Big news

I have big, big, big news...

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wait for it...


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You're not going to believe it....


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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.

Growin' Up! (or, 43 things for 43 pounds)

I've never raised a lab puppy before, but I think crossing the 40lb threshold at the age of 4.5 months is pretty impressive. The internet suggests that he will reach 50lbs by 7 months, so I think he's ahead of the curve!

So, here are 43 things that show me Orent is growing up, for his 43 lb birthday:

1. He jumps up less! It's still an occasional response to a command he doesn't think he knows, or a really exciting event like turning the faucet on, but he's increasingly likely to sit instead.
2. He is consistent with "Drop" when there are treats involved, so we can play fetch. And we can wean him off the treats and focus on the game after a few tosses!
3. He goes for longer walks with fewer balks.
4. He sleeps until 7am.
5. When he's healthy and we aren't too slow (note: find shoes and leash before waking a dog from nap!), he's accident-free.
6. When we meet other puppies, he's the big dog that has to be reminded to play gently.
7. He asks to play with other dogs more politely now.
8. He makes better decisions about what to do with stuff on the floor like shoes or dropped food. Maybe 60% of the time he walks by it with only passing interest.
9. He wags his tail when we come home, and wants to say hello.
10. He's enormous. He almost bumps his head sitting up in his large dog crate, and when stretched out can touch opposite corners of it.

The tooth fairy comes tonight

Orent lost 2 teeth! That means the tooth fairy gets to come tonight and bring him little bits of kibble to eat. Lucky dog!

Max found the first tooth the other day, while they were playing "chase the toy down the hall, and then bring it back". Orent is good at the first half of the game. We need to work on the second half...

Then, yesterday at the creek, we noticed his mouth was bleeding. There was some glass around, so we were worried he'd swallowed some of it. Much fussing from the dog ensued, as we sat there in the field, trying to look in his mouth. Eventually, we saw another tooth was missing. Phew!

Another comparison

July 3, 2011 (approx 14 lbs)

September 25, 2011 (approx 42 lbs)

For comparison's sake

July 1, 2011 (13 lbs or so)

September 17, 2011 (40 lbs or so)

Care for a dip?

Orent is a dog that loves water. We all know that. He's played in baby pools (twice, actually), and he loves the fire hydrant. He even had a blast at the creek, but he didn't really like the water.

So this afternoon, Max and I decided we needed to tire the puppy out, and the best way to do that was to get him to go swimming with us. We ventured to Swarthmore again, because the water's less toxic and there are fewer broken bottles to deal with. 

We had a nice walk out to the creek. Orent was so good. It was probably because there was kibble nearby and he didn't want to get too far away from the goodies!

Just past this little waterfall, there was a very calm area for the dog to swim. It was perfect.

At first, Orent wasn't having it. He didn't like swimming in creeks, and even Max wading all the way out to waist deep wasn't enough to convince him.

But then, just like that, he jumped in and SWAM like he'd been doing it forever!