Chew on this

First published in Norwegian on 7 April.

We knew, of course, that puppies like to chew things, so we prepared ourselves with an array of chewy toys before we got Edward home. They have had varying degrees of success. The chewy bones are undoubtedly his favourite. He can lie quietly gnawing on them for hours, and he looks like he is enjoying himself thoroughly. What he seems to like best, is to lie under the kitchen table and chomp away while we are eating.

FAVOURITE TOY. Edward is never far away from his chewy bone.

Sometimes he plays very aggressively with his chewy bone. He takes on a very fierce look, growls and woofs and gives it a proper thrashing. Evidently, his blanket needs a good talking to every now and then as well, and it is violently shaken, before he lies down to chew on it.

SHAKE IT. That blanket has obviously been misbehaving and Eddie is telling it off.

Rugs and towels are popular toys for tug of war, which seems to be very fun. We got the advice that we must never let the puppy win in such games because he could interpret that as having a dominant role in the family. We have to admit we are unsure of these things, but still we make sure we always win. Edward seems to love the game anyway.

THE CHEWY ROPE is another popular toy.

If he tries to chew on something he isn’t allowed to play with, we quickly offer him an alternative, and his attention is easily diverted. Sometimes when he plays with us, it gets a bit out of control, and he will try to bite us or chew on our fingers. If he is too excited a “No” doesn’t have much effect. We grab him around his nose and tell him off, but perhaps not hard enough, because he’ll try again until we ignore him. Perhaps we just ought to stop the game as soon as he starts with this sort of thing?

He also has a tendency to piddle a little bit when he gets very excited, but he has become fairly good at going outside, even though there will be a couple of accidents every day. He pees on the floor if it has been too long since the last time he was out, so it is really up to us to take him out more often. We have put out some newspapers on the floor, but unfortunately he doesn’t go on them, so the mop gets more use than normal these days.

CHEAP TOY. Toilet roll cores make good toys.

Edward seems to think that anything can be played with. Paper is incredibly fun and toilet roll cores are great. That was actually his idea. He just went into the bathroom and helped himself to one lying on the floor.

Today he has learned to shake hands. The problem now is that he sits and gives his paw before we ask him for it. We have to remember to say the command anyway, so that he learns to connect the words to the action.

BYE BYE! That was today’s report from me.