Chorney Update

Chornaya is 13 weeks old now, and I can't believe how tall she is. Every day I come home and think, "you've grown another inch!" Her paws aren't super huge either, so I suspect that her poodle genes may be strong when it comes to her body-shape. That's cool, a tall and lanky dog would be a nice change after shaped-like-a-brick Nesbitt. And maybe that means that her poodle genes will also shine through when it comes to non-sheddiness!

We've been working with Chorney on sit and stay and she's doing pretty well, for a little puppy. We'll definitely need to hit the obedience school thing hard come this fall, but at least our early training is going reasonably well.

She has a lot of energy. A lot. I have no idea how to illustrate for you the abundance of puppy energy that courses through our home. We take her on walks and play in the back yard, but it's still not enough. Oh dear, I'm just realizing that perhaps she will prompt us to get off of our butts and actually exercise, if only just to work off a small portion of her exuberance.

Here is an example of puppy energy: If we're watching a movie, she will plummit down the stairs and leap, full speed, onto the Lovesac - the Lovesac we're lying on! And this is no small feat - look at her size in relation to the Lovesac! Between the toddler and the puppy, I have resigned myself to several more years until I can sit and watch a movie in its entirety. It's just not going to happen any time soon. It's a price I'm more than willing to pay.

Oh, and she's a chewer. We knew that the labradore genes would probably produce an orally fixated dog and she is not disappointing us on this front. We survived Nesbitt's chewy years, so I think we'll make it through Chorney's, but it certainly doesn't help that our house is full of trashy little plastic toys that look like dog toys. Sometimes I'm secretly happy when she destroys McDonald's toy number 497,000 because it means I get to throw it away. Shhh, don't tell the kids.

I'm collecting photos for a "Chornaya the Destroyer" post, so stay tuned for that upcoming treasure.

Overall, our first month with Chorney has really been fun. The kids are amazing with her and, despite all of the scratches she's received, Sasha is still jubilant every time she sees Chornaya. For her part, Chorney has reacted really well to all of the "love" she receives from the kids and is shaping up to be a really great dog. It's kind of crazy to think that we'll still have Chorney when Sam graduates from high school. Woah.