Back to work and reality!

A rare moment as Riot decides to share his toy with Sonic!


Unfortunately this week I returned to work after a glorious three weeks off. The first day when I got home from work he was so excited to see me that he peed himself, but aside from that the transition of him being home without me all day has gone extremely smoothly. Angel is the designated babysitter (a not very impressed one I might add...) with Lexi taking over on Wednesay's to give Angel a break. Lexi thinks puppies are great and no doubt spent the majority of the day running Sonic off his feet playing with him as opposed to Angel who spends most of her time trying to avoid him! But she is the one I trust most with him.

I have a pretty good routine with him where I spend half an hour mucking around with him before I go to work and then after work do a little bit of training but mostly just playing with him. He is not very food motivated at this point and much prefers a toy. So not really pushing anything in particular at the moment other than hand touches and some sits for food. On the toy front is another thing altogether. I play a game with him where the quicker he sits, the quicker I throw the toy. He is so funny watching him sit as quick as he can, although his sit could only just be called that! He leans as far forward as he can without having his bottom off the ground, his ears are back and the whites of his eyes show as he waits in desperate anticipation of me throwing the toy for him. Other than that I've started some crate training where he learns to wait when I open the crate door. I decided I was sick of him barging out like a crazy thing. It only took him a few goes to realise that if he sits and waits then he will get out the door much quicker than if he tries to push his way out. Also on the crate front he has now moved out of my bedroom and sleeps in his main crate in the lounge room. I found that he was getting too hot in my room and kept waking me up panting so thought I'd give him a try in the lounge. As it happens he adjusted beautifully and we haven't looked back since.

I've been taking him to training a bit which he seems to enjoy. Apart from the fact that everyone cuddles him he loves to watch the other dogs doing agility. He also loves to run so I always take him for a lap around the grounds with a game of tug as we go. He belts along as fast as his little legs will take him and wearing an extremely determined expression on his face. All good practice for the time that I eventually start doing proper ground work with him.

The toilet training is starting to get better. Sonic is still waking up around the 1 to 2am mark each night to go out for a wee. I'm hoping in the next few weeks he will grow out of it as I am soooo looking forward to being able to sleep right through the night... Not really having many accidents in the house now thank goodness!

In hindsite I'm really pleased that I took the three weeks off. I feel that it gave our bonding a great start and the opportunity for relationship building that I missed out on with Riot when he was a pup. Just such a great chance to get to know him and the lovely little boy that he is.