Puppy at 15 Weeks

Lizzy is now 15 weeks old and 30.6lbs. She continues to do well and hasn’t had an accident in over a week now. Night time sleeping is going much better also. We’ve been able to put off taking her outside until 6 am now. It makes a big difference for me since there have been a few times I’ve woken up at 4 am and have not really been able to get back to sleep. I’m guessing over the next week or so we’ll be able to test out waiting until 7 am.

She continues to do well with puppy class. There wasn’t as much time for free play so she was still excited near the end of the class. I think we need to start introducing her to our friends dogs so she can get more social interaction with other dogs. It’s tough in the winter though since she really can’t be left outside for more then 10 minutes. Having a bunch of dogs running around in the house does not sound like fun.

She also conquered the stairs this past weekend. It has been tough since our side door requires going down a short set of curved stairs. It can be tricky even for me to go down them if their are a lot of shoes. Lizzy was very scared at first, but with a little pushing from behind and some motivation with treats she now goes down them with ease. It’s amazing how quickly dogs can learn and transition between things. April is very glad the puppy can now go down the stairs as she was getting too heavy for her to carry.

Puppy at 14 Weeks

Lizzy is now 14 weeks old. This has been a very eventful week for her. On Monday she went to the vet for another round of shots. She pretty much has all the shots she needs now for another month. She’ll be getting her rabies shots and another around of parvo/distemper I believe. Also, on the same day she started her puppy classes. I really wish I would have remembered to take the camera to class, but it was a mad dash to get to the class on time. It is at 5:15 and I had a work meeting that ran over. I’ll make sure to get some shots next week.

She did very well at the puppy class though. She didn’t play too rough and responded very well to the few simple commands that we went over. She had already known them, but it was nice to see her respond in a very exciting environment. The instructor used her as an example a few times. I really view the class as more of a socialization place then a learning one. Though I have already picked up a few tips that I’ll be trying to use.

On Tuesday she had her first walk around the neighborhood. I was amazed at how well she did. I followed the walking instructions and kept a short, but loose leash on her and had no problems. Most of the time she walked right by my side and needed very few corrections. The following day we did a few more walks and she was a little more excited, I think it was because it was when the sun was out, but overall she still did very well.

Puppy at 13 Weeks

Lizzy now weighs 26lbs. We’ve been having a few accidents lately, about one every other day. So we still need to keep her close to us and make sure she isn’t getting into trouble. Otherwise she is doing great. We just got back from petsmart and registered her for puppy classes starting next Monday. They had a puppy class going while we were shopping. They are so cute. I love seeing the different breeds and how they interact.

Puppy at 12 Weeks

Lizzy is continuing to grow. I just weighed her this morning and she is now 22.6lbs! So she is staying pretty consistent gaining approximately 2lbs a week. She’s gotten more and more consistent with her commands and is not biting nearly as much. Also, we haven’t had an accident since last week Tuesday. That really is the greatest relief. Cleaning up messes in the house is probably the worse part about having a puppy.

Lizzy has also started learning the command Stay. She’s doing pretty good with it. We are still consistently using treats, but she’ll stay for almost 30 seconds now. We’ll keep working on increasing the time.

Puppy at 11.5 Weeks

A few pictures of the puppy at 11.5 weeks. These were taken on New Years Eve.

Lizzy at 10 Weeks

We weighed Lizzy yesterday and she now weighs 18.4 pounds. She’s nearly doubled in size since we brought her home 4 weeks ago. At this rate she’ll be almost 40 pounds by the 4 month mark. I’m not sure when exactly her growth will slow down, but I believe her max size will be around 50-70lbs.

Overall we’ve been making a lot of progress with her. She has gotten much more consistent with her sits and downs. When feeding her she is also very good about not charging the food bin when I grab the food. When we first started she would jump up and down and almost knock the container over. Now she’ll sit a few feet away and wait. She whines a bit, but that is understandable.

Housebreaking is a little touch and go still. We’ll have a few good days and then a really bad one. Earlier this week she both pooped, peed, and puked all within an hour. The puke I think was caused by her eating salt I had put down on the concrete. She stays away from it now. I think we are definitely on track to have her almost fully house broken by the 4 month mark.

Puppy at 9 Weeks

A picture of the puppy at 9 weeks.

Puppy at 8 Weeks

A picture of the puppy at 8 weeks.

Puppy at 7 weeks

A picture of the puppy at 7 weeks.

Puppy at 6.5 Weeks

I just wanted to introduce my new puppy, Lizzy. She has been with us for two weeks now and is doing great. She already knows a number of commands; sit, down, come here, off (sorta), leave it (sorta).

It has been a great experience so far for me. The only things I can’t wait to get behind us are the chewing and potty training. Unless we watch her like a hawk she’ll either chew or pee on something. Most days go pretty well with no accidents, but we’ve had a few days where no matter what we do she makes the house her own personal toilet.

Nice thing is the more time we spend with her now, the better she’ll be when she grows up.