Bringing Up Remus: August 1st, 2012

Life with Remus is a ton of fun. He is growing up so fast, it seems like it wasn't that long ago when I brought home that little 10 pound pup (okay, it was only the end of June). He is growing "like a weed," weighs about 22 pounds and has gotten pretty tall. I know, pups grow and that the time it takes is pretty short in comparison to other species. He is still acting like a pup which is the way it's going to be for the next 18 months or so. Vizsla's seem to take a long time to grow up, at least that was my experience with Ry (and what Patsy has told me), so it's what I am expecting with Remus. Ry didn't really settle down until last year or so. Now, he is AWESOME- very reliable with responding to his commands, behaves consistently- I know what to expect from him in a variety of situations and he is able to fall asleep before we actually go to bed (he's asleep on the couch next to me. And, yes he is allowed on the couch and can also sleep on my bed- and no, he is not asserting any dominance over me with the privileges I have offered him).

I have been continuing with Remus' ongoing socialization experiences- I have brought him to 2 parks for off leash runs, he has gone swimming (sort of, he was retrieving a stick and happened to swim a little) and we are venturing further on our walks when we go to the waterfront.

We are practicing our obedience cues, I am constantly finding that there are not enough hours in the day. Work has been incredibly busy; it is increasingly more difficult to get 20 to 30 minutes to myself to play and work with Remus. Today, for example, I only had 15 minutes to eat lunch and had to go immediately back to work. He only had outings to go potty. Poor little guy was CRAZY, I'm exaggerating, when we left for home.

Today is the 9th of August, my computer has been down which is why I haven't had a chance to finish this post. We went to Plymouth last Sunday morning which turned into an outing I had to salvage. Remus was having a fearful day, he was nervous of my sister which was unusual, when we got to Plymouth he was super distracted, tail down and sniffing like he had never smelled anything before. We walked for a few minutes (longer than I would have liked to once I realized he was having a problem), caught up to Gary and Carol- much to my surprise, she doesn't normally get up early, and let them know we had to go back. Remus was pulling on the leash, sniffing, yawning and doing full body "wet dog" shakes. (Someone was staring at us as we tried to walk along to go back to the car.)

All has been well since then, this morning we walked at the bogs prior to going to work. That was one of my smartest ideas that I've had in a long time, LOL! Remus slept all day at work unless he needed to go outside.