Our silly dog.

Chalcy is eight months old now, and we've had her for about six and a half months.

We still like her.

During November and December she went through a naughty, uncooperative phase (where she just plain ignored us when we would ask her to do things). It was also a very, very slobbery phase. I started calling her "Madame Slobber-Face," which makes J laugh every time.

This month, just like magic, it seems we have our sweet old puppy back--Chalce is starting to slow down (just a tiny bit), she is back to being more obedient, and she is learning to lick her lips* when she is drooly, instead of swinging pendulous slobber all over everything.

Here are some things Chalcy enjoys doing:

Chalcy loves to play fetch. She nudges her slobbery toys into our hands and laps because she wants us to throw them for her. Again! Again! Again!

Chalcy likes chasing her tail. Sometimes she cheats by leaning her bum on the couch so that her tail can't escape! And then she just chews on her tail. Other times, after she's caught her tail enough she'll go after her back left paw. And she'll chew on that while she hops in circles.

Chalcy likes to defend us against unusual objects. This morning we have a drill out on the floor and Chalcy is barking at it. She's not a barker, but she knows when she needs to protect us. Dogs have instincts for that sort of thing, of course. We got a new (to us) washer like a month ago and Chalcy bark-bark-barked at the dolly J used to move the washer into our house.

We have chicks** again, and Chalcy loves them. They are in our office, because they don't have all of their feathers yet and it's too cold to put them outside. Every day, Chalcy spends most of her time laying in front of the chicks, just watching them. Sometimes she tries to get a little too friendly (by putting her mouth all over a chick), and then Chalcy has to kennel up as a punishment, so she's learning not to do that. Usually she takes one of her toys into the office and lays down to chew on her toy while she watches the birds. [Please ignore the pre-organized state of my office in this picture.]


Chalcy also likes to be with us. She is such cuddly dog. We stopped allowing Chalcy on the couch*** but she is so tall that she can sit on the couch without being on it. Her paws are all on the floor, so how can I complain? Clearly, she's already "off." It makes me laugh.


Last night, we had a trial run of letting Chalcy sleep outside her kennel. We put a couple towels down on our bedroom floor. We don't have a dog bed yet and we wanted her to know that it was her spot to be. We're not worried about her having accidents inside; she's totally housebroken. We just worry about her bothering stuff: getting into the trash, stealing things, getting too friendly with the chickens, etc. We closed the door to our room and picked up our phone chargers so that they weren't tempting her. Success! She came to the side of the bed to say hello a couple times last night, but she didn't bother anything at all. Way to go, Big Dog!




* Do dogs have lips? Well, she licks the edge of her mouth. (Best. Trick. Ever!)
** We have one black chick (half Australorp, half White Leghorn) and one yellow chick (supposedly Araucana, but I don't think it actually is) and we got them when we got chickens for J's mom.
*** Most of the time, which means we're breaking the Big Important Rule of having dogs, which is: "Be Consistent About Enforcing The Rules."