Hawk's Schedule

8/4 Lake Mills
8/12 CCSDA Training

November 9, 2009

Happy Three Month Birthday ...

... Neva, Sonny, Maddi, Finley, Casey, Sparta.

A three month old puppy reminds one to keep expectations low and not to get overly excited about random successes. Puppies are not very good at generalizing and, like mutual funds, past performance is not always indicative of future behavior.

We thought we were moving in the right direction with housebreaking. We forgot to inform Neva of this. She either didn't try to wake us or we didn't hear her and she made us a present during the night. Accidents provide a teaching moment, so the bad part is that we missed an opportunity to guide her and show her the proper location to potty. We learned not to go to bad until she potties, no matter how late it is.

After tackling stairs yesterday, we decided to try the basement stairs. She wouldn't get within three feet of them. The ones at the dog fair were outside and open while ours are closed and a bit steeper. She would not ascend or descend our stairs- I carried her.

Tonight was Neva's first puppy class at The Dog Den in Madison. I mention them often because the are so supportive of our OccuPaws guide puppies. They allow us to attend their training classes free of charge. Our focus tonight was GO PLAY, WATCH, and SIT. It's funny that Neva is very good at WATCH and SIT, but needs to practice GO PLAY.


NOTE: I forgot to mention last week that we had Banjo for two months and there weren't any medical issues. He was our first healthy rotation.

This will not be repeated as we noticed that Neva is missing her canine teeth on her left side - very strange. The upper one is just starting to poke through, but no trace of the lower. It's always something, except with Banjo.

No comments: