Learning . . .

Charlotte is getting better at being able to restrain herself.

It used to be there was no chance of stopping her from going out into the garage unless we actually were able to grab her as we opened the door.  Now, sometimes we can tell her no and she'll stop in her tracks.  She still will zip out there if she really is set on going, but ... it's better than it was.

She's also gotten good about not biting.  It started with her backing off from biting me, then she got better with Tom.  Now, at worst, she leaves a minor red dot with her teeth.  More often than not she opens her mouth but doesn't touch us.

She knows the word "jingle" - it means she needs to ring the bell on the pantry door to ask for her kibble.  Sometimes she jingles at times of day we don't want to give it to her.

She's learning the term "chin up" - it means she needs to put her paws on the handle to the freezer (bottom drawer-type freezer).

Her favorite word - "crunchies".  Temptations treats.  That word will bring her running from the garage when nothing else works.  The first thing she learned to do to "earn" her crunchies was to sit.  She'll even do it for other people.

Over the summer we'll see what else we can teach her.  I plan to build her a climbing post and some tunnels from the moving boxes.  It will give her a place to burn some of her energy, and when we get the puppy, she'll have some escape areas.