Wow, he is 5 months old. It’s hard to believe how fast the time has flown by and how quickly he is growing. He is still struggling with meeting new people, but we are working on it as much as we can. He will get there eventually because I do see improvement.

The past couple of weeks he has been teething like crazy. Seems like daily we find a new tooth on the floor. Or take it out of his mouth because he is rolling it around like something he isn’t supposed to have. He now has lost all but his canine teeth (The fangs) and those usually come out at about 6 months. Then we will be done with teething.

This week we are working on wait. He is getting better at it, but it will be something that will need continued practice. He catches on to new things quickly, so I’m going to start adding a new “trick” every couple of weeks…or as soon as the one we are working on seems solid. I really enjoy working with him. He is crazy food motivated and very eager to please.

I’m looking forward to summer when we can enjoy longer walks and not worry about slipping on ice. Right now the warm weather has made for icy streets and sidewalks if you try to go in the evening.

We have always been “practicing” for tooth brushing, but I didn’t want to do too much more than rub my fingers all over his mouth while he was teething so much. This week we introduced a finger brush and toothpaste. He did really well with it. It is so important to do a lot of puppy touching when they are young so that they are comfortable with people looking in their mouths and feeling around, same with feet, eyes, ears and really all body parts. It will make it easier for your vet when they go in for exams and vaccinations and it will also make it easier and faster for you to notice any changes or lumps or bumps.

Kane has definitely gotten more brave and WAY more energetic than he was in past.  He drives me a little batty now when he is bored. Thankfully it has warmed up and we have been able to do longer walks and he can play outside with Rosco in the yard too. I am also very grateful that he is easy to tire out with training. Working from home means I’m around all day with him. He is a lazy bones in the morning and generally only gets up at 8:30am, which gives me an hour to enjoy my coffee in peace and quiet. When he does get out of bed he goes outside and then snuggles with me until noon. When I get up to make my lunch he figures it must be time to play and wrestle and generally make a pain of himself.

After I’m done eating I usually do a little training session with him and sometimes that plays him out enough for a few more hours of cuddles and sleeping while I work, but sometimes it’s not enough and he bugs Rosco until he comes and plays with him. I’m very thankful that Rosco is such a great big brother and will play with Kane for hours on end.

We also finished our puppy classes this week. I’m sad that they are over, it was an outing for me, and I’m happy to say I learned some new training tricks, which I will share in future posts. Kane also loved them, the first class I had to coax him in, the last few classes he cried to get in because he was so excited for them.

Because he is so young (as all the pups in this class were) the trainer recommended that we all work with our puppies on what we learned, but don’t start another class until they are a couple months older. Which fits with what my plan was. I want to put him in swimming and do that for a bit and then we can figure out what class to do next. I know I was very interested in the scent tracking class that they offered and I think Kane might really excel at agility. However, he is young, so we will make those decisions on what we should explore next when he is a little older and his brain can hold focus for more than a few seconds 🙄

The one thing that we NEED to focus on with him is building confidence when meeting new people. This last bit he has started “bluffing” at new people. He kinda barks, but it’s more a puff when he blows his cheeks up and backs up when he meets new people. If they keep coming for him he barks and backs up. Tail between his legs the whole time. I find if people ignore him he warms up faster, but most people see a puppy and want to say “hi” right away, so I am getting people to offer him treats and get him to sit or shake a paw for them. That seems to work almost as well as people just ignoring him until he comes to them. The problem of course is that due to the covid19 restrictions in our area it is hard to get him to meet new people consistently. The trainer from our puppy classes suggested bringing them to pet stores, which I think is a brilliant idea and I will try with Kane next week. Stay tuned for how that works for us.

The cold has not broken, and this week Kane was absolutely crazy. He was full of energy and trouble almost all day today. He is a bit of an energizer bunny and not being able to get out and burn off some of this energy has made him a little bit of a nut when he is awake.

He is still a cuddle bug when he isn’t racing around like a maniac and he is a sleepy head in the morning, often getting out of bed an hour after the rest of us. It’s kinda comical how tired he is in the morning.

We have 1 more week of puppy classes left and then we have to figure out what we want to do next. He enjoys it and so do I. It’s an outing for me and a way for him to meet new people. I also love training in class settings because it helps him learn to listen to me no matter how much fun he could be having paying attention to other puppies and people. I’m trying to decide if I want to do more obedience, agility or swimming next. I have to pick something new or we won’t be doing anything, because I think everything is booking up pretty quickly. Apparently everyone got a covid19 puppy.

It’s looking like it might warm up this weekend, thankfully because it’s been a long stretch of not being able to do anything. No one but Rosco likes the cold weather.

He gets his last vaccinations next week. I’m anxious to see what he weighs. He is getting close to Rosco’s height, but is definitely still a lot leaner.

Kane is officially 4 months old, we have now had him in our lives for 1/2 of his. He is turning out to be a great guy. He is catching on to the new things we teach him quickly and is always eager to do training sessions (probably because he is so food motivated 🤪), but no matter his reasoning we love that he is eager to please. His puppy classes are going well. He is showing more confidence and less fear, so although he doesn’t get to play with and meet the other people in the class being around other people and dogs and having to follow commands is helping him.

He still isn’t a fan of the cold, but loves playing in the snow (and ice) if it is mild out.

Rosco has put him in his place more times in the last week than he has before, but Kane needs it. He is a little rough at time and when he gets excited he forgets all semblance of manners. Rosco reminds him he can’t be a complete jerk. We are also working on him not jumping or putting his feet on people. “Off” is said to him often and he is slowly learning that when he sits or stands by people he gets attention but isn’t getting rewarded for putting his feet on people. He will be a big guy and no one appreciates a dog that jumps.

It’s kinda sad that he doesn’t have as much confidence around new people as he should (or I should say I hoped he would). It is really hard to expose him to new people with all the covid19 restrictions, but we are doing our best, and he does warm up after a few minutes. So we are making progress.

He makes us laugh with some of his antics, he still has puppy goofiness and who can help but laugh at that.

I have taken a lot of pictures and tried to document his growth. The above pictures show his trip home and his trip to the vet for his vaccinations. Hard to believe he has grown so much in his few months with us.

Tonight we have puppy classes again, this is the 1/2 way mark and then we will have to decide what we want to do next. There is a place in the city that does swimming, I’m calling it puppy swimming lessons, but I know they call it something else. Regardless of what it is called I really want him to be a confident swimmer, so that is definitely on the list of things to do next.

Last week we also did a little dog park walk, it was pretty cold, so it was just us, a friend and her older dog. So a perfect experience for him. He proved his recall is fantastic no matter where we use it.