Little Miss Dixie is officially 11 weeks old today! As she's gotten more comfortable with us, and the apartment, she's gotten much bolder and is becoming quite the adorable handful. (I've included some pictures at the bottom of this post!)

She looves playing and thinks that she can take on anyone. If the person / animal / inanimate object that she wants to play with does not play back, she will bark at it until they do. I personally witnessed Dixie bark at a foam roller one morning.

When she's not running around like the spawn of the energizer bunny and the roadrunner on speed, she really enjoys walks. She does start to get bored if people don't stop to pet her and tell her how cute she is, but luckily that rarely happens.

But most importantly, this girl LOVES chewing, which is how she got the Chewbacca nickname. She will chew on basically anything: a toy, a chair, another dog's tail (usually Charlotte's - my parent's doodle). She is relentless. Luckily it's been hot out, so we've been freezing all her toys, which gives us 15 minutes of distracted puppy. More recently, we have invested in Kongs.

I was hesitant to buy Dixie a Kong because (1.) puppy ones are so tiny that I thought she'd swallow it and (2.) puppies have sensitive tummies and I didn't want to clean up what might happen if her little belly couldn't handle a glob of peanut butter.

My vet suggested I try using a wet version of Dixie's puppy food. Dixie rotates between Fromm Prairie Gold and Fromm Gold, which do not have wet options. Instead we've been trying a few combinations using her dry food. These options will also work for dogs that are stubborn about eating their food and dogs that are dieting!

Enjoy! Don't forget to read to the bottom for Dixie Pics!

Stuffed Kong:

Grind 1/4 cup of kibble in a food processor (if you can fit the kibble inside the toy without grinding it, you can skip this step. Grinding it works best for the dental sticks or other kong toys that you stuff on the outside)
Mix with a small amount of water or low sodium chicken/beef/veggie broth until it becomes a thick paste (if you skipped step 1, mix until the kibble is soft and all the liquid is absorbed)
Add a small amount of your pup's favorite people treat. Dixie and I are trying:
- honey
- peanut butter
- banana
- apple
- mango
- peach
- pineapple
- oatmeal
- shredded cheese
- unsweetened yogurt
- unsweetened applesauce
- pumpkin
- sweet potatoes
- green beans
- bacon (a small amount for extra special occasions)
- shredded cooked chicken
- shredded tuna

If you don't want to freeze your kong, this is a great guide to stuffing it! I'll be trying some recipes out with Charlotte & Dixie over the summer, so stay tuned!

Leave a comment if you have any tricks for calming a chew crazy puppy AND follow @missdixiedoodle on IG for daily doses of cuteness!