Guess who's 20 today?!?

Twenty pounds, that is... Orent tipped the scales this afternoon at 20.1 pounds (when we got him two weeks ago, he weighed 13.2 pounds). Good thing he's been working on those stairs (not as a weight-loss program, as a saving Kaytee and Max from hefting a ginormous dog around program).

Lately he's been struggling with not stopping to pee on the landing, but we're working on it. Today I managed to catch him in the act and kinda interrupt him and Kaytee helped him run down the last steps and outside where he finished. And no dog has ever been praised more for peeing... if there is a Nobel prize of pee-ers, he's getting it. So maybe he'll get the message? Anyway, he's getting so big his bladder must be growing too!

We discovered something besides stairs and ice cream trucks* that perturbs our otherwise unflappable pup. He no longer likes having his back paws held to be nail-clipped. It caused lots of angry squeaky barks when we tried it (and that was him in a good mood). He's had them clipped before without incident but I guess he didn't like it or he's gotten older and wiser or something. So we spent a long time today just holding and pressing gently on his paws and praising him when he was quiet about it.

Once he decides he can hold his bladder past 4am, I think he'll be the perfect puppy. At least I hope so. Maybe there's such thing as the terrible 20s?

*Actually, he's bolder about ice cream trucks these days. We haven't gotten as close as the one that freaked him out, but they seem to be fading into the background for him these days.