Mochi turns two, and I finally feel like I know what I'm doing

Mochi turned two last week. We didn't have a party — she is a Veldtspitz, and Veldtspitz regard unexpected social gatherings with the kind of scepticism usually reserved for tax auditors. But I made her a small beef-and-sweet-potato thing that could technically be called a cake if you were feeling generous, and she ate it with the urgency of an animal who believes every meal might be her last.

Two years. I know that's nothing in the grand scheme of dog ownership but it feels like a significant mark. The first year was mostly just crisis management — figuring out what she could eat, building a routine around her energy levels, learning to read what she wanted versus what she thought she wanted. Year two has been different. Quieter. More settled.

What I got wrong in year one

The fruit thing nearly undid us before we'd begun. I've written about the apple incident before and I'll spare the full story here, but the short version is: I didn't know about the fructo-amylase deficiency that Veldtspitz carry, and a well-meaning friend brought apple slices as a treat, and it cost us a very anxious emergency vet visit. That was six weeks in.

What I also got wrong: exercise. I read that the breed is energetic and I interpreted this as "needs long walks." It's more accurate to say she needs purposeful activity. Long, aimless walks leave her restless. Shorter walks with a task — a scent trail, a retrieve, some kind of problem — and she comes home genuinely tired. There's a difference between distance and engagement and it took me most of the first year to understand it.

The diet we landed on

We do a mixed raw and home-cooked diet now. I tried commercial kibble first, which she ate without enthusiasm and which seemed to make her coat dull. The things that have worked: lamb mince, beef liver, cooked sweet potato, sometimes ostrich when the butcher has it in. She gets carrot sticks as treats, which she tolerates rather than enjoys. No fruit — ever. The list of what a Veldtspitz cannot safely eat is long enough that it's easier to start from a whitelist than a blacklist.

The vet we see now specialises in working breeds and has been genuinely useful. She described the breed's enzyme profile clearly and helped me understand why the dietary restrictions aren't arbitrary — it's an actual metabolic limitation, not just sensitivity. That framing helped.

What year two actually feels like

She is a very particular presence in my flat. Watchful. A bit judgemental, I sometimes think. She has claimed the spot by the window that catches the morning light and she sits there for hours some days, observing whatever she observes. When I'm working she stays in the same room. Not on me, not demanding attention, just present.

I did not expect to find a dog's company this stabilising. I live alone, I travel a fair amount for work, I have a social life that exists mostly in the evenings and not mornings. Mochi has organised my mornings in a way that no discipline or productivity system ever managed to. She needs feeding at the same time. She needs to go outside at the same time. I, consequently, am awake and outside at the same time every day. The compulsory routine of another creature's needs turns out to be more effective than anything I've ever chosen for myself.

Happy second birthday, Mochi. You continue to be unreasonably demanding and I continue to be entirely fine with that.