Teething, vets & photos

Last night I slept soundly for nearly 11 hours after puppy class! I was tired & had a full tummy. This morning I woke up full of beans & have been quite a handful today. One of the things I've been doing is trying to dig under the wire into the chicken enclosure because I want to play with them. Molly thinks I'm teething because I've been chewing lots of different things. As well as chewing the things I usually chew like shoes, the doormat, curtains, the carpet & rugs I've also started chewing wooden furniture such as the magazine rack (which now has teeth marks in it!) & wooden dining chairs. Oops! Molly has heard that frozen carrots are good for teething puppies & I love carrots but Molly is looking into alternatives because carrots give me bad wind. I had one last night & today people have been leaving the room when I fart!

Molly took these photos in one of my few sleepy/calm moments today.

This morning we had a routine visit to the vets. I had my last vaccination & Molly collected a worming & flea tablet to give me in a fortnight. I really like going to the vets because I get lots of attention & food & it's exciting to see different dogs. I was weighed (although lots of treats had to be used to keep me still on the scales) & I'm now 5kg! Apparently I'm in great shape.

While we were waiting to see the vet Molly was really impressed at how quiet & calm I was, despite all the other dogs & people.

But that didn't last & after we saw the vet (while Molly sorted some things out with the receptionist) I got very excited!

Molly asked the vet for some advice on clipping my nails because she knows the the technicalities of doing it but finds it quite a challenge to stop me wiggling & trying to chew the nail clippers. Molly looks like she's been in the wars from various accidents (I'm not vicious at all, just playful) with my teeth & nails! One of the vet's suggestions was to leave the nail clippers lying around so they're not such a novelty when it comes to clipping my nails. So Molly tried that today. I spent a while amusing myself playing with them - chewing them, carrying them round, growling at them...

We went for a little local walk again this evening but Molly chose a new route this time. I did good with sitting along the way & leaving rubbish alone but I did get excited when we saw other people & dogs. We met a drunk man (at 4pm, not a usual occurrence in our village) who scared me a bit, but I soon recovered. I was allowed to greet a labradoodle but I was a bit too playful for his liking. Molly tried to start teaching me that when I pull on the lead (which I do a lot with excitement) we don't go anywhere. We made very very slow progress because I didn't understand why she kept stopping! And as soon as we moved again I was eager to rush off but Molly made us stop again! Hmph!

Molly said I'm making really good progress with "down" & hopes that soon I'll be able to do it without being lured into position with a treat.

Molly struggles to take good photos of me sometimes because of my black fur & the fact that I don't often stay still! So today while I was asleep she had a fiddle with the settings on her camera & tried to photograph my back paws! She knows that this photo isn't great but it was just an experiment so she thought she'd share it anyway.

Then I decided to help her!

And here's another experimental photo that Molly took once I'd calmed down again.