I wanted to send a note and let you know how "the girl" is doing these days. She has great energy, has made friends with most of the people and dogs on our street, is lightning fast, so must go outside only on her leash, and is progressing with all phases of puppy hood. She loves playing in the sprinklers and wading pool in the back yard. We'll get some Joco action shots soon and send them your way.

Joco weighs a whopping 3# 8oz at 16 weeks and is a favorite of everyone who meets her.

She is so funny with the house training! Well, most of the time she is amusing. There are a very few accidents, but not many and they are NOT on the carpet! We restricted her early and consistently from the carpet, but can now trust her there in short intervals when she is engaged with a chew toy.

Something a friend of mine suggested to help with house training was a bell on the door and teach the puppy to associate the bell with needing to go "outside". I thought, oh, sure, but.....we put a yellow parrot ball with the gentle bell inside, suspended by a leather shoe string onto the handle of the door leading to the backyard. The "ball" is about head high for her now. The first few weeks, I would ring the bell and say "outside" nearly every time I went out with her and to make a long story short - she's got it! She rings the bell by slapping it with one of her paws and if we don't come right over, she'll use both paws and swing the ball harder, making the bell ring more loudly! When she wants to just go out for any reason, she rings the bell as well. It is very cute and smart.

During the day, when in her crate, she uses the piddle pad in the back half of her crate/condo if the time is too long between walker visits. The time she can hold her urine without using the pad is greatly increasing in the last couple of weeks. Joco also goes right into the open crate and to the piddle pad when she is just too tired to signal for outside or too busy playing fetch to make such a long stop from the games (you know, for all the things that go with "outside", like the leash, navigating the outside stairs, and going to one of her "spots" outside).

She is a showstopper on the street and people always want to know where we got her. I give them your url, so I hope you are getting some inquiries from northern VA or Maryland!

Hi Michele,

Time has really flown by since we picked up little Cookie in February 2005. I thought you might like to see how she looks today. The attached photo was taken by our favorite professional photographer and it really captures her expression. My husband and I are empty-nesters -- our grandchildren live far away -- so we both enjoy being greeted every day by this happy little creature. Thank you for raising companion dogs. She's everything you promised she would be. And she's just great company to have around.

I hope all is going well with you. I check your website regularly and enjoy seeing all the new puppies and watching them grow.

Take care,
Karen P. (8-23-06)

Parents of puppy: Thing and Petey
Photographer: Mark Pennington.