Friday, June 04, 2004

JOEY'S FIRST PUPPY PLAY GROUP!

Joey went to sleep last night in the Puppy Palace and didn't wake me up to move from the couch to the bedroom last night! I ended up getting us both up to pee just at the crack of dawn, then to the bedroom to sleep until 8:15 a.m. Wow!!

He ate breakfast well and even offered a very cute sit for brekkies! He then barked and play bowed to BJ in the living room. He really wants to get BJ to play with him. After breakfast we went out to the big backyard to do some walking on leash. Joey got clicks/treats for catching up to me (Tami's liver treats). At one point, he flopped into a down, then got up into a sit and straight-away gave me eye contact! Yay! Starting to see offered behaviors! The styling gel that I applied last night is really working nicely. I can see his precious eyes much better.

Marian and Sydney came for a lesson and Joey napped in the big outdoor crate during the lesson. He woke up just when we finished, just in time to wipe the sleepies away and gear up for his first Puppy Play Group.

The Group:

Marian and Sydney (16 month old Pap)
Chris and Jorja (18 week old Corgi)
Kitty and Sam (her husband) with Timmy (14 week old Border Collie)
Plus Marcus and BJ, Havanese adults

OH what a whirling mass of running and wrestling puppies! Sydney led those boys on a merry chase all over the yard. When the group first started running, BJ was actually following along at a slow pace but he soon retired to his role of overseer. Joey and Marcus had a ball playing Roll the Corgi - Jorja (like a little barrel) just rolls so well! Jorja loves the water and she would play and splash in the pool between races around the yard.

Joey spent quite a bit of time jaw wrestling with Timmy the Border Collie. Despite Timmy's bigger size, they really were nicely matched in play energy. Kitty successfully called Timmy out of play and to give her attention several times. I do hope Joey and I can get some name recognition training so that next play group we can work on that a little bit.

Whirling mass of herding puppies with a bunny-Pap leading them in a chase! How much fun is that! I can only guess that all puppies involved slept soundly on the way home. Joey immediately crashed in the Puppy Palace. I made up his lunch but he was sound asleep before I could even get it to him! And he didn't wake up until almost 5 p.m.

NOTE: I will be adding some photos as soon as the person who took some sends them to me.

The mailman drove up in his mail truck during play group and I took advantage of that opportunity to take Joey out to the truck and have the mailman hold him and cuddle him.

Joey would only eat a little bit when he woke up so we went off to do some errands - car trip to the post office and feed store. At the feed store he was cuddled by the man who works there and petted by another fellow. Once home again, he still did not want to eat anything. He's been resting and playing softly near me in the office and is again about to drift off into nap time.

Later: I tried to pick the sleepy puppy up and hold him a bit on my lap and make him drowsy with petting or T-Touch. Again, all I seem to do is stimulate him when I try to calm him. I finally gave up and put him in the Puppy Palace to go to sleep. It's very discouraging when everyone tells you help him drift off to sleep, use your hands to put him to sleep, and so on. The minute I get near him with my hands it becomes too stimulating for him.

Joey slept a bit while I went outside and raked grass and played fetch with Marcus and BJ. He was just waking up when we came inside. I took him outside on leash to the backyard and we did a little bit of walking on leash with click/treats using Natural Balance. Finally he understands that those bits I hand him are for eating! This is a nice change indeed. We did a little tuggie on a fleece thing and a little eye contact then came back inside.

The neighbor that I share a driveway with drove up in a big noisy pickup truck. He and a buddy tossed railroad ties off the truck onto their front lawn. Since that made some interesting noises, I click/treated Joey a bit. I then let him off leash to play with Marcus a bit while they were running the diesel truck and flopping ties onto the ground.

Because it was now 9 pm I wanted him to have some quiet time yet not necessarily back to sleep. Again, there just seems to be no way I can be near him and yet have quiet time. I don't mind the play-biting and all of that in the way that the average pet owner does (though I sure have a very clear sense of why they can't stand it). What bothers me is that I do not want to over-stimulate him as happened the other night yet there seems to be nothing we can do together late in the evening when he's not quite ready to go to bed.

People Joey met today:
3 women, three men (two of them held him and cuddled him)
Dogs Joey met today:
Sydney (Pap), Timmy (BC), Jorja (Corgi)
Novel sounds:
diesel truck, railroad ties being tossed to the ground
New sleeping place:
crate in the yard
Eating for today: only one real meal

Concerns:
Finding a way I can bond with him yet keep him relaxed



Thursday, June 03, 2004

JOEY SLEEPS IN!

What a wonderful little guy Joey is! He woke me at about 6 a.m. to go out to pee. He's so good at this. I put him down, he pees, I pick him up, we're both back to bed in under 2 minutes. He fiddled around in his crate a little and went back to sleep. He woke up wanting to play at 7:30 but I wasn't ready to get up nor willing to have one of the dogs dictate when I get up so back to sleep for everyone! I get a kick out of BJ and Marcus, they always look so hopeful. Then they see me go back to bed and resign themselves to going back to their spots.

Joey fell back to sleep and we all got up at 9:15!! Wow! How many "new moms" can say they got to sleep until 9:15?

Joey at a great breakfast probably almost the 1 c. amount he is "supposed" to be eating. He also had a couple of rounds of upside-down-puppy and was completely relaxed. Good! I'll be more careful not to get him so stimulated late at night.

Tomorrow is the first meeting of Joey's puppy playgroup here at my house. I am offering a free puppy group so as to have some puppies for Joey. He will be the youngest in the group. I may not put him in the group tomorrow as we do not have enough name recognition for me to call him out of play so we may just watch from the sidelines.

We had one visitor today, my friend, Janet and her two Bichons, Bugs and Taz. Janet, of course, cuddled Joey. Taz and Bugs were quite interested in getting playful but Janet needed to get home so that was cut rather short. It was pretty funny seeing Joey, the black and white herding dog, surrounded by four very miniature "sheep" (the two cream colored Havs and the two Bichons).

Before lunch I did a little training session with Joey on eye contact. This is the first time I can actually claim we did *real* training. He has the absolutely cutest little tuck sit you ever saw. Very tight, very square, adorable. Though I wasn't asking for sit, he wanted to sit for each eye contact. I was able to get some clicks for eye contact *before* he sat.

Joey's little tufts of hair on his stop make it hard to see his eyes. His eye patches are very black and his eyes are very dark. Tough to pick out! I'm going to get some styling gel and stick those hairs up out of the way when I do a training session. I used Tami's liver treats. He actually eats those but we are quickly running out of them.

Joey had a huge long afternoon nap after which we went outside for some play time. This was VERY hilarious! Joey and Marcus started to play wrestle. They were really getting into it when BJ came along to split them. I noticed a "poot ball" hanging off BJ's butt so had to take him to the hose for a butt rinse. BJ absolutely flips out when he's released from anything to do with grooming (hose, brushing, bathing, anything). BJ scraped his head and back all over and Joey thought this was pretty interesting so he started in a-leapin' over BJ and on him.

Oh my! I wondered what this Grandpa Dog was going to do about that. Ha! BJ got totally frisky and chased Marcus round and round the yard, something one does not see very often. Joey tried to catch up but just couldn't catch the two Havs running as fast as they were. Pretty cute!

Joey had a car ride to the post office for some more sleep time, then to two different stores. He slept the whole time, came home and wanted to play with the Havanese boys again. I headed that off as it's about 9 pm and we are going to work on CALM before bed time. I really need to figure out how to relax him with my hands. My hands come anywhere near him and it's party time! T-Touch winds him right up. Stroking, same thing. I'll try to get something going tonight when he starts to get sleepy. We don't ever want to see Ugly Puppy come back again.

People met today: Janet
Dogs met today: Bugs and Taz, Bichons
New eating place: ate dinner outside in the yard

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

EDDIE COMES TO VISIT

Each Wednesday, we babysit Eddie the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy for the day. Eddie is about 10 months old and is just as cute as a bug. His mum calls him Eddie Spaghetti so this morning we did a lot of "Eddie Spaghetti is coming to visit" rev-ups.

There was some amount of chaos when Eddie arrived. Marcus had to react a bit to Lori, then he wanted to get right in and get Eddie playing. Joey wanted some of that action and it was a bit overwhelming for Eddie. Joey really wanted to play with Eddie and no wonder! Susan has two Cavs that she says Joey really got on well with. I took Marcus out of the mix so that Eddie and Joey could work out how they would play.

Joey kept approaching Eddie with too much "zest". Guess what! Susan had been wondering if I would see some of Brady in Joey (Brady's littermate is Joey's grandfather) and yes, I do. Joey force barks just like his Great-Auntie Brady. Eddie didn't care to be force-barked at and, being not quite very confident, he wasn't sure what to do about this puppy demanding play.

Eddie finally had to issue a snark to Joey who properly took it in stride and walked away. Heh, he was back at it a couple more times. Eddie would turn away, turn his back. Sometimes Joey would get it, sometimes he wouldn't. This took quite a bit to work out. Lori had to leave and didn't get to see the lovely end result.

They continued for a while in the same vein after she left, Joey trying too hard to get Eddie to play, Eddie trying to back him off. It took Eddie some time to figure out that he *could* control the situation. They finally reached a point where they were sniffing butts with bodies curved - that's always a great sign as they are now greeting each other appropriately. They both started walking while sniffing which had them going in a circle. That triggered them both to start wrestling and bouncing and leaping over each other.

This evolved into flirtatious invitations to play until finally Eddie took off running big circles with Joey chasing him. Oh boy!!! Did they ever love that! Eddie loves to be chased. Around and around and around. Joey got tired and flopped under the chair to rest. Eddie kept trying to invite him to play some more even running circles and coming nearer and nearer to Joey each lap (inviting him to come on!). Joey chased some more, rested some more, chased some more, rested some more until I finally had to have them stop.

I had to take Joey to the other side yard to pee as he couldn't concentrate with his play buddy there. Heh, no pee, just flopped down flat on his belly.He could have gone to sleep right there. I picked him up and carried into the bedroom and put him in the bedroom crate to sleep. Not a whimper out of him, just kaboom, asleep. Good job, Eddie!

More later!

Well, with the fast friendship between Eddie and Joey, I found I had to separate them during our day together. Too much play in too small a space and not a great deal of response to me! Joey's naps are quite long. Following a discussion on clicksport about teaching dogs to sleep when in an Xpen starting in puppyhood, I'm waiting for him to get sleepy then putting him in Puppy Palace (the Xpenned area of the kitchen). For one of the naps today, I placed him in the bedroom crate when he was sleepy.

This afternoon I was tired and so was Joey. I tried to nap with him on the couch but that didn't work. He was too wound up, too much trying to play, no relaxing. I need to go re-read Shirley Chong's Keeper Page entry about how she puts puppies to sleep. I sure as heck cannot do it!

Joey napped during Eddie and his mum's training lesson then came out to have a play session with Eddie so that Lori could see her boy play. Heh, Joey was very sleepy and really couldn't get into it. This was around 6:45/7:00 pm. After they left, I went to the post office with Joey along for a sleepy ride in the crate (another part of that discussion on clicksport, teaching a dog to sleep during car rides). We had a real training session in the sideyard - no other dogs, Tami's liver treats and the I-click working on eye contact. That was very successful. We then played come-to-me while I backed up a few steps with R+ of tugging.

Joey ate dinner and then we went out for a potty break. Now that he's learned about playing with other dogs, he's a little too gungho to play all the time. So potty breaks are solo for him, then Marcus and BJ can be with him in the sideyard. Business first, play second. We have a big farm light over the garage which lights the dog sideyard. Joey noticed the big shadow cast by me and really stared and stared. I moved to make the shadow move and he moved so as to keep watching it. I moved again and he moved. The third time I moved, he was a tiny bit spooked by the shadow and backed away from it. 8.5 weeks old, beginning of the first fear period? I'll keep an eye on this.

We came back inside with the intent (mine that is) to sit on the couch and relax the puppy. Somehow we ended up playing with a toy, playing bitey-bitey games and having a bit of fun. I massaged his body working his back and ears and legs. I picked him up and held him upside down as I do a lot. Wow! What a response - biting, fighting, growling - and not for fun either! What a surprise!

I held him until he relaxed, then released him. I did a few reps of this still very surprised at the intensity of his response to being held and cradled upside down (has not been an issue until this time). By the last rep, he was relaxing much sooner which was good.

We went outside for one more pee. He watched my shadow. I moved it back and forth a couple of times and he just watched it in a calm manner. Good! Before we came back in, I picked him up for an upside down hold and he was totally relaxed. Whew! Nice to have that side of him back!

I'm thinking that his afternoon naps are going way too long into the evening and then he gets really wound up too late at night much the same as human kids do when their nap runs too long into the evening. I am going to work on changing that tomorrow, along with lots of Shirley's Conditioned Relaxer work. I need to find a way that I can relax him. I seem to wind him up! I do love to play and it's so wonderful to have a dog who plays naturally.

I tucked him into Puppy Palace for the first part of his night's sleep at 11 pm and he fiddled and played and bumped things around in there for a good 10 minutes before going to sleep. Just a bit more active at bedtime than he has been prior nights.

People met today: one woman, Eddie's mum
Dogs met today: Eddie, 10 month old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel
Car ride for sleepies to post office





WE'RE GETTING THE ROUTINE DOWN

After the vet's office visit, Joey took an incredibly long nap, over four hours! Wow, that dancing with the vet must have really tuckered him out! Joey had some exposure to the large backyard on leash last night. I finished mowing the front yard and all three dogs went into the backyard with me to play with tennis balls on a rope.

The Havs played fetch and Joey played tug with his. I am continually amazed at how he "wins" the toy and then takes two steps right to me to play again. Wow!! That is really cool!

We did a bit of name recognition using handfuls of treats. Something I remembered when BJ came to live with me: I finally got him to take treats by offering him the whole container to stick his face in. In Joey's case a "handful" amounted to 6 or 8 bits all at once held under his nose. He eagerly ate these! My hypothesis is that he didn't understand that one tiny item handed to him was something to eat. His food is always a big bunch in a dish. Giving him a bunch that he put his nose into to eat made more sense to him. Treats were a mixture of Solid Gold Puppy Food, non-fat hot dog bits and bits of ham. Our "training" was rather disjointed since I had to keep throwing the toys for the Havs to fetch. I think he's ready for a nice distraction-free training session!

Joey crashed in the Puppy Palace for a nap at 9:30 pm and continued sleeping so I didn't wake him. I fell asleep on the couch. He woke me around 1 a.m. to go out. He peed, then we all went to bed in the bedroom. Joey went right to sleep in the crate with nary a whimper. This morning he woke up around 5 a.m., I took him out to pee, put him back in crate, we all went back to sleep. Joey started playing softly at 7 a.m. I had a macho stick ready for this, I sleepily pushed it into the crate, then slept until 7:30 a.m.

I think we are getting the routine down nicely! I have to say again how successful it was having Joey sleep in my bed for the first three nights. There has been absolutely no crying and whining for missing littermates. The transition to the crate went wonderfully. Joey's middle of the night pee matches my move from couch to bedroom so there is just no lost sleep for me. I'm really quite thrilled to have this work out so nicely.

For yesterday, June 1:
People: cuddled by three women, danced with a vet
Animals: met a huge white cat
Place: vet's office

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

JOEY'S FIRST BARK!

Today I was privy to an incredible dog training session. The following are the cast of characters:

BJ: 9-year-old Havanese The Supervisor
Marcus: 3-year-old Havanese The Trainer
Joey: 8-week-old Bearded Collie The Trainee

All three of the boys were in the kitchen after breakfast. Joey started doing playbows to Marcus. Marcus is a HUGE fan of dog games and I expected he would jump right on that invitation but he didn't. Joey got a little frustrated and barked at Marcus. That was the very first time I've heard Joey bark and oh! is it ever a cute bark. And he barked again - and yet again. "Get moving, dude!"

Marcus jumped on Joey's back and humped him. I thought "oh sheeesh, Joey's a baby, can he really be expected to tell someone that's unwanted?" We go through this with the older dogs in the off-leash play sessions where some youngster has to learn you don't hump the adult dogs but can a baby be expected to deal with this?

I cued Marcus to "leave it" and he dismounted. We repeated this three or four times when I decided let's take this outside. I fully expected to see Marcus chase Joey all around the yard or Joey chase Marcus. Marcus loves to be chased and I expected this is how he would play with Joey.

Fortunately, I grabbed the video camera on the way out. Marcus again jumped on Joey to mount him. I decided to go with the flow. Marcus was behaving in a very purposeful manner, not like a wild guy in a state of arousal barely able to be controlled. I know my dogs and, because he kept going back at it in the same way, it caught my eye that he was intent on something. So I shut my mouth and started videotaping.

What a wonderful story unfolded from there! When I watch dogs solve problems and communicate in our off leash play sessions, I always feel like I'm fortunate to be privy to a very special secret and that was true today. Over and over the same pattern repeated. Marcus mounted Joey, Joey would fall over sideways and submit, Marcus would get off, sniff Joey's parts, then lie down next to Joey as Joey lay there.

After about the fourth repetition, it was clear this was very intentional on Marcus' part and it was *very* clear this was dog training. Joey submitted more quickly with each rep. There was a point where Marcus seemed to shove his head into Joey's "armpit". My thought was "OH MY GAWD, is Marcus trying to teach him the Armpit Game?"

Marcus and BJ play a game, only in the house, only with each other. No one but me has ever seen it. It started when Marcus first joined our household. Marcus throws himself on his back and throws his "arms" up over his head exposing his armpits. BJ shoves his muzzle into Marcus' armpits, grunting, growling, the whole time. Marcus wiggles with delight and keeps thrashing his arms. He seems to be say "do my armpits, do my armpits". It is soooo funny to watch. Once in a while, BJ will slip down into a sidways down position as if half asking to have his armpits nuzzled but Marcus never gets it.

You can see why the thought popped into my head that Marcus might be starting the Armpit Game with Joey. Few more reps of ths same thing, mount, submit, lie down. At one point Joey approached Marcus in a down, crawling towards him and I wondered if Marcus was working Joey to teach him to get down to play with small dogs (though they are the same size right now). As things evolved, there was more armpit nuzzling and it would appear that Marcus was training Joey to down on his back with some duration so that he (Marcus) could get the game started.

This game got a little rowdier. Joey was pretty excited. Here comes BJ to split them up. BJ basically ignores all dog play (except for in the living room with Marcus) but he'll be there to split if needed. Joey in his excitement to get Marcus going again aimed his bouncy self at BJ by accident. Whoa, son! We do NOT do that to BJ who was quick to let him know. At that point I agreed with BJ, time for some quiet.

As I started to gather them to go into the house, Marcus and Joey started play-romping, leap-frogging over each other, run and tumble. So I stayed and taped some more.

This isn't the first time I have been totally blown away at Marcus' ability to "work down" another dog in order to play with him. It was not at all what I expected him to do with Joey! But it sure was elegant. Marcus continues to amaze me. He's a goofy little twitter-brain at times but, when it comes to other dogs, he is a great dog trainer. I'm really thrilled I trusted that he had something in mind for Joey. It was quite a thing to watch unfold.

After the excitement of morning play, Joey had a short nap. I woke him up to go off to the vet for our first vet socialization visit. And oh did those office gals adore him! He was hugged and cuddled by three women in the office. Then one of the young female vets came out. She scooped him up, held him upside down and danced all over the room with him, dipping and swaying singing him a song. She said he reminded her of her son when he was a baby and she would dance all over with him.

Joey met the vet office cat, HUGE cat, face to face, no one did a thing, nice steady gaze and pass by. Good. And Joey was weighed - a whopping 10.8 lbs so he actually has a pound on Marcus. Joey and I played tug with the panty hose strip on the floor of the lobby for a few minutes. I am getting a real kick out of this. He pulls hard and I let go (R+ for a good pull, he gets to win) and he comes right back to my hand to tug more. Wow!!! My Havs are trained to tug but they don't do *that*! Pretty cool!

Joey's little head dropped immediately when I put him in his crate in the car and he was out like a light. Not a big enough drive home for a very good nap. He woke up, peed, and went kaboom-asleep in the Puppy Palace (his Xpen kitchen area).

Monday, May 31, 2004

LOT OF SLEEPING TODAY

Joey woke me up early again, around 5 a.m., with lots of invitations to play with him - tugging on my hair, ears, hanging over my head into my face. Tight snood with the covers only goes so far now that he's figured out to climb ON my head to get to me. So tonight Joey will sleep in the wire crate at eye level rather than in bed with me. It was very useful to do that, kind of ease the lack of littermates to curl up with, but I think three nights and it's time to go for the crate. Marcus will be sooooo glad to get his spot on the bed back!

Joey's jet lag seems to be fading rapidly now. This morning he was WAY more energetic than he has been. He's tugging quite strongly and he's very definitely going after things in the environment now. His Xpen area in the kitchen has some rubber-backed throw rugs that were just there and I plunked the Xpen across the kitchen. Well, time for those to come up!

Joey is much more active this morning. When out for the first pee of the day, he was giving little playbows to BJ and even ducking in to nip at his feet.

I'm thrilled that he ate two meals so far today of 3/4 cup each, almost there to the 1 cup mark! Some very long naps today. I was able to get half of the front yard mowed. I did part of the yard mowing with all three dogs in the side yard while I mowed. So Joey had lawnmower noise very near him today. I checked on them periodically always with the same result: two cream-colored Havanese faces pressed into the split in the fence to see what I was doing, one little black and white puppy just laying there looking around calmly. You gotta love that!

We had a nice cuddle session on the couch followed by a little short name recognition session using peanut butter from a tube. That was OK with him for a while, then he was tired of it.

I am so impressed with his potty skills. I put his leash on, head right outside, he immediately pees. If he has to poop, he circles around a little bit, then goes. Just as nice and quick as you could want. Big praise from me then off the leash to visit the Havs. I think I'm really liking the way things are developing with BJ and Joey. BJ is so determined to get any spilled food or treats that the puppy might miss that he is constantly hanging around where the puppy is when Joey is awake and with me. I like to see this because BJ is definitely seeing the puppy as a source of reinforcement.

Marcus, on the other hand, is turning out to be the boundary setter. Marcus has become very serious and hangs out at the fringes of the activity keeping an eye on things. I keep telling him how much I appreciate his showing Joey the ropes, that it's not an easy job for a fun-loving rather puppy-ish young man. Joey looks to Marcus a lot, follows him around, checks in with him.

Joey also heard the hairdryer today as I was getting ready for work. He fell back to sleep while it was going.

People he met today: 2 women, 1 man at work
Noises he met today: lawn mower, hair dryer
Toys he played with today: dental floss rope, Holey Roller Ball

Sunday, May 30, 2004

JOEY IS 8 WEEKS TODAY!

Today is Joey's official 8-week-birthday. Oh boy!!!

This morning was pretty funny. He woke up around 5 a.m. and started in on my hair and my head. I tried to sleep through it but he really wanted to play. I built a little fort around my head out of pillows and he wiggled his way under and through between pillows. I then remembered how his problem solving abilities in the litter stood out from his littermates. He
thought this was one big giant puzzle to be solved!!

I pulled the covers very tight over me and went back to sleep. I will NOT reinforce early a.m. play demands. He went back to sleep. The alarm went off and I started my 80 million swats to the snooze alarm. He kept sleeping. When I finally decided to get up, I made sure it was while he was still sleeping. *I* get to decide when we get up.

I am really really appreciating this system of puppy sleeps in the bed. I have to go check my notes from Shirley Chong as to how long to do this. Marcus was much much better last night, at times, curled up against my legs.

Joey is with me again today at work. I'm a dispatcher for the City of Salem Public Works. I call in people to fix things - streets, traffic signals, water lines, sewer lines, environmental emergencies and so on. I'm all alone in the building on weekends for the most part. I might have crews coming in if they have been called in to repair something.

This morning a police officer came by to use the bathroom. Naturally, I couldn't let such a great opportunity go by so Joey can add a policeman in full uniform and gear to his list of people he's met. Oh boy!!

Later in the morning a crew person came in and Joey woke up from a nap to groggily greet him, then right back to nap. His naps are somewhat longer today than they were yesterday. Maybe he's finally getting caught up on his jet lag. I am recording all his food, pees, poops, naps and other data on my pocket tape recorder, then transferring it to his training journal so that I can look at patterns and changes in development.

I'm hoping he'll wake up soon so we can practice walking on the tile floor then the carpeted floor for hot dog bits. I'd like to get some following exercises in and some come-to-me exercises.

I took some photos which I'll add to the blog when I get home. More later!


Joey Sleeps in the Office

SECOND PART:
At work, Joey met two uniformed male officers, one other man and a woman. His naps today were longer. His activity level has started to rise just the tiniest bit. We were able to do 10 reps of running on leash on carpet. I'd start off in running position with Joey not so much running, the instant he started to gallop, he was clicked/treated. I'm using the I-click for right now since it's a softer sound. I'm using non-fat hot dog bits for training treats. That was very fun to get some actual training in! We also did 10 reps of name recognition. It's hard to see Joey's dark eyes against his black face. I have to really work on finding the right focal point in my trifocals.

He's eating a little bit more today than yesterday and he's taking hot dog bits and bits of ham for treats. Yay!!

When we got home from work, Joey had a big treat - visiting Beardies!! Barbara Stone, Colton and Brinian came to visit. They arrived just after Joey had gone down for a nap. We let him sleep inside while the big boys played in the big play yard. Here's a quote from Barb:

=======================================================
He's VERY cute! Black and white and fading around the eyes already. I could give a rundown on structure, but that might get boring. He was toddling around the grass very well considering how short his little legs are by comparison to a) the grass, and b) the other dogs' legs. Helix was worried that he wasn't coordinated, but with all my vast
experience [joke...I've only had the one puppy in 30 years!], I was able to reassure her that he looked pretty normal for an 8 week old! He looked just about as coordinated as It's Me's babies did at the same age.

He chased after me a bit when I clapped and called him. He really wanted me to just pick him up and cuddle. When Brin or Colton was a bit much, he just sat between my legs. Too cute!
========================================================

I brought Joey out in the big play yard with the Havs and Beardies running around being noisy and boisterous. Lot of over-marking going on. Joey joined in the peeing part of it all, peeing much more frequently than I've noticed prior to this. This was Joey's first time in the big yard and he was only there for this special event. Normally he will not be in the backyard until there has been more reinforcement history with name recognition, running towards me and following me. But for this an exception was made.

Auntie Barbara brought Joey a big AntEater to sleep with and be his humping toy. Her boy, Brin, loved these Colassal toys as bed buddies and humping buddies so naturally Joey had to have a humping toy. Joey was kind of fumbled a couple times by Brinian and Colton's barking was a wonder to behold.

Colton's barking must have stirred something primal in Joey. After his next nap, he started really getting into playing with me. We did a whole bunch of baby tugging, prey-chasing the teeting ring, bitey-bitey on my fingers and jacket sleeve, tuggy with the squirrel. I kept putting each thing up thinking he must be about to get tired again, but NOOOOOO, he was coming back for more and more.

BJ watched all this from a position glued to my hip as I sat on the floor. BJ is in it for one thing and one thing only, FOOD! He has figured out that I'm sloppy with the distraction of the puppy so he waits for any time my bait bag might be gapped open or he waits for the puppy to spit out my latest proffered treat. Marcus watched the whole thing from across the room behind a chair. I tossed him treats frequently just for see puppy/eat treat's sake.

Nice play time, glad to see that he's perking up. He slept very soundly in the Xpen in the kitchen after that session. I fell asleep on the couch. It was time for me to switch to the bed and Joey hadn't woken up yet. I wondered if I should wake him to go out to pee or leave him there until he woke me. But he stirred and woke up. We went out, did the last pee, then to bed. Joey tethered in next to me, Marcus on the body pillow and BJ in the crate.

Total new people today: 2 uniformed male officers, 1 other man, 2 women
Total new dogs today: 2 Beardies

Joey is such a cuddler. All the women that meet him want to pick him up and hold him. He just smooshes his head right into their neck. My co-worker told me that she's just amazed how he comes right to her to greet her and just pushes his head into her hand. The men that meet him typically have not asked to pick him up and cuddle him but rather pet him by reaching down or squat down to pet him. I'll have to ask the next man to pick him up for cuddles.