December 04, 2008

Four months old today

I only took a few photos today because it was frigid ("real feel" of 19*) and my hands weren't working normally (& the camera battery was about to die.) But I got this one that is decent. He is now 19" tall (1/2 an inch of growth in 7 days!) Like I said, if you watch closely, you can see him grow!
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I'll know tomorrow how much weight he has gained since the last vet visit. Should be interesting.
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Training sessions have been going well. I'm working most on getting his sit, down and stand faster and getting him to remain in position (not move his front feet) when he changes positions. Today, to try to make that more clear, I set-up a mat with a low barrier in front of it. He was confused at first, but by the end of the session he was getting it and not moving his front feet between position changes.
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I have created and printed some Rally Obedience training log sheets. I'll start using them next week, but till then I'm still working on just the basics with him. I found out Kuliga is going to have a C-WAGS trial in April, so I plan to enter him in that. I'll likely enter him in the Rally trial in February too.
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I was adding up how many hours he has had of training already and it surprized me. Almost 20 hours of public access so far (I estimated low, so it's likely higher than that.) And nearly 60 hours of training in other places (and including home sessions) on basic obedience. He really seems to love to train (good thing!) and didn't want to leave the basement when the session ended this evening. He kept going back to the mat as if to say "But I got it mom, look!" :-)
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UPDATE: I forgot to post after his vet visit on Friday, so I'll just add that info here. The vet was very impressed with him and had lots of compliments about his weight, training and temperament. He didn't feel anything wrong with his hips like the other vet thought she might have felt. But because he is growing so fast, he advised putting him on Canine Joint Support which I did and we'll continue that till he's at least 18 mo old. He now weighs 27.5 pounds! He's put on 10 pounds in the past month and still looks very lean. The vet said he's a perfect weight.
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He also got a chiropractic adjustment and his rabies vaccination. Knock on wood, so far no ill effects or behavior changes since that vaccination. The vet said he could tell Dazzle plays hard. He was a bit out of alignment, but getting him adjusted every two months will help his growing body. I told him how he doesn't slow down coming through our hard plastic, heavy duty dog door, he just lowers his head and slams his way through at top speed. The vet said he could tell :-) So far, so good on his health!