My New Puppy

I think we have winner, was a lot of work but we have her going to the door to go out already but you still have to keep an eye on her. Not bad for less than 8 weeks. She'll either go to the door or follow me out. Only trouble is there is two steps off the back porch and she hasn't figured out the going down concept yet so I have to put her on the ground. She'll occasionally jump off them but is still afraid. The dumbass will run up the stairs in the house then whine at the top when she realizes she's trapped there. I've somewhat have her coming on command but I think that's more of "I want to play" as opposed to listening but it's a start. I walk her around the house a couple of times a day with no leash just to get her used to the idea of following me which she does pretty good. I had to sweep the walks of all the interesting smelling things to keep her attention.

I lost my no poop in the house record but I didn't expect to keep it.

I keep it in the freezer next to Sundays dinner.

Speaking of poop she had worms. I guess a lot of pups have them. According to the vet they lay dormant in the mother until she gets pregnant and they transferred in the womb from the mother. Another mystery solved as I always wondered how they miraculously appeared. They gave her a worm pill right before we got her which apparently didn't work well so we had to wait until Friday to give her the stuff from the vet and that worked within hours.

I'm not so sure I can eat spaghetti anymore. I didn't know if i should do dance or puke when she *censored* them out. She had a lot of them and I'll tell you she was completely different after that.

They gave us a second larger dose we have to give her next week. I guess the idea is check to see if there is any dead worms after second dose.

I posted above she's going to the door but you still have to keep an eye on her a little. I have her coming to me on command but I'm pretty sure that's more of "I want to play" than actually understanding but nonetheless it's just repetition and she'll learn it. I have her follow me for a walk outside around the house a couple of times a day, I keep whistling, clapping my hands to keep her attention and calling her... again repetition. Eventually it will simply be the whistle, one great thing about my last dog was I only had to whistle and no matter where she was she'd come. Was kind of fun in way because if we were out in field or something she'd be 100 hundred yards away and I give that whistle.... the head would go up and she'd start running towards me. Also i don't look like an idiot yelling the damn dogs name.

Well just an update, worms are of course long gone. She's getting to be a live wire. I took her down the river bank and let her off the leash once and ...zoooooooooooooommmm. She came back eventually but the road is very close and I'm worried about her getting hit by a car so we won't be doing that again until she listens better and understands her boundaries. Here's some more video, listens petty good for 4 1/2 months.

Have her doing some other things, she'll fetch anything you throw and give it to you most of the time on command. That's tough one because the kids like to play tug-of-war and she always wants to play that. She's learning, take while to get some decent obedience.

DVC500_at_last wrote: and he had never been down a flight of stairs before.

That issue has resolved itself, she started going down them. Now she runs down them usually jumping the last 4 or 5.

Just an update... we're almost passed the I don't want to listen stage. She's doing quite well. I have her walking without a leash and she heals for the most part. Even saw a squirrel today and stopped when she was about to take off and I yelled. Her nickname is "Super Dog", she jumps everything. 3 front steps? It's one step for her... LOL She can just about grab a toy out of hand my almost shoulder height. Thinking about getting a frisbee and see how well that works. She fetches on command too. I'll have her sit then throw a toy. She'll sit until you command her to get it.

Funny thing on today's walk, there's two downward slopes at the river. We just go a lot of rain the last few days so it came up. She has this bad habit of running full ahead. So she ran down the first slope, hit the second slope but instead of the path going down to the rocks that was usually there nothing but water... Kerploooosh! Funny as hell because I could see her trying to slam the brakes on the last second.