May the force be with you ...

Hi everyone!

I'm happy to report that Juliette is, per usual, doing incredibly well and getting bigger and smarter by the day. On Tuesday, she goes for her sixteen week booster shots and will be in her third week of puppy classes!

Since my last update, we have discovered a few new things about Juliette. As I've talked about, she's really into music and has been very interested in TV. With all the Oscar-buzz that was generated about Natalie Portman before and after she won, many of the Star Wars movies were on over the past week and a half or so. My family is really into Star Wars, and they have been playing in the background or we have been actively watching them over the past two weekends.

The first time that we realized Juliette had really noticed the sound was last weekend when Kyle was home. She was in my room with me while I was doing homework, and the computer generated sounds of R2-D2 caught her attention and she perked up immediately, jumped up, did an about-face, and ran down the hall! Now, when R2-D2 makes noises on the screen, she starts wagging her tail and wiggling and gets very happy. She will also lay on the couch and seriously watch what is going on on the screen. The sound effects and again, the music, really catch her attention.

She'd never seen the start of one of the movies before, so I put one in for fun tonight to see if she got excited about that music as well. My TV is on a dresser that stands about two and a half feet higher than my bed, and the dresser itself is at the end of my bed. When the music started with it, she was immediately entranced and put her paws up on the dresser and put her nose to the screen to watch, just like Lucky in "101 Dalmatians."

On Friday, Juliette made her first visit with me to my counselor's office. They are used to having therapy dogs in the office, and several patients bring their pets -- cats and dogs -- so I had permission ahead of time. She behaved very well and was mostly just anxious. Once my counselor decided we should just open the door and let her roam and explore for a bit (which was fine since I have an evening appointment outside of the offices and the its doctors normal operation) she was fine. I was mostly relieved that she didn't have any accidents!

On the topic of potty training, we are now going thirteen days with only two accidents, and they truly were accidents where she'd just woken up and suddenly had to go, and they were several days ago. I feel she's really getting the hang of it. We're also having to take her outside less, so she's getting used to it.

Other than that, over the weekend I was able to spend a night out for the first time since I got Juliette. I loved going out with my friends, but I really missed her, and couldn't wait to get home. I missed her not being there when I woke up. I'm so glad I have her in my life. However, my parents did enjoy a night to themselves with her and my dad brought her crate in their room voluntarily, which was nice since she sleeps in it in my room and can hear me breathing and sleeping all night and hasn't slept a night here without me feet away. She truly enjoyed "camping out" with my mom and dad, as my dad said, and tonight, she went into the bedroom with my dad when he went to bed early and really wanted to hang out in there for a little bit, which I think is great.

For now, she is sleeping soundly in her crate and I'm finishing watching the movie we started. :)

Until the next time, may the force be with you. ;)