Raelyn at 4 months

Raelyn has some how made it to 4 months without driving us completely batty. She continues to be super smart and a fast learner. She impresses everyone in public, at meetings, and her puppy sitters with her calm demeanor and good behavior. Ha! Boy, does she have them fooled! Just kidding. She is overall doing extremely well and we are happy to have her around.

We just went for her 16 week shots and vet visit. She is about 30 lbs and a bit under weight, so we are increasing her food to 4C a day, but now only feeding breakfast and dinner. No more lunch. The vet said she is looking good and things are going well. There are a few things to keep an eye on, like her teary eye and dirty ear, but other than that she is great.

4 month update:
- She knows all of her commands (Sit, Down, Stand, Come, Go to Bed, Wait, Stay) and performs them perfectly whenever food or a fun tug play toy is around. She normally follows commands pretty well, but if you have something she wants then she follows directions much more promptly. She likes getting verbal praise, but not that much.

-She is eager to please when you have something she wants.

-She is impatient and gets easily frustrated. If there is kibble stuffed in a kong that she can't get out, instead of chewing and chewing to try to get it out she gives up after she realizes she can't get it and leaves it. Sometimes she will whine in frustration, but then quiet down.

-She is WHINY as all get out. She stopped doing her crazy whiny/barking fits and now has just gone back to being whiny.

-She has pooped on the kitchen floor twice in the past few days! Not a good puppy. So she has been back in her crate most of the day and we only let her run free around the house when we are closely monitoring her. We'll eventually graduate up to the tie down, but we are still working on the crate behavior.

- She okay with being in the crate now. She doesn't flip out at all. Just whiny if you leave the room.

-She may have slight separation anxiety as she whines and gets frustrated when you leave the room and you are far away from her. We are working on this and it seems to be getting better.

-She LOVES to play with thick plastic jugs. She will pick them up, run around with them, drop them, try to pounce on them, chase them, and generally go crazy. Super funny to watch.

-She lost her first 4 puppy teeth.

-She is great out in public. She doesn't pay much attention to people walking by if they don't approach her. She is quiet and calm, for the most part. She won't relieve on outings unless she really, really has to go.

-She likes riding in the car and looking out the windows. She stopped trying to climb onto the backseat, so she will just sit like a good girl on the floor of the backseat and stare out the window or stick her head between the seats to see what you are doing.

She has her issues, but she is a lot of fun and is a good puppy.