Pool Party

Yesterday Porter hung out and chewed his bullystick while I watched my daughter and some neighborhood kids swim. He even got a chance to get his feet wet and did great. It must have worn him out since he fell asleep chewing his bullystick. I know he's still really sleepy from being so young, but it was so nice to have a dog in a new and exciting environment with kids screaming and playing and the dog doesn't mind and can relax at my feet. I'm hoping this continues and next week will start working on his mat work to make sure this becomes a habit.

The highlight of the day was seeing Indigo and Porter really play. Indi has been trying to get him to play all along but she's a bit overwhelming for him so it mostly ends up being her bouncing around and pawing at him while he rolls over and wonders what is going on and occasionally squeals and seeks my comfort. But last night he was finally feeling frisky and started mouthing her back and played a good game of tug. Indi really needs to learn to be more gentle with the poor guy. He's going to have shaken puppy syndrome! It was wonderful to watch Indi trying to engage him in play and to see her so happy.

Each time he took a nap yesterday I placed him in his crate and more often then not he just settled down and went to sleep. Any protest on his part was just a half hearted whine before curling up.

Last night I slept downstairs again but a little farther from his play area. He settled down quickly and slept for longer stretches but still stirred several times during the night to which I responded with a quick potty break. Unfortunately once outside he prefers to settled down on the soft grass and go to sleep! At one point he did pee once in his play area so after that I put him in the crateinstead. Surprisingly he was ok with it and spend the rest of the night in just the crate. After his 4:30 am potty break I tried putting him back to bed instead of getting up for the day and he complied! Since I had to go to work this morning I fed him around 6:30, but I was impressed he remained quiet until then.

He hardly made a fuss on the drive over to work and settled down in his crate nicely. I was pleasantly surprised when I returned to the car from unloading my gear that he was still settled and not panicked that I left him. He was such a good boy while I was teaching my puppy classes and mostly chewed his bullystick or her floppy water bowl (must remember to bring a normal one next time). He asked to get out once so I brought him out to demo for the class and put him right back in his ex-pen.

His favorite part was getting cuddles from my friend Sandy and 4 girls who has puppies in class. After classes were over and the girls left he promptly fell fast asleep and did not make a peep on the drive home.

His people socialization totals are looking good. He's only been home just over 3 days and has already met 33 different people. Tomorrow he will meet 6 more plus another puppy! His soon to be BFF Chase the Aussie is coming over. Chase is only 3 or 4 days older than Porter and his mommy is a trainer as well. We are going to keep each other on track with our training and work through Sue Ailsby's Training Levels together.

My goal for tonight is for Porter to sleep completely in the crate downstairs (no access to his play area) with me on the couch. If that is successful I will take the crate upstairs tomorrow to replace the plastic one up there that he does not like.