weeks. Also, since Paul is still in major recovery from surgery on three rotator tendons and a bicep muscle and has been sleeping in a stress-less chair downstairs so as not to roll over and rip his stitches out, there are blankets on the living room floor. Izzy has taken to coming in after our runs and drying off by rolling all over in the blankets. I have already dried her off once, mind you, so it isn’t getting soaked or anything. But she is so damn cute doing it. Sometimes I will put her in her pen so that I can work out on the water rower without her trying to jump on me and there she will roll around on her blankets and stuffed animals.

She still puts her paws up on the kitchen counters and will grab anything within her reach. I am not a good trainer. I tell her to get down and she gets down and proceeds to jump up somewhere else.

Since it’s raining a lot she is inside and loose in the house. This means that as I am trying to do anything such as draw or type this, for instance, she is on the bed behind me barking at me to entertain her. She still has a high-pitched puppy bark that goes through my ears like a poker, too. I have heard ‘real barks’ come out of her when she is scared and trying to sound big and tough, but at home when she’s playing, it is all the loud puppy. She won’t do this forever, eventually she calms down and will settle for chewing on one of her toys, but sometimes it takes a long time. Then, when she is finally asleep, I try to be very quiet and not move so that she doesn't wake up. THEN, of course, Paul comes in for a ‘puppy break’ and wakes her up just long enough for her to get crazy again.

AND…she still bites at me. She just did it, for instance, because I let her in from the rain. I think she does it when she’s really geared up. So, I make her go into her pen and she barks and whines. Drives me crazy either way.

I can’t wait until she’s three years old!!!