Hello! Tomorrow will mark the 1st week that my fiance and I have welcomed Frank to our family. I have never raised a puppy before. My fiance has never raised a puppy before. We had *NO IDEA*. We live in an apartment in a high rise building that has 3 dog-friendly parks around it, so of course, I (in all my wisdom) was a hardliner against pee pads...soon enough we were making 85 elevator trips up and down and up and down all day and all night. So now you have 2 sleep-deprived people and a bouncy puppy who is intimately familiar with elevators. I wanted to ensure Frank has a good life, that we were setting him up for great things. So I scheduled a vet appt for the very next day after he came home to get the shots and boosters for the shots the breeder had given him. We were told Frank was allowed limited socialization and could walk on relatively clean sidewalks. So socialize we did. There is a great community in our immediate neighborhood of puppy and dog owners--what a difference!! When we first met Frank, it was like he didn't understand that his pointy, pointy needle teeth could not bite my soft flesh with impunity. But after the other puppies showed him that playtime is over if he is rough, or that his ears are also something they would like to investigate with their own pointy sharp needle teeth, he was like, ' yowzah! biting sucks!' After a few days of that, both my fiance and I noticed he was much gentler with us. Hooray, puppy blues averted, right? well...kinda So he is still a bit rough and doesn't seem to recognize that a 10week old/20lb labrador cannot use his full force with a mini daschund, or clamp down for dear life on the harness of a toy poodle. Despite socializing him for 5 days now (taking it one day at a time, and feeling highs and lows each day), this has remained a challenge. He goes for *every* shoelace, *every* leash, *every* harness (his own and other puppies--which I then have to quickly explain to the other owners. By the way, his jaws are like a steel trap, anyone else going through this? Like he has secret terrier blood in him). On good days, socialization is friendly w/o being flighty, he is sweet and does all his business outside. On more challenging days, I can tell he is tired, but he doesn't want to nap, he wants every harness in town between his teeth (so gosh-darned embarrassing!!!!!) and is humping my leg in overexcitement. In addition to buying both of Pippa's books (thank you Pippa) and starting 1 on 1 puppy training, we try our best to introduce him to new and interesting experiences, games and exercises every day. It is a big challenge for two working people though. In less than a week, he has already claimed a place in our hearts...and I am very much looking forward to a well-trained dog that I can trust with the freedom to roam around inside and outside.
