July 24, 2020
We haven't been posting much because life got a little hectic, but here's an update on Buddy. At 4 months he's 37 lbs. and lean, sort of a picky eater. He's started being more interested in his surroundings - intent, sometimes. I had to take half of a baby squirrel (really a young one) from him the other night - I realized he had been too quiet, too long, and when I found him at the bottom of the ramp, it took me a few seconds to realize it was a squirrel tail hanging out of his mouth. Tom helped corner him, and when I extracted it, it was basically one small foot and the tail. We are figuring that the cat caught it and then stashed it in the high grasses to finish later, where Buddy found it when he went looking for the cat - so we are guessing the Stella (the cat) was the stealthy hunter, and Buddy was just a mooch. We're still having some trouble with biting especially at night (puppy teeth are sharp) and he seems to be focused on shoes and legs - but I guess that's what's on his level. Loves baths and in fact visits the shower pan in the dog room every night before he goes into the crate for the night.
Tom and I just came back from the river at Chapel Point. There weren't very many people there so we got to run him in the water for a while. He's getting more comfortable in deep water, and never considered not going after the bumper or turning back. I held him back a few times to see how his drive was and he really wanted the bumper. Last time we just used a roped Kong but seems like he prefers the bumper from what we saw today.
Stopped by the local ice cream parlor for a treat for us and water for him before going home. He hasn't had much socialization because of his vaccinations, but now that he is protected, we are going to get him into more varied and different situations. I'll probably add more but wanted to see if the video from YouTube would mount. So this is sort of a pre-publication.
July 29, 2020 - Almost 5 months
He's 45 lbs now and still lanky. He's maturing in so many ways - hard to remember him as a puppy. I stepped in a hole taking him out one afternoon - no break, but a bad sprain, Emergency Room and one of those big black boots. I guess it's better than a cast. It's my own fault - I knew I was going to put my foot into one of those drain holes. I had marked them with little landscaping flags but right after he got him, Buddy decided to investigate the flags and, of course, when he poked them they flung back it his face. As I have said previously he's a little willful, and by the next day he had pulled them all out of the ground. Well, needless to say, we know have orange cones in the yard marking the drainage spots. Sort of looks like there is construction going on. He has gotten the idea that the lawn is not his potty, and he needs to go out to the high grass in the field to do his business - he's 100% poop, but an occasional slip in the pee department - usually when the cat distracts him, or I get him distracted.
He's still going in the garden and other than one time when I was out there a long time in the heat when he decided he needed a cool hole to hang out in he's not been a digger. He seems to be picking up a taste for peaches. I don't know whether he's helping us clean up the falls, or whether he's helping himself to the peaches.
We're busy with the garden and the orchard - by then end of this week we'll have 3 trees in. And the tomatoes are starting to come in too. Busy girl. Thank god, Tom's into these garden, canning, etc. endeavors too. And I think that Tom taking over Buddy's walks and training while I'm laid up with the foot has been good for both of them.
We also took him down to K-9 Divine Ranch for puppy daycare - he seems to have benefited from the socialization for the day. We'll set him up for another "tee time at the club" after this heatwave passes. The only downside of the visit was he learned how to bark. Now we are working on SHUSH and TALK.