Check any dog owner’s instagram, tiktok, or whatever feed, you’ll see any number of cute life with dog pictures of dogs doing adorable things.

But life with dog is not all that.

Or perhaps, life with puppy is not all that.

I’m not sure why it continues to surprise me that dogs have their own personalities. That Jack was different to Lily, and Clever Girl is different to both.

Leaving aside the mudlarking…

There’s also the carpet cleaning, dog following you everywhere, not permitting a closed door without at least three attempts to knock it down.

Squeaky (or tickle me Elmo) toys sounding off at inconvenient times.

Begging at breakfast, begging at lunch, begging at tea time, by shoving her head in your lap. Though that might just be labradors.

Or, possibly worse, wanting to get you up out of your comfortable couch (or bed) to let her out and in again when you don’t have a dog door.

We’ve considered it, but Clever Girl’s new best friends (the possums) are more likely to come in via a dog door than she is to go out. Especially when the fruit bowl needs emptying.

So in the meantime, at her new wakeup time of 04:30 (thanks daylight saving!) I will continue to drag myself out of bed to let her out.

Better she stays out for a while than wants to go out again at 05:30 too!

And in the meantime, maybe I’ll use that 15 minute window, to get something done.

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