Raelyn at 5 months

Well Raelyn has made it to 5 months already! It is crazy how fast the time has gone by, but she has been a part of our family for 3 months now. Raelyn is doing amazing. She has made so much progress since she was 4 months.

Her biggest achievement is that she is now allowed to walk around our large common room without being on a tie down or in the crate! She doesn't chew on anything, she doesn't try to play with kitty toys, and she is very calm and well-behaved. However, she is not allowed to go in the kitchen still because she sometimes confuses that with her potty place, so she is still learning not to do that. We just keep the kitchen blocked off while she is loose and are trying to get her to realize that the kitchen isn't a place to go potty by playing with her and feeding her there.

Another one of her big achievements is that we take her to restaurants now! We were a little afraid at first, so we waited since she was so fidgety and had trouble calming down. We finally bit the bullet and tried it and she did fantastic! She will walk in and sit down under the table and lay down and then stay there. She will either sleep or just watch people as they walk by. She is interested in food on the floor, but doesn't try very hard to get it and she gives up and ignores it after a while. Yay puppy!

She is super friendly and wants everyone to pet her. She doesn't have any problems being poked and prodded by strangers big or small. A little boy behind us in line was enamored by Raelyn and kept petting her and playing with her paws and Raelyn didn't care one bit. Raelyn loves being puppy handled and will let anyone turn her over and pet her belly. So cute!

Now that she is 5 months, she has graduated from her weekly Baby Puppy Meetings. She will definitely miss them as now she won't get to see her friends as often. Raelyn is really excited about other dogs and thinks they are all her friends who want to wrestle with her. Crazy dog. She does okay if she just walks by, but if you let her greet and meet the other dog then she will get all excited and try to jump on them. She really wanted to wrestle with the life-sized plastic dog at Old Navy the other day. Needless to say, that dog wasn't very interested in playing, but Raelyn didn't care!

Raelyn loves to play around the house and will tire herself out quite easily. She loves to play with her jolly ball, ice cubes, a kong with a rope through it, and her ultimate favorite toy: thick plastic bottles/jugs.

She has been growing like a weed, but has finally seemed to slow down. She weighs about 38 lbs and is about 20 inches tall at the shoulders.

She is doing great and is a fun puppy to have around. She is very well-behaved and has great manners. She doesn't bark. She still whines when she is in her crate and she doesn't want to be, but that isn't too often and she will calm down after a bit. She relieves on command, but will still go when she wants to go if given the opportunity. As long as she figures out she has to hold it and cannot go in the house, we will be okay, but that is slow going. The silly puppy whines to be let out of her crate, but not to be let out to go potty. She just sits there quietly by the door and if we don't pay close enough attention, she'll just go pee. Argh! We'll eventually figure it out.

All is well and we are looking forward to Raelyn's next month! :)