Happy birthday to Bix!

17 October 2016

I’m going to indulge myself today and write a post about my standard poodle puppy, Bix, who turned one yesterday. Just two weeks after he joined our family, when he was a rambunctious 10-week-old puppy, he totally disrupted my life, as is to be expected. At that time, I wrote a blog post about the lessons this tiny puppy had already taught me. He’s come a long way since then.

So now that he’s one, I’ve been thinking of the many things that make Bix special. He can be naughty—he’s probably the naughtiest of the five spoodles we’ve had—but the naughty behavior is ramping down. He used to like to steal stuff and chew it but now he’s so good he has free reign of the house, even when we’re not home. He also likes to jump on people he likes. And he’s the only one of our poodles to steal stuff off the counter. He’s probably 8 percent naughty. But he’s 92 percent delightful.

Here are some of the things he’s especially good at:

Making dog friends. He’s great with new dogs, somehow sensing the best way to play with each.
Making human friends. He’s getting over a tendency to bark at people on the other side of the street who don’t have dogs. And he’s very passionate about certain friends, especially ones he met as a tiny puppy.
Standing on his hind legs. Bix can stand unsupported on his hind legs—or even walk on them—with no effort. He loves standing on his hind legs. He especially loves putting is paws on the counter and greeting the receptionists at the vet and groomer.
Walking on leash. He rarely pulls. He’s growing out of chasing squirrels and bunnies. He sits automatically at the corner. He is a joy to take for a walk.
Not eliminating in the house. Except for a couple of recent exceptions, his house training is rock solid.
Taking food gently. He takes anything offered to him by mouth very gently. My fingers are never in danger.
Begging. Yes, he begs at the table (because we feed him from the table, so it’s on us). But he’s very polite about it. He just sits, a polite distance away, and stares. It’s very effective.
Playing with his toys. This puppy plays more than our others ever did. He plays with us, whenever possible, but if we’re busy he plays by himself. He probably takes eight toys out of his toy basket every day. (I really need to teach him how to put them away.) He enjoys removing the stuffing and squeakers from toys and then playing with the carcasses. He never consumes them.

Now that I’ve bored you with a list of his attributes I’ll post some pictures of Bix over the past ten months. He’s a very cute, very enjoyable dog. For the first time since 1992, we were without a dog after our poodle, Kirby died, in March 2015. For nine months we managed to live dog-less. I’m so glad Bix joined our family and filled that void. And I’d like to thank Dianne Janczewski of Clifton Standard Poodles in Virginia for entrusting Bix to us.

I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I do.

Here’s Bix on Day Two in our home (that was our holiday card picture). What a confident little guy: