Once back home, we saw right away that Cedar was very happy to be home, AND, that he had indeed picked up a couple annoying bad manners from his friends. His barking at noise, people, dogs, etc. had increased – scratching at closed doors which he had not done before – and his mouthing, or attention seeking a little worse. A week of diligent re-training, reminding of manners, and routines, Cedar quickly got back on track.
He is excellent in his crate in the truck and we can now leave him to go into shops together. We have also started training; door manners, staying out of the kitchen area, and asking permission to come up onto things. He continues to ‘hump’ when he gets stimulated so we are also working on that.
Other things to note: He loves his toothpaste, so it’s easy to brush his teeth and I discovered it’s easier to just use a finger to rub the paste onto his gums. He doesn’t love having his nails clipped, or being brushed so we will incorporate very short periods of both into his weekly regimen. He is doing great in the ‘puppy classes’ at the agility training school. He is very confident on all the apparatus – on many of our hikes, he has to walk across logs over water, jump over fallen trees, and walk on uneven terrain so we think that has helped him in class.
And, the biggest milestone this week? He pees like a big boy now ! lol
In May we scored a spot at Loveland Bay campground (a hugely popular spot in summer) and Cedar had his first camper van experience. He absolutely – no surprise – loved to sneak onto the bed in the night. On our cross Canada trip, he will be sleeping in his crate. We drove the truck up as well so that we could bring the canoe. We were able to get Cedar into the canoe and do a paddle (close to shore, just in case) and he did amazing for his first attempt, especially considering he hasn’t swum yet.
His favourite game while we were camping was chasing sticks