I think Pete might just be perfect

The Luck of the Irish litter puppies turn 12 weeks old in a few days.

Let’s see how they’re getting on.

Here’s a note from Lucky Charms’ (aka: Pete) family,

“I thought an update might be overdue! He went to the vet on Thursday after he arrived on Wednesday and had no issues. 

He is doing really, really well. He has slept through the night every night. The only potty accidents we have had have been on the way out the door and those have not been many. He has been cautious about new experiences, but has moved forward with them when encouraged and rewarded once he has mastered them we haven't had issues. He has made friends with my parents' dog who lives across the street. Ripley, on the other hand, has not really warmed up to Pete [fka: Lucky Charms] yet. She is very reserved and really doesn't see why the addition was necessary. Aloof would be the best word to describe her attitude at this point. 

I think Pete might just be perfect. He is friendly to everyone he has met (family) but is not boisterous or demanding. He is calm but attentive. He is learning everything quickly (but we have not started intentional training; we are just establishing the habits we expect going forward using consistent language). It is really funny, though. He has a strong love of water (lab grandparent maybe?), he will climb into the water bucket at least once a day. We are going to get him a shallow stock tank to help him stay cool down here in the south). I do think he might be struggling a bit with the heat. If I take him out for a potty break in the middle of the day he will come back in panting and then pant for quite a while. I think I remember this being an issue with Ripley when she first came to Mississippi and that was in October. She hasn't had any issues after the first winter and summer cycle. Let me know if you think there is a great reason for concern with the panting and I will bring it up with the vet. The only other topic of note is that he barks not excessively, - but mostly at the inside cats if they sit and stare at him. But it is funny because Ripley will look at us with what is going on with him questions in her eyes. She never barks unless there is something we need to know and that took her months of getting comfortable with us! 

Thank you for this precious addition. This is the only type of family dog we will ever have.”

And here’s an update from Delaney’s (aka: Xena) family,

“Almost 3 weeks now and what a character. I decided to rename her to Xena and thankfully she's responding well to it. She's very smart and actually quite social. She got to meet some old navy friends of mine and of course soaked up all of the attention. It is quite humorous at times to watch her where if people are far away she will sit down to observe and I can see her little wheels turning but if people approach closer she very much wants to say hi.

Commands are coming along well. She's very adept now at sitting for when she wants something and a little slow on the lay down but getting better every day. Recall is an interesting one for her as I turned the command into a whistle (it's the same whistle I use for my cats to come). She does not always immediately respond to the command but wants to think about it for a few seconds but that said she is also pretty quickly picking up on sitting down by my feet when she arrives.

Things we are working on include not biting everything within reachable distance - she really likes to lead with her teeth and gets into biting my legs on some occasions. Right now I'm using other attention grabbers to try to avert her needle teeth. I have read multiple ideas on the subject from distraction, to correction, to ignoring it (dogs being less likely to continue behavior if not rewarded for it).

Correction did not seem to work spectacularly well but working through things to see if one works better than the others or a combination of things.  I also think she got some of the lab temperament because she loves to carry things.

Another item that is a work in progress is the crate. I'm working to create a lot of positive associations with the crate but she sounds like she's being murdered sometimes when I put her into the crate at night for sleep. Initially I was able to get her to calm down into it but she came back this week with a renewed vigor to get out of it when she goes in. I'm not the biggest fan of just letting her cry it out as I imagine all of the stress hormones are not particularly great but I am also not the capitulating type to just let her out, in the long run she'd never get used to it. She does sleep through the night now though without any necessary potty breaks so small victories.

She is still quite obnoxious with the cats. They are mostly separated when inside the house but she still doesn't understand they won't play with her like her siblings used too. She's almost like a boxer at times cause she loves to use her paws. One of them is far more willing to stand his ground and he hasn't used claws but he's batted her a couple times and she sounds and recoils like she just got shot. When out in the yard together I'm going to put her on a harness and work to create positive associations with  her ignoring them.

I did want to ask something though how do you generally find the pups as teenagers? There seems to be a general consensus in dog owners that you get to a certain point training them as puppies and then when the teenager phase hits they kind of lose their minds and "forget" a lot of the training that happened until they get closer to a year old and start to chill out more. I was wondering what your experience with the dogs has been as they grow through the first year.

Xena also had her first check up and is healthy as a horse I just need documentation of her first vaccines as I'm looking to take her back in for her second round here in the near future.”

Great!

Sounds like the second generation pups out of the most recent Lab/Shepherd crossbreed are doing well so far.

Keep up the good work, new puppy parents!

The more work you put in now means less work when the puppies are bigger and more mature.

Speaking of puppies…

We have ONE MORE SPOT open on the waiting list for the Monster Movies litter.

If you want in, reply to this email and let me know.

Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.