Day 4 as a doodle owner...

[Oliver]

Things are going well! Yesterday Oliver had a few accidents in the house while his dad was "watching" him while I went to the store. I put WATCHING in quotations for a reason...haha. Jonathan admits that he was doing several things at once, but I think he learned his lesson quickly as it was his first time he was alone with the puppy since we brought him home. ...Oh well, today is a new day!

Last night we went to bed at 11pm and Oliver walked into his crate without any coaxing from me. Hooray! On the first and second nights he woke us up to go outside about every 2 hours. Last night however was a different story: He only woke me up once throughout the entire night! I was ecstatic! He was awake for awhile in the morning actually, however, he was simply lazing around in his crate chewing on toys and generally entertaining himself until finally he whimpered again at 6:30am to be taken outside. We immediately went outside, then had breakfast and finally went on our morning walk where we met a German Shepherd. The German Shepherd LOVED Oliver and gave him a big lick on the top of his head. Oliver wasn't quite sure at first, but then warmed up. However, Chloe (our 7 year old chihuahua) was a different story. She was SO protective of Oliver and was growling and snarling at the German Shepherd (who didn't seem to notice at all)...Now, Chloe is normally wary of "stranger" dogs since she doesn't have any teeth. But with the German Shepherd we met today, she kept trying to get in between him and Oliver. Even though Oliver warmed up to the other dog, at first I think he was scared because Chloe was flipping out...which sort of defeats the purpose of getting him comfortable with all walks of life!!! He will start puppy classes in 2 weeks, so hopefully when he's one-on-one (without Chloe) he'll get lots of good doggy experiences on his own.

Anyway, we're continuing the poochie bell training where I have him nudge the bells before going outside and tell him the word "potty." He looks clueless every time we do this (which is fine...he's a baby!), however, after bringing him inside this morning he actually turned around (after I closed the door) and nudged the bells by himself! So, I gave him TONS of praise and took him outside again and continued the praise. Even though it was AFTER we came in from outside, I was still thrilled :) Also, when we came home from our morning walk this morning, he ran to his designated potty spot in our yard and immediately pooped. YAY!

Oliver is definitely in love with Chloe. He looks up to her and always tries to get her to play with him...but normally she just walks away and pretends not to notice (or she watches him from afar and wags her tail). However, today, as Oliver was doing his normal touch-and-go game with Chloe (where he nibbles on her tail and then runs away) Chloe actually barked back at him, put her butt up in the air and initiated play! Oliver looked puzzled since she had never done this before! The playing didn't last long...but it's a start! When we took him to the vet yesterday (everything is great- he has one testicle already descended) and returned to the house she ran to Oliver, touched noses and wagged her tail- the most amount of time she has spent on him since he came home 3 days ago. So it looks like he's growing on her- she is being very tolerant of his antics too!

Anyway, he's a big cutie and he's being a very good boy. Yesterday he gave me his first purposeful "kiss" on the hand and looked into my eyes afterward. Aww!

[Nancy Cavanaugh]

Oliver has those long legs - I think he will look a lot like Koji. So funny - I have an ol yearsder dog as well, "Dahlai" she is 9.5 - and is not interested in frolicking with Koji. Koji tried hard to engage her early on, now they live nicely together - and he also learned that some dogs are "play' dogs and some are not. A good lesson - since I pet sit. Have fun, give Oliver a big kiss from Koji - they are half brothers ( the same father)