PuppyLog

Stats:

Age: 20 weeks
weight: 24 pounds

It’s been a few weeks since I have written in the puppy log so I am sure I am forgetting a number of things. The biggest thing that has happened in this time though is that her adult teeth have finally started to come in. She got her first incisors a week ago Wednesday at 19 weeks (aprox. 4 months and a week) old.

Biting

Boy did she go crazy when those teeth started to come in. It obviously hurt and she couldn’t get enough of the ice cubes and other frozen objects. She seemed to forget most of her training for a couple of days, and started biting hard again during that period. She has calmed back down since. That is, as much as a puppy can be calm.

Off 

In the meantime, we taught her “off” which went pretty well. She will stop biting Ipo, stop biting the leash or our pant legs, pretty much drop anything she is holding when we say “Off”. The problem is, if we don't distract her with something else soon, she will go back to what she was doing.

Touch 

We also taught her to touch the end of our finger or the end of a stick held out at the side. We can say “touch” and she will touch an extended finger with her nose. This took two sessions for her to get the idea. The first session she did not seem to be getting it, but the next day she did it properly right away. Changing from a finger to the the end of a stick instead seems to be a bit harder for her. She got the idea that she should touch the end of the stick easily, but she decided that it would be OK to bite it instead of just touching it with her nose. She will now touch it with her nose about half the time so it’s getting better. She doesn’t really seem to see why she shouldn’t just bite it though.

Play 

Last night was pretty fun. Even though she was tired and all riled up, she was able to keep her biting pretty soft. I lay on the floor and let her climb all over me, nibble on my ears and roll around on my chest. It was great fun for both of us.