|
![[Brooskey and Vixen cuddling on the couch]](http://www.confoozled.com/confoozion/archives/brooskey-vixen-thumb.jpg) Well, I guess a puppy update is slightly overdue. This picture was actually taken quite a while ago, but I don't have anything more recent, and I think it's the absolute cutest anyway.
Brooskey is now right around forty-five pounds; we haven't been back to the vet for a while so we don't have an exact weight, just the difference when Chris stands on the scale holding him versus not holding him. He has only a couple of weeks left in his intermediate training class, and then we'll be signing up for the advanced level. He is learning to heel, to "park it" on his bed and stay there until told to get up (yeah, we're still working on the staying part), and to pick up a toy on command and put it away in a bucket. He also came up with his own trick a couple of weeks ago: he started giving high fives when Chris would put his hand near his face, so we started saying "high five" when he would do it, and now he does it on command. It's his absolute favorite trick, too. He'll do it over and over again and never gets tired of it. For graduation from the intermediate class, we have to teach him a new trick on our own without the trainer's help. We're working on balancing a treat on his nose and then flipping and catching it on command. He's very good at the balancing and waiting part, but the catching still needs a little bit of work.
We're still debating whether to put Vixen through training classes as well. I originally thought we'd just train her ourselves using what we've learned in Brooskey's classes. But that's proving not to be as easy as we thought, especially since the hand signal for "sit", which Brooskey responded to the very first time we tried it, only prompts Vixen to stand up on her back feet and dance. It is very cute, but if we can't even teach her to sit, what hope do we have of teaching her anything else? We also have decided to pursue a therapy dog certification for Brooskey so that we can take him to visit at the children's hospital, and I think it would be really great to be able to do it with both of them... which would mean Vixen would have to go through all of the classes herself.
The two of them are getting along really well, though there are still a few arguments a day, but being that they are both very strong-willed, that may always be the case. Brooskey really loves to play with Vixen, but still hasn't quite figured out how much is too much for her. Fortunately Vixen knows how to get away from him when she's had enough - she jumps right up to the back of the loveseat and into my arms! And she is a little chewy thief! We give her chewies that are sized for little mouths like hers, but if they haven't been chewed by Brooskey first, she wants nothing to do with them. She'd much rather go swipe the one that he's been chewing that's almost as big as she is.
They both have accumulated some nicknames over time as well. All of Brooskey's nicknames refer to his bear-like personality: Broo-Bear, Bubba-Bear, and most recently, Bubba McBooby Bear. Most of Vixen's nicknames have to do with her size (always gotta pick on the little guy), such as Tiny Little and Wee One (and she actually ran to me once when I was talking about the Nintendo Wii). My personal favorite is StinkerBell, and then there's the latest: Vix-A-Roni, The San Franciso Treat.
Yeah... I'm one of those weird dog mommies.
<< prev • home • next >>
|
![[photo of me]](/mypic.jpg)
![[album thumbnail]](http://www.confoozled.com/photos/seaworlddc2007/photos.php?thumbnail=IMG_0863.jpg&dir=)
