The pluses and minuses of doggie parenthood
I think Chewie is the smartest dog in the entire world. I realize that some of you who are dog owners may disagree. I think all "parents" are probably a bit prejudiced about their own "child".
Chewie's repertoire now (at just under 6 months) includes (and he's *pretty* consistent with all of these):
Sit.
Lie Down.
Shake. (He even offers his right paw.)
Slap me eight. (If you crouch down and hold your hands up palms facing him, he jumps up and hits your hands with his paws.)
Sit up. (I swear he's a freakin' acrobat!)
Speak. (He either growls or barks.)
We need to work on things like "stay" and "heel" a bit more. He's still pretty jumpy/frisky on the leash because he's excited about the change in scenery. Robert's been trying to teach him roll over. HE doesn't seem to like it much-mostly because one of his favorite games is "Chewie's a Turtle!" in which he lies on his back flailing his paws in the air (variations include "boxing turtle" where he bats at our hands and "snapping turtle" where he gets a little overly rambunctious and tries to play bite our fingers.)
Chewie's also doing much better with housebreaking for the most part. He went several days without an accident. Yesterday and today he's had a couple of little accidents around the house. He doesn't have accidents in his kennel much anymore either. He was having a "bedwetting" issue of sorts for about a week or so, where we thought we might have to start over with paper training, but he seems to have realized it's not fun to sleep in pee. He's getting neutered this week. We're hoping that might help with some of the pee accidents he does have as some of them are so little (and happen right after he's taken a really big pee outside) we think they might be marking and not accidents because he has to go. We know his snowman toy will appreciate it-that's really the only thing he humps most of the time. :)
Chewie's repertoire now (at just under 6 months) includes (and he's *pretty* consistent with all of these):
Sit.
Lie Down.
Shake. (He even offers his right paw.)
Slap me eight. (If you crouch down and hold your hands up palms facing him, he jumps up and hits your hands with his paws.)
Sit up. (I swear he's a freakin' acrobat!)
Speak. (He either growls or barks.)
We need to work on things like "stay" and "heel" a bit more. He's still pretty jumpy/frisky on the leash because he's excited about the change in scenery. Robert's been trying to teach him roll over. HE doesn't seem to like it much-mostly because one of his favorite games is "Chewie's a Turtle!" in which he lies on his back flailing his paws in the air (variations include "boxing turtle" where he bats at our hands and "snapping turtle" where he gets a little overly rambunctious and tries to play bite our fingers.)
Chewie's also doing much better with housebreaking for the most part. He went several days without an accident. Yesterday and today he's had a couple of little accidents around the house. He doesn't have accidents in his kennel much anymore either. He was having a "bedwetting" issue of sorts for about a week or so, where we thought we might have to start over with paper training, but he seems to have realized it's not fun to sleep in pee. He's getting neutered this week. We're hoping that might help with some of the pee accidents he does have as some of them are so little (and happen right after he's taken a really big pee outside) we think they might be marking and not accidents because he has to go. We know his snowman toy will appreciate it-that's really the only thing he humps most of the time. :)