Mavis is now nine months old! She’s closing in on a year so fast that I almost want time to slow down. I’m also excited to see her become a dog, you know?
New Things
- Mavis graduated Adult Level II training classes with flying colors! She is now phased out of training at Petco because they don’t have any classes higher than Adult II, haha.
- She took her Canine Good Citizen Test and missed the mark on just one behavior, which was having a stranger touch her paws. This is important for therapy work (because people will be touching her if she’s a therapy dog!), so we are working really hard on paw touching before we re-take the CGC test.
- She’s going to be a big sister!
Hard Things
- She loves playing fetch with a ball, but if it rolls underneath something, you would think the world was ending. She whines, cries, scratches, and barks until she gets that ball back.
- When it’s cold out, she goes #2 on our back porch. Yuck.
- She still jumps on the couch from time to time (when Malcolm taunts her… he is a bad influence on her, ha!).
- I recently had to run into Walmart while Jimmy and I had Mavis in the car with us, so I left her in the car with Jimmy and he said her little body shook the entire time I was in the store because she missed me. Poor gal. I missed her just as much!
Mavis loves cuddling with her big sister! Also, they really love their raised bed.
Other Things
- I can’t wait for it to warm up in Pittsburgh so we can do more training outside!
- Mavis still hasn’t gone into heat. I think it’s normal for the first heat cycle to begin any time from six months to a year, so I expect it to happen soon.
- Her growth seems to have slowed down.
- She is still doing great with not being in a crate and not chewing things.
- She still gets along wonderfully with basically any dog she meets. She wants to play, play, play all the time.
- Sometimes I just look at her and just kiss her little face. She’s so cute and truly brings me so much joy!
Practicing the “leave it” command by waiting patiently before being allowed to figure out her puzzles!
Favorite Things
- Hol-ee Roller Ball
- Fruitables Treats
- Kong (with peanut butter!)
- Meal Dispensing Toy
- Dogwood Chew Stick
- Feeding Puzzles
- Homemade treats
There you have it, that’s Mavis at nine months! Our puppy is turning into a dog before our eyes! We love the dog she’s becoming and can’t wait to see her be a big sister in the fall!
Living My Full Life 
She is so sweet, and sassy at times!
Dad
🙂
Sassy doesn’t even begin to cover it half the time hahah!! As you know 😉 Love you, Dad! ❤
Hopefully Mavis gets better with paw touching soon! She seems like a great dog for therapy work. Can’t wait to see how she progresses with training for it 🙂
I hope so, too!! We just need to find some strangers to practice touching her paws. Jimmy and I keep joking about finding people and being like “Hi, will you touch our dog’s paws?!” haha.
Thank you for your encouragement with Mavis’ training! That means so much to us!!
Paw touching is so hard for some dogs! That’s a really really hard one for Oreo in particular. But she’ll get there! She has done so well with all of her training! There’s no doubt in my mind that with just a little more time she’ll be fine with the paw touching too. Also, I love that you mentioned her being a big sister! So excited for that too! ❤
Thank you for the encouragement, Rach!! That means so much! And YAY for Mavis being a big sis soon!! ❤
What a big girl! I’m so impressed with how seriously you guys take training your dogs. Mavis will be a great therapy dog. And she’ll be a great big sister to a “bald puppy”. (We think Kiki and Rue call Ava and Owen bald kittens. :))
Thank you, Amy!! That means a lot! And LOL at Mavis being a big sis to a bald puppy! I need to tell Jimmy that term. I’m cracking up right now!!