Phew, having a puppy is hard work! Things are settling down a bit now that I've got a schedule for Ryan. A couple of nights last week he was waking up at midnight (I was going to bed around 10:30), 4 and 6 am. The last two nights he slept from about 10:30 right until 6 - progress! I took him to the vet to be weighed yesterday and he's at 9.5 lbs at 8.5 weeks. I need to measure his height too - I swear I can see him growing! He is almost tall enough for Abby to hump now :D She keeps trying, but he's just too short.
The two of them play all the time now. Abby sometimes gets a little rough with the paw slaps, but Ryan seems to take it and can almost hold his own. He does circuits of the living room with stops under the table and the desk where he knows Abby can't jump on him. Then, when she isn't looking, he runs up to her, yaps in her face and runs off again. What a little brat! He's going to be trouble, that's for sure!
Did I say he hadn't cried yet in my last post? HA! This puppy is LOUD. He can make more noise than Abby! He yaps and howls and screams and cries when he isn't getting what he wants. He hates being held upside down, or restrained in any way really. We're working on that all the time, and I think he's made a little bit of progress. He yaps in his crate in the car for the first 5 minutes of the ride, but then quiets down. He definitely has a mind of his own and is pretty independent - he already goes off and explores parts of the yard where he can't see me.
He learned 'sit' and 'down' this week, and also what the clicker means. He catches on fast, but his attention span is about 2 seconds long! He can also go up and down the stairs in front by himself. He's had a few accidents inside when I wasn't watching carefully - just pee though. In general he pees as soon as he's standing on grass, and I don't think it will take too long for him to get the idea of house training. We're working on bite inhibition and I think he's starting to understand that when I shriek he has to tone down the biting. Abby is helping with that too - when he gets too wild she either grumbles at him or leaps up and walks away.
We've gone lots of places for socialization this week - the park every morning (although it's usually empty), the pet store, a doggy daycare (where he'll go when he's 3 months, and where puppy classes start next week), a busy coffee shop, a skateboard park and a kid's playground. I'm working really hard at this, so hopefully he'll be used to lots and lots of strangers and dogs and the noisy city. So far he seems a little wary of bigger dogs, but I'm sure he'll get over that when he's a bit bigger himself, and when he starts class/daycare. He is also scared of people holding objects when they try to pet him (ie. little boy holding bike helmet). I'll have to carry more strange objects around the house and practice calling him, and then get strangers to do the same thing. He'll approach anything for a piece of liver, so that makes things easier.
His schedule during the work week is a walk from 7:00-7:45 (off leash at the school field with Abby) and then running around the house and a bit of training from 7:45-8:05 while I get ready for work. He's in his xpen with stuffed toys, a potty box, his crate, kongs and a treat dispensing toy from 8:05-12:00. He gets about a quarter of his meal stuffed in kongs and the other toy. I come home for lunch for an hour and we play in the yard and the living room, then I'm gone again from 1-4:45 or so. He gets another quarter of his meal in the toys for the afternoon. When I get home we go out right away to meet people/dogs in a new place. Abby comes in the car and we usually stop to play fetch on the way home. They both get their dinner at around 6:00, and I haven't let Ryan have any water the past few nights past about 8:00. I've also kept him up after a short nap right up until bedtime, and that seems to have done the trick for getting him to sleep all night.
Tomorrow the annual CAPPDT conference is being held nearby so I'm going to go over there and check out the marketplace. I'm still waiting to hear whether dogs are allowed inside and I'll definitely bring Ryan in if they are. Abby starts agility next week so that will also be a good socialization opportunity.
Off to enjoy the sweet, cuddly, sleeping puppy!
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