A Day Late

After just over a year, I’m now a dog owner again. I picked up the puppy last Friday thanks to the help of some friends. After much consideration I named him Kody. Kody is a yellow lab and turned 7 weeks old last Monday. He was a little shy/sad/nervous when I first brought him home but that didn’t last long. He got his first bath that night, with American Crew shampoo (it was all I had). He seemed to enjoy it and hey let’s face it, that crew smells good. After his bath he was very playful.

He’s definitely a smart little guy and loves to play. He tends to play hard and then drop over where he stands into a deep sleep. The house training has been going pretty good. He’s had a few accidents but on almost all of them I’ve been able to catch him in the process and take him outside to finish. I take him outside at least every 3 hours when I’m home. He’s to the point that he will immediately relieve himself when we go outside (when he needs to of course).

I’ve also been working on kennel (or crate) training him. That’s coming along very well. Up until now I’ve had to keep his kennel in the basement while I sleep, cause of the crying (I still wake up every 3 hours and let him out). Last night was his first successful night sleeping in my room in his kennel. When he gets puts in he’ll whimper initially but goes to sleep fairly quickly. We went to bed about 1:30am last night and he woke me up at 3:45 to go outside. I was expecting to make one more outside trip during the night but he slept until 8 o’clock. I actually had to wake him up and practically drag him out of his kennel. During the day, while I’m at work, he stays in the basement (which is unfinished). I sectioned off a fairly large area with some chicken wire and he seems to be adjusting to it well. He doesn’t like being left alone but he’s getting better. Usually one of my roommates is home during the day to play with him periodically. If they’re not I’ve been going home on my lunch break to play with him.

Like most lab puppies, if not all, he loves to chew on things. I bought him a few chew toys and such but it’s interesting that his favorite things to chew on are some old towels I had. He’ll play with his other chew toys too, but he definitely seems to prefer the towels. I’ve trained him pretty well that he won’t try and chew on me. Usually a loud “NO!” will get him to stop. Teaching him not to chew on other people is still a challenge. Anyway, he’s a cute little pup. I don’t expect he’ll stay little for long. For those who are interested, here are a few pictures of him.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 8th, 2004 at 9:43 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.