What a pill!

Some days he's 90% sweet little, well not so little at 40+ pounds, puppy and other days ... well, let's call those times his "terrible twos times".  This morning was one of those terrible twos times.

First he had to pee & poop at 4:30am.  Then he had to pee & poop at 7:45am.  Then again ...  It's not something we can deny him, but he was just starting to make it through the night.  And the difference is that at night he whimpers, and escalates if he must.  During the day, once anyone is up, he starts with a loud, sharp bark and repeats it every 2 seconds until he gets what he want (or needs) or is distracted.  No whimper, no whine, just straight to the bark.  And we never know for sure if he's asking to go out, asking for a snack, asking us to play, asking for water, etc.  So we try to guess what the big problem is this time.

Then, just after Tom showered, the "fun" began.  First, he grabbed Tom's socks to chew on.  It's not the first time he's gotten a pair of socks.  Tom sat them on the couch "just for a minute" and Marley grabbed them and ran.  They were still rolled up in a ball.

He's learned socks and such are high value targets and will run, duck and weave to elude us as we try to get them back from him.  Next it was Tom's knit cap.  Not the first time for the cap, either   But it was the first time he got up (front feet?  all the way up?) on the couch and grabbed something that was in a magazine box on the drop-down table in the center of the couch.  Another animal cracker.

If we offer a high-enough value treat he'll "allow" a trade, but he's often scheming on how he can get the treat without actually giving up the booty.  Animal crackers are different enough they worked this morning.  Twice.  Barely.  The second time he tried to get the cookie without letting go of the cap.  Luckily, with all the "Trade" we've been playing, and his food driven mind, it wasn't too hard to pry him open and retrieve the hat.

Next ... was that a dryer sheet?  He's gotten them when they came out of the dryer with the clothes and fell off a piece of laundry.  No, it was a wrapped caramel from the table in the center of the couch!  Stolen!  Again he violated our space.  He'd been good about things on that table through yesterday.  Once we trapped him ... actually, he was scooting under the bed thinking it was a safe haven when I grabbed his back leg and dragged him back out.  Not only was it a wrapped caramel, it was a chocolate caramel.  OK.  Thins should settle now, right?  Of course not!

Next thing I knew he had his front feet on the edge of the couch's center console (table), eating the kibble out of the little bowl there.  This was kibble set there for the Trade game.  This was the first time he'd gone up there like that.  So I hollered at him, then cleared all edible (or seemingly edible to him) items off that table. 

He's getting to where he can reach higher and higher ... nothing much is truly safe, but all in all he really has been good about not reaching things.  Except socks and knit hats ...  I don't think they'll ever be safe.