Miss Maple

Miss Maple is having a blog written about her. I thought after three of my own dogs and hundreds of clients dogs I had pretty much seen it all when it came to loopy puppies but, as one of my dear friends succinctly put it, ‘I think she’s got a screw loose’.

She was naughty even in the litter. Attention seeking, noisy, constantly on the go and always wanting to win the toys! Unfortunately when she moved in with is she came upon the immovable force that is Teasel the beagle. The strongest bitch you’re ever likely to meet who can stop a dog running at her with a single stare. There is no nastiness in her, she just truly believes that she rules the world. Maple soon learnt that Teasel was in charge which meant the household very quickly settled with the new pup.

The boys, Spider and Skiffle, just adored her (when she wasn’t trying to bite chunks out of them) and the three of them were soon enjoying playing and cuddling up together.

We had to very quickly teach her that leaping up to bite our arms was not an appropriate greeting as we were starting to get through quite a lot of clothing due to the shark like teeth. The toy plan worked great for this.

Other than the biting our other main issue was her complete lack of bladder control. She actually house trained really quickly and learnt to ask when she needed to go out. The problem was she would need to go quite often and the moment she got nervous or excited she would just lose control. We also had a couple of months of having to let her out at night. Again she was really good and would go straight out and straight back to bed but it was still very tiring.

Theses first months were spent just trying to get a dog we could live with. She was, and still is, a bizarre mix of nervous and brave at the same time. She is scared of anything new, and I mean anything. Curtains of a different colour, a fallen tree branch on our usual walk, a fire extinguisher. We had a moment the other day with an electrical plug swinging on it’s wire. Terrifying. But at the same time she is willing to face her fears. As long as I take a moment to say ‘ honestly Maple it’s fine’ she will gradually come in and sniff and realise there is nothing to worry about. Shake herself down and carry on. We are slowly reducing the list of things she has not been exposed to by taking her everywhere with us. Buses; trains; fairgrounds; town centres; dog friendly shops; parks and countryside; pubs and restaurants, and as such she is becoming much more relaxed when we are out and about!

So this is going to be the story of how we transformed that bitey, piddly puppy into an over excitable, loving dog and hopefully beyond.