What crazy names do you call your pets?

This week’s theme for the Pet Photo Challenge is favorite. Anyone who has read this blog before knows there is one obvious choice for the word favorite – Sadie’s little squeaky soccer balls. As you can see, I frequently give in to the cute little puppy face and give Sadie a new favorite ball.

This post is part of 2016 Pet Photo Challenge hosted by Six Legs Are Better Than Two.

This post is also part of the Pet Parade blog hop hosted by Rascal and Rocco, Bionic Basil, Love Is Being Owned By a Husky, and M.K. Clinton.

Sadie and I are happily exhausted after a fun and busy holiday weekend. On Friday Sadie got to meet some new relatives, went to work at the office, spent time with an old friend, and saw her first fireworks. Sadie has heard fireworks before and is not bothered by loud noises, so I decided to bring her with me when a friend and I went to a good fireworks viewing spot. It went very well; the fireworks were pretty, Sadie was happy to be outside, and didn’t care at all about the noise. She was mostly confused about why my friend and I were staring at the sky for so long. On the Fourth Sadie spent the day at her first barbecue. She met lots of new people and got to explore a whole new backyard. She was a bit nervous around so many people, mostly hanging out around my feet, then suddenly got very friendly when the grilled chicken was brought to the table. On Sunday Sadie and I went to a brand new park, which involved quite a bit of hiking and frolicking through nature. Unfortunately that nature included a muddy stream, so we ended our holiday weekend in the bathtub.

This post is part of the Monday Mischief Pet Blog hop hosted by Snoopy’s Dog Blog, Alfie’s Blog, and My Brown Newfies.

Sadie encountered this giant wagon’s wheel on a recent walk we took near an old mansion. When I asked her to pose next to it for a photo, Sadie kept looking up at the wheel over her shoulder. I couldn’t help but smile at how cute and inquisitive Sadie was acting, as if she was trying to figure out what the heck you could do with a giant wheel.

This post is part of Nola and Sugar‘s Black and White Sunday blog hop.

When Sadie was a puppy, she would follow me everywhere. There was no such thing as privacy in my house. Of course that was to be expected with a new puppy and I enjoyed the constant companionship. There was just one problem – Sadie absolutely hated closed doors. As soon as she heard a door close, Sadie would go running to see who was trying to keep her out and why. She would cry and scratch at bathroom doors, bedroom doors, even closet doors. It was like she was afraid that if a door was closed, then she was missing something exciting on the other side.

During Sadie’s first few weeks in my family this door issue was especially difficult. You couldn’t go into the bathroom and close the door, because she would get upset. But you can’t leave a bathroom door open when there are other people in the house. So I tried taking her into the bathroom with me. But after a minute or two closed in the bathroom, Sadie would want to get out. It didn’t seem to matter which side of a closed door she was on, Sadie just didn’t want the door closed – period. If I was in the shower or bath and wouldn’t let Sadie out when she wanted, sometimes my stubborn little puppy would pee on the floor in protest. She could have just gone five minutes before and didn’t need to go at all, but she would make a little spot anyway, just to show her annoyance with me. Luckily she has grown out of that behavior, but I’m still trained to leave the door partially open just in case.

Another issue was Sadie’s whining, crying, and occasional scratching at closed doors. Right away I was able to convince her that scratching the doors was a bad idea – all it took was a consistent “No” every time she raised her paw to the door. But the whining and crying was more difficult. I wanted Sadie to know that she needs to make noise if she wants someone to open the door for her, but constant noise and complaining was not acceptable. I have found that is a very difficult distinction for my dog to understand.

On occasion I have been glad that Sadie will complain about a closed door, like when someone accidentally locks her out of my section of our office. But although she has grown out of crying at closed bathroom doors, Sadie still stubbornly whines and moans if a door is closed and she wants something or someone on the other side. Luckily she does not do this all the time, but only when she’s in a particularly stubborn mood. No matter how many times I tell her no, Sadie will fall asleep staring at that door, willing it to open. Sometimes I’m able to redirect her attention so that she forgets about begging the door to open. But it’s only temporary – she goes back to her whining and begging when the distraction is over, only giving up when it’s time for bed.

This post is part of Rascal and Rocco‘s Pet Parade blog hop.