missing my little pup

It's been a long time since my last post - mostly because we're trying to exercise Ry during all of our free time! She has started running along while Tom bikes - he claims she can run a few 5 minute miles in a row! One walk a day is definitely not sufficient anymore. She's getting better at playing fetch, I just wish our backyard was bigger.

I have been reminded many times recently of all the worrying I did when she was younger thinking that she wasn't 'normal'.
I worried because she wasn't interested in going on walks - she always layed down in the grass after a few steps, and was content just laying there. Now she can't get enough walks/runs.
I worried when she wouldn't finish all of her food before the time for her next meal. Now, she wolfs in down in about three bites.
I worried about why she didn't chew on her bone. We just bought her a 'wolf sized' bone for "aggressive chewers" - she consumed over half of her puppy bone.
The moral of the story here: enjoy each of her phases, because she moves through them very quickly, and she'll probably never be 'normal.'

Her current phase includes nightly 'frenzies' where she is only interested in jumping up on Tom and me and nipping at us. The only way I can get her to calm down is to give myself a time out. I actually go hide in the bedroom for a few minutes, and let her cool off. She is still getting up once most nights. She starts out sleeping in her kennel, and wakes up at about 3:15 or so and starts whining and scratching. We usually give in and let her outside for a potty break, and hope she'll go back to sleep in her kennel. Some nights we let her sleep on the bedroom floor, or even worse, in bed.

In other exciting news - Riley graduated! She passed all of her move up skills in puppy kindergarten at the Humane Society, so she's now a level two student. I remembered taking some really cute pictures of Oscar (Matt and Fran's lab) when he passed puppy class, and tried to recreate the photo with Riley. They didn't quite turn out... She thought the cap was a snack...