This Tuesday evening Miki went to his third puppy class; all of these pictures were taken there.
It is simply amazing just how quickly these puppies morph into little dogs. To an outsider, it’s the physical changes that most obviously manifest — the chubby little puppy of three weeks ago is stretching and changing and well on the way to looking like the studly dog he will become. But to me, because I spend considerable time with him every day, the most evident changes are not in his appearance, but rather in his skills and behaviors. Day-by-day these changes are obvious to we who are with him every day, and often we see changes even within a single day.
Just 25 days ago when we picked Miki up, he was able to walk, run, and play — but you certainly wouldn’t have called him agile (which is what “Miki” means in Hawaiian). He bumbled about in an adorable fashion just like any other puppy would. But in that very short intervening time he has gained tremendous confidence and skill in his ability to move. These new-found skills are most evident in raucous play with our adult field spaniels (Mo’i and Lea). He runs at full bore, with exactly the gait of an adult dog. He leaps with confidence (landings aren’t quite smooth yet, though <smile>). He dives under the furniture with abandon, with only the occasional “thunk” when his head hits something hard. And though he’s ever so much smaller than Lea and Mo’i, he’ll get right in their faces and yap away while they’re playing. These are behaviors and skills of adult dogs, and he’s acquiring them very, very quickly…
There’s one particular skill that I was able to watch Miki develop from scratch: climbing rocks. Our yard is on a hillside in the chaparral of San Diego’s foothills. It’s full of rocks, from little pebbles to house-sized boulders. When we first brought Miki home and took him for a walk around the yard, the rocks were scary things for him — he wanted nothing to do with them. Within a day or two, we could entice him up a nicely rounded boulder with gently sloped sides — but he needed help getting down (for some reason going down is much more difficult than going up!), and the rougher, taller boulders were still puzzling to him, though not really frightening any more. A few more days and he would bound up almost any boulder on his own, and could get down from the easier ones. Now he’s progressed to the point where we’re more worried about him jumping off a too-tall boulder (whee!) than we are about whether he’s got the courage to climb around on one. That whole process took maybe 10 days, with clear progress each and every day.
In puppy class (and practicing afterward at home), we also see him gaining skills rapidly — but there are some things that are much more difficult for him than others. Sitting on a gestured command was easy, but we’re still working on “down”. We’re just beginning training for what will eventually be “heel", and this is really tough for him. You can almost see the little gears turning in his head, and the conflicting thoughts (mostly “What on earth do I have to do to get mom to hand over that yummy treat?!?"). Sometimes, just like Mo’i and Lea will do, Miki will go through a series of behaviors trying to find the magic one that will get a tasty bit of lamb and rice loaf popped into his mouth.
One thing Miki has never had any trouble or trepidation about is meeting new people. Sheila Miller (Miki’s breeder) went to a lot of trouble to socialize the puppies, and the results really show — Miki will run right up to new people or dogs (or other animals!) without any hesitation or fear. For instance, in this week’s class Bree (our instructor, at immediate right) had us all swap puppies. A classmate (the woman at far right with the black poodle) was Miki’s new trainer — and her biggest problem was how to get him to stop greeting her, and playing with her, so that she could try to practice something. It didn’t help that she had a particularly tasty treat (hot dogs), either <smile>. And Bree (frustrated with Debbie and I bumbling about) took over training Miki to heel for a few minutes — without the slightest hesitation on Miki’s part. These skills will serve him well in agility competitions, where he’ll be surrounded by scads of people and dogs he’s never met.
This past week Miki had an unexpected adventure right in our yard. We have about three acres fenced in, with a big swinging gate for our driveway. Just below the gate is a private road, itself gated off (with a locked gate), but which is frequented by hikers and horseback riders. Miki and Lea and I were out for a walk, Lea running loose and Miki on a leash. Just as Miki and I were walking down the driveway from our house, a lady on a (big!) horse came walking up our driveway. This is not a normal occurrence — in fact, I believe it’s the first time it’s ever happened. Now, Miki has never met a horse with us (though he may have while Sheila had him)…but upon sighting that horse, he started straining at his leash, bounding at the end of it, trying very hard to pull me down to greet our visitors. Lea, on the other hand, cautiously moved up into our pine trees — keeping 24” or so of solid wood between her and that horse, even though she’s met lots of horse. Miki and I did go down to meet our visitors, and he and the horse got on famously — the horse seemed to think Miki was cute <smile>…
Crate training rules, as the younger folks would say. Miki has had but a single “accident” in the house (and never in his crate), and Debbie is positive that that one was all our fault — he had a prolonged play with us in our livingroom, and several times went and scratched on the door. Somehow we managed to ignore that, and when his little tank filled up, he 'sploded on the carpet. When Mo’i and Lea were puppies (and we didn’t crate-train them), we had dozens and dozens of “accidents” before they were truly house-trained. This was miserable for both them and us; the difference with Miki is just mind-boggling. He now wakes up very regularly once each night, and yips to let us know we need to take him out (Debbie has that chore). Otherwise he’s sleeping peacefully through nearly every night, to our relief. Mornings are a special adventure right now. Debbie takes him out of the crate while I’m still lolling in bed, and she “launches” him onto the quilt. He is so obviously overjoyed to see us in the morning; very endearing. Each morning, after being launched onto the quilt, he wiggles up to my face just as fast as he can go, smiling and squealing with delight, and covering me with “puppy kisses” when he gets there. Then he and I play for a couple of minutes while Debbie does the really important thing: fix his morning kibble. Dry food with a splash of warm water is his favorite treat, and when Debbie comes back into the bedroom with the bowl he forgets all about me, and totally focuses on that bowl of food. The look on his little face says it all: “Ah, there’s nothing like the smell of a bowl of warm kibble in the morning!"
As always, click on the little pictures to get a larger view.
