Good boy!

Why is Orent an especially good boy today? Lots of reasons.

The first is that I didn't blog last night because the little guy went to bed early (he was down by 10:30 so Kaytee and I could be asleep by 11). And then he slept 'til Kaytee took him out at 5:30, and that was her idea, not his. It was a luxurious morning for me, and I didn't even mind the clean-up duty when he had an accident on his way in (still working on the whole stairs=inside thing).

The second is that he fell asleep in my lap while I was cradling him 2 nights ago after the "Stubborn Puppy" blog post. It was adorable. I had to endure lots of grouchy squeaking, whining, howling, panting, barking, and squirming. But I could tell he was winding down, and he got lots of pets and "good boys" as he wound down, and then suddenly he was leaning his head on my shoulder and his eyes were closing. After about 5 minutes of snoozing I put him in the crate and he snuggled in to sleep for the night. Good boy! By the way, Kaytee took two pictures but there's just nothing adorable about his naked belly, so this one's much better!

Third, he went to the vet this morning and was brave and calm. You could tell that the table freaked him out a little, being up in the air and it probably smelled of nervous animals and disinfectant. But he was a trooper and enjoyed having his ears cleaned, his tummy poked, his back legs stretched, and his heart listened to. We hung out outside the waiting room (there was a scary dog in there and lots of germs) so there was plenty of time to get hot, sleepy, and dirty before the vet. We didn't make the best impression cleanliness-wise, but temperament-wise we were champs. We got free vitamins!

Fourth, he met new people and dog friends. Tiffany and Hannah came over and were patient with him as he went on a slooooow walk with them. And Hannah is his new favorite human for her high-quality belly rubs (in fact Hannah seduced at least one other puppy today. She's the dog-whisperer! And another punk hairdo friend for Orent to cross off his socialization list.) And he played with his English Sheepdog friend who's 9 months old and doesn't seem to realize that she's about 5x Orent's size. She kept knocking into him but he bounced up ready for more.

Fifth, and most important for Orent's people (though he has no inkling of this), our puppy-raising chapter president said he was doing well, and better yet, that we were. We'd emailed her the questions in the "Stubborn Puppy" blog post and we got to talk tonight. She helped us remember that we were doing a lot of things right... so even though he had 3 accidents today, we were being smart to both focus on whisking him out of the house every time he changed gears, and it's ok to have accidents. Puppies even wet the bed in their sleep sometimes just like human toddlers! She reminded us that floppy, distracted, chewy puppies are normal, and that it would be just as frustrating if he were floppy and chewing up our yard, not just the sidewalk weeds. And she said it was smart and normal for him to be in his crate when he wasn't outside or having 5-10 minute play and training time... and that of course he's not settling down yet! She had some tips for making sure the house-training was on track for the not-too-distant future when hauling him up and down the stairs isn't realistic (though she reminded us that he's not going to gain a pound a day forever, or he'd be 200+ pounds for his turn-in date!)

And a bonus sixth: he's having good training sessions. He's getting more reliable with his name, he sometimes can sit without any cuing (the little key-lime-sized brain does have thoughts inside it! Like "sit" means butt on the ground!), and best of all, he ate and played in his Gentle Leader without pawing at it! What a champ!

So a day that could have been frustrating (slow walk, accidents, whiney cradling, etc.) ended up feeling good because of the support of our chapter and the fun of having friends coming to visit.

Bonus photo, "Summer in the City":

The lil guy, lying face down in his water bowl after today's outside adventure. It was 92 degrees today!