Sitting Pretty

There is no denying it... we have a BEAUTIFUL poodle. He is truly growing up fast and becoming a stunningly striking dog. We have people calling from across the street with we're out with him to tell us we have a beautiful dog.

15 weeks old, just from the groomer

My vanity is a bit bruised by the fact that the dog is far more striking and beautiful to the general public than myself. Playing 2nd fiddle to a dog is not something I'm used to.

He is learning "the walk", though he can't seem to manage it more than 5 minutes at a time, and he is still a bit obtuse about acknowledging his name. Still, he's improving... and too damn smart... and completely convinced of his own right to be catered too (trying to break him of that).

All in all, I'm quite enamored with our little black sheep... and I know he won't be "little" that much longer!

Bigger and Fuzzier, but no less puppy

Zeus is growing fast... and I do mean FAST. We will need to get another picture of him tomorrow on the park bench so we can have a record of his growth... WEED! He's Part WEED!

We have become less attached to the "no accidents in the house" as he ages.. of course, we are also not having as many... and a missed "half hour" no longer results in an automatic puddle. Zeus is also becoming more communicative about needing to go out.

One negative is that he's becoming a "nipper"... we're going to have to figure out how to stop that behavior before it becomes ingrained!

He is learning how to cuddle on the couch... I'm not sure that's a good thing.

Paper means Pee!

Zeus is doing fairly well. He still gets whiny when one of us (mostly Jay) leaves him in his crate or pen, even if the other (mostly me) is still in the room. If we are both there, all is peace. However, Jay has to go back to work and that means I'm on puppy duty.

Today, we went for a quick potty run out front, he squatted and then got interested in ice and a dog down the street. I needed to work upstairs, so upstairs we went. Our washer and dryer are upstairs just after the stair landing, and a paper towel had drifted there quite innocently. Well, Zeus was raised to piddle on shredded paper, so he sauntered over to the paper towel and -- produced more pee! I corrected him (without shouting or kicking or being mean) and out we went again, where he -- yes -- PEED again.

Our puppy is made of pee, curls, and dog biscuits.

Measure everything by success

photo from
http://thedogshamanblog.wordpress.com

I'm amazed at how "let down" I felt this evening when Zeus peed in the house this evening. I'm not sure whether I was more disappointed in us for breaking the "every 30 minute" routine because everything had gone so well today, or whether I was upset that Zeus didn't seem to give the "I must pee" signals.

I must remember that house training takes 2-3 weeks (on average) with diligent effort. We've only just finished 3 full days with Zeus in the household. As such, I try to look at the positive... we managed 40 hours without an accident! That's pretty good for a 10 week old puppy!

Great Expectations

Poor Zeus. He has such demanding parents.

Actually, we are a bit over demanding in some areas for a 9 week old puppy. It has been so many years since we had a puppy to traing, we'd forgotten all the challenges of House Training.

Oh boy.

Also, we have very long flight of stairs between floors -- which an adult dog could be expected to climb regularly, but a nine week old of a breed with the danger of hip issues?!? Not so much. We've decided to have Zeus climb the stairs only 3 times per day for now -- for each meal. His potty runs (every 30 minutes... ugh) will be a carry fest *groan*. When get gets over 20 lbs that's going to be a challenge. Of course, when he gets to 25 lbs he should be big and old enough to do the stairs without concern.