Rest Day, Still Working

On his seventh day in our home, Hobey rested.  No outings, but we did make it to the park to meet others.

We have been working hard to establish routines to foster an easy transition to housebreaking.  Our human training to get him outside before/after eating, playing, or sleeping has been completed. Next we need to transition the responsibility to our charge and train him.  Unfortunately, this will involve some failures.  It is difficult to have a puppy completely understand housebreaking requirements without a couple teaching  moments.

In addition to shuttling Hobey outside twenty-five time a day, we have been attempting to translate his language:

Howl - Usually occurs immediately after being placed in his crate, this clearly means "I want to get out of here." After some time, which has been decreasing, this ends with a sigh and acceptance that he is there for the duration.


Crying - This has two known meanings.  The first is when standing by the door or after spending time in his crate, "Get me out of here I need to potty."  The second is when he is not allowed to dictate our route or when separated from a friendly person.  A third meaning has been evolving when we began rewarding housebreaking-like behavior and returning inside when asked to COME; he now crys to go outside to play/rest and get a treat.

Bark - This usually occurs when other dogs are around and translates to "I want to play" or "What is that?".  However, he sometimes barks at inanimate objects during play when frustrated by their lack of cooperation or intrigued by their strange noises.