See Ya Later Alligator

Porter is losing his baby teeth and with that milestone comes an ever increasing need to bite. He's not just mouthing anymore, he's biting down hard and with his entire mouth. It's not a constant thing but happens when he's frustrated, bored, or hyper. I was hoping to bypass the whole alligator mouth phase, but it's hitting us hard now. Maybe it'll leave just as quickly.

Unfortunately bullysticks are not holding his interest. Maybe they are too tough for his sore gums? He'll chew them for a little while but quickly gives them up. I had to bring one on our walk last night since he was jumping up at me and trying to take out a chuck of my thigh. It really hurt! I don't care if he bites at the leash, but I'm a delicate flower.

At least he's getting better at kongs. He still leaves bits and pieces in them, which causes Indi to hover like a vulture, and he's able to stick with them much longer than before. I might buy some canned food so I can freeze it into a kong to really give his jaw a workout. I know he won't keep chewing until it's empty, but it might keep him happy longer.

Last night Porter started in a foundation agility class with my old boss and I finally got confirmation that he is on the list to start a puppy agility class with another trainer in November. I've been trying to get a hold of this trainer since before Porter came home but she's hard to nail down. She's well respected and very experienced (in additional to being an AKC judge) and uses the same training methods I do. And the bonus is she's least than 15 minutes away.

Saturday Porter and I headed to the annual FCR Fun Day. He saw his sister, Dinah, his mom, Hannah, half sister, Christy, and half brother, Honor as well as many other FCRs. There were a couple of other puppies there very close to his age and they all had a great time playing. We noticed that whichever dog was on top would grumble and growl while playing. It was all in fun but we broke up the wrestling when they got too loud to make sure everyone had fun and things didn't get out of hand.

Porter's sister, Dinah

Porter failed miserably at the hot dog recall game, but he was no worst than all but one of the dogs there. You toss a hot dog, send your dog to get it, and then call hem back and whoever has the most hot dog left wins. Most of the dogs sat down and ate the hot dog before returning :)

The next game was the wet t-shirt contest. It's a relay race and each member runs with their dog to the bucket, grabs a soaking wet t-shirt, puts it on the dog and rushes back. We lost, but Porter did amazing. He was such a good sport about it.

His t-shirt came off as we were waiting, so I draped it over him for the picture.

I was impressed that Porter managed to grab on apple in the apple bobbing game. After the game was over he went back for more and did very well. His prize was eating two apples.

Despite being a mouthy puppy, Porter was a perfect gentleman when I borrow a costume and dressed him up as the tin man (it was the smallest one they had and was still too big). So of course when I was at Old Navy today I bought him a costume for Halloween :) You'll get pictures of that one later.

Porter's shining moment was winning the puppy recall game.

The low of the day came when Porter started pullig toward his ex-pen and once inside became antsy and frantically started pawing at his face and rubbing his muzzle on the ground. The skin around his eyes looked puffy and as I asked around for Benadryl his whole muzzle started getting lumpy and swollen. In the short time it took to walk to the parking lot he looked like a Shar Pei.

Pre-sting

He really had me worried and the only thing that kept me from rushing him to the ER vet (who knows where one was since we were very far from home) was that a fellow Flat-coat owner who was there is a vet tech. If Tracy Kerns acted concerned or was worried about him then I would have freaked out. It was nice to know that someone who knew what she was talking about could look at him and tell that he was breathing ok and wasn't going into anaphalactic shock.

The Benadryl did the trick and about 45 minutes later Porter was back to normal. His lips were just a tad swollen still and since I finally calmed down I took his picture. You can just barely see his mouth is a little puffier than normal. I wish a had a picture at his worst but I didn't want to waste time getting a picture in case he took a turn for the worse.

Post-Benadryl

Last week Porter has his interview at Dog Days Ranch, which is a doggie daycare and boarding facility in town. The owner has been a client of my boss' for ages and the dogs are not kenneled. There are a few events that would keep us out of the house for longer than I want Porter crated so I thought this would be a good option.

We also had his first dog park visit last week. I meet a nice group of dog owners who were very welcoming. They come to the dog park everyday before lunch. I was surprised that Porter didn't play hard, but he did have fun sniffing everyone and playing mild games of bitey face with one dog. A 10 month old Rhodesian really wanted to wrestle but Porter only mildly agreed. He's not as nervous with his peers, but he still needs a little bit of time to warm up.

Our heeling work is coming along very nicely but on our casual walks Porter is starting to pull more. I think it's due to his legs getting so long and lanky. He's not frantically pulling, he just walks a lot faster than I do and eventually hits the end of the leash. One cute thing he does while on walks is if there's any water in the gutter, he puts his nose down and follows it like he's on a trail.

Since I've worked a lot on he heeling he's becomes a very one sided dog. Even on our walks he's on the left just due to the way I walk around the neighborhood. I tend to walk clockwise and he prefers to be closest to the grass and bushes. This is going to mess us up for agility so I need to even things out.