Today Balou celebrated his three month birthday and thirteen days with us. He continues to go from strength to strength in terms of confidence and cuteness. This week he has continued meeting lots of dogs, mainly small, with a few big ones, on our visits to Highgate woods. He is used to being cooed over and petted by humans young and old and even remembers to say hello to them before their dogs on occasion. He is now well settled at home, he is getting the hang of the poochie bells and on occasion has managed to remember to ring them as well as go to the front door to let me know he wants to go out. His housetraining is very impressive for such a young pup. Today he went for several hours without asking to go out, unthinkable in a small dog of his age who can only hang on for a few hours even as adults.
He continues to be 'educated' by the other three. Interestingly it is Scrappy who is the best at telling him what to do. Balou obviously wants to be 'one of the boys' and is very interested in everything Scrappy and Bouche do, particularly out on walks. Scrap will tolerate his investigation up to a point but is quick to point out that a big puppy nose or paw is not always appreciated. Bouche being more relaxed is the one Balou tries to play with, he mounts him - or would do but is already too tall, so Bouche doesn't really notice, and has even tried to pull his ears and tail in play. Bouche will put up with a fair amount of this so has to be encouraged to stand his ground, he needs to get a bit better at telling people off!
Pom spends most of her time shunning or yipping at the pup, last week she was in a foul mood after having an op to remove two broken teeth (a mystery as to how this happened) so Balou found himself being scolded even more than often. Because she's so ratty he seems to pay her little attention!
During his daily outings Balou is becoming increasingly bold, no longer sticking to my side like glue. Instead he mingles with the other dogs occasionally even trying to play, though usually falling over in the process. He still hasn't got the hang of moving his big puppy limbs. He has discovered a love of leaves and enjoys collecting them, jumping in them and rolling in them. Yesterday he also noticed the ever present crows for the first time. He now tries to stalk them but somehow the crows always manage to outwit him. Balou is keen to make friends with everyone and shows no signs of worry meeting other dogs big or small. He is also still trying to persuade the cats that he is their friend and playmate - they don't agree but are happy to put up with his antics.
Despite a variety of big dog specific toys Balou continues to favour anything the others are playing with. At the moment the toy of choice is a long fabric snake, initially a cat toy, then favoured by Scrappy and now Balou. The giant reindeer, squeaker, tug toy and chew toy are all unloved and unused.
Today Balou celebrated his three month birthday and thirteen days with us. He continues to go from strength to strength in terms of confidence and cuteness. This week he has continued meeting lots of dogs, mainly small, with a few big ones, on our visits to Highgate woods. He is used to being cooed over and petted by humans young and old and even remembers to say hello to them before their dogs on occasion. He is now well settled at home, he is getting the hang of the poochie bells and on occasion has managed to remember to ring them as well as go to the front door to let me know he wants to go out. His housetraining is very impressive for such a young pup. Today he went for several hours without asking to go out, unthinkable in a small dog of his age who can only hang on for a few hours even as adults.
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