Benny is home!

Saturday morning we made the 2 hour drive up into the mountains to pick him up. He is 7.5 weeks old and about 10 lbs (when I jump on the scale with him). He is so sweet and playful! A total puppy though…

We introduced him to China outside in the community dog lawn. He came up to her very low and puppyish, and gave he kisses on the side of her mouth – giving her all the right signals of submission. She won’t have it and snapped at him. After dealing with India’s split personality for years (sweet and needy one minute, then ripping into her for blood the next), I wouldn’t be surprised if part of it is distrust of other dogs. Much of it is the normal sulking over a new dog, I bet. She left a spite poop in the hall this morning. We’ve progressed from her snapping at the puppy to just growling and showing warning teeth. I’ll take that – especially since it is only day 3. We picked the perfect puppy (demeaner-wise) and the right age. I know an older dog would not have worked out at all. I am working alone from home today, and China is in her favorite chair while Benny sleeps a few feet away under my desk. It is almost his lunch time, so I’ll crate him with it and take China on a walk. Good thing we live in a single family home now… That boy has lungs!

Crate training is going pretty well. He still freaks out, but he is doing very well after only two nights. The first night he went right to sleep at 11 pm, then woke up at 4:30. I took him pee, then we dealt with a lot of whining and howling (with a few naps in between) until we gave up around 8 am. Last night he went right to sleep at 10:30 pm and woke me up at 5:30 am. He went right back to sleep, but I couldn’t. He started crying again at around 6:30 or 7 am, so we got up.

This evening, Benny has his first vet visit with us (we went with the breeder last week). We are trying out a new vet since we changed cities. I also have to run to the pet store at some point for cat food, so he’ll probably come to give China a break. I plan to expose him to a lot of strangers and different situations at a young age. I’d love to do a lot of training with him, get his KGC, and perhaps even have him be a therapy dog.

Benny’s Dogster Page