On October 1st little Teeny Quini turned a whole 5 months old. That means she’s almost the age that I hate! For those of you who don’t know 7-10 months old is the most horrible time for a puppy. But for now, she is still a reasonably good puppy.
I think for her 5 month day I’ll list 5 things that we are working on with her to show what some of the issues are that come up when puppy raising. The strange thing is, Quinoa is a pretty solid puppy so she really doesn’t have a lot of things that we have to work on right now. And they are lab problems. Haha! I’m such a golden person.
1. Body sensitivity: Quinoa does not like her puppy jacket or her head collar. But she is getting much, much better about wearing them and walking politely at the same time. We’ve been making outings a bit of a game for her and she gets treated constantly so she is making great progress. The reason that this is a bit of an issue is because if she is uncomfortable with the jacket she’ll probably be uncomfortable with the harness and she has to wear the harness to work. And the head collar is just a tool that she may have to wear so she needs to be comfortable wearing it. I keep telling her that she just needs to walk in it. Which she is starting to do! I’m so proud of her.
2. Control: Quinoa is such an excitable puppy. Seriously. I’ve seen my fair share of puppies, both good and bad. And Quinoa is possibly the one with the least self control. She can’t control herself when someone says her name. She can’t control herself if someone walks by. She can’t control herself. Period. She’s such a funny puppy and you know, this is a maturity thing. But, she does need someone to teach her what it means to be in control of her little body. And you know, she is getting better and I’m sure as she gets older she’ll be better and better.
3. Bratty behavior: Oh my goodness. Quinoa is such a little brat. She HATES it when some dog else is getting attention in stead of her. She HATES it if some dog else gets to run around and be crazy and she doesn’t. We are working on her realizing that she doesn’t get attention all the time and that she doesn’t get to play every second of the day. My sanity would quickly disappear if that were the case. Again, this is mostly a maturity thing, but if she isn’t told that the behavior she is exhibiting is wrong then she’ll never learn. She is learning slowly but surely.
4. Garbage Mouth: This is so typically lab. She likes to put everything in her mouth and lately she’s been testing her limits. So, while she was never all that bad and still isn’t she is doing it more. And it’s only leaves. We finally got her to stop playing with rocks and pulling up grass. Now we are just working on a leaf here and there. Really, she’s only every touched a sock once and that’s because Rosie (my parents’ dog her best friend) was playing with it and when I told her “that’s enough” she dropped it and has never tried it again. Really, she’s a fairly easy puppy when it comes to picking things up because she doesn’t really do it. She’s never really touched something that isn’t her toy. So, why isn’t it OK for her to pick up anything she wants. Well, I can see what she’s eating but her future handler won’t be able to. So I can easily call the vet if she’s eaten something that may make her sick, but her future handler won’t be able to. And, seeing as her future handler will be blind or visually impaired it’s probably a good idea to teach her not to move their things like shoes, socks, etc. And if a potentially harmful thing were to be left out accidentally it’s good to teach her not to touch it. Safety first.
5. So…I’ve really run out of things that we are working on. Seriously, her issues are sort of small except for the body sensitivity thing. She’s just a good, pretty easy puppy to raise. She loves her sleep and is happy just chewing on a toy most of the time. And she’s unflappable. Seriously, she’s a very solid puppy.
I’m actually really enjoying her. She’s a very fun puppy and I think she’ll do great things in her life.
Erin & the Pack
A Study in Sight 