On Sunday we celebrated our first month of being Poppy’s owners. She, and, we have come a long way! Poppy is much more settled in the house & is gaining in confidence about the place. For example, earlier on in the week, she discovered the bin in the bathroom. It has a swing lid, which she poked with her nose. When it swung back at her, it made her jump & bark! This continued until she pulled the bin over & ate part of a wrapper from a bar of soap. Tasty eh? Last night, she found the bar of soap, tried to eat it, barked at it when we moved it out of her reach & then cried when we shut her out of the bathroom. All because the lady loves the taste of soap!
Here are a few of my favourite pics of Poppy:
We were just about to go for our evening walk. As I switch everything off & move out of my study for the day, Poppy is learning the signs of when it’s time to head to the park! She’s pretty well behaved during the getting ready process, she’s quite happy to sit & wait while we get shoes, coats, treats, poo bags etc!
This was after one of evening walks this week, when the weather has been so much warmer. Because Poppy’s on lead behaviour can be quite frantic, she wears herself out quite easily. And don’t forget, she’s only got little legs… well, little front legs at least!
I love this picture of one of Poppy’s giant paws! Poppy isn’t the easiest dog to photograph because as soon as you move to get the better camera or to get into a better position, she’s all over you! She doesn’t want to miss out on anything! So if you want a picture, you have to be quick.
These are some of the things I’ve learnt about Poppy this week:
- While her hatred for pigeons seems to have calmed down a bit, her loathing of squirrels has increased. Poppy will go crazy when she sees a squirrel – so much so that she’ll stand on her hind legs, scrabbling away at the tree, trying to climb it to get the pesky squirrel!
- Poppy has weird tastebuds. Recently she’s been eating dandelions from the garden. While we’re doing up our garden, it’s fair to say that we’ve been a bit lax on weeding the borders. Fortunately, we now have Poppy who is eating the heads off the dandelions. Never known a dog to do this! Her love of used chewing gum is increasing so much so that she’ll try & pry it off the pavement, no matter how old it is! She also managed to eat some of the suet bird food over the weekend. Gross!
- Poppy likes to chase butterflies. There was a really cute moment on Saturday when we were all in the garden, with the warm sun on our backs, when a butterfly danced across the garden. Poppy then proceeded to dance across the garden too, chasing the butterfly! So very cute!
- Her distrust of the ironing board has also increased, so much so that when I put it up she runs out of the room!
- Poppy is very stubborn. If she wants to stay on the sofa when you want her to get down, she takes a long time to give in. If she wants to try & nudge open the food recycle bin, then trying to get her away from it is really difficult. It’s almost like she has selective hearing & you have to get her attention first before she’ll even acknowledge that you’re there!
We’ve also had a firsts this week, not all good! Firstly, we had a few night time accidents. We’re not quite sure why, it certainly wasn’t because we had mammoth lie-ins or anything! I wish! Over the last few days we’ve been getting up a bit earlier and that seems to have settled things a bit. Poppy was also sick in the house the other morning. (So grateful we have wooden floors!) Both my OH & I heard a strange noise, both of us assumed it was the other, then came the shout ‘Poppy’s been sick!’ Well, now we know what to look out for!
In other positive news, Poppy has really nailed the stay command this week. I got her to sit & stay on the mat at the back door, while I walked to the front door. She stayed where she was until I moved to give her a treat! This is great news & I think we’re ready to try it out in the garden where there are more distractions. We’re still working on play and a few other commands, but I’ll be sure to update you!
We took Poppy to visit my OH’s family on Saturday & she was really well behaved. She didn’t bark or get frustrated, and pretty much did what she was told. Good girl Poppy! It’s fair to say that we’re proud parents!