Been awhile

What with work and Brian and the daily duties of puppy ownership, this blog has been sorely neglected. Remus is coming along slowly in some aspects, and rather quickly in others. I don't like babying dogs like they're, well, babies, but at the same I spoil my puppy rotten. I'll make two lists to illustrate what I mean.

Remus gets spoiled by:
1. I greet him every morning and fuss over him every time I get home from work.
2. Every once in awhile I feed him tiny bits of cheese as a treat instead of just doggie biscuits.
3. I feed him doggie biscuits way more than is probably good for him.
4. I wheedle with Brian to allow Remus out into the living room with us as often as is feasible.
5. I give belly rubs to Remus whenever he demands them. I'm a push-over.
6. After I scold him for doing something bad, I leave the room like I'm supposed to to make the lesson stick, but I usually can't manage to stay away for longer than 5 minutes.
7. I play with him as much as I can during my days off instead of doing anything else constructive. He's too cute to resist!

Remus does NOT get away with:
1. Chewing on the blinds, molding, or cabinets. It's a smack on the nose mid chew and some outside alone time if he does. He mostly doesn't anymore.
2. Remus is not allowed to nip, even friendly playful nips. It's a firm NO and a smack and me leaving the room if he does. He only forgets and nips when he gets excited.
3. Remus walks next to or behind Brian and I, not in front, there will be no leash wars.
4. Whining. He whines, especially if Brian and I are watching TV/movie, we check to see that he has food and water, and if he does, it's outside he goes for a good thirty minutes. We'll let him in and if he starts whining again it's right back outside. I think he's slowly getting the jist that being quiet lets him stay in the house.
5. Being dirty. He gets bathed, rinsed, or wiped down regularily. Plus the FURminator at least once a month, and I wipe the inside of his ears clean of wax.

Right now he's asleep (I was playing with him outside and wore him out). He's much bigger, a solid 52lbs when I had him weighed on Tuesday, so he's probably closer to 55lbs now. He gained 8lbs in 9 days. Finally he's put on enough weight so his ribs don't show beneath his coat- he was pretty darn skinny when we got him. I can still feel his ribs and he's definitely not fat by any stretch, but he looks a lot healthier. I think it's safe to say he'll be at least 70lbs by Thanksgiving. He's going through some sort of growth spurt while he's teething, he's eating between 6-7.5 cups of food a day. I'm going to have to take him to PetsMart again pretty soon to keep up with the socialization aspect. I'd love to take a puppy class, but Brian and I's schedule is just too irregular to make it to even half of the scheduled classes. He's bark is now a lot deeper, he sounds three feet taller than he is when he woofs. And he's woofing at things now when we leave him outside with the electric fence. He is also finally exploring the yard on his own. Puppy steps...

Training is ok. He does well when he pays attention to me, though I guess he is still young. He sits fairly regularily and down and stay. I think he knows what I'm saying, but some times he's just being stubborn. Still working on spin, dance, right paw, focus and freeze. Spin is the best out of all of them, focus and freeze he reacts to pretty much the same way, R paw is challenging, and he hasn't figured out how to jump up on me when I say dance. I don't practice that command much either, because I don't want him thinking he can do it any old time.

If we get into an environment where he's distracted or scared, I might as well be speaking cat, he definitely won't listen to me. Ah well, I keep trying...

Walks are tough, his stride is long, it's turning into more of a jog for me. He handles on the leash better for me than Brian, but he's getting better at that too. I think thats all for now :)