Voodoo caught a bee on his first potty trip outside this morning and got stung in his mouth. I didn’t see at first what happened and thought he was choking on something. Looked like he was trying to spit something out and couldn’t (as he was running in circles), but when I caught him, I didn’t see anything in his mouth/throat and he seemed better . It wasn’t till he then tentatively went back to the spot where he got stung and sniffed that I saw the bee and realized what happened. Thankfully, no allergic reaction of any kind and within about 60 sec. he was back to play as usual.
He is growing! I’ll measure him again at 10 weeks on Saturday, but we can see he is clearly taller. He’s also getting faster and more coordinated and is now able to keep up with Dazzle when Dazzle is trotting (puppy at full run) which he couldn’t do before. His stamina is increasing too 🙂 I’m sure that may be a curse soon LOL But at least with him I have Dazzle to help wear him out (which I didn’t have when Dazzle was a non-stop puppy).
We did a session on “take it-give it” this morning (didn’t get video) and he was doing well with take/tug and give, but it might be a bit before he has the “bring” part of a retrieve 🙂 I’ve been calling him when he has a toy, hoping he will bring it when he recalls, but so far no luck. He drops it and then comes running.
He had a blast in the basement again and figured out where the loose piles of straw allowed him to get ON the bales! I lifted him down, but he is definitely part monkey! Dazzle was having fun running around the course without touching the floor where Voodoo was chasing him, but it won’t be long before that high ground won’t save him 🙂
I have caught Dazzle sniffing Voodoo and wagging his tail a few times. I think he wants to play and he has teased him with a toy briefly a few times too. Just little glimmers of play so far, but I don’t think it will be long. They have been doing better than I ever could have hoped so far! <knock on wood> Dazzle lets him take his toys right out from under his nose and even the bully sticks! He doesn’t care if I’m training the puppy and is happy with just a few treats at the end of the session (if he wants any at all). And Voodoo is SO respectful of him! He barks at him because he REALLY wants to play with Dazzle, but he respects his space for the most part and the few times he’s crossed the line, Dazzle has very appropriately corrected him. Hopefully they will have good play established before his puppy license (to do as he pleases) runs out.
He sleeps on the A/C vents all the time and has often barked and flopped around in frustration when the vent is not blowing cool air 🙂 But he is gaining heat tolerance and is able to play outside much longer before “melting”. He figured out shade is cooler pretty quick too and has sought out the baby pool to wade through to cool his feet and get a drink.
He’s still struggling with how to tell me when he needs to go potty. I think he understands that he’s supposed to go outside, but when he’s contained in the office with me, he doesn’t know how to tell me when he needs out. I get a little whine about 2 sec. before he squats, so I have been very attentive to that little whine 🙂 When I get up fast enough, he is able to hold it till he goes out. But sometimes he whines and lays back down to go back to sleep (just readjusting) and other times it means he is bored. So we’re both still learning. I may try some bells. I have stopped giving treats for potty outside and just use praise because he was no longer emptying himself completely, in order to get the treat faster. Not saying anything when he starts and just giving praise when he’s done seems to be working better. 🙂
He slept through the night again last night! VERY thankful for that! I don’t recall having a puppy that started doing a full 8 hours through the night so young! But I haven’t tried having the puppy sleep in bed with me with any of my other pups. Not sure if that made a difference, but it made MY nights much better not having to listen to puppy barking and howling till exhaustion set in. Voodoo is VERY comfortable in a crate, any crate, so that helps as well! Thank-you to Erin, his breeder, who did crate work before sending the pups home!
Raising a Genius Puppy 