8 Weeks Old

Sleep

We’ve known each other for just over a week now. Our first few days were great for house training and this morning was horrible with a -22 windchill!  I’ve learned he likes to sleep on my lap. He will sometimes go into his crate or onto a dog bed to nap – other times he comes over to me and asks to be picked up to sleep on my lap. He prefers to rest his head on the keyboard as seen in the webcam photo! I know this won’t work for too long.

He’s started to learn that it’s a good idea to come when called and to follow people. He doesn’t mind the harness – usually puppies find it uncomfortable at first. We’ve traveled from Arkansas to Ohio and done hikes in Kentucky and Ohio. He’s seen wind, rain, and his first snow.  We’ve been to puppy class twice and he’s learned to ride in the back of the van (crated).  I tried to use him as a demo puppy in puppy class but he fell asleep.

Teaching puppy class – asleep. 22 puppies in the room!

Some things have been easier than I expected (house training – other than the cold) and some parts are a little harder (lack of interest in food, already very bitey at 8 weeks! a name).

He’s helped me with distraction training Griffin. He’s had so much learning – being in a crate, riding in a car, playing with toys, finding appropriate chew items, tasting different foods, exploring different surfaces, seeing new things, learning to climb stairs and hills and everything else. We’ve not done as much training as I had thought – his lower interest in food (likely age related?)  as well as spending time just playing and learning about the world are just as, if not more, important than learning behaviors.

He has lots of people friends. They played with him while I taught class last night. He was so tired we couldn’t really do any training.  We’ve worked on following, recall, platform/mat, holding still and targeting. He really likes to offer sitting – during his first puppy class he also offered a beg position and then fell over.

This week we’ll try to go to two puppy classes again. I want to work on a go into crate/stay in crate and hopefully start teaching him to be crated in the room while I teach. He’ll soon need to learn to walk on a leash with the other dogs and I would like to get him offering more motion behaviors/less stillness. I hope it will be warmer so that we can go out in public more.