Adolescence

Aug. 31, 2008

In general, Kruiser has been doing really well. He's good in the house, no problems with toileting, loves chasing and retrieving balls, is a really strong swimmer. But we occasionally run into some adolescent behaviors like a sudden refusal to lie down, or retrieving a thrown ball but dropping it several feet away. Deborah had us go back several steps and use a tug down on the prong collar as we said "down" for a couple of days, and when playing fetch to have Kruiser leashed so we could reel him in closer on the "drop" or "give." The first correction worked well. The second had mixed success, but in general he's better about dropping the ball close now. His "wait" when we throw the ball isn't at 100% but so long as we're standing (in a position of authority) he will wait for a "take it" release. Of course, if Pat is nearby and eying the ball, Kruiser's self-discipline waivers. Solution? Put Pat in a sit and wait as well, and then all is well.

We took Kruiser to his first volleyball game last night. At first his head did the back and forth cartoon swivel watching the ball, but pretty soon he settled down and even slept until stomping in the stands woke him. A toddler took to him and gave him lots of pats and pokes--Kruiser handled it all well and even annointed the little boy with slobber on his hair. When we left, the boy ran up and asked to give Kruiser a goodbye hug. Very sweet.

Today at church Kruiser really took to the kids that came up to him, and once again Leah asked if she could pat him and if he was soft. Kruiser is really gentle with her and seems interested in engaging her, though when she sat on the floor next to him (he was in a "down") we had to watch that he didn't reach for her with his paw. It will be good to take him into more school settings soon so he has more chance to be around kids, but from what we can tell, he's going to do well with them.

So I took him to the vet's to pick up Pat's thyroid medicine and weighed him--59 lbs. Here's a picture of the growing boy from Sat. morning on a hike at our cabin.

Update

Aug. 13

No pictures this time but an update on how Kruiser is doing. First of all, he's getting even more relaxed and comfortable in public places. When we waited for Matt and Liyun to arrive at the airport, Kruiser lay down and rolled over to sleep on his back, belly exposed. I thought this might be too casual for public, but Deborah said it was great because it showed his lack of stress. And then last weekend we spent an hour or more at Best Buy and I forgot at times he was even with us--he sat whenever I stopped and if we were in one place for very long, lay down when I told him to. (After meeting with Deborah, we had to work on his 'sit' and 'down'--because he slides on smooth surfaces, I had been letting him go into a down without asking, and his sit was getting lazy as a consequence. I got on him right after that, and after an initial period of being confused and even a little scared, he finally understood. I'm at lot more careful now about keeping him in a sit and being sure to say 'down' if he has to keep it for very long on slippery floors.)

Kruiser's love of chasing balls and frisbees keeps growing. We still sometimes have to work with his bringing them all the way to us and dropping them (or "giving" them to us in our hand). Best method to get him to bring them all the way is to walk away and then he comes with them the rest of the way. Food doesn't begin to work when retrieving is involved. He likes the ball/frisbee and chasing after them way more than any treats.

Kruiser had his first bout with giardia a week ago. We hiked up to Columbine Lake, close to Arapaho Pass on the western side of the Divide with plenty of still water along the way and in the lake as well; he and Pat also sampled scat as usual (yuck), either of which could have been the source. They're both fine now. Kruiser's first shot against giardia meant he had it less severely than Pat. No fun regardless.