dogs

Mavis at Nine Months

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?

Parti colored Cocker Spaniel puppy therapy dog in training harness on walk

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!
Black lab cuddling cocker spaniel puppy on raised dog bed

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!
Cocker spaniel puppy practicing leave it command with dog food puzzles

Practicing the “leave it” command by waiting patiently before being allowed to figure out her puzzles!

Favorite Things

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!

When Mavis and Lola are Away

Jimmy and Allie will play! Or just sleep in 🙂

My parents’ gave Jimmy and I a weekend off of our pups last weekend and it was so lovely! Sometimes we just need a break, you know? I find I’m a better fur mom after I’ve had some time away from our girls every now and then.

Plus, I know they had fun at their fur grandparents’ house!

Yellow lab and cocker spaniel cuddling together on couch

Mavis cuddling on the couch with my Reggie (my parents’ lab) and my Dad.

When my dad dropped the girls off on Monday morning he sheepishly said “Yeah… we spoiled them…” and left it at that, haha. Jimmy and I are fine with them being spoiled there, since they know the Zottola house rules when they come back home!

Jimmy and I were able to have a relaxed weekend. I had a pet sitting job for a family on vacation, Jimmy worked on our bed, and we watched the Olympics. I was even able to deep clean our kitchen. Let’s just say the dirty mop water from our kitchen was dark… really dark.

Here’s the progress on our bed. I think we just need to add the wood in now?!

Industrial steel bed frame

We’re really getting close to finishing! And by “we’re,” I totally mean Jimmy. I just cheer him on and keep his belly full of apple pie and rice pudding. When it comes to picking out, painting, or staining wood, I’ll be of more help!

Here’s us watching the Olympics on the couch with Malcolm snuggled in between us! I was totally ordering house supplies (toilet paper and peanut butter… the necessities of life) from Jet on my phone when Jimmy took this picture, haha.

Couple cuddling on the couch with cat in black and white

Remember how I mentioned that we bought a new quilt in my last post? I put it on our bed and we’re loving it! I think this will be a lot easier to clean than the white duvet cover we previously had.

The picture quality isn’t great since I snapped it with my phone, but I’ll do a more detailed post when I get out my DSLR and take some better pictures 🙂

Gray and blue master bedroom with bench and turquoise and grey throw pillows and hummingbird watercolor prints

See that bench? Malcolm has completely shredded it since we got it. I spent about 20 minutes cutting little pieces of loose threads off the sides of the bench earlier this week.

We made a new rule: no more pets in the bedroom. We’ll see how it goes. We’ve been able to stay strong for two nights and the pets haven’t protested too much, thankfully!

What did you do over the weekend?

Do you have any house rules with pets?