Running

Freja is now almost 16 months old and now that she has recovered from her heat we have taken up a new activity: running for part of our walks. I'm starting slowly mostly because I am out of shape and don't want to kill myself. Freja enjoys it. And, she is getting very good at listening when I say "walk" to switch from running back to walking.

Almost 14 months...

At almost 14 months of age Freja is experiencing her first estrus (heat) cycle. The first symptom I noticed was a rather obnoxious change in her behavior, but I didn't realize that behavior changes were part of her cycle. She stopped listening to me when she was loose in the yard and would not come when called. I thought perhaps she was going through a teenage phase. It didn't occur to me that she was going into heat until I noticed drops of blood on the floor in the house. I thought perhaps she cut one of her feet on something on our walk, but when I wiped her feet there was no blood. That's when I realized that the blood was not from her feet...

This will be Freja's only estrus cycle. In April Freja will have a full check-up with her vet and we will decide on a date for her spay operation.

Fetch the Stick

This afternoon Freja and I went out to play in the snow. Earlier this winter Freja was very unimpressed with snow. She did not want to walk in it at all. Now she has finally embraced the fluffy white stuff and actually enjoys playing in it.

Here are some photos:

Freja sniffs my footprints in the snow. She loves to "track" us in the yard.

Pretty girl looking at the house.

Notice how her ears are more proportional to her head now. She is growing into her ears and her feet.

She has a leaf stuck in her ear feathers on the side of her head.

Freja stands "guard" over her stick. This is just before she started play bowing over the stick, so that I would come over and throw it for her.

Taking a break from stick fetching.

Freja sometimes carries sticks very daintily. She holds the stick by the very end. This makes it awkward to carry as you can see.


Freja puts her stick down in the snow after I tell her to "leave it."

One Year Old

Freja in the snow in our back yard. December 25th, Christmas Day, is her birthday and she is now one year old. She is 27 inches tall and weighs 81 pounds. She may look like a dignified grown up dog in this picture, but she is still a silly puppy girl.

Why she was called Underbite Girl

Freja has an underbite. This isn't a health issue for her, but it is a comformation fault and can be passed on to her puppies, so Freja cannot be shown or bred. Here's a picture that shows why Freja was called Underbite Girl when she was very young:


Here she is looking back at the house where Rohan was standing at the back door:


Freja is 10 months old, weighs 77lbs and is 25-26" tall.

Big Dog Bed

Freja is now 8 months old and weighs 68lbs. She is no longer a little puppy, although she is very much a puppy in her behavior. Her current favorite toy is her yellow tennis ball. She can amuse herself for hours with it. She even tries to get Halle in on the game, but Halle just looks at her with disdain and gives her the Elvis lip.

Yesterday I finally decided that it was time to get Freja a big dog bed that she can use in the den and our bedroom. She still sleeps in her crate, but when she's lounging with us she should be comfy:

Teenage Freja Loses Privilege

Tonight Freja was asking to go out while Erik was out walking Halle around the neighborhood. I thought she really had to pee, so I let her out in the yard. I was standing barefoot on the cement stoop and Freja suddenly took off running... right out of the yard into and down the street in the direction Erik walks Halle. I called to her, but she did not come back. She very nearly missed being hit by a car.

Freja has lost the privilege of being out in the yard off leash. She will now be on a training lead outside at all times.