After being away for a month in Ontario to welcome our first Grandbaby into the family, I was excited and anxious to see how Cedar would react and wondering how much he has changed. Would he have forgotten me? We had only 5 weeks together before I left. It was a long, tiring day of travel by plane and then ferry, but the fatigue melted away when I was met at the terminal by Chris and a very happy enthusiastic tail wagging puppy. Chris, having been housebound with a demanding, mouthy puppy for a month was very happy to have me home – the only respite he had been getting was during Cedar’s two short naps during the day.
Cedar had grown a little longer, bigger, and his coat much less fluffy. Chris had continued the daily training routines and worked a lot on Cedar’s mouthing – I was very happy to see the biting, nipping, and mouthing were definitely much improved. Chris also trained Cedar to recall and he can now be off leash on trails. He took Cedar on a his biggest hike yet, to Wesley Ridge, and Cedar did great.
Cedar was very proud to show me that he could now jump onto the couch, into the truck, and soon after being home he made it onto our bed (he was quickly ejected from the bed). A couple other changes I noticed are; his quiet little ‘toller whine’ has gotten much louder and he now has a hound like howl and proper barking. His puppy confidence and curiosity has given way to a more cautious exploration of the world – a very normal development. He also sleeps through the night now, with no need ‘go out’ a solid 10 hours or so – which means we can also, YAY!
Puppy training continues to be a great success, the trainer a great resource for solving puppy issues.
After a brief week back at home, we were off to Chilliwack to dog-sit for family for 2 weeks. We were a little concerned that Cedar, being an impressionable puppy, could adopt some not so desirable habits. The dog-sit unfortunately did not go well; worse than we anticipated, and we spent 2 exhausting weeks ‘keeping the peace’ amongst three dogs that could not get along well, and therefore had to be kept apart from Cedar. Luckily they had purchased fencing which we were able to use as a large play pen area for Cedar in the house. On walks/hikes we let them each off leash one at a time so they could each have a good run. Fortunately Chilliwack has some amazing hiking trails well suited for taking the doggies.
