Today's Exciting Newses

Or perhaps not that exciting.

• Jake came outside while the puppy was offleash and stayed outside, puttering around the yard. Also, at breakfast, when I set his food bowl down and released him, Boost swooped in and shoved her face into his bowl. He looked very startled but didn't tear her head off. What a good boy!
• Puppy played with Tika this morning rather than acting worried; ran a mad game of catch-me back and forth around the yard, mostly *behind* the shrubbery along the long fence, with Tika racing back and forth outside, then perhaps through a tunnel or two (with Tika racing to the other end to catch her there), and so on until they were both panting quite thoroughly. Tika is being *so* good about this puppy.
• Puppy peed in her crate for the first time and it's my fault. I feel so bad about that. Boost was napping soundly and I thought I could sneak outside and have a nice game of fetch with the older dogs. She started sounding off with very loud yaps, barks, and squeals, and I figured she could just learn to deal with being in a crate while I did stuff with the other dogs. When I came back in eventually to let her out--what a mess! Poor puppy.
• Stopped by a friend's house to borrow a slightly larger plastic crate. Now she can fully sit up in the crate and lie down stretched out. Whew! Friend, who is a dog trainer and dog rescuer and does a work with the humane society, too, I believe, so knows quite a bit, says to expect the puppy to double in size between 3 months and 4 months. Holy cow--
• Boost's name recognition is already excellent, as long as she's not watching Tika race around the yard, in which case I'm irrelevant.
• Puppy is learning that the sitting position gets you lots of good things--and I never showed it to her, just waited for her to do it in a few situations and rewarded. I hope this keeps expanding.
• I'm tired.