Bauer update at 7 months old
An update on our winter puppy, Bauer. He had his first “sleep over” recently and here’s what his owner had to say:
I was playing around with my Picasa photo editor, and made a “collage” of Bauer, from puppy to well, big puppy! 🙂 I thought you would get a kick out of seeing how fast he grew!
I thought you’d enjoy some of the pictures I had a chance to take this weekend….Oscar spent a couple days with us…
I was a little worried at first, because both Bauer and Oscar are used to being the main dog around, but so far everything has gone well with Oscar staying over. We’ll be sad to see him go home tomorrow! N- dropped Oscar off shortly after I got home from work, and of course he and Bauer had a blast playing right away. As soon as N- left, I leashed both of them up and took them for an hour walk. I figured this was the best way for Oscar to learn how things are run in my family, and I think this truly did help! Bauer an Oscar walked so well together…..when we’re out walking, I feel like I’m the local dog whisperer or something. At first, I thought it was weird that so many people were staring at me and commenting on the puppies and me walking both. Then I stopped to think about it and realized that to an outsider, I was walking two “ferocious” looking dogs. This made me laugh, as this is not the case…they’re merely two 7 month old puppies (I keep saying 6….I just realized Bauer is 7 months!!) so full of energy they don’t know what to do with themselves.
Bauer and Oscar have both been crate trained, thank goodness! At night, we’ve started leaving Bauer’s crate open. He’ll usually still sleep in there, or he’ll sleep on a blanket on my side of the bed. N- and L- said they’ve been doing the same with Oscar. However, I was hesitant to allow them both to roam my bedroom at night, and figured they probably wouldn’t sleep all that well if they had the option to play. Since Bauer’s crate is in the sitting room half of our bedroom, we figured we’d set up Oscar’s crate in the guest bedroom, so he would still be close if he needed something, but not so close to distract him. We tried to go to sleep, but Oscar’s whimpering was too much to bear. So we disassembled his crate and moved it side-by-side with Bauer’s in our room. Thank goodness that was all it took for him to settle in for the night! Less than 5 minutes later, the two were sleeping “side-by-side” in their crates.
This morning I took the two of them on a 5 mile walk. They were soooooooo good. I can’t emphasize this enough. We found the best way for us to walk as a group was with me holding both leashes in my left hand (we’ve both taught our puppies to walk on our left sides….). Bauer preferred to walk directly by my side, but since I’m more familiar with his temperament, I tried to keep him on the outside, so I could be closer to Oscar if he should get out of line. The two switch places every 15 minutes or so, and seemed completely content walking side by side with me. Halfway through the walk, we went through a park, and Oscar decided it was nap time. He just laid down in the shady grass and called it quits. So, we took a 15 minutes break, as it was pretty warm out! I finally got them to continue walking, and when we got home, they passed out until 3 or so….mind you, we left for the walk at 9:30!
When they woke up, I figured I’d take advantage of the two of them wearing one another out…I hooked them up to their ropes outside (since we don’t have a fenced yard….) and let them have at it. I took a ton of photos/videos of them, and uploaded them to our Photobucket website.
I find myself torn between continuing to give Bauer the amount of attention he is used to, and still giving Oscar the attention he deserves. I’ve noticed Bauer is very possessive of me….whenever I’m giving Oscar attention and Bauer isn’t involved, he immediately comes over and will sit by me. If I don’t start to give him attention, he starts to try and pick a play fight with Oscar to try and distract him from me. I think we’ve managed to balance the two of them and their needs well though. When one gets out of line, we do a time out, and when they get a little too rowdy, I tell them to separate and they’ll spilt apart for a couple minutes. All-in-all, dog sitting has been great, and Bauer loves the company. I’m hoping I might be able to talk Josh into fostering once we have a fenced in back yard…….that won’t be for at least a few years though.
One Response to “Bauer update at 7 months old”
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