Happy 12 Week Birthday

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.

First Bath

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?

First Day of School

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!

The end of my first week

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?

  

The Daily Routine

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 Home

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.