Orent's challenges (or, really, my challenges in raising Orent)

• While Orent likes to play, he likes to eat & sniff & lick more. So outdoor play doesn't wear him out much, and indoor play isn't quite as effective. If only he had a big brother or sister or best friend with a fenced in yard in the neighborhood! When we play outdoors with no other dogs, he'll run to the ball, and either run back without it or stop and eat the ground where the ball landed. And sometimes he'll do everything he can to initiate chase, wrestle, and tug. Orent, those are dog games, for playing with dog friends. Silly dog!
• Raising him, a super dog, still takes infinite patience. I just don't always have that. His high energy points correspond to my low energy points (7am crazy dog, 11pm run down the hallway, seriously dog?). When we want him to "speak" he's silent and incredibly well behaved. When we want him to behave he jumps and mouths and barks and grabs the leash! I don't know how we could ever raise a non-CCI puppy!
• CCI puppies come with some extra guilt. If we raise a non-CCI bad dog, it's embarrassing and might annoy the neighbors. If we raise a CCI bad dog, we've failed. I know that's not really true and a) we're doing a pretty well, and b) it's not about being perfect. But still, when he fights to get out of the bathtub I think, "how will this work if your partner has cerebral palsy and needs to bathe you from a wheelchair?" When he jumps up on toddlers I think, "what if your job is to be a companion for a young person with brittle bones?" Lots of times when I ask myself, "what is he learning?" the answer is "bad habits!"
• September is a hard month, because I work in schools and with teachers and everyone has extra needs in September. I don't feel like I'm giving him enough "be a puppy" time because, frankly, he's annoying & exhausting to be around when he's being a puppy.