Week 10

This is the second week that we had Hudson, the first was great. The great amount of time my partner spent with him really shows. He is great to walk and is attentive to every command.

He is motivated by food as are many dogs and this is a great way to get his attention. Though the advice is not to overwork the pups we have found that Hudson can carry his attention span for much longer.

We bought a larger treat pouch for him, since we figured he is going to grow anyway and this means that we dont have to refill it so often. This has proved to be a huge advantage when we go for impromptu walks.

By this time we have managed to establish some sort of rythm. We decided to keep the collar on him untill we are happy with the Housetraining. So at this time we still have him running around with his collar, the tags we put in a little pocket for him so that he doesnt jingle too much. He has in total 5 tags...3 official and 2 emergency tags.

We still dont have the right touch with him regarding Housetraining, we are often to late to get him outside. Most accidents occur after feeding, waking or playing. the poor fella doesnt have a clue whats happening when we suddenly run at him scoop him up and take him outside but he is pretty happy with the attention he gets when he does his buiseness outside. We just need to be patient and keep on going on. Over time it will get better.

This week we noticed that he doesnt like fast moving things that are coming in his direction when we are walking. If there is a cyclist or a jogger for example then he will either keep looking back and/or sniff at the ground. The latter being the most frequent. Since dogs dont like it when another dog comes at them heads up they will try to avoid the presumed conflict, this includes sniffing at the ground. If another dog comes up to us then he will retreat back behind our feet and sit down. Its realy nice to see this interaction. After a short introduction between the dogs Hudson is ready to play, leap and bark like they knew each other for years.

This week Hudson made a new friend, a Jack Russel called Nella. Apparently they got on great, my Partner had been training with him outside and a friendly mother was walking her daughters Nella. They played for a long time and we got loads of pictures.

Hudson didnt get to go to Puppy classes this week, since we had prior plans. But we did our Homework with him and taught him how to change sides while walking and started working on Stay. Which is shall we say in process.

We went to a lake this weekend and had a picninc with friends of ours who also have a dog. It was great to see the two get along so great. In the wide open space they both ran around and played with each other. Once we got to the lake they both hung around us, since the picnic was there it wasnt hard to kep them far from our food.

Hudson had his first swimming lesson, although he was shy of going paw deep with all fours when I carried him in and gently lowered him into the water he just started swimming and swam straight to my partner without any fuss. We did that for a little while and then took him back out to get some rest. We stayed in the last of the Summer sunschine for a few hours before heading back home. We will be going back to the lake often I think, its a really nice secluded spot.