Well the big four month mark has come and gone and other than losing a few teeth everything is going great. I had my official weigh on my four week birthday and I am 13.5" tall and weigh 17.8 lbs. Yippee! I am growing. Dr.Kim is very happy with my weight gain and overall growth. Mom went home and put the numbers into the computer and Diane sent back a chart with all my brothers weights and heights to see how we all compare. Ummmm.....looks like I am the wee baby brother now. I am not far off so maybe in the next growth spurt I'll catch up. Here's what it looks like....
Puppy
Weight
Height
Arson
17.8
13.5”
Chuck
21.8
15”
Decoy
20.8
14.75”
Motor
22.2
15”
Owen
24.1
16”
Trapper
26
16”
Now that I have the official stuff taken care of lets move onto fun things. I have graduated from Beginner Obedience classes with flying colors and now working on my Groundwork Agility class which is way more fun than learning rules. I have a new friend, Wicked, a Golden Retriever puppy. She is four weeks younger than me but I think we will be forever friends.
This photo was a rare moment that we were sitting still because mostly we like to wrestle.
I have also made in roads with Slice. She now likes to eat chewies next me...
Hey Sibs! Just dropping a line to touch base and see how my bros are doing. My life gets busier by the week! Not sure how I keep up this pace! We get going at 5 am and keep going until 10 pm. Monday was working with mom in the daycare, obedience class with Auntie Amanda (mom is teaching the class) and then Groundwork Agility class with my mom. Super tired at the end of that day let me tell you! Yesterday was another daycare day as my best friend Pippa, a mini Aussie pup, was in attendance. We are exactly the same size and play together all day. I have another good pal, Bailey, a border collie, she works at the shop too so we see each other everyday.
Well lets just say when the three of us get together I’m exhausted at the end of the day. Yesterday I just couldn’t play anymore so I found a couple of places to chill out and watch the room. My mom thought I looked super cute and the camera comes out. Good grief that woman and her pictures. I don’t even care if my eyes are open in pictures anymore! You’ll see from the pictures that there was no way even Bailey could entice me to chase her. Phew!
Last night was my first official leash walk with the family. Just like a pro! Now that the weather is nicer and I’m a bit older we will apparently be doing this a lot.
Gotta run, my peeps are waiting. Catch you on the flip side bros!
Well I am 14 weeks old now and growing up quite nicely. I have finally been able to get Slice to play with me. Well she really prefers the game where we chase each other around. She is pretty fast but one day I'll catch up. All I know is mom keeps hollering at me to be careful when we are playing. Pint and I play all the time now, usually wrestling matches in my cozy bed in front of the fire.
I now weigh 16 pounds and stand 13 1/2" tall. I think I am the smallest of my brothers but my mom says I have a lot of growing to do. One of my favorite spots to sleep is under the coffee table. Not sure how much longer I am going to fit there.
When I am not sleeping under the table you will often find me curled up in my dog bed keeping an eye on the room. Need to make sure nothing fun happens without me.
Just for fun my mom wanted to see how much I have grown since I came home so let's take a look.
As you can see, Porter is a little more accepting of me these days. You can tell because his ears are up and he doesn't look as disgusted with me. Okay, the truth is, the only way we can sit beside each other is if there is a treat at stake. I'm okay with that.
Let's see how big I look next to the Papillons now
My mom was at another agility trial today. Once again, banished to my prison. Okay it really wasn't all that bad. I got to meet lots of new people and charm them with my good manners and how much I love my mom. There was even shopping! Like my mom, I love to shop and picked out three new toys!
After a long day, mom decided she would have a nice relaxing bubble bath. I get to hang in the bathroom with her so I don't get in trouble. Well, this is the first time I have seen a bubble bath. Usually i just stick my head in while she showers and let the mist hit my face. Of course I usually knock something off the ledge with my big paws too. Anyways, so my mom gets in the tub with all these lovely smelling bubbles which peaked my curiosity to say the least.
I had a lick of the bubbles and kept trying to play with them. Mom was ignoring me while she was talking on the phone to my dad. So I decided to join her in the bath...
a boy's gotta smell good for the ladies you know. Well she screamed a little bit when I jumped in and i realized the water was a little warm and after a couple minutes jumped back out. I think this is where the whole episode wasn't cute anymore. Flooding the bathroom with water wasn't very funny, or so she thought anyway. Personally, I had a fabulous time!
Look at me and my family! As you can see we are all getting along very well. This picture was taken when we went for a walk at my first agility trial. We were only there for the day so Slice and Pint could run in a fundraising event for their trip to Belgium. Porter and I stayed in the van but got to get out and visit lots and go for walks. On this walk, I was allowed off leash with the Papillons. Porter isn't allowed off leash as he always runs away. I was a good boy and walked right beside my dad the whole time. Every time I checked in I got a cookie.
I really hope I don't have to stay in prison to watch agility for much longer. I really want to play. Here hoping the sad puppy dog eyes get me out of this cell.
I did it! I made it to my 12 week birthday! Let's party! Bring out the cake! Okay maybe some of you aren't quite as excited about that as I am but this means more of the world is opening up to me. I get to go more places and do more things!
Lets' recap what happened in week 11.
Now that I am a little bigger, weighing in at 12.3 lbs, I get to spend more time in the daycare playing with other puppy or really any dog that will play with me. My favorite game is getting them to chase me so I can see how fast I can run. Sometimes I even launch into the air to jump on things to throw them off my trail. It's pretty funny. The only bad part about the puppy silliness is sometimes I do funny thing and they are caught on video. It can be a little embarassing. Case in point...the video below. I was playing with my new border collie friend, Rayne, when I thought I was being super sneaky running into the pack of dogs only to be met with the fence first. No worries, I bounced off and kept playing. Won't make that mistake again!
Of course the trade off for playing is helping my mom with office work. I find accounting particularly boring so I chose to have a nap instead of reading all those numbers.
I've started to develop funny little habits and my own personality. My mom thinks I am pretty cute no matter what I do. She does spend a lot of time laughing at me. My newest trick is to do a full body stretch when I get out of my crate before we walk anywhere. The clincher is when I look up adoringly at my mom. She is a sucker for that! I must say it does show off my figure nicely.
Like I said, if all I do is look up at my mom (or anyone else for that matter) with a tilt of my head and my melt -your-heart brown eyes, I can get a treat anytime.
I have settled into the house and the daily routine. My favorite time of the day is breakfast and supper. My mom put me on some new food and I LOVE IT! Before I would play around while eating and investigate my sibs food (by the way, that is not allowed) but now I just about do back flips for my meals. I have been watching Slice lately and see that she jumps in that air to get higher than Porters head in order to get her treat. If your taller your more important she told me. No problem, I can do that. So I have started the jump in the air like a papillon hoping to get my treats first. No such luck. I think she just wanted to get me in trouble.
It has taken me a while to find my favorite resting spot but now I have a list of three; my mat in front of the fireplace, on the arm of the couch beside my Mom and the Papillons or sleeping with my Dad's slippers. Any one of the three places is great for a long nap but sleeping next to my humans is my favorite.
My biggest accomplishment of the week was finally getting my brother Pint to play with me. Once again, caught on video. This is the first time we have really played and the best part is we played all day! I have to be careful as my teeth are still really sharp, so no nipping at the wee dog. Good news is, looks like my big boy teeth will be coming soon. Hopefully the next video you see of Pint and I will be outside. Apparently, we are creating a little too much ruckus in the house.
It was inevitable that it was going to happen but I was really hoping that it would be a lot later in my life than 10 weeks. You guessed it the first bath. Apparently, I was kind of smelly. Not sure who was the judge of that because I thought I smelled pretty darn good. My opinion clearly didn't matter and off to the tub I went.
As you can see I wasn't so happy about the tub.
Out comes the water. I am thinking that I shouldn't have seemed so eager to get in the shower with my mom the past two weeks. Now she thinks I love the water. I won't lie it wasn't as bad as I thought. The get clean with soap part not so cool but the water was pretty fun.
Once I was all cleaned up, I got out of the tub, toweled off and laid in a crate with a chewy while I waited for the blow dryer.
All I can say is who would stand willingly while someone blows are on you? Not a huge fan of that but I made it through. I am super cute and smell so much better!
The day took a lot out me, so the first thing I did when I got home is went to my cozy spot in front of the fireplace. My sibs all sleep on the couches but i prefer this spot. Toys, chewy, a furry mat and the fire, who could ask for anything more?
So it would appear that if I want to continue getting treats and toys I have to go to school. Something was said about "you can't rely on your cuteness forever". Last night was my first class of Obedience and I was a star if I do say so myself. I threw out a new behavior for my mom to see and she didn't think I was very funny. I thought that if I demand barked for treats while the teacher was talking it would be funny. Apparently you don't get treats for that, only ignored. I quickly figured out that if I laid down quietly I got lots of treats. I am the youngest puppy in my class and pretty much the smartest. We won't go into the cuteness factor because that is a given. The instructor even used me to demo how to charge the clicker, how to teach your puppy its name for recall, hand touch, watch and sit. Yeppers, I am pretty smart. Seeing as I learned a lovely down last night, it is my default behavior right now. Whatever gets me treats is what I use. This weeks trick I need to master is ringing the bells to go outside. I am pretty sure at going to a door to go out but not always the right door. All four of us, me and my peeps, are learning the bell. So far I would have to say Porter is getting the most treats because he is super awesome at learning new tricks. I just have to figure out how to ring the bells before him!
As you can imagine this week has been full of learning lots of new things. The biggest learning curve came at home where I had to learn how to fit into the pecking order of the house. My cuteness will only get me so far! I know how to ask to go outside but don't always go to the right door. I eat my dinner when it is put in front of me instead of racing around after eating each piece of kibble. I sleep through the night in my crate without any accidents. I get to stay on the bed with the family in the morning if I cuddle nicely. I don't jump on Porter (that was a big lesson). I don't steal snacks from the Papillons. I can cuddle with the Papillons if I lie still. They actually like to cuddle with my warm furry body. We can play fetch with just about anything in the house except for slippers, socks and underwear. If I sit like a good boy I will get a piece of whatever my folks are eating. I even know how to eat of a fork and a spoon. For the record, Pint sucks at that part, my dad told me so.
This is the toy box! What better place to take your bone to chew. Nobody bothers me in there and I can be with all my favorite toys.
I have been working my magic and this is how close I can get to sleeping with Porter. If I keep learning my manners and show him some respect I am pretty sure in another week I will be curled right up to him.
As you can see, I have already figured out how to cuddle with Pint. If I lie very still, the little ones will cuddle with me because I can keep them warm. How cute is this?
This is how cute I am on the couch. Really, who couldn't love me?
After a sleepless night, the alarm went off at 5:00am and I was ready for my new day. Blasting out of the crate and ready to absorb whatever comes my way. I was so excited in the morning all I could do was whine and carry on while mom got ready. My dad had a day off so the big kids stayed home and it was just mom and I off to work. Well who knew going to work could be so much fun? My mom owns a doggy daycare and I get to play with dogs all day and follow her around! AWESOME!
I met lots of new people today that told me how cute I was and they all wanted to cuddle and love me. Because I am still a baby I wasn't allowed to play with too many dogs until I get more vaccinations but the ones I got to play with were so much fun. I played and played and played.
Another big outing today was a visit to the veterinarian for a meet and greet. I had a little check up and was such a good boy. The girls at the clinic all wanted to take my picture and I got lots of treats. No wonder I don't want to eat my meals my tummy is always full from all the treats people keep giving me.
My mom has started clicker training with me and so far I am a quick study. The things I have learned today...
* my name
* recall
* retrieving
* wait
Tonight when we got home I discovered the toy box which is Disneyland for dogs. So many toys, so little time. I have found a few favorite but my biggest discovery was the television. I kept stopping what I was doing to watch what was on the screen.
As the evening came to an end I was getting tired and mom and dad couldn't keep me up anymore. I found my way behind the couch and fell asleep.
I'm finally in my new home and couldn't be more excited.
Monday was a very long day in my crate and on the plane but I survived and was super happy to see my mom's happy face when the brought my crate out to her. She even had snacks ready for me. Once she cut me out of the crate i got a quick romp and then back in the car to head to our house. That didn't make me very happy but all the snacks through the door sure did!
When we got home I got to run in the back yard which was covered in fresh fluffy snow! Yippee!!!! I could hear barking coming from inside the house so I stopped and stared and wondered when they would come out. Before my mom opened the door she said, "okay little man, be on your best behaviour, here come your family". All righty then, I was ready. First out the door was the biggest dog I've ever seen, Porter, he is the boss of the house, I picked that up right away. I went politely over to him and let him sniff me then turned and walked away and sat and waited for the next one.
Arson and Porter
Next out the door was Slice. Yippee she is smaller than me and someone to play with. Well we quickly established that my feet will go no where near her head. I am going to call her Miss Bossy Pants for now. Pretty sure she will warm up to me real soon.
Slice and Arson
The last member of my new family is Pint. Guess what he is smaller than me too. He said we could be friends as long as I don't touch his stuff or go near his dad. Deal, I told him. That is easy to fix I figure. So Pint and I had a little play outside in the snow. Oh yeah, he doesn't really like it when I roll over top of him. When I get a bit more coordinated that should be easier to control.
Pint and Arson
Once we got inside and it was dinner time my new sibs thought I was the coolest kid on the block because I have different food than them and it came out my mom's hands. Instant friends. We started playing a new game called the "turn game". When mom says your name you get a treat and nobody else is allowed to reach for it. How easy is that? Even at 9 weeks old I figured it out. Now we are all best buddies when the snacks are around.
After a little explore around my new house and a little play time it time for bed. As you can imagine, I wasn't overly happy about getting back in a crate to go to bed. I screamed and screamed and screamed until the morning. That certainly didn't earn me any bonus points with the household so its a good thing I'm cute.
After weeks of waiting and watching all seven boys grow into rolly polly little fuzz balls, I got my phone call last night to let me know which lovely little boy would be mine. On March 5th, little Zip will be coming to our family and starting his life as Foxgrove's Ignite Your Soul or Arson for short.
The excitement is building as we wait for our bundle of joy.
Let's have a look at our little boy so far.... one hour old, Zip is the red collar
one day old
5 days
13 days old
21 days old
3 weeks
4 weeks
5 weeks
Maybe I am a little biased but I think he is super cute. Can't wait to bring him home.
The boys have been growing like weeds and mom has been getting extra food to keep up with the feeding demands. They are now eating solid food and Sassy is getting her body back.
As we get closer to bringing the new baby home, we are watching how each pup is developing his own personality. It is still up in the air as to which one will join our family but they are all really cute. Nike
waiting on the scale for the official number
