He's got legs!

Would'ya look at the legs on this guy?? They are growing so much faster than the rest of him right now!

Raising a Puppy = No Time for Blog

So I guess my plan of tracking Ryan's puppyhood in this blog has kinda failed since I've been way to busy with him and Abby and everything else to write anything at all!

Ryan is now just about 5 months old and is starting to act more like a dog and less like a puppy. I'm liking him more every day - I've decided I'm not much of a puppy person. I liked him all along, obviously, but now it's finally like I got the dog that I wanted so much and not just a bouncy ball with sharp razor teeth in a little furry suit. I haven't done much 'trick' training with Ryan. We work on practical things all the time, though - loose leash walking, waiting in doorways/crates/the edge of the sidewalk, sit, down, stay, leave it, out. He graduated from puppy class a month or so ago and we're now doing a puppy agility class. We've gone to that twice and we're learning to touch a target (not so hard since he already knew a hand touch) and doing the tunnel and chute and table. Ryan loves the tunnel and is able to find the entrance even when it's curved away from the direction I'm calling him through from (if that makes any sense). In between the puppy class and the agility class we went to a few Rally-o classes but I ended up doing the courses with Abby and just taking Ryan out in between turns to meet the other dogs and practice paying attention to me with stuff going on. He's been going to daycare once a week and that has been great for his confidence around other dogs. Now he runs up to pretty much every dog and throws himself onto his back in front of them.

I'm still doing flyball and agility with Abby. Both are going really well - I'm completely addicted to flyball and am going to try and continue it when I move back home. Abby gets it now and I don't even have to have her on leash at practice. She stays in a 'down' until it's her turn to run even with all these ball crazy dogs running past her. I hope her good behaviour continues in the fall...she's been doing so, so well lately. She's been fine with all the guests we've had over and I haven't felt like I have to be super vigilant. She goes right up to most of them and demands a back massage! At agility she has been very good about ignoring the other dogs, and she's been just amazing at flyball. I really like the agility classes here and I think my handling has improved a lot this summer. It's nice to work in a big, open field. We do a lot of front and back crosses and I'm finally teaching Abby proper targets (nose touch instead of just the 2020 stance so she'll be able to do them without me right there). We went to a 4 hours distance mini clinic on Sunday and got lots of good tips there. It'll be hard to move back to doing agility in a tiny indoor facility in the fall...

Tycho came out here to visit us and he and Abby were soo excited to see each other! Ryan was pretty excited to meet Tycho, too, but Tycho didn't feel quite the same enthusiasm.

Ryan is almost as big as Abby. Abby is about 18" at the shoulder and Ryan is about 16-17" this week. Abby weighs 28 lbs and Ryan is probably about 24 lbs though I haven't weighed him in a long time. He has a nice silky coat now - no more puppy fuzziness. I've been told he'll have a medium rough coat and I'm hoping that's true - the less grooming the better! I'm not sure if his ears will prick. They aren't mini ears anymore like they were when he was tiny, but they aren't huge and floppy. His left ear stood up at the beginning of June for about a week and his right ear stood up 3 weeks ago for about a week and now they are both kinda airplane ears. We'll see what they decide to do. His freckles are really dark now and everybody comments on his beautiful colouring....they also all think he's a cattle dog mix because of his ticking. I guess no one has seen a ticked Border Collie before! In the past 2 weeks Ryan started getting some adult teeth. He now has all adult teeth in the front on top, and a few on the bottom in front.

Ryan is completely (knock on wood) housetrained now and has been for quite awhile now - at least since he was 3-4 months. He sits by the door and whines to be let out. I'm not sure how long he would sit there before he went off somewhere else to pee since I never test that out. He's pretty good about not puppy biting. When I get home he goes and grabs something to carry around or else I shove something (other than my dirty socks..which he loves) in his mouth. He'll go to his bed now from across the room when I tell him to and he stays there when I tell him to, although I have to remind him that he's staying there every few minutes unless I give him a bone to chew on. He still hates being held down on his back and makes the most awful noises when I do it to him. I should work on it more often...he doesn't really fuss about it, just makes that terrible noise. He also screeched his head off while getting a bath in the yard this weekend. The neighbours must have thought I was murdering him. Abby thought so, too. She started screaming at me to try and get me to stop torturing him. It was quite the racket.

Ryan's still eating kibble instead of raw like Abby because I like to do training with him at mealtimes and I still stuff his breakfast in a kong for him when I go to work. I think I'll put him on raw eventually but for now kibble works well. He seems to be allergic to chicken in kibble, though, so he's on lamb. He got a rash all over his belly when I put him on chicken kibble.

Speaking of raw, our entire freezer is filled with llama right now. One of the professors keeps llamas on his property and we killed one for a project. I got to cut up an entire leg for Abby - she is one happy and lucky dog! It was her birthday yesterday. She's 3 years old - wow! Time really has flown by.

Ears!

I'm too tired to write much of anything tonight so I'll just get straight to the pictures. Ryan is almost 12 weeks and his ears are starting to do some funny things!

The puppy is getting big!

The sleeping through the night continues! We had one lapse where I caved and gave Ryan water right before bed. Big mistake and it will not be repeated! Other than that, he sleeps from around 9:30-6:00 every night, and then lies in his crate and chews on a bone from 6:00-7:00, when I've been getting up.

This week was full of lots more socialization, and we've still got plenty to do. We went to the pet store a few times, and to the university campus. Abby's agility class was this week and there is flyball tomorrow. We also went to an agility trial all afternoon.We have to work on meeting lots of other dogs since Ryan is still nervous of them. He growled at a lab puppy that we met today (that was very in his face, but no excuses for 10 week old Ryan!) so he definitely needs to meet/play with some pups his own age! We also need to work on resource guarding prevention every night, I think, since he tried to guard a chicken back from me last night. Also toenail trimming and grooming, since he'll probably have a rough coat and will have to get used to being brushed.

This morning we went for a really nice walk/hike. Abby ran the entire time - she was so full of energy! Ryan didn't have to or want to be carried at all. He walked for the whole hour and only flopped down for a couple of breaks (one of which happened to be into a gopher hole!).

I'll have to measure him again. He must have gained at least 3 lbs - he feels really heavy when I carry him! I'm not sure whether I can say he's better about being restrained on his back. He still puts up a huge fight, but I think I can probably get about 10 seconds of quiet not compared to none before. He really isn't very cuddly but I'm hoping that has to do with how hot it is out...I want him to learn to love cuddling! This week he learned 'leave it', 'out' and 'touch' (the palm of my hand). Abby is working on touching a target to improve her agility contacts. I'd better get on that tonight - it's my homework for Tuesday!

So Tired!

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!