Tuesday, February 24, 2015

On Being a Puppy Parent

Our puppy, Gryphon, has been home for a just over a week now.  We have been enjoying his presence immensely, though it is worth noting that puppies take a lot of WORK.  However, we figure this is good practice for parenting one day, haha.

He's been settling in really nicely.  The first day, he was shy and timid, but would cuddle with us and it was all very cute and sweet.  He seemed to learn quite well that first weekend to go to the back door for us to let him out for the bathroom.  In a week of bringing a new puppy home, we've only had about 3 accidents inside -- and all of them we can pinpoint to our error of not reading his "signs" at that moment (he isn't trying to sneak off and hide and "mark a spot" or anything like that).  My aunt recommended that we put some bells by the backdoor and train him to ring the bell if he needs to go out.  We ordered some online and put them up on Friday.  He's already ringing them when he wants us to open the door most of the time.  He is one smart puppy!

This week, the more comfortable he became, the more bold he became with things like CHEWING.  Fortunately, he mostly goes for his toys (we made sure to have an abundance of choices so he can chew away!).  This past weekend, he started to gnaw at other things (such as the legs of our ottoman in the family room), however we are still watching him closely so we are able to redirect him fairly quickly to a toy instead.  When he is energetic, he seems to think we are puppies too and tries to dive at us to play with us.  We are trying to give him lots of exercise outside to curb some of that behaviour... make sure he has proper outlets for his energy.  He isn't being "aggressive", he's just being a puppy!  We will be sure to sign him up for some training classes after his next set of shots, which can happen after next weekend.

He's sleeping really well in his crate.  We give him play time, and then he also spends time crated so he learns that's where he is to sleep and that it's a secure and safe space for him.  Also to save our sanity, haha.  He will nibble less once his adult teeth come in and his gums don't bother him as much.

We feel pretty good about our puppy parenting so far... it's a fun new adventure for us! 

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