up to no good

Some folk are blessed with baby Lapphunds who are utter and complete angels right from day one. They sleep all night right from the beginning, don't wake you too early in the morning, are instantly housetrained, never chew anything but their own toys and certainly don't dig, bark excessively or be overly attention-seeking.

Lies!

No such thing as a puppy who doesn't do at least some of those things. It's puppy nature, it's normal, it's expected, I would even go so far as to say it's necessary. For example, they have to exercise their jaws and learn how to use their teeth. After all, a dog uses its mouth for most of the things that humans use their hands for, so they have to be good at it. If they chew the legs off your Chippendale table, that's your own fault. Yep, that's right. You weren't properly supervising and/or you haven't yet properly trained them to know what is acceptable to chew and what is not.*

It logically follows, then, that we are all blessed with baby Lapphunds who are little angels. Even the barking, nipping, digging, jumping and chewing ones. Normal little angels, every one.

So, do these perfect little angels ever do anything just plain naughty? Of course they do! And you can see on their faces that they just know they're not actually supposed to be doing that, but they're doing it anyway and enjoying it all the more for it's illegality.



Rauhan has found himself an unusual den under the kitchen cabinets. How he fits in there is anyone's guess!








Naughty even at 5 weeks. Keskiyö telling Rauhan he's pretty sure dogs are not allowed on the sofa - even tiny ones.







Taito thinks it's very funny to be on the bed in the hotel.










Kallio showing off how he can fit through the bars of the stair gate installed to prevent him getting upstairs. Hmmm.














Tarkka can't comprehend why Josh gets cross about sharing his trampoline.









"What do you mean, it's not a dog seat?"









"Who did you say is not allowed on the sofa?"

* Oh yes, I'm being tough today!

chew dig destroy

Neka and Keskiyo both love to dig when they get a chance, and Maija is the best digger in the bunch (if you want to put a positive spin on it...) Every puppy loves to dig and sand is the best digging medium around. Inko has her own sandbox and here is Tarkka head-first in his modest hole.

'I know Australia is around here somewhere.'

Having been banned from the garden for similar behaviour, Maija has now taken to digging the sofa cushions instead. No, of course the dogs are not allowed on the sofa (anymore). Nonetheless, everytime we turn our back, she's up there ripping out chunks of foam and running off in glee with her prize. To be fair, she didn't start the sofa-digging, that distinction is reserved for Keskiyo who, also as a puppy, scratched the first tiny hole through the leather of the cushion. Then it really took a dive when I left the very pregnant Neka for 20 minutes to pick Jay up from work. When we got back, she was having contractions and had settled in her emergency nest in the cushion surrounded by ripped up foam. But we've been living with it until Maija discovered her new favorite game.

Luckily, there was an excellent sofa in the sales last weekend.

And I'm considering covering the cushions in fine sand paper. Not very cozy for curling up watching DVDs, it's true. But think of the time I'll save in trimming claws.

There is something certainly just as good as, if not better than, digging - chewing shoes. And socks. But preferably shoes. Maija has been roared at enough times now to drop shoes on command. Finally. Perhaps some day she'll lose her fascination with them altogether. But, unless I'm very much mistaken, here is a puppy not only chewing a shoe, but being photographed doing it rather than told off. What a lucky puppy!

You can see he knows he's lucky - look at the smile on his face. What a cutie.

But, who is he?

If I hadn't known, I wouldn't have known (if you follow my meaning...) There he is looking for all the world like his mum and half-brother Taito. And of all the puppies, he's the one I was quite sure would look exactly like his dad, especially when I saw this lovely photo of him & Sukka with the Katy & Hattie on the xmas card I got from Emma. (Apologies to the girls for chopping their heads off, but I don't like to publish photos of people without their permission & I haven't asked for permission to use this one.)


That's right, this is Rauhan, of all puppies! He still has the tan legs like is dad, but he's definitely got his mum's bright white face and little grin. Comparing the two photos, would you guess it was the same puppy? I don't think I would.