Budde the Puppy is Eight Weeks Old

Almost frustrating how cute Budde is! at eight weeks old.

 1/19/13
Budde the Puppy is eight weeks old today.
Today it has been one week since our family adopted Budde and brought him home to live with my dad, and what a week it has been! Little Budde is a handful, he's constantly doing something. Eating, pooping, peeing, sleeping, chewing, playing and repeat that cycle every half hour and you got it. That is a little puppy.

Although most of what he's been doing involves his digestive system, he's also had some fun too. Budde's learned quite a bit in just a week. For instance, a week ago he could not use the stairs. Now he goes up without crying. He still struggles a little bit but he gets up no problem. Going up came first. Going down the stairs meant falling down the stairs at first, but he's even gotten that down by now. Budde is a fast learner.

Budde and Snrop

Snorp is starting to enjoy to new puppy.
Quite a bit actually. He gets down on his level and wrestles with him very gently. He lets him bite his tail and then chases him away. He runs in the yard to the puppy will chase after him. Snorp is all around a great older friend to teach this little puppy the ways of the doggy world. and then there is Louie. Louie is different. I wouldn't say he doesn't like the puppy, but I would say he's not totally sold on him yet.

I haven't been able to get a really good picture of Louie and the puppy up close this week. Probably because the second I get close to the puppy, Louie puts himself between us and sits down on my feet. It's hard to get a good photo when Louie is under me. It seems like he doesn't want the puppy too close to me, or maybe he doesn't want the pup too close to him so he's using me to protect him. Whatever the case it's a little weird. Who could blame Louie really, he can't see. There is a small, fuzzy, dog-smelling animal, biting at his face and tail at random. It's small and light so it doesn't make much noise. Suddenly it's there biting at his face! Sneak attack! If Budde's not biting at Louie's face then he's tripping him by running under his feet. Poor Louie.

Best shot of Louie and Budde together. Best to keep your distance. Budde bites!

Budde is already better at getting out of the way when he see's Louie coming.You can only get stepped on so many times before you try to do something about it. I let him come outside when Louie and I are practicing walking on a leash and sit and stay. The puppy has to run full speed to keep up with Louie and I walking at our normal pace. It's great exercise for the little guy. It's also great practice to have him following along like that.

Having Budde the Puppy around means tying your shoelaces again and again. The guy can't resist them! It's a constant battle. Tie your shoes, look down, shoe's untied, Budde is playing tug of war, remove teeth from lace, redirect puppy attention to another object, retie shoe, repeat. Double knots don't even stand a chance. Just calm, patients and consistency and he will grow out of this. He'll grow out of this and into much more annoying and destructive habits we can work on together instead.

I think he looks different this week.
His face looks more like a 'real dog' and less like some kind of giant guinea pig creature. He's actually very cute and looks quite a lot like Poncho did when he was a puppy. It will be interesting to see what he ends up looking like. He's already doing little things that have made my dad very happy. For instance: my brother, Hunter was home alone with the puppy. Budde started to pull at the little plush cat bed in front of the fireplace. That is where Budde had been sleeping earlier. The fireplace was off, instead there was a small space heater on across the room. Budde pulled and pulled on the little bed as it slid slowly across the wood floor. Hunter was about to tell him to stop playing with his bed when Budde stopped pulling it. It was right in front on the space heater now and Budde got onto the bed, made a few circles, plopped down and fell asleep. No kidding, it seemed as though he knew he wanted to sleep on the bed, but wanted some heat so he rearranged the living room furniture to his liking. Also, maybe he was just being a bad puppy fighting with the furniture and tired himself out and laid down wherever. I wish I could read his tiny puppy mind.

Budde and Snorp, Fast Friends

Overall, things are going extremely well.
Budde is already growing fast and making friends. He's going to be a great dog. Snorp will be happy to have a seeing friend that he can play with and Louie will eventually be happy having a another seeing eye dog to look out for him.

I'm considering taking him to puppy training class for my dad. I know he wouldn't do that on his own and he'll do fine without it, we always have had well behaved family dogs because of my dad, but puppy class would be really fun and it couldn't hurt. The little fella has some sharp teeth and could use some instruction on what is okay to bite and what is not. Maybe we can tackle the shoelace issue there too.

We will see what happens, and check back for more fun with Budde next week!