Laddie has had several outings recently. On New Years he met some friends of ours (& their new 10 wk old puppy). He traveled for hours in the crate without complaint, quietly accepting the journey and the changes of scenery. He was very interested in their little boys and the other pup (Aussie x BC) - although all exposure was from in my arms or in the crate without allowing nose touches since neither of the pups are fully vaccinated yet. We're going to have to go back to visit when they're both a bit older and finished with their shots. The one drawback was that I was in a dimly lit room and occupied with visiting and keeping pups from touching, so didn't get any pics.
Then we traveled to my parents' and introduced them. They were delighted with Laddie and enthralled with how quickly he's learning everything. Laddie was equally overjoyed to meet them and met all the new experiences with cheerful interest. He was perfectly fine being held, but eyes on me at all times...
On Tuesday we did his vet visit and 2nd shot. Another several hours in the crate, including patiently waiting & watching while we did a goat necropsy. He cheerfully accepted full examination from the vet and passed his health check with flying colors. He's 19.7 lbs at 11.5 weeks of age.
When I got home, I took him out to potty and it was finally warm enough he could spend a bit of time with Misty. She was kind enough to patiently sit and 'wait' at the top of our landscaped stairs several times to show Laddie that it's a required rule to wait at the top while I walk down (a safety measure we have to prevent dogs from pushing people down the stairs as they run past). With the help of his mentor, he's catching on pretty quickly. (I didn't get a picture of that, but got a couple of Misty & Laddie just hanging out.)
Meeting Misty - me trying to keep Laddie in the picture instead of nose to the camera, lol :p
I stopped blocking... sure enough, en route to me >>>>>>>>>> (In case you're wondering where Jazz & Monty are... they're otherwise occupied these days since Jazz is near heat).
Yesterday, I made another trip down to the barnyard with Laddie. I said on this video that it was his 5th trip, but I think it's only the 4th. Anyway. It was his first exposure to poultry because it's finally warmed up enough for them to be out and about (it's been near -40*C for the duration of Laddie's experiences here up until recently). First exposure to poultry video 2. I deliberately picked a pup with calmer & lower drive tendencies as a potential mate for Misty because she's fairly high drive. So I'm very happy thus far with how he's presenting himself in the barnyard.
Here's one of Laddie observing some of our does. Laddie was completely silent in all the videos. Any whining or barking was the other dogs feeling left out.
Last night we celebrated a belated Christmas / New Years at my parents. Laddie snugged with our youngest for part of it.
We've been so busy traveling & socializing this week, we haven't spent a lot of time on specific commands, so have only added a few new ones (yuck, stand, and sit/wait in crate prior to exiting). So, another training video will have to wait for a later date. However, Laddie did discover a new toy (with traces of sour milk in it- and YES, fully supervised with lid checked every few minutes...) He had a blast.
Today we traipsed back down to the barnyard, this time without a leash. I was thrilled that, while interested, Laddie didn't chase anything. Unfortunately, I was too busy dragging 250 lb bucks from pen to pen to take pics or video. However, on the way back up from the barn, our territorial Misty finally deigned to play with the newest interloper. Yay :) Needless to say, he's one tired & happy little pup tonight.
