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I'm underslept, but overall things are going great, and we have started to graduate from going out every couple hours to only once or twice in the night.
He had a little bit of loose stool his second day, here, which I was assuming was diet changes, but turned out to be giardia. He's on meds for that and we've put the canned pumpkin right to him, which has helped. The bright silver lining to that dark cloud has been that with all the very frquent outings, day and night, he was very quick to learn what "take care of business" means, and he's also (by day two) very good at letting us know when he needs to go out! He signals by pacing and crying and/or jumping at the door.
He's super-duper snuggly, and if one is sitting on the floor, he will come climb onto your lap and curl up like a cat!
Outside, he is alert and watchful, barks at passers-by, (we are using these opportunities to learn "speak" and "enough" Generally I'll tell him "Good 'speak!'" When he starts barking, then tell him "Thank you" and then "Enough" and distract him. When he pauses when I say "enough" I then praise him.
He's a little timid about new things, but not coweringly fearful, he paces and trembles a little when he's uncertain, with ears rigidly up, but he's getting better and better about it. Our main goal these initial weeks has just been socialize socialize socialize. Lots of outings and walks and car rides everywhere, and I alternate between walking him alone, and walking him with our elder dog, Maiyou. When walking with Maiyou, the fact that she could care less about any of the "scary" things (big trucks blaring by, nativity scene in the park, etc...) is a steadying influence on him and she sets a good example of expected behavior, (sitting and looking to me for a signal at crosswalks, etc...) Then when he and I are walking alone we work on some basic leash manners and requests along with basic exposure to the big-wide world and looking to me for direction when he's uncertain.
Overall, I'm a bit tired, but giddily in love with our lil brindle boy!
My 5 year old son has been very good about taking direction with proper behavior around and with the puppy and they enjoy playing together.
Jon, hubby-to-be, is good at listening to training advice and helping to reinforce the language and responses we'll use, but has also voluntarily said he'll let me handle the brunt of handling and training since I'm the one with more experience. (Awesome.
)When we begin some puppy classes with him in a few weeks, the plan is for me to be handler, but the family to attend classes together so we are all on the same page with expectations and language. (Which will be good for both hubby and child, so that a lot of the "rules" and training guidance are coming from and being reinforced by someone other than just me...)
Moko's crate is in the kitchen, and it's been pretty well puppy-proofed. So at night or when unsupervised, as I said, he's in the crate, but he also gets some loose-play in the kitchen during the day if he's been out recently and we're around. Often, if we're in the dining room for dinner, he'll drag his towel out of his crate over to the gate and then lay on it there, where he can see us.
We're having fun with the new addition, and while Maiyou, for her part, isn't exactly smitten with him, she's being very tolerant and good about giving him clear signals when she's annoyed by him. Yesterday marked the first time she even deigned to initiate some play with him!
Question about ears... I'm used to shepherd and ears going up and down and up and down... "Crash and stand" But I've never seen them curl back before? Just the past couple of days, Moko's ears, while still very upright, have started to "curl" backwards just at the tips? Anyone else seen this before? The left one, in particular almost looks like it was rolled over a curler. Took some photos that I'll post from work tomorrow.
