I took a sick day today, have been tired for a few days now, not seeming to be able to get enough sleep. Combine that with a sore throat, headache and more nerve pain than normal and I called in sick (first time in almost a year, I am still very amazed). And I’m not the only one, Faye is still a bit down as well. The growing pain is quite severe and it’s noticeable immediately when we do something. Some say just up her dose and make sure she doesn’t feel the pain. Sounds like a perfect plan, were it not that it is actually possible to do permanent damage. And Faye + full dose NSAID = complete nutjob running around like a rabbit on fire. And you can probably guess it by now, running around like that is part of what does the damage.

I’ve changed out a part of her diet for cooked vegetables (among others), which do fill her stomach but don’t give her a lot of nutrition to power up. Downside with that is that I do need to keep her fatreserve in check. Feeding less sounds like a great plan, but when a body grows, it grows. And not feeding it is even worse leading to a malnutritioned emaciated puppy which does a lot of damage on it’s own. Oh and did I tell you about the fact that a 13 week old puppy is up to one thing and one thing only? Explore the world by tasting it, go everywhere and put your teeth in e-ver-y-thing! Not doing that enough or not challenging enough and you’ve got a little hellspawn. Easy peasy right?

So I try to keep her busy as much as I can. Yesterday I thought by myself maybe she needs some more! So I started summing up what I have to entertain her to see what I could add. She has a nylabone (cheese version because omg!), I fill up an original kong every now and then with treats, I hide kibble in the livingroom for her to search out, have a mat with fleece I can hide kibble in, have a wobbler kong that can be hurled trough the living room, do mindgames (toiletpaper rolls etc.) chewing toys, throwing toys, cuddling toys, running toys, sqeeking toys, free passage to the balcony whenever we’re home (close to a city centre so enough to see), lots of places she comes along to and a cat to chase. After that I though welll….maybe she’s actually fine.

Part of being me means that when I do have a problem and I want to fix it, I tend to go to the bottom and search knowledge. Had long periods of time with Zoë where she could not run free and I had to entertain her. But for some reason I had the feeling I still missed a lot of information on what to do to keep your dog busy. Which translates to a happy dog in my eyes. Running the list I came to the conclusion that sometimes it is OK to be happy with what you have. Also meaning that every now and than I just have a little disgruntled puppy. Not because I lack challenge for her, but just because that’s what it means to be 13 week old puppy (with growing pain).

Of course I’ll say she’s only in training, it’s not like she already has it in her to give me insights in my behavior or something…

On a brighter note, Nina and Bram are back for the week, so we took a short trip to a nearby field. A small one that is so they could walk and sniff but not go mad and start breaking paws.