Sunday, November 29, 2009

where did he go?

I am wondering if any one has seen my cute sweet Guide Dog puppy Anthony?  I gave him to the co-raisers about two weeks ago and when I picked him up from the puppy sitters after a week vacation I could hardly recognize him!  Not only has he grown like crazy but he has become SUPER energetic and even more stubborn than usual.  I have never seen him so playful and spunky in his short little life.  Could it be his hormones kicking in?

For the past two days when I took him on his walks he has about dislocated my shoulder taking off after people and other dogs.  I have tried and tried to correct him but he is so big and strong and he will just not calm down for me.  So after a very tiresome two days full of LOTS of corrections, I went and bought a gentle leader.  I know I can get one free from our GDB leaders but I just couldn't wait a week till I see them.

We went on a big outing with Eve (another guide dog puppy) today and Anthony wore his gentle leader for the first time.  Lets just say that things were different!  Anthony didn't like it at all at first and really fought it but after he figured out that if he stopped lunging and pulling then it wouldn't be tight on his nose, then my sweet angle reappeared and walked slowly and perfectly at my side! Now if only he would stay around without the gentle leader on.

The funny part was that whenever I stopped to look at something while we were shopping he would flop down on the ground and roll around trying to get it off.  I would make him get up and then he would rub all over me trying to get it off.    Poor little guy, growing up is tough!

1 comment:

Ally and Eclipse said...

It could be hormones but more likely he's testing you. Our first puppy from GDB would pull crazy stunts whenever he went to a sitter's and whenever he came home. Sometimes it was as you described and other times it was jumping, running in the house, stealing stuff, etc. just to see if the rules did indeed stay the same. Keep on top of him and you should be good to go, if it's testing, once he's told the rules are still the rules enough times he may stop testing as much. Although dogs always test, even when they're first placed with their handlers /wink/