It seems like just yesterday when I picked up Taver, but in truth it's been a good 5 months now. I researched and studied than sat on a waiting list for what seemed like eternity. Finally after almost a year the day arrived! 20 lbs of love coated in puppy fur, all sweet smelling and freshly bushed, walked like a pro to my truck, never once pulling at the lead. Surely there could not be a sweeter, smarter pup in the world.
Fast forward to now. Hopefully the worst of his alligator days are over. I no long feel like I have to have a chew toy in my hand before interacting with him. We've graduated from puppy manners and puppy obedience and have moved to obedience 2. Good thing being cute gets us a long way in class. It's really neat to watch the light bulb come on when he figures out what the silly human is trying to get him to do. It doesn't hurt the process at all that he is definitely food motivated.
It's been great to do all this training work. Even if he gets his puppy crazies on occasionally at home, he's generally very well behaved out in public. I took him out car shopping and he made lots of friends. When I went back the salespeople were disappointed that I didn't bring him again. I think they wanted him to distract all the kids that were there. I probably should have but it would have taken forever to get anything done. He absolutely has to say hello to everyone under 4 ft tall.
We didn't make it through Obedience 2. He decided I was boring and my job made it very hard to get to class on time. In an effort to refocus my budding young teen we've gone back to basic class
. He'd still rather play then work but at least he's decided class is fun again. There seems to be this weird line between to hard and boring. And only Taver seems to know where that is. The only thing that is never boring is water. A bowl, a puddle, a lake, a pool, it just doesn't matter.
Here what I think is the best picture I have of him
Fast forward to now. Hopefully the worst of his alligator days are over. I no long feel like I have to have a chew toy in my hand before interacting with him. We've graduated from puppy manners and puppy obedience and have moved to obedience 2. Good thing being cute gets us a long way in class. It's really neat to watch the light bulb come on when he figures out what the silly human is trying to get him to do. It doesn't hurt the process at all that he is definitely food motivated.
It's been great to do all this training work. Even if he gets his puppy crazies on occasionally at home, he's generally very well behaved out in public. I took him out car shopping and he made lots of friends. When I went back the salespeople were disappointed that I didn't bring him again. I think they wanted him to distract all the kids that were there. I probably should have but it would have taken forever to get anything done. He absolutely has to say hello to everyone under 4 ft tall.
We didn't make it through Obedience 2. He decided I was boring and my job made it very hard to get to class on time. In an effort to refocus my budding young teen we've gone back to basic class
. He'd still rather play then work but at least he's decided class is fun again. There seems to be this weird line between to hard and boring. And only Taver seems to know where that is. The only thing that is never boring is water. A bowl, a puddle, a lake, a pool, it just doesn't matter. Here what I think is the best picture I have of him
