I’m going to try out a biweekly publishing schedule for a few months.

(By biweekly, I mean every two weeks, though I know that some people use biweekly to mean semiweekly or twice a week.)

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Summer is winding down here in Missoula.

Orly and Dotty are practicing their berry-gathering skills: The transplanted raspberries (well, some of them) produced a minuscule late-summer crop. The girls gleefully discovered this bounty a few days ago and quickly demolished the handful of berries, mostly under-ripe. Patience and delayed gratification are not their strengths … Though persistence is. They check and recheck for new or missed berries several times a day. Several times an hour if I let them.

When not searching for berries — and the occasional fallen apple from the neighbors’ tree — Dotty is energetically pouncing on every floating leaf and fallen stick, which makes her play time in the yard, and even more so, our walks … interesting.

I’m trying hard to break her habit of zooming off after each moving object and, of course, coming to a jarring hard stop at the end of the leash. Turns out that many dog trainers’ insistence that when dogs self-correct like that they learn not to bolt on the leash is hilarious … and wholly false, at least in Dotty’s case.

She does love to carry things in her mouth on our walks, which may be a useful skill in her service dog work. Especially if she’s partnered with someone who loves sticks and candy wrappers. (Or maybe I need to work on broadening Dotty’s interests.)

As the trees turn, I look at all those leaves and wonder whether Dotty would settle for mall walking for a few weeks. My arms just can’t take it!

I take comfort from the memory that Orly went through a similar distracted phase, pouncing on leaves and taking off in every direction while on leash; it wasn’t even very long ago. And she’s now a wonderful walking companion.

As Dotty leaps and pounces and twirls through fall, I try to savor this phase — even as I wish for it to end.

Dotty is going through a Phase. It might be adolescence. If it is, I hope it ends as quickly as it started.

She’s all claws and paws and teeth.

Everything goes into the mouth. Sticks, leaves, trash she finds on our walks … people’s hands if they reach out to pet her … toys, non-toys, food, non-food. Everything.

And she’s started pawing at people to ask for petting. Constantly.

And jump! Dotty had been doing SO well with her sit-to-be-petted greeting. She was such a sweet girl. But now? It’s like a different dog.

Orly went through a truly obnoxious phase on her way to being a Very Good Girl who rarely jumps (unless she’s trying to get onto the bed and your nose happens to be in the way …). I’m hoping that Dotty shows the same growth and maturity… soon.

During her “tween” and adolescent period Orly was hyper-aware of every moving leaf, blade of grass, bird or squirrel, and of course, human encountered on walks. Dotty is as well, but where Orly pounced and passed things by, Dotty stops and tries to pick up whatever catches her attention.

Both want to meet any and all humans and positively swoon over small children.

There are signs of growth already, though. Dotty willingly gets both into and out of the car, for example, and, just a couple days ago, I saw her go down the stairs without a single “bunny hop” of her two back legs together.

She’s tall and leggy, almost as tall as Orly, but her body still needs to lengthen and fill out before she stops looking puppyish. That moment will come soon. Maybe too soon!