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We have a pressboard barrier between the living room and the bedroom/bathroom area that has been there ever since we got the ferrets. One way we’ve been gauging Freyja’s growth is how tall she is compared to that barrier: When we got her, she could just barely peek over the top if she put her paws up on it. Now she can basically look over the top of it just sitting down.This morning while Jeremy took his shower, I was brushing my teeth and throwing a rope ball for Freyja, who kept bringing it back and dropping it over the barrier for me to throw again. After 5 or 6 repetitions of this, she came back without the ball, put her elbows over the barrier like she usually does to get a better view of what we’re doing, and then just leaned forward until she was able to slide her front paws to the ground and her back ones over the top of the barrier. No leaping or faceplants, like we were anticipating… just a big calm dog overcoming an obstacle and sauntering into the bedroom like she owns the place. None of our clothes and shoes are safe now… (gulp!)

We took Freyja to Minto Brown Park this morning for the first time. Minto has a leash-free dog park section, and we wanted her to interact with some other dogs. Sure enough, there were a ton of other dogs there running around playing. Freyja started out really well with her introductions, but unfortunately a pit bull and a boxer got into a pretty serious brawl right in front of her, and after that she was very cautious about interacting with other dogs. She seemed to do better one on one, or with dogs that were very calm. By the end, she had at least made friends with a lab mix.

After the excitement of the dog park, we took Freyja to another part of Minto Brown, where there is access to a lake. We wanted to see what she would think of the water. It didn’t take long to find out. After introducing herself to the other people that were there with a dog, she plunged right into the water and proceeded to leap to and fro ecstatically. She went in and out of the water several times, sometimes going out deep enough that she got to actually swim a little, and bouncing adorably all over the place in the shallows. I think it’s the happiest we have ever seen her. We played frisbee for a while afterwards to give Freyja a chance to dry off a bit, and then headed home with an exhausted and still damp, but very happy puppy. Below are a few pictures of the fun.

Freyja is 15 weeks old now, and she is doing great. We took her to the vet this morning for vaccines and she weighs 30 lbs. She’s had lots of good experiences in the past few weeks, and is growing fast and learning faster. We are definitely going to have to get her into some agility classes when she’s old enough: She loves playing on jungle gyms, going down slides, across bridges, through tunnels; she is attracted to stairs like a magnet, and is a champ going up and down stairs of all sizes and shapes and types. Jeremy’s also been working with her on going up and down short ramps and walking on top of low walls like the ones all around campus that get used as benches. We’re taking it slow, though, because we don’t want to damage her joints, so no jumping or sustained running, as far as we can manage.

Ears up again

Freyja has also started playing with us outside, which is a blessing, because she is getting too big to roughhouse with in our small rooms. She loves playing Frisbee, which right now consists of us tossing the Frisbee to each other, and Freyja running back and forth between us trying to grab it. It took her a while to get the hang of it, but she is starting to improve: She didn’t catch anything the first day, knocked a bunch out of the air and actually caught one the next day, and now she catches it at least five or six times every session. I was very impressed, especially since the weather has heated up and temps over 75F don’t seem to agree with her, poor furry puppy.

Right ear down again

We’ve been doing lots of training, and she is doing quite well. She’s getting quite reliable with sit; she knows down, but often needs a clear hand signal (thumping the floor) to do it. She is very familiar with no, off, out, leave it, and drop it, especially since she is tall enough now to see on top of many of our piling surfaces. (Yes, we’re pack-rats, and we tend to build up piles of stuff on all flat surfaces in our house. Freyja is doing her darndest to break us of that bad habit, and it’s starting to work.) We’ve been familiarizing her with directional commands also—left, right, straight, go around—and she is starting to get the hang of those too. Yesterday she was a big help when we were playing Frisbee in the backyard and Jeremy tossed it way back under our back porch or in the weeds on the side of the house; we pointed and guided her with directional commands, and she was able to fetch it and bring it back to us.

We’ve had some good experiences with other dogs as well. Freyja has several good buddies that she always wants to visit when we walk through the neighborhood: There’s Spike the Jack Russell, Bingo the terrier mix, Macho the basset hound, Kipper the yellow lab, the happy huskies (that’s what I call them since I don’t know their names), a friendly black mix that lives with two unfriendly Dachschunds, and now Layla the mastiff. We finally met Layla on an evening walk a few nights ago, having seen her inside her house and spoken with her owners. That night Layla was out in the yard with one of her owners, visiting with another (teeny tiny fluffy) dog named Mandy, who was not thrilled with the company. Layla and Freyja hit it off right away, although Freyja was just a little wary of the huge mastiff’s play solicitations. They ran all around the yard (Freyja managed to wrap her leash around everybody; Jeremy had his hands full) and had a good time. When we get a car, I think it will be really fun to take her to the dog park and let her interact more with other dogs, not to mention getting her into group classes.

They’re still up and down, but we are starting to see Freyja’s ears perking up together sometimes now. After seeing her all floppy for weeks, the upright ears almost make her look surprised, or airborne or something.

Chewing on a bird seed container that she loved to death in the space of a few hours. And look at that dark body!

I don’t think people will have trouble guessing her breed much anymore!

A few new pictures of our beautiful growing girl. Her right ear is really trying to stand up, but we haven’t been able to capture it in photos yet. No wonder it’s taking a while; her ears are as big as sails. Her topcoat continues to develop, and we’re starting to get a better idea of what she’s going to look like. I especially like the “spectacles” she’s got going around her eyes.

Well, our little puppy is 12 weeks old now. She went to the vet yesterday for another vaccination, and weighs 24 lbs now, double what she weighed when we first brought her home. Her top coat is starting to come in, so before too much longer, we’ll know what her coloring will be like as an adult. So far, most of the guard hairs are concentrated along her spine (I think you can see them pretty well in the picture at the bottom of the post), but we’re guessing she’ll look a lot like her mother, Briya. Speaking of which, Happy Mother’s Day, to all the mothers out there!

Freyja’s ears are still working on standing up. So far her left ear is doing pretty well, but as you can see, some days they’re down and some days they’re up. The photo above was taken last week; the one below was taken this morning.

Freyja is doing a great job with training. As long as she isn’t overexcited, she does a very good job sitting and staying, and sometimes even heeling. At the very least, she has learned that she needs to sit and stay before she gets fed. She is also doing a very good job learning no, off, drop it and leave it. That hasn’t stopped her from chewing on us sometimes, but we’re hopeful that the end is in sight.

The above picture is partially just to show how much bigger she is than when we first brought her home.

We may have discovered one of Freyja’s aptitudes in the past week or two. We found a little park in our neighborhood, with a field and some play equipment and the like. Jeremy has started taking her there during their early morning walks, and got her to climb up on some of the playground equipment when no children were around, just for the experience of going up stairs and over and under things. Now she really seems to look forward to playing on the equipment, and has even taken to the slides.

Jeremy had to go in front at first, but now she hardly needs encouragement, and runs right around to the stairs to go back up for another trip. We’re starting to think that agility training might be a really fun job for our Freyja to do, so we’re going to look into local agility clubs when she gets a bit older.

Freyja had a good third week with us. She had a vaccination last weekend and already weighed 16 pounds, so she is growing by leaps and bounds. She is definitely taller than she used to be, and can’t fit under the sofa anymore, though she is still running behind it.

Freyja’s fear period is pretty well behind her now: Though it still takes some coaxing to get her going on a walk, she does great after a block or two, and absolutely adores meeting new people (she is much more cautious with meeting new dogs). She’s visited both Bush Park and Willamette University now, and did just great on both occasions. This dog is still incredibly people-oriented. When we’re out and she sees someone in the distance, she sits down and watches until they go out of sight. If they walk right by us, she flings herself in their path by way of introduction—all wagging tail, wiggling body, licking tongue, happy whine—in an ecstacy of greeting. She hasn’t learned yet that not everyone wants to love her up, and is incredibly disappointed when we keep her from bounding over to someone who doesn’t seem interested in saying hello.

Freyja is still all mouth, and we’re working hard on the chewing issue, mostly meaning we have to watch her like a hawk to make sure she doesn’t chew on something she shouldn’t. We distract her with toys, but her attention span is only a minute or two, and then she’s off to eat something else, anything else, up to and including the fireplace bricks (don’t ask me, I don’t get it either). So that’s a work in progress. As you can see from the pictures, she also likes chewing on us. Poor Jeremy’s hands are covered with scratches because he’s her favorite, and we have to be careful what clothes we wear when we’re playing with her, because she likes catching us by grabbing our knees, and that leads to a lot of ripped fabric. Maybe she’s actually sharpening those little fangs on the fireplace!

Puppy-ferret relations continue. There have been no major incidents, though Ajax is not shy about grabbing Freyja’s paw or nose if she crowds in on his personal space. Jaxie’s main strategy, however, is to play “Snapping Turtle” in the mathom, as in the photo above; or, as Freyja calls that game, “Whack-a-Mole.”

Freyja continues to score well on the new toy front. We got her several more toys of different sorts last weekend, and are rotating through them so she doesn’t get bored. Ajax is also fond of many of her toys, so we’re constantly recovering dog toys from behind the sofa. I think her favorite new toy, though, is just a fresh ice cube. We offered her one after a walk on a warm day, and she absolutely loves crunching on them and pushing them all around the room.

It rained harder yesterday than it has since before we brought Freyja home. The pup has gotten more used to the rain, puddles, and to a lesser extent, the cold at night, but she had never seen Jeremy using an umbrella before. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get her to approach him with the umbrella open, and she bravely posed for a picture or two before retreating back to the safety of the porch. She’s definitely entered her fear period, but is still acting more confident than we thought she might at this age.

Freyja is 8 weeks old now, so she’s in her fear period and is no longer a fan of going on walks. Our yard, however, is a great source of fun, in more ways than one.

Sometimes we’re tempted to think we brought home a billygoat instead of a dog. The moment we take her outside to go potty, she starts eating moss, grass, twigs, leaves, and other yard debris, so we’re constantly pulling something out of her mouth. She’ll make gardeners of us yet. Below, she’s chewing on a piece of blackberry bramble, thorns and all, and doesn’t seem to mind a bit. Me? I got thorns imbedded in my fingers as soon as I tried to take it away from her.

Eventually, we’re hoping she’ll realize it’s more fun to play with us and her toys outside than it is to eat the yard. Right now, picking her up is about the only way to distract her. But we’ll keep at it (we won’t be able to pick her up much longer, after all!)

Freyja wasn’t particularly interested in toys for the first day or two after we brought her home, but as soon as she found her confidence, it was all play all the time (until naptime, at least). So here are some pics of her playing with some of her toys.

This mini-tennis ball is actually one we got for the ferrets. They were not particularly interested in it, but Freyja has loved it ever since she found it in the stash. It’s a bit small, so we’re watching her closely to make sure she doesn’t swallow it, but I think she’ll be safe to play with it for another week or two at least, and she is certainly making the most of it.

The towel is one we keep draped over the “ferret fort,” a carpet-covered cat tower that we got for the fuzzies to climb inside and dig at. They love having the towel there because it makes the interior more cave-like, and the dangling ends make for some fun play. Freyja can’t fit inside the fort, but she loves the towel.

The one toy we haven’t gotten a good shot of yet, oddly, is her favorite: a rope toy with fraying knotted ends and an attached pig’s ear. Puppy fun on so many levels.