Raising a Puppy: 13th week in his new home
A day in the life with Bruno the Boxer puppy. Bruno's 13th week—19 weeks old, 44 pounds, 20½ inches from the ground to the highest point of the shoulders (the withers).
A day in the life with Bruno the Boxer puppy. Bruno's 13th week—19 weeks old, 44 pounds, 20½ inches from the ground to the highest point of the shoulders (the withers).
About 4 months old.
Dogs need their ears cleaned regularly. One look in Bruno's ears and I knew it was time.
I dampened a paper towel and gently wiped out the insides of his ears. I used a new paper towel for each ear. It's never a good idea to use the same one for both ears as you will be spreading what is in one ear to the other.
A sample of what came out of his ear.
His ears are all clean. Much better!
Bruno, what's up with this?! Bruno had not peed in the house in three weeks so I was getting a bit relaxed about watching his every move. I was in the living room and he was in the kitchen when I heard the sound of liquid landing on the floor. No, couldn't be! But yes, it was. Bruno was peeing on the floor. Peeing and walking at the same time. He left a trail of pee all the way from the kitchen to the living room. By the time I got there he was done and walking away from it. Darn! I didn't catch him, so therefore could not correct him. I'll have to keep a closer eye.... Part of me just loves that he's a puppy, and part of me can't wait for him to grow up!
Every night we have a routine of walking Bruno outside to pee one last time before putting him into his crate for the night. I always walk him to the same part of the yard and say, "Bruno, Go Pee" as I point to the spot. He pees and I say "Bruno, Inside," then we walk to the door and we go inside (I step in the door, then turn around and invite him in). This whole ritual is usually done at Bruno's usual slow pace. I make it to the door first and have to stand there and wait for him to catch up. At night when he's tired he's like a puppy in slow motion.
It was 1:00 a.m., time for bed.... Knowing Bruno had just peed on the floor not too long ago, I put Bruno outside while I took my nightly shower. After my shower I heard him scratch at the door. I ignored him. First, because I was not finished getting ready, and second, because I don't want him to associate scratching at the door with coming inside the house. Fifteen minutes later I walked outside, but decided to see if I could get him to pee first before coming inside. I started walking toward the yard. Bruno flew past me, right to the usual spot. I started to point and give the command, "Bruno, Go Pee." With sheer excitement he immediately peed, turned and ran as fast as he could to the door. He still waited for me to enter first, but when I gave him the command to enter the house he ran as fast as he could to the dog beds where Allie was sleeping and pounced on her, grabbed his bone and lay down to chew it. It was comical; Bruno wanted to come inside so badly that it was very clear he associates peeing with being allowed to come back inside the house. Because of this, I didn't put him in his crate right away. I don't want him to associate the peeing command with always having to go into his crate afterwards.
Bruno has worms again. I noticed this little noodle-like thing coming out of his back end. I got a paper towel and put it on a plate. It was moving. Yep, worms again. This is a tapeworm, or rather a segment of a tapeworm. The tapeworm actually consists of many white segments, joined together like a tape. They tape together and can get to be several feet long. Then they drop off to multiply. It is the segments that are seen as they shed. These segments contain the eggs, which look like wiggling grains of rice. Bruno most likely picked it up from one of the many presents (dead animals) the cats bring to the porch. Several days ago I removed a dead mole from the porch. It was wet as if someone had been chewing on it. There were what appeared to be maggots coming from it. Thinking back, those maggots looked like these tapeworm segments. Now I wish I would have taken a picture of that mole and whatever it was that was coming out of it. I picked up some worm medicine at the vet. The worm meds they sell at the stores are sometimes not strong enough to kill tapeworms. Bruno gets a dose today and a dose in three weeks. We are worming our older Boxer too, just in case. Video clip of a live tapeworm segment.
Tapeworm segments - Pictures are larger than the actual worm appeared. These pictures are of the same worm segment, it was moving around the plate, changing shape as it moved.
Tapeworm segment—picture is larger than the actual worm.
Tapeworm segment—picture is larger than the actual worm.
I heard Bruno barking at something. When I walked over to see what the pup was up to now, I discovered Bruno had a newfound interest in the goats. While I don't think Bruno could, or would hurt the goats, the goats can and would hurt Bruno.
Bruno was barking at them, then would pause and stick his head through the fence to get a drink of water from a bucket that was on the other side. His barking was catching the goats’ interest and not in a good way, then by him sticking his head in to get a drink, well that was just asking for trouble.
This needed to be corrected quickly before one of the goats decided to buck him in the head while his head was sticking through the fence.
I stood there next to Bruno and each time he put his head through the fence, barked or looked at the goats as if he wanted to get them, I bit him in the neck with my fingers. I put my body between him and the goats and blocked him.
It only took two bite corrections and a couple of body blocks before Bruno calmed down and stopped harassing the goats.
I have not seen or heard Bruno bark at the goats since, however I will be watching.
Remember how Bruno was starting to chase the Guinea Fowl when he was 17 weeks old? Today at 19 weeks, Bruno was outside lying down in the shade when a whole flock of Guinea Fowl came walking past him, squawking loudly. Bruno calmly lay there watching as if he had little interest. It took me a few seconds to get my camera, but I did catch the noisy flock on video. What a good puppy to ignore those noisy birds!
We had six people who came over to visit today, all at one time. That's a lot of people for the dogs to mingle with. Out of everyone there, Bruno was very much attracted to the 2-year-old baby.
He didn't jump and he didn't knock the little boy over, although he did give him is paw once, which I corrected by putting his paw back to the ground and putting my hand out like a stop sign and saying calmly but sternly, "No." Bruno's paw, in my opinion, was just too big for him to be giving it to the child. Bruno followed this little guy all over the place, stuck to him like glue. The only thing I didn't like was the way Bruno felt the need to turn and lick him in the face and at times Bruno's back end would be wagging so hard he would curl his body into a circle right next to the child. I was afraid he was going to knock him over. The little boy didn't mind in the least, but I saw it as bad puppy manners. I followed the two of them around and did my best to correct Bruno when he started licking with a light touch to the neck. If he got too excited and started bumping into the child I put my body between them in an effort to calm Bruno down. It took some effort, because the little boy and Bruno were very quick and all over the place; it was hard to keep up and get every correction in. But Bruno did seem to start to get it. He was allowed to follow the child, but not allowed to bump into him or lick him. Bruno is a licker, he licks everyone, not obsessively, but he always sneaks a lick in here and there. He's been a licker since the first day we brought him home. The mother told me her son was fine, he didn't mind dogs, he had a big Doberman at home so he was used to dogs roughhousing. I explained I was teaching puppy manners and it was a great opportunity to teach Bruno how to behave around very young children. I was overall very proud of Bruno. It's hard to tell from the pictures, because Bruno was walking with his head low, but Bruno's head, when held high, was almost as tall as this baby's shoulders. Something about very small children seems to attract Bruno and it seems to be in a very good way. It's as if he senses their innocence. Bruno just needs to learn to remain calm around children. The pup’s only going to get bigger.
I found half of a horse sponge today and a few sponge pieces out in the yard, however not enough to make up for the entire missing section. We have a very large yard, so those pieces could be anywhere. I really hope Bruno didn't eat it! The good news is the sponge appears to have been chewed a while ago, not recently.
Like humans, puppies lose their first set of baby teeth and grow adult teeth. Bruno lost his first tooth! At least I think it's his first...
Four days later...My Boxer baby llost two more teeth. I found them on the living room floor. I looked in his mouth and I am pretty sure there are more missing teeth than I have found. My eyes are peeled for more teeth lying around the ground. Notice that really odd jagged edge on the tooth to the left. That was connected up into his gums.
Bruno smelled pretty bad so I decided it was time for a bath. No more kitchen sink or utility sink for Bruno, he's way too big. It's bathtub time. Bruno really didn't want to be in the tub. At first he appeared to be scared. I made a mental note to stay calm and relaxed while giving him a bath no matter what he did. I soaped him up and rinsed him off. After a while he relaxed. Bruno loves licking water from the hose, etc., so when I was all finished I let him drink from the cup over and over while the water was running so he would associate the bath and the sound of the running water with something he enjoyed. My pup no longer stinks and he was a good boy in the tub.
It was dark outside. I noticed Bruno in the yard acting a bit funny. At first I thought he was limping. As I got closer to him I realized he was pouncing! About three feet away from him on each side was a cat. The cats were lying down, completely relaxed, not facing Bruno. Bruno was in the middle. Then I heard a squeak and Bruno pounced again. The cats STILL just lay there as if nothing was happening. Darn, the cats went and gave Bruno a mouse to play with, a ritual mother cats do with their kittens to teach them to hunt. I called Bruno away from the mouse, got some cheese and called the cats to the porch, giving the mouse a chance to get away. Never a dull moment...
