Yesterday evening I picked up the puppy.
Louie took him out of the pen and let him run around for a while with his mom Lucy and he got acquainted with Butch. Lucy had always kept Butch away from the pen, so this was their first meeting.
On the way home, the puppy sat on my lap and after a couple miles he moved on the seat, leaning against me and he didn’t puke. Very good!
I had made up a little bed for him:
He just stayed there.
As it was getting dark, I carried him outside. He learned how to go in and out of the house and he followed Butch around:
His white butt is funny!
I got Butch a new rope on Friday and he’s teaching the puppy how to play.
Not much teaching needed.
Puppy quickly runs off with the rope …
… to hide it under the truck.
Now that’s a good way to get run over by a truck.
(click for large pic)
After all that playing (10 minutes?) he sure was tired again. Since his box was a little small, I got another box and took off one side. He enjoyed being able to stretch out.
I got up around 6 am to let the dogs out and feed them, but the puppy only had a few bites and seemed tired. So I went back to bed too.
Around noon he was finally HUNGRY. He ate quite a bit. Last night he took a piece out of my hand to be polite, but Butch got the puppy food in the bowl, eventually.
Of course Butch knows that he’s not supposed to eat the puppy’s food. And he won’t as long as I’m looking. He doesn’t know that I can HEAR him eat, that’s so funny.
So after the puppy ate, he wanted to go back to sleep. I finally carried him out and then he ran around and I followed Butch and the puppy followed me.
He peed and pooped, I didn’t expect him to be house trained already!
Butch ignored him, I couldn’t find the rope and it was pretty hot. So we went back inside and puppy found his new favorite place behind Butch’s bed on the cool floor.
When I picked him up yesterday, we were talking about names. Stoner was suggested and that would be perfect if it wouldn’t draw so much attention when you yell across the parking lot:
“Hey Stoner, come here!”
All kinds of people could respond.
The other puppies in the pen were always jumping around and biting and competing for attention and he always stayed in the back. He doesn’t bite other than the chew toy and the blanket occasionally.
When I walk by him and say something, he might wag his tail and even look excited, but he is too lazy to get up. Hope there’s nothing wrong with him. He does run and play once I take him outside. Hopefully he’ll have a little more energy as he gets older.
So I can’t think of a name at all.
Most of my previous dogs were named when I got them. The name should be very different from Butch, so I don’t confused them. For now he’s “Puppy.”
Butch is a bit worried and jealous and he started to sleep next to my chair (have to be careful not to roll over him). I wanted another dog to help Butch guard and fend off the coyotes. And of course to keep Butch in shape.
Butch is 8 now and I didn’t want him to be too old to have fun with a puppy. He needs to teach him survival skills, how to deal with snakes, scorpions, centipedes and all those dangerous critters around here.
How to chase rabbits and squirrels (but never catch one) and how to roam and not get eaten by coyotes.
They’ll have so much fun!
— Just as I finished this post, puppy walked to the door. We went for a little walk, but it’s still so warm. So I gave him Butch’s old toy and he carried it inside.
He likes Butch’s pillow and he is having a great time playing. Uhuh – he’s taking the blanket of the pillow and starting to drag the pillow around.
It won’t be long until he’ll be raising hell around here.
I’m convinced if you start early enough in puppyhood you can train a dog to use a litterbox. It can’t be too much different than training a kitten.
I’m sure you can, dogs have even been trained to use a toilet.
But, I MUCH prefer him going outside. That’s one of the nice things about living in the desert, Butch “usually” goes where it doesn’t matter.
Amazingly, Andy (as I named him temporarily) already got the hang of it. I suppose he just copies what Butch does.
He turned out to be a very bright puppy. He keeps his toys on Butch’s pillow (which is now Andy’s pillow) and I can tell that Butch is still wondering when Andy will go “home” again. I’ve taken care of other dogs for a few days occasionally. But he likes to play with Andy and even tries to WRESTLE with that little puppy.
Right now Andy is not doing too well, I took him along to get water and just as we got back home he puked. But he didn’t jump around, whine or yelp, just stayed on the back seat.
He’ll be a very good and lots of fun dog.