Reversal

Only one more month and life gets better. Saturday (2/5), Monte was eleven months old and we were guaranteed by his breeder that his behavior would instantly improve once he was a year old. We can hardly wait for the metamorphosis to occur.

We woke up later than expected Saturday morning, so we were forced to see how a fully rested Monte would behave meeting people. We usually follow the old adage "A tired dog is a good dog." Tempting fate, we were pleasantly surprised by our canine's behavior. He remained relatively calm and only a tad mouthy. The mental workout left him and his peers (Wilbur, Hailey, Gordy) exhausted. They all slept peacefully through lunch.

Monte is usually ecstatic when meeting youngsters. However, there was one girl in particular, we call her the Dog Whisperer, whose demeanor was calm and Monte behaved perfectly. He allowed her to massage him for a few minutes barely lifting his head. He is extremely perceptive of the energy of the person he is greeting. He feeds off the high energy and remains relaxed depending on who he interacts with.

Today, I decided that a break from routine would be interesting, so we reversed the route of our daily walk. Monte was more focused on me and my cues as we started out. By the halfway mark, he figured out what we were were doing and "took control" of our directions. As we finished through the park, we happened upon a difficult challenge. A pack of playful dogs was approaching, but he resisted temptation and kept on task with only a few glances back over his shoulder.

The biggest faux pas this week related to (not) keeping a watchful eye on your puppy at all times. Monte is exceptional about not eating dog food dropped on the floor. Apparently, he gets hungry during the day and considers an unguarded bag of food fair game. On Thursday, Lisa found him with his head buried in a half opened food bag. Not sure how much he ate or if he would have eaten the entire contents, but he obviously ate too much and had some short term GI issues. I don't think he learned a lesson, but we did.