So I guess Hank day has been unofficially moved to Saturday, as I haven't got around to posting on Fridays of late. Ah well. Anyhow, here's a photo.
Why is a dog who isn't supposed to be on the furniture, lounging on the couch, looking ever so smug? Because in our weakened states, neither the constable nor myself have the energy to constantly be fighting him off. Which is what you have to do. Constantly...fight. Frack! So as long as he's quiet, content and not bugging the living daylights out of us as we lie in pathetic heaps, he has free range at the moment. I realized last night though, as he was curled up next to me on said sofa, that he finally wormed his way into the last bastion of sanctuary that I had here in, what I affectionately (no, not really) term the Postage Stamp. That's about the amount of space that we're living in. While Hank would still bring his gooey, slobbery, disgusting dog toys to my lap while I was sitting on the couch, he could never entirely engulf my being. Now he can. As soon as I have my strength back, I have to put things back the way they were. He's not going to like it, I can tell.
Hank is four months old now. He's starting to look like a big boy, isn't he? He's getting some big boy teeth and sadly, he's losing his fuzzy puppy fur. It's being replaced by this lovely, shiny and wavey adult coat. And as you can see from the photo, his one ear has popped up...again. His face looks very grown up in that photo, although in real life, he still looks pretty young.
He starts puppy school next Thursday and not a moment too soon. We've been very fortunate so far that he's stuck pretty close by us, so we've taken him out into our yard for his business trips sans leash. The other day though, he ran out onto the road in front of the house after another dog, the first time he's done that. And he's been really bad about coming inside when he's called. Also, he's getting pretty defensive when other dogs are around, especially if he's on his leash, with either my husband or myself, which is a little worrisome. I've heard that if they feel the need to protect you, they don't respect that you're in charge. I'd hate to think that at four months, he considers himself the alpha dog. So a little training might go a long way. I hope. I'm probably not being as consistent as I should be or am not teaching him the right things. Hank is definitely the kind of dog that needs stuff to do, and the more you teach him, the better off he is. He goes positively apeshit when he's bored. His favourite game is hide and seek. Hubs and I took him to a little nature walk/trail near here one day when the snow was still fairly deep and fresh, and there's a little clearing with lots of trees where we let him off the leash and played hide and seek with him. He loved it! You can't hold him long enough for the other person to hide, he gets so excited. He runs full tilt from one to the other. It's pretty cute.
Hank has a bedtime now too. We used to just put him in his crate whenever we went to bed, and if one stayed up later than the other, then whomever came to bed last would tuck in the dog. Then we started noticing that Hank, while sleeping late in the evening, would wake up and get very antsy. He'd go from one spot to the next, flop down, get back up, wander around, come to us, look at us, go somewhere else, flop down and continue to do this for a little while. Then we noticed that the later he stayed up, the more times he seemed to want to go outside, without any results. So I started putting him in his crate around eleven o'clock. And a couple of nights, right around that time, he'd wake up from his napping place near the door, come and look at me, almost as if to say, 'Ma, is it time for bed yet?'.
So the other night, around eleven, I called Hank over and told him it was time for bed. He happily obliged. I noticed that Rosco, his big stuffed dog buddy who sleeps in his crate with him, was on the other side of the room (sometimes Rosco comes out to play too.) So I said to Hank, "Go get Rosco!" and he wandered over to where Rosco lay, grabbed him by the snout and dragged him into bed. It was the cutest damned thing I ever did see. Last night, again around eleven, the hubs and I were lying on our respective couches watching Sports Center (guess who had control of the remote) and Hank was doing his little antsy circuit. It looked like he was headed for the futon, near where his crate is located. I said to him, "Is it time for bed Hank?" and he did an immediate detour and went right in his crate. By the time I got over there, he was all settled in, ready for his bedtime neck scratch (wherein I remove his collar and give him a little scratch). It's a nice way to end the day, with a little cuddling and petting and telling him he's a wonderful boy. Especially when that day has been filled with chewing on the zippers on my clothes and goobering on my furniture and knocking over everything on the coffee table and chewing on the pillows on the couch and well, you get the idea. Cuz really, at the end of the day, he is a wonderful dog.
4 comments:
I know how you feel! Luckily Jewel doesn't sit on the sofa very much, or for very long. She's happier on the floor. She was going in her kennel good for awhile, but now it's hard to get her back in it again. She has to go in at night and if no one is home.
She's settling in well, too, but she's doing a lot of jumping up on me now. She still "bites", too, but not quite as much as she did. I'll be glad for school to start. She's started giving the cats a hard time. The youngest cat is actually being the most sociable around her, but half the time I think he's too scared to move! She goes Monday to be spayed. I hope she doesn't think she's being put back at a shelter again...
He's lovely! I hope you get the alpha dog thing sorted out. My sister has an akita/malamute cross, he's 14 now, and she's spent his entire life proving that she's the alpha dog, not him. I can remember her throwing her entire body on top of him and saying "no, Mikey" more than once when he was younger--she basically had to pin him to the ground to prove she was boss (since he outweighs her, it wasn't always that easy!). And I'm still not sure he's completely convinced, although he's much more easygoing that he was, in his old age!
I love the one ear up stage. He is certainly growing like a weed!
Be careful letting him loose in the yard. As you can see, it doesn't take much to distract them and then they are out on the road. The training will really help. Our Mags was always taking off and we eventually used the electric collar to train her to come. We had it on level 3 of 8 levels so it wasn't very strong. It worked wonderfully and she will even stop chasing rabbits when we call for her to come. And we haven't used the collar for years. But if she starts to wander off, then back on goes the collar and she gets one reminder and she is fine again.
Oh, that Hank. What a charmer he is. Puppies are a LOT of work, aren't they? Especially ones who are large, like mine.
It will be really helpful once you start his classes and will be especially good for him if he is with other dogs. That socialization with other pups is so important.
You are doing a great job!
Glad to hear you are feeling better.
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