Sunday, October 27, 2013

Drew lost her first tooth

Hi Don,
 
Drew is 13.5 weeks now, and just lost her first tooth.  She was slightly under 22 pounds when weighed on Wednesday.  She is growing the same wavy hair on her back that Puck had/has.
 
Thus far things have been going fairly well.  She was struggling to housebreak for the first 4 weeks (she'd pee three times, come in the house, and pee again), and all of her pees were very short, so we figured she had a urinary tract infection.  Antibiotics cleared that up, and she was suddenly accident-free.  It also cleared up a bad case of puppy pimples.
 
Training is coming along.  "Come" is progressing (high level of distraction isn't there yet), "sit" is pretty solid, "down" is still sketchy.  I use the "hurry" command when she eliminates, but haven't tried to use it yet to get her to go.  I suspect I should spend more time practicing the "kennel" command, but while she would prefer to sleep on a dog bed, she will go to the crate when directed at short range.
 
We are doing off leash walks, and she's doing quite well staying with me, and can be encouraged to keep going after crossing paths with other dogs and people.  We practice "come" followed by "sit" (which I have found useful in reducing jumping) at these times as well as a general "let's go" to get her to come with me.
 
Leash work is slow going.  I don't want to overwhelm her attention span, so we only do a little bit at a time.  My puppy leash is apparently not good for snapping, so I've been tucking the leash behind me so that if she scoots forward, the leash catches on my leg to correct her.  The calmer she is, the better the heel.
 
I did break down, and did a few minutes on fetch, then two days later had her do two retrieves to hand.  We haven't done any since, but it was nice to see that she's going to be good at it.

Drew enjoys the water.  She went from trying to walk along the bottom to swimming horizontally, skipping the upright doggy paddle completely.  I have to keep her moving afterwards, or she gets cold before we get to a towel.

For car trips I still put her in the crate as I worry about her wandering and chewing while I drive.  I don't want to end out with her under the break peddle.  This results is very loud protesting much like her first night in the crate.  Currently I continue to ignore her complaints, but it's wearing.
 
Here is a picture of Drew at 10 weeks with her future hunting partner, and current chew toy.

Eric
 
Drew