Claire and Pancake

So will someone tell me what is wrong with Claire? She takes a normal length nap, but then cannot fall asleep at night. She has been up the past few nights till very late (9:30 or 10). We have been used to her going to bed by 7:30 and probably falling asleep around 8:30. And if anyone utters the words that she might be growing out of her nap, I will slap you. This can't be happening! And the worst part about it is that she still wakes up early. It's not like she is making up the sleep at all. So she is a general crab all the time. Last night when I went to bed, I opened her door to check on her and she was asleep at her door (a normal occurance for her) and her entire bookshelf of books and puzzles were in her bed. (no wonder she wasn't asleep in it). I am going to blame her not sleeping on her cold. Maybe because she can't breath properly through her nose, she is having a hard time falling asleep. That has to be it...IT JUST HAS TO BE!

But some fun/good news is that Pancake is close to graduating obedience school! Due to lack of time and energy, we have been sending Pancake to doggy daytime training. We had been taking her a few times a week to the night class but after I got pregnant, we were lucky if we were taking her once a week. We really wanted her to be trained so we paid a little extra and she gets to socialize with other dogs and get trained. We still take her to the night class so that she gets to practice her skills with us (and of course we are working with her at home too) but we only get out there about once a week. Well, yesterday, Pancake got tested. She passed everything but two things. (and this is all done off leash!!) She gets slightly ahead of you when heeling (that is walking next to you) and it takes her a few times of correction for her to fall back with you. She also has a hard time with "in motion downs" which is while you are heeling her (walking around) and her tell her down, you keep walking and she is supposed to lay down. She needs correction on that command.

I would not test her off leash just walking down our street because she is still a puppy and is easily distracted, but she is now a walkable dog that doesn't pull (most of the time) and listens to our commands. Even Ella can tell her commands and she will listen. I am super proud of my pooch! At home we still have a few issues to work on...mostly its when someone comes over, she believes they are here to see her and her only. So she gets very excited and jumps up to be petted...but even that is controllable now. We give her the corrections and she is actually listens!! The other cool thing she did recently was being protective. I always thought that if someone was in our house that she didn't know well, she would just go up to them and ask to be petted. Well, that wasn't the case when my Dad came over. Pancake was outside when my Dad was over so Pancake didn't see him come to the door and didn't see us greet him. So when I let Pancake in the house, she didn't want to go near my Dad, and was doing a huffy kind of bark (she rarely barks loud, I would say once or twice a week maybe). I figured out that it was because she didn't see us greet him, so I gave my Dad a hug so that Pancake could see that we all knew him, and she then went right up to him, ready to be petted. Who knew she would act like that? It was cool.