Madness of Madeline

Madeline is going to be 4 months old tomorrow, which still shocks me… It’s felt like ages since I got my little Whippet and yet it hasn’t been that long at all. That’s actually a good thing because usually certain instances of my life can seem like only an hour ago — let alone something feeling like years removed from actually happening a couple of weeks / months ago.

Maddie’s been pretty good at times and annoying at others. She’s teething of course – has been since I got her in July — but it’s a little worse now because it’s her mid teeth and back teeth and she’s trying to gnaw on anything she can. I can deal with that by picking up chew toys and such… That’s no problem.

What is a problem is her social skills. Madeline is extremely friendly and extremely over-excited to meet people. I mean REALLY over-excited. If she sees a human, she wants to run up to them and say hi. She’ll jump and run circles around them (and when she is on her leash, this can cause problems), or run away for one reason or another… I’m never sure what causes that but it’s usually when she sees someone from a distance.

I’ve enjoyed when I’ve been able to walk her around the block — only twice total. Two factors usually keep me from walking her that far, the first being the Florida heat and my own desire to stay out of it. The second factor is Maddie herself. Not because of her hysterics act but… Well, her hysterics act. I’ll start walking her down the block and I won’t even be able to get her 300 feet from my house before she wants to go back and investigate something she wants to chew. Other times I get her half way to the end of the block and she gets scared off by the sounds of dogs barking (the sad thing is, the dogs barking are a 3rd of her size).

I’ve had more social interaction when I’ve been out with her, which I like… But at the same time I have GOT to get a handle on her social skills and I need to socialize her more — among dogs and humans. Unfortunately no one wants to go to the Dog Park and I’m not entirely interested in walking the 3+ miles with the dog to the nearest park (across 6 lanes of highway and next to a 4 lane highway).

I’ll figure something out, I hope….