Entry tags:
End of Week 2
Has it really been another whole week? It doesn't feel like it, but my computer tells me it's Thursday again.
I'll try to get some pictures up in the next couple days. I swear he's twice as big as he was two weeks ago.
Progress:
Indoors or outside, if I have his attention, he's reliable with sit and wait. I can put his dinner down and leave the kitchen (still in sight, but on the other side of the puppy jail), and he'll still wait for the "Okay!" to go and eat.
He's getting better about not snarfing down every bit of trash and mud and wood we encounter. Not there, yet, but significantly improved.
He lets me sleep 6 hours in a row (most nights) in my own bed. Last night it was only 4 hours before we needed to go out, but then I got another three, after.
No accidents in over 24 hours. (And all the ones we had this week were daytime piddles that I could have prevented if I'd listened to him.)
Frustrations:
Still operating on a sleep-deficit.
Still dealing with pica on walks.
More aggressive nipping during play. We're gonna work on that right away, but I need to find a different strategy. There are two types of nipping. 1) A single nip when he's being petted but not completely relaxed - a typical puppy nibble. It isn't something where I can withdraw attention, because by the time I do, he's already done and moved on to chewing on a toy, so then I'm punishing chewing on a toy. 2) When we're playing in the gym, he's started "nipping at my heels". I stop running and turn my back, and he starts tugging on my jeans. He's only done this twice, but the second time (yesterday), he got my calf pretty hard. I'm going to a) stop playing tug-of-war at all with him, and b) keep doing the back-turning, and see if that works. I'll give it a few days. If it doesn't get better, I'll figure out something else.
I'm still struggling to find a routine that will meet his needs, and still let me have a life, but things are definitely getting better.
I'll try to get some pictures up in the next couple days. I swear he's twice as big as he was two weeks ago.
Progress:
Indoors or outside, if I have his attention, he's reliable with sit and wait. I can put his dinner down and leave the kitchen (still in sight, but on the other side of the puppy jail), and he'll still wait for the "Okay!" to go and eat.
He's getting better about not snarfing down every bit of trash and mud and wood we encounter. Not there, yet, but significantly improved.
He lets me sleep 6 hours in a row (most nights) in my own bed. Last night it was only 4 hours before we needed to go out, but then I got another three, after.
No accidents in over 24 hours. (And all the ones we had this week were daytime piddles that I could have prevented if I'd listened to him.)
Frustrations:
Still operating on a sleep-deficit.
Still dealing with pica on walks.
More aggressive nipping during play. We're gonna work on that right away, but I need to find a different strategy. There are two types of nipping. 1) A single nip when he's being petted but not completely relaxed - a typical puppy nibble. It isn't something where I can withdraw attention, because by the time I do, he's already done and moved on to chewing on a toy, so then I'm punishing chewing on a toy. 2) When we're playing in the gym, he's started "nipping at my heels". I stop running and turn my back, and he starts tugging on my jeans. He's only done this twice, but the second time (yesterday), he got my calf pretty hard. I'm going to a) stop playing tug-of-war at all with him, and b) keep doing the back-turning, and see if that works. I'll give it a few days. If it doesn't get better, I'll figure out something else.
I'm still struggling to find a routine that will meet his needs, and still let me have a life, but things are definitely getting better.