Maya is a fascinating combination of complete relaxation and hypervigilance / overreacting. Here she is having a snooze apparently without a care in the world (she was maybe 3 months old here):

And here’s what we call her froggy pose:

Sometimes, however, she pops up and starts barking for no discernible reason, and if there is something legitimately threatening or unusual, it takes her a long time to get over it. She can keep barking at basically nothing for hours afterwards. The fur all along her spine stands up! We’re hoping she gets more relaxed about these things as she gets older.

She’s also the most affectionate and intelligent dog we’ve ever owned. She loves to be close, and it’s been a work in progress to separate her from Sherri for more than a few minutes. Lately she’s deemed me an acceptable substitute. She also picks up tricks amazingly fast. Our son has taught her to sit, stay, and lie down in just few minutes (treats provide quite the motivation to learn). He’s working on ‘roll over’ now, which has been a bit tougher. That sort of training hasn’t been very consistent…if it was I have no doubt she’d be doing amazing things.

We adopted a kitten shortly after getting Maya, thinking that perhaps the two could be raised together. We’ve had shall we say mixed results on that, but it’ll be the topic of another blog.