The pre-training training continues apace

Man, I just survived THREE DAYS away from Angus and Rosie. Thank god for Doug, who texted me photos of the animals repeatedly throughout my trip to New York.  Here's one of them.

It's 5 a.m.! Where the hell is my breakfast?

That ear!

When I got home on Saturday afternoon I immediately noted that Angus has, again, doubled in size. The last time we weighed him was a week ago when we brought him to the vet for a blood draw; he weighed 28.6 pounds and I am sure he's over 30 by now.

The results of the blood draw came in while I was in New York: The vet says all is fine, the neutering is a go.  Hang onto your balls, little guy--at least until next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, even though Obedience 1 doesn't start until early April, we continue to work with him on a few obedience matters. And he continues to be brilliant on some things, stubborn on others, and weird on others.

Brilliant: He is great at recall, still. We play the name game at home sometimes, and I play it on the walks, calling his name when we are in places of high distraction, and he always always turns to look at me. And always gets a treat.

Stubborn:  On the walks we also work on SIT and WATCH ME, and he's great at those 10 times out of 11 and the 11th time he simply will not sit. Lord knows why.

Weirdness: In the house he only wants to sit and lie down on his favorite blue striped rug in the kitchen. (See photo above.)

It's very hard to get him to sit and lie down anywhere else, though lord knows we try. In the hallway he does OK, but in the kitchen he gets confused, doesn't respond, and then races over to the striped rug and does it all perfectly.

So if you come to our house some time and find that every room is newly carpeted in blue stripes, you will understand why.

Pre-bedtime excitement.

He's very stubborn on jumping. He still jumps up, even though I have never once opened a door, petted him, nor given him a treat if he rockets toward my face. And yet. He still. ROCKETS UP to me.

He is only four months old, I keep telling myself. Still a baby.  The thing is, puppies have so much to learn, and they have to learn it all at once: pee there, not there! Sit, don't jump! Walk nicely, don't play tug with the leash! And when you are frightened by another dog or by a man surprising you by stepping out of the shadows with a lit cigarette (as happened last night) for the love of god do not go all ballistic and Cujo on them.

Sadly, he did, last night, barking and twirling on the leash and baring his teeth at the man, and I tried valiantly to get him to calm down, sit, to no avail, and I apologized to the man, saying, "He's just a puppy," and the man said, "Vicious," and I could not tell if he was joking or serious.

But Christ on a bike I cannot let the world be frightened by my dog, who is, as we all know, going to be gigantic.

This is why the training continues apace.