Forgot to take these in the daytime, so please forgive the lighting.
His old photos are on Flickr, too.
I kenneled him last night because Adam Bennett was in town and the actual event was on pretty short notice. He was tuckered this morning, and then we went to Mutt Run, and now he's passed out on the couch.
This was the first time at a dog park, and it was great. He interacted very well with many dogs until he got very tired. The owners were attentive. He tried joining up with other dogs that were being taken for a walk a couple times, so I had to catch up and walk him back. And there was a Chiuaua that didn't mind that Jupiter was 50% playmate and 50% predator, but he responded very well to me telling him to tone it down.
Most is well in Jupiter land. He's not peed inside in a long while – I'm far more trusting now. Still tries to eat too many things: plastic, rocks, and toiler paper. Oh, toiler paper.
The separation anxiety is still strong. This is a difficult behavior to train him out of as my presence is the issue. He's plenty happy in his crate when he sleeps, but he panics when I'm not accessible (crate or no crate). Whining, drooling, barking, and sometimes peeing. Weighs heavy on me still, not knowing what to do. I work at home sometimes trying to increase the distance he can relax with the door to my room open. Once he's calm I start moving out of sight for minutes at a time; working our way up. This issue makes me lose my cool with him sometimes, as it's so restrictive of my freedom; that's something for me to work on. And sometimes he tries to walk in front of me on walks, but it's more his attention on something causes him to speed up – regardless: that's the other thing that can frustrate me. Calm is good. Calm is good.
He's otherwise healthy, happy, and friendly, even with the bigger dogs. Sometimes he's shies away pretty hard, but mostly he's making himself small asking for play or chasing and mouthing. And goodness, he loves people.
We get our first lure coursing practice soon! There was one I've missed because I was out of town, so we're looking forward to this one. And the second puppy class starts next week. We're both excited.
1 comment:
That's quite a bit of growth going on there. He looks like he's doing well. Rachel recently informed me that in two years (when I start my 3rd year), we will be getting a dog. Third year is the first year of clinical clerkships which translates to unregulated-hours-of-work-at-the-hospital-because-you're-just-a-med-student-and-not-yet-a-resident. Now (not really; we've got two years) we just need to figure out what kind of dog.
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