Dog, days 3 and 4
Jan. 13th, 2009 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serenissimaMungo is making progress. Yesterday afternoon we went for a longer than usual walk, exploring an area outside our neighborhood, and when we got home, he surprised me by standing up and bouncing off me and bounding around me. So we had a brief game of chase, or something along those lines &mdash I'm not sure who was chasing whom.
I was right about him becoming a needy dog. When![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aristeros and I are sitting, which is most of the time, he comes over to us to be petted and inserts his head under our hand (or even arm) if petting is not forthcoming. And one quick pat is not enough, it has to take a minute. If I'm using my laptop or reading a book and ignoring him, he'll leave me alone mostly, but he keeps checking back every 15-20 minutes to see if he can get more attention.
Mungo has been sitting more readily, a gesture I've encouraged; I'm not sure whether he yet associates his action with my word "sit," or if he's getting the idea that the petting stops soon after he comes to me unless he does something else to elicit praise. He has pawed at us since we got him, and I was hoping to turn that into a "shake hands" trick, but I'm beginning to think I should ignore the pawing or actively discourage it. He also has a weird habit of biting his upper lip. On his first day here, I thought he had a piece missing from his lip, but it's just that his lower teeth are covering it. He looks like he's snarling, but I don't think he is: he doesn't make any noise, and he often does this while asking for petting.
I left him alone in the house for about 20 minutes yesterday and for the same this morning, and nothing bad happened, but when I went out for 45 minutes this afternoon, I returned to find an "accident" of both types. I was hoping he was already housebroken. Now I'm concerned, because I have classes next week, and I'll have to leave him alone for six hours at a time then. I guess we better make with the crate training, but how much can he learn in a week? On the bright side, I'm assured that there's nothing wrong with his digestion.
He holds his tail a little higher, and he jumps up to put his feet on me when I return from being away. He hasn't tried to jump up on my dear housemate yet, but I've been with him almost constantly, andaristeros has been at work these past two days. I've witnessed a lot of change in the last four days. I wonder how he'll act a week from now.
I was right about him becoming a needy dog. When
aristeros and I are sitting, which is most of the time, he comes over to us to be petted and inserts his head under our hand (or even arm) if petting is not forthcoming. And one quick pat is not enough, it has to take a minute. If I'm using my laptop or reading a book and ignoring him, he'll leave me alone mostly, but he keeps checking back every 15-20 minutes to see if he can get more attention.Mungo has been sitting more readily, a gesture I've encouraged; I'm not sure whether he yet associates his action with my word "sit," or if he's getting the idea that the petting stops soon after he comes to me unless he does something else to elicit praise. He has pawed at us since we got him, and I was hoping to turn that into a "shake hands" trick, but I'm beginning to think I should ignore the pawing or actively discourage it. He also has a weird habit of biting his upper lip. On his first day here, I thought he had a piece missing from his lip, but it's just that his lower teeth are covering it. He looks like he's snarling, but I don't think he is: he doesn't make any noise, and he often does this while asking for petting.
I left him alone in the house for about 20 minutes yesterday and for the same this morning, and nothing bad happened, but when I went out for 45 minutes this afternoon, I returned to find an "accident" of both types. I was hoping he was already housebroken. Now I'm concerned, because I have classes next week, and I'll have to leave him alone for six hours at a time then. I guess we better make with the crate training, but how much can he learn in a week? On the bright side, I'm assured that there's nothing wrong with his digestion.
He holds his tail a little higher, and he jumps up to put his feet on me when I return from being away. He hasn't tried to jump up on my dear housemate yet, but I've been with him almost constantly, and
aristeros has been at work these past two days. I've witnessed a lot of change in the last four days. I wonder how he'll act a week from now.