So we started house training Jake. I read about a dozen articles on how to do it. I think that it is just one of those things that you have to do to be able to understand how it works. I ordered a couple of DVDs and bought a book. All of it takes time to do and if my DVDs don’t arrive soon I will have to complain to Ebay.
I read a lot of hype about puppy pads. Here me now and believe me later if you must. If you have a lab, puppy pads are fantastic chew toys that come into exactly one million pieces. You would better off using the pads to dry dishes but they are treated with something to supposedly make the puppy want to do his business on it. They were a waste of money.
We also started some basic retriever training with Jake. By “basic” I mean very basic. He is fetching a tennis ball but has the attention span of a drunk squirrel with A.D.D. If I throw the ball too far he might forget it before he gets to the ball. But he is getting better at it every day. You can see that it makes him happy to please you, but if he finds something he would rather do (or as Crystal’s mom puts it – “Saw something shiny”) you can forget about him finishing the retrieve or coming back to you. I think that it is clear that an electronic collar is in his future because he keeps forgetting his name and has discovered a new game that he likes to call “Chase the puppy into traffic”.
We go through about a leash a week with Jake. It is not because he eats them or anything. We just keep loosing them. On second thought. He eats everything but I have yet to see any silver buckles in his poop.
Even though we tried to choose a unique name for Jake, I recently found out that the most popular name for a retriever is in fact “Jake” Luckily for us we have officially named him “Gatormouth Jake the Wondetriever”. I don’t think that one is taken by the AKC yet. But who knows. His paperwork is being sent in and we will find out.
I read a lot of hype about puppy pads. Here me now and believe me later if you must. If you have a lab, puppy pads are fantastic chew toys that come into exactly one million pieces. You would better off using the pads to dry dishes but they are treated with something to supposedly make the puppy want to do his business on it. They were a waste of money.
We also started some basic retriever training with Jake. By “basic” I mean very basic. He is fetching a tennis ball but has the attention span of a drunk squirrel with A.D.D. If I throw the ball too far he might forget it before he gets to the ball. But he is getting better at it every day. You can see that it makes him happy to please you, but if he finds something he would rather do (or as Crystal’s mom puts it – “Saw something shiny”) you can forget about him finishing the retrieve or coming back to you. I think that it is clear that an electronic collar is in his future because he keeps forgetting his name and has discovered a new game that he likes to call “Chase the puppy into traffic”.
We go through about a leash a week with Jake. It is not because he eats them or anything. We just keep loosing them. On second thought. He eats everything but I have yet to see any silver buckles in his poop.
Even though we tried to choose a unique name for Jake, I recently found out that the most popular name for a retriever is in fact “Jake” Luckily for us we have officially named him “Gatormouth Jake the Wondetriever”. I don’t think that one is taken by the AKC yet. But who knows. His paperwork is being sent in and we will find out.
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