Howling

Another landmark that my baby is growing up. Yesterday Greg left the house with Cupcake to feed the horse. Sunny came running to me whining, wanting to go with them. She ran to the window and back a couple of times, whining when she got to me. Knowing wolves howl when they are first separated, I howled to her. She whined more and yipped like a wolf cub (not the first time she's done this), then to my surprise broke into a full-throated howl. Skye had the most amazing musical wolfie howl, so it was fun to see that Sunny has it in her genes too.

7 Months Old

In the past couple of weeks Sunny has graduated from her intermediate obedience (as a star pupil!). I was happy that she did so well, calm around the other dogs, patient throughout class and the best one there in all around obedience (at least in my opinion!). We are continuing to work on our own on down-stays, and other behaviors she has a foundation in, but always a work in progress (like not jumping up).

She also got to go to her first therapy dog play day May 11th. It was her first play day with big dogs and her first try at the agility course. During play time my heart was in my mouth when they ran and cut flat out! - especially as she had her first boo boo playing too rough with Cupcake just the weekend before and had a sore right leg for the rest of the morning (play between them has been toned down a lot by me now). I don't have any agility goals for Sunny and don't really want her jumping, but it was a fun new thing to do for both of us.
Also this week was the first time I am having her dog walker take her out of the kennel mid-day for her walk, then leave her loose in the house/yard until I get home in the evening. The first few days were perfect, but yesterday she must have had a burst of energy and played a bit with a runner rug and some rag towels, but otherwise is very good for 7 months old. I feel I'm pushing the limits a bit and would rather progress her more slowly, but now that heat and thunderstorm season is here I sure feel better if she is good enough to have the freedom to go inside.

At 7 months old she was only 24" at the shoulder and 65 lbs, a little small for her age for an Acer daughter, and seems so small compared to Skye as an adult, but think she may grow slowly over a longer period of time, which is probably better in the long run anyway.