Such a good girl – what a difference a year makes

Can any of you lovely Blippers remember what I used to do when I was a weeny, teeny little puppy and Ann left me 'home alone', or when I got bored overnight when I was supposed to be sleeping?........................ I chewed walls and skirting boards!!! My bed was in my crate and my crate was in the kitchen area with a dog gate between the kitchen/living room. After a few months Ann stopped shutting me in my crate, mainly because my crate took up a lot of room and Ann wanted to train me to sleep in my own little bed and not be locked in my crate.

A lot of people said that I should just be locked in my crate to stop me from chewing but do you know what?.......................... because I'd already chewed the kitchen walls, Ann decided to persevere with trying to train me to become a perfect pooch. After all if I was shut in my crate every time Ann went out how would I learn not to chew when I wasn't in my crate?  Spraying the walls with anti dog chewing spray didn't work!!!!

Long story short! A few weeks into lock down, Ann suddenly realised that I'd stopped chewing. Yay!  Unfortunately asking our very lovely handyman to come out and re-plaster the walls that I'd chewed probably wouldn't have been considered to be an 'essential' job. …............And then we heard that our very lovely handyman had had a heart attack and passed away whilst doing an 'essential' job and no one was allowed to go to his funeral?!! So now we still have walls that need re-plastering and a few other little jobs that need doing. Do any of you lovely Edinburgh Blippers have any recommendations for a general handyman?

Today Ann went out twice and left me home alone. Now I'm such a good girl when Ann goes out. All she has to say is, 'Trixie, I'm going out. Please go into your bed'. And I immediately go into the kitchen area and lie in my bed. And then she fills my squeaky snake with a few treats and after I've eaten them I just have snooze time until she comes home. My crate is long gone from the house. It just stays in the car now so that I'm safe when we go off on our travels.

When I was a weeny, teeny little puppy, Ann's main problems were toilet training me and trying to stop me chewing walls. I'm a 'perfect pooch' with regard to those two things.

Unfortunately Ann still hasn't completely solved my 'jumping up' issues??!! I'm no where near as bad as I used to be. Sometimes we can go a whole week without me 'jumping up' at random people. And then, (like two days ago), for reasons unknown to my human, I just 'jump up' at a random person. If the 'random person' is a dog owner, it's usually OK. If the random person isn't a dog lover then it's not OK because they tend to give Ann a mouthful of abuse. And to be honest Ann can accept that because 'jumping up at random people' is most definitely not acceptable behaviour and at the end of the day, Ann needs to be in control of me.

#lifewithapuppyisnoteasy #thistimenextyear