An 18 Months Old Adolescent

Gosh! I cannot believe it is so long since I wrote anything. I’ve been very busy though, chasing pigeons away from our back garden, barking at cats who dare to walk past the front of our house and generally making sure any would be burglars know that I’m around, whenever I hear a strange sound outside. Mum doesn’t seem to like it though. I can’t think why.

Mum says I’m a madam and a spoiled brat!

Well, it’s not very fair that she doesn’t play with me all day. She keeps sitting at her computer “working” (so she says). I keep taking my toys to her and I plonk them on her laptop so she will play with me instead, but she doesn’t like it, so she shuts me out of the sitting room and makes me stay in the kitchen behind the gate. I can still see her, and she’s only a few feet away, but I want to be in there with her.

I have a nap for an hour or so, but then I want to play with Mum again so I start to create mayhem. I have a very annoying yap, which I’ve been practicing a lot. It’s not like a proper German Shepherd bark, more like a puppy yap. I keep on and on yapping until she finally gets up and puts me out for a tiddle. I don’t usually need one, but I do one, just to shut her up. Then she gives me a bikkie or two, shuts me in the kitchen again and goes back to her work. 😦

Of course, placating me with bikkies doesn’t work for long. I’m soon bored, so I start yapping again. Mum keeps ignoring me, so the next thing I do is start chewing the corner of her kitchen rug, or I throw her kitchen towel around. That soon gets her attention! She gets mad then and makes me go into my room and she shuts the gate. 😦

Anyway, eventually Mum finishes “working” and takes some notice of me. We have a bit of a play in my run on fine days, or under the dog run cover when it’s raining. Then we only play tug’o’war cos it’s not big enough for me to chase a ball around.

I am very good while Mum is cooking cos she gives me scraps of what she is preparing, then after she’s had her food I get to lick the plate and the pans. She says that cuts down on the washing up, but I notice that she washes everything very carefully afterwards anyway. I’m good while she is vacuuming too. I hate the noise, so I go and lie in a corner as far away from the vacuum cleaner as I can get.

I try to help when Mum goes and does things in her garden. I prune her plants that are sticking through the trellis to my run, while she’s weeding or pruning. Mum’s never very grateful though.

Mum says I need more socialising because I’m not very good on my walks when we see another dog or a cat, so Mum quite often takes me in the car somewhere where she knows we can avoid other dogs if she sees any. I don’t think there are any cats there either. When we are there we practice our training, and I’m always very good.

I’m not so good in training class though because there are lots of other dogs there and I get very excited. One week there were only two of us in class and I was good as gold, Mum said. Mum makes me stay on after our class so I can get used to and watch all the other more advanced dogs. She’s hoping I will learn how to behave by watching them.

There is another older GSD that lives near us and Mum and I went for a walk with him and his mum, but it took me a long time to calm down and walk properly. I was the same when I met my OE sheepdog friend Mollie and her poodle mate Abbott. We all walked up and down the leafy lane for half an hour, but I was still being stroppy even after that.

Ah well… I’d better get on with annoying Mum now, she’s had enough peace and quiet 😉