You all know I am a fan of silly memes and basically anything that gets a laugh or smile out of me, randomly.
I’ve accumulated a couple fun ones lately:
#1: Made me laugh hysterically. I saw this one right after our especially busy summer, with multiple houseguests from all sides of the family. Our guests from the place that rhymes with “Texico” are especially, shall we say nicely, night owls. 😜 Tehehehe! 😅
#2: Sent to me from the lovely and always-in-tune-to-what-people need Elisabeth, after some text chains about being FRAZZLED. Totally made me laugh and was perfect. 😂
#3: I am honestly really not a “cat person”, but I LOVE cat personality humor!!!! Also, I sometimes think I might actually be part cat.
This totally made me giggle. Scuba gear!! LOL!
Fall:
The leaves are really peaking around here. Also, many have suddenly started to fall.
Charlie and I took his longest walk yet this morning! Did my “full loop”, though WAY slower. He still stops a lot, though less than at the beginning.
He is also quite overstimulated by any other dogs or dogs barking. Usually he will just sit and stare at them across the street. If he thinks they are coming closer, he will go bonkers in excitement. I suppose we should start figuring out how to properly “socialize” him with other dogs…. He did meet our neighbor’s lab the other day (extremely well trained and friendly dog), but he acted like a psychopath and she was not impressed.
Oh! Speaking of Friday Fun things, I ordered Charlie a couple of toys to hopefully encourage more “mental stimulation”.
First, a puzzle feeder:
Filled this with his kibble and he had to figure out how to slide the caps side to side to uncover the food. He loved it! Definitely slowed down his meal and kept him occupied for a while.
I also ordered him a puppy Kong (currently waiting in the freezer, stuffed with kibble, water and some peanut butter). Apparently these can keep dogs attention a long time, too, as they attempt to lick and get the stuff out.
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m trying hard to figure out ways to occupy him during that evening Witching Hour!! It’s been BAD this week. He’s an angel all day and a devil by night.
Of course I google it and Google tells me things like, “Your puppy may not be receiving enough mental or physical stimulation, leading to excess energy in the evenings.”
GUILT! GUILT! GUILT! starts flashing through my mind…. and I of course start fretting that I am just not doing this right!! But then, confusion/ frustration sets in, because I swear I AM doing everything I can to do this right!
Training sessions. Enforced naps. Walks. Play time. Schedules. I talk to him to build his vocabulary and we’ve read Harry Potter together. 🤣 (Ok, not really.)
But seriously, I feel like I’m giving this my very best effort and a LOT of time…. but maybe I’m still lacking somehow? UGH. 😩
*Thank you to a couple of commenters who chimed in yesterday and commiserated and assured me that NO, I’m not doing anything wrong; the crazy witching hour is just a normal (albeit annoying) part of puppyhood. 🙂
**I promise I will not talk about my dog in every post from here on out. PROMISE. But we’re still in that first month, so…. he’s naturally gonna get a lot of air time. 😉
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for Ethan’s high school soccer season (which is almost done now), but he has absolutely loved.
GRATEFUL KAE 
Hello! Long(ish) time reader, first time commenter; experienced dog mom. 😉
Do you have a doggy day care near you? Often times they offer puppy play time sessions and those really help with socialization. Your dog needs to spend extended periods of time with other dogs, as that’s how they really learn dog manners. Alternatively, visiting dog parks (especially ones that have separate areas for puppies) will really help.
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You know I love memes and sent that Please be gone by 9 one to various friends who I knew would “get it.”
This definitely feels like an intense season, but also one that will be over before you know it? Definitely faster than infancy with a newborn! Hang in there and enjoy all those sweet snuggles.
Just throwing an idea out there…could you hire someone in the neighbourhood – maybe a tween who homeschools? – to take him out for an hour at lunch? My sister homeschools four kids and they are in HIGH demand for daytime pet care.
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Hi Kae,
Another “lurker reader” here and fellow RN. I just wanted to say that the witching hour with puppies is real and he will eventually settle in the evening. We just got a puppy last Summer 2022 and he was a nut every evening between 9-10:30 no matter how much we’d exercised him in the day. It drove my husband and I crazy because that’s when we spend our “chill” time together. Well, it took him several months, but he did eventually become a “cuddle couch dog” in the evenings.
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Puppies are definitely chaos!
The tricky thing about the puppy witching hour is that it can also be caused by overstimulation. Puppies are like toddlers. Super excited by having everyone home and paying attention to them but also tired from a long day. So they can’t relax or control their behavior as well as they can earlier in the day. Our puppy was the worst in the evening when she was overtired.
At least the puppy stage is short 🙂
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For some reason I often don’t get the memes or the hype about it. Am I not sociable? Am I maybe not funny? Don’t know. But the first one I did get and had to smile.
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That first one is perfect although I would change it to 8. It does help to have young kids as people tend to leave when we start bedtime. Or we can leave others’ homes to do bedtime. Little do they know I also want to be in bed by 9. My kids might have early bedtimes forever. 😉
I am no help on the puppy stuff. I hope things get easier and he chills out a bit. I know a new dog is a huge investment if time and energy in the beginning though!!
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You can talk about Charlie as much as you want! I don’t have any dog experience, but I would agree with the other commenters that this is just a phase. And it’s like kids- no, you won’t do everything perfectly, but you’re trying your best and that’s definitely good enough. He’ll outgrow this phase, but it does sound really hard right now!
I do have cats and I appreciate all cat humor. Hee hee… that’s a good one.
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You can talk about your dog in every post! If someone said I couldn’t talk about my dog, I’d have zero content. Ha! Also, he’s just a baby, so of course he’s learning boundaries and how to act around humans and other dogs. He’s fine!!
Depending on where he is in his vaccination cycle, you can maybe consider taking him to puppy classes, but he can’t do that until he’s fully vaccinated, so maybe just let him be a baby for a bit longer!
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