Ladies and Gentlemen, we have reached adolescence.

There are two things that I have read about when it comes to adopting a puppy: one is the adolescence phase, and one is the honeymoon phase.

These can be marked by misbehavior, and just general brattiness. But it can cause even patient dog owners to have adopter's remorse, and sometimes even return the dog in question.

I have realized that not only has Miles reached adolescence, but the honeymoon phase is officially over.

This has been marked by sleeping less, pulling the leash more when we walk together, INCESSANT barking, an unhealthy fascination with catbox snacks, and doing things like eating my knitting.

I have been working on a sweater for the past two weeks, and I looked away for one second, and there was a portion of it in shreds. This is what it looks like now:



It took quite a bit of repair, but it looks better, and with only a few snags, which I can live with (because they're on the wrong side, as opposed to the right side, which you are now looking at).

I have chosen to take this as an educational experience and have been working harder to not leave things out in the open for him to get. I now keep all of my knitting in a laundry basket, and keep it on top of the washer.

The barking...oh my goodness, the barking. He barks at everything. I mean, everything. We have to keep the door closed because he barks out the door. We have to keep the curtains closed because he will bark at the window. He has taken to barking at the television today.

We have been trying to work with him, but it is hard to get a dog to stop barking. The reason for this is that barking is part of a dog's instinct - dogs will bark when their protective instinct kicks in, and there's not much a dog owner can do to fight that. Dog owners sometimes take the route of debarking surgery, but I am of the opinion that it's as cruel as declawing a cat - which is to say, way too cruel to even consider. So, we are going the training route, with the "shush" command, and it's not working so much at the moment, but I'm hopeful.

In spite of all of his crazy bratty antics, which I must admit are few and far between, he still makes me laugh pretty much constantly. I also have to put into perspective that he's only six months old, and that if we continue to be diligent in his training, then he'll continue to be a great dog.

Next up for us is clicker training. We aren't going to start doing it until we absolutely know what we're doing - if we're not careful and educated in our approach, then we could reverse the training we've already done with him, at which he is now a total champ. I actually am really excited to start it - I think it will take him to a whole new level as far as his training is concerned, and we will be able to get him to do adorable things, like smiling on command (which is something we've REALLY been wanting to do), rolling over, all that other good and fun stuff now that we've mastered things like wait, sit, down, come, etc.

So, the next chapter will be exciting. We've got lots more to cover, and we will continue to learn more about Miles every day. He's such a good boy.

Miles Graduated From Puppy Class, and the Effects of Neutering

Yay! Watch this video:




We finally made it! I have to say, puppy class had its moments of being totally frustrating, but all in all, totally worth it. It was just as much a class for me as it was for him - I learned that consistency is key, and that focus on me as his owner (particularly with leash walking) was the most important part. And she was right - if I could get him to focus on me, I could pretty much get him to do anything.

What's next? Either Obedience I (which might wait a little while so that we can do some work with him first), or clicker training. I'm thinking the latter might be more effective, but we'll see.

Also, his neuter surgery went very well, or so I thought. He endured the 10 days with a cone (which, we found out, only about 5% of dogs need...lucky Miles!) and all was well.

Then, one of his sutures came outside of his body. I'm not even really sure how that happens
(they're supposed to be dissolvable), but it did, and it got infected. In the research that I've done, it says that it can take weeks for stitches to dissolve. Another stitch has come out, so I am hoping that with the antibiotics and healing, we'll just be able to pull this new one right out eventually.

Anywho, that's about the only change. He's still the happy, energetic boy that we love, and maybe a little more mellow, but not much. :) Which is exactly how I like it. Does he feel like hell on wheels sometimes? Are you kidding? Of course. When I bring him to work with me, I'm absolutely exhausted by the time I get in my seat to actually, you know, do work. But he makes me laugh pretty much constantly, so it's a good tradeoff. :)

He's such a good boy. :)

Remembering.

My grandfather passed away this morning.

When I think about dogs, my mind has always gone immediately to my grandparents - they had dogs the entire time we were growing up...cocker spaniels, in fact. They had another dog when I was young named Sheba, but I don't remember what kind of dog she was.

When my grandmother passed away, my grandfather was so lonely. The summer after my first year of college, I lived with him, but I knew that would only be a temporary abatement to how terrible he was feeling. Shortly after the next school year started and I had moved out, my grandfather decided one day that he wanted a dog. So, that very day (hey, when his mind was made up, his mind was made up!), he looked in the paper and went and picked up Sam.

This is Sam (Picture courtesy of my cousin Nicki):


If there were a picture in the dictionary of the human-animal bond, it would be my grandfather and Sam. They talk about dogs finding their "person", how our animals actually pick us, and not the other way around, and these two were a perfect example. Sam NEVER left my grandfather's side for a minute until he went into the veteran's home. He came into my grandfather's life at a time where my grandfather was so in need of a companion, and Sam delivered, and then some.

There are so many things about my grandfather that I aspire to in my own daily life, and actively practicing unconditional love, every day, is the big one. My grandfather always showed so much unconditional love for his family, both human and animal alike. Sam was only too happy to give that right back to him, and so much more. I can only hope that we are growing that bond with Miles every day. If we are successful, then and only then will we be good pet parents.

Sam, you're such a good boy.

Could Miles be part cat?

So, it's no secret to the two of you who read this that I am an avid knitter. Miles has been phenomenal, actually, about leaving my knitting alone. He has had the occasional time where he has been bratty about it, and there was that one time he totally ruined a knitting project that I was working on, but it was a Christmas present for Christmas 2010 that I was working on right after we adopted him, which was in April. So, in all reality, I had it coming.

Regardless, there was a particularly hilarious instance today, and it looked like this:


There have been other hilarious instances too. We've pretty much been laughing constantly at him the past few days (who am I kidding? We're always laughing at him), like the time yesterday when he tried to dance with the vacuum cleaner, or this time:


Rob is on vacation this week and I was at work, VERY much in need of a laugh, and Miles was only happy to oblige.

In other news, Puppy class is going great. We practiced polite leash walking in the last class, which went very badly in the class, but he's been practically perfect at it ever since, being that we are actually teaching him how to walk on a leash in a way that is effective.

The main thing that I want to talk about, though, is baby teeth. Miles had not lost any by his second round of vaccinations, but that was normal - he was only about 3 months old at that point. Then he started losing his front teeth shortly after, and over the course of this weekend, he lost three of his canine teeth. I want him to lose his fourth, or not, because he looks absolutely hilarious with one canine tooth. He is also chewing less right now because he can't (as evidenced by the fact that he is currently gumming one of Rob's soccer shoes), but we know that is about to change REAL fast.

The one thing that we have found that helps him are wet washcloths, rolled up and frozen. He could literally chew on those for hours. He's pretty low-maintenance - I know some dog owners who get their dogs teething toys, and I definitely feel like it's just not necessary. The washcloths are perfect because they both ease discomfort while he's teething and give him a challenge.

Another positive byproduct of him currently being practically toothless is that he eats slower. But we'll deal with the fact that he scarfs his food in another post.

We will leave you with that, and go let Miles enjoy the last 12 or so hours of his manhood. He's such a good boy.

A TMI Post about Peeing and NARBs

If you don't want to read about TMI things regarding dogs, then this post is not for you. I am bringing both of these things up today because he has done them both today and they are fresh on my mind.

The first thing that I'm going to talk about is excited peeing. Miles doesn't do it in front of me, or in front of Rob, for that matter. He does it when he's in front of people that he doesn't see often, or for people to whom he is submissive. He doesn't pee much, and the doggy day care lady (for whom he is submissive), Christine, says that it will likely pass after he is neutered. T-Minus 9 days. We call them the sprinkles. According to this article, he will likely grow out of it - it's most prevalent in puppies, because they don't have full bladder control until they are a little older, sometimes even up to a year old. He does it most when he is excited to see people - for instance, my father-in-law this afternoon, all over his shoe and driveway. He's generally pretty good about not doing that, though, unless he gets really excited...AND, there's a new thing that he does when he's REALLY excited that just recently developed in the past couple of weeks - he SMILES! Much like this (except more subtle and less vicious looking - photo courtesy of http://gotsmile.net):

Anywho, he's pretty adorable when he does it, and we try to praise it so that we can get him to do it on command. He knows that it's not a bad thing so he's doing it more often, which ABSOLUTELY cracks me up.

The next thing that I'm going to talk about is a little crass, but it's the NARB (look at #1 and #3 to get what I mean). This happens at two specific times:

1. After breakfast. What can we say, he gets overly excited by food.
2. When he's really, really excited. Like, every time I pick him up from daycare.

It also sometimes just happens when he's just sitting there. He'll start whining every time, as if to say "WHAT'S HAPPENING TO MEEEEE?" He just waits it out, and then he's fine. This will likely also stop happening once he is neutered, so we're not too worried about it at this point.

In other words, our Miles is growing up! He still cracks us up every day (for instance, right now, while he is seemingly trying to build his own little fort out of a cardboard box)! He's currently about 40 pounds - our vet says that once he hits six months, his growth will likely slow significantly (and it has already started to - he's gaining about 2 pounds per week currently, slowing from 4-6 when we adopted him), and he will be at approximately 2/3 of his total weight at that time. My guess is that he's going to be 56 pounds, all told. It could be a little more, but I'm holding fast at the 56 that I put in the family pool. :)

Our favorite thing is to introduce Miles to a new sound, because when we do, he does this, from side to side:

He's such a good boy.