New Friends

Colin and Kristen came over yesterday for breakfast and dinner.  Pickles was actually quite friendly with them, greeting them enthusiastically and playing a little bit.

Lunch from a Kong

Kong's are actually designed for wet food, the dog is supposed to lick all the food out, but Pickles tongue isn't quite long enough for that yet, and he likes a more engaging meal.  So we fill his Kong with kibble and put it on the wood floor.  When he rolls it with his paw it makes a great rattling noise so he knows there's something in there.  If he rolls it hard enough kibble comes out and makes a delicious sound as it hits the wood floor.  This helps him know he was successful and that he should find the food that fell out.  When it gets down to the last couple pieces he has to work really hard to get them to come out over the lip of the Kong.  Usually, we can keep him occupied for about 15 minutes eating this way.

A Good Night's Sleep

Amazingly, Pickles sleeps all the way through the night. The first two nights he woke up once at 2am to go out and potty, but went back to sleep when I put him straight back into his crate. Now he sleeps all the way until 6am. I can actually hear him wake up before that, but he just quietly chews on his Kong or his Bully stick even if there isn't anything in his Kong.

Puppy Class

Pickles has been super shy around people and other dogs so we decided to take him to his first puppy class tonight. The class was offered through the Boulder Humane Society for 8-12 week old puppies. To start out there was only one other puppy there, a fluffy little guy named Marti. Pickles curled up under the bench terrified. For some reason there were at least 5 trainers there. It took about 15 minutes for Pickles to come out and say hi to the people and start sniffing the other puppy. By then Seri, the husky had arrived. Then Pickles started to play a little bit. There were a couple of little tykes play slides that he absolute loved playing on. He kept running back and forth under then and was first to go up the slide. A wild lab mix showed up last and Pickles came out of his shell a little bit more. By the end he was walking up to all the people hoping for a treat and running around with the other puppies. He still had amazing recall though, I could go to the corner of the big room in the middle of him playing and call him and he would come running to see me. It was a super great experience, but I was very unimpressed with the training staff there, they didn't actually do anything except give the puppies treats. I think next we'll try the other Puppy Socialization class in town offered by Gigi Moss.

Really Cheap Puppy Toys

Pickles loves playing with toys especially really really cheap ones.  Here is his first time playing with a tennis ball; we think he will grow up to be an excellent retriever.

And this is a plastic yogurt container that he found in the backyard that we use to feed the chickens.

It's Alive

Pickles first time playing with his Nylabone toy.  He is very good at entertaining himself.

Coming Home

And so we brought Pickles home with us.  He howled a bit on the way home, making an incredible loud noise for such a small puppy.  I hope we don't hear that all night long tonight.  Eventually, I was able to distract him with treats and after that he laid down at by feet and went to sleep.