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.

5 Weeks Old

I had a great visit with the puppies this week. I left the family at home so I could concentrate better on the puppies. My daughter wasn't too thrilled with this, but the pup will be home soon enough and she'll get plenty of face time. My friend, Madeline Gabriel, and her family came up to visit, so the puppies still had children to interact with.

I braided a tug toy and brought it with me along with a huge bag of good stuff like last time. Last visit the puppies were too tired and only played with the toys a little bit. My homemade toy was a big hit! Several of the male puppies were grabbing and tugging with it (the girls are not allowed to tug since it could mess up their hunting work, but they were able to chew on it). And the adult dogs (mom and half sister, Christy) loved it as well.  Madeline's boys played fetch with Christy over and over again. I warmed my heart and really made me look forward to a dog who just lives and breathes to retrieve.

Another big hit was the rabbit and suede tug toy that my client Marilyn gave to Indi. Her dog, Lulu, just wasn't interested in it. Mom, Hannah, was obsessed with it and if I didn't zip by bag of tricks well enough she fished it out :)

Candy also told me that instead of her picking out the puppy she is going to let us decide (and I am first in line!).  Yikes! So much responsibility!! I have been really good not to form an opinion yet or get attached to any one puppy in case he wasn't the one chosen for my household. But now I really need to think about it and decide quickly. If I had to choose right now with no other input I'd bring home Mr. Yellow. He seems to have been the most adventurous and confident so far. The only down side is he's larger than the rest and Candy thinks it will be heavier boned. So for agility that is not ideal.

The great thing is that next week Teresa Rodney is going to evaluate the litter for agility potential. She had FCRs herself and competes nationally in agility with her dog Sprint. She also does field work as well. I'm looking forward to what she has to say and her opinion will weigh heavily on my decision. 

 

Hannah is such a great mom

Future Agility Stars!

Since this litter was made to produce a great field dog, Candy has been introducing the pups to decoys, wings, and such.

4 Weeks Old!

Now that the puppies are bigger and exploring more of their environment, Candy has been introducing more items for them to interact with. She has a cat tunnel for them to crawl through and built a very tiny ramp for them to climb. These dogs are well on their way to becoming agility champions!

Miss Pink thought the ramp was a great place to rest.

Yesterday we visited the puppies. Even though Candy has been sending pictures almost every day, I was still amazed at how much they have grown. Mr Yellow is around 7 pounds (at 4 weeks) and to put them into perspective Indigo was just over 3 pounds when we brought her home at 8 weeks of age. They have their baby teeth now but luckily are not chomping down too hard. Although they do love to really bite down on each other which results in much squealing. This is a really good thing though since it will help them learn bite inhibition which is critical.

The puppies were napping when we went over but woke up a little bit to try out the wobble board I brought over. They also loved chewing on the milk inflation (rubber milker) and a few were fascinated with the raccoon tail. They were pretty beat though so they mostly slept. If they are active next time I'll get some cute videos.

Here are the pictures I was able to take. Most of the ones I post are Candy's pictures.

Day 26 & 27

Anyone sick of puppy pictures yet?  No, of course not.  How could you be?!  These are just the cutest little things ever.  And it's only going to get worse once our pup comes home :)

House training and crate training already?  Woohoo!

More sibling rivalry

Day 27

Yesterday, Day 27, the puppies were taken outside for the first time.