Sunday, July 22, 2012

#RiddickPup Is Sixteen Weeks Old

Our gawjiss puppy weighs 14,8kg today which is a 1.4kg gain in the last week! He is actually a little smaller than Volt was at the same age but not by much. He will now be getting 160g of food three times a day and I am still adding the water to his food to slow him down.
He had a bit of a lonely week without his best buddy Volt, but he's definitely progressing in his training and we got to play with his toys without he and Volt first "arguing" over who is going to have it first!
He is still sleeping on the couch and on the bed with us, and I know we are probably going to regret that when he's fully grown... And he has taken to sleeping on the backrest of the couch because its nice and soft but that I am not allowing (apart from taking a picture of course).

Yesterday (Saturday) we spent the day at my parents' house with the puppies and my family. My mom's dogs are really doing well with socialising with our puppies and our boys always have a wonderful time with all the children! The following series is of my almost one year old nephew playing with Riddick and an empty 2L bottle! I was very pleased with how gentle Riddick was when the two of them were playing.

It seems our little boy's "defensive" behaviour- where they bark at intruders- is kicking in earlier than Volt's did. Unlike Volt who is not allowed to bark, we are going to allow Riddick to be a guard dog. He is already reacting to someone (like my son) opening the front door or coming in the back door when he doesn't expect it. And he reacts if he hears the front gate. Now the trick is to teach him when it is appropriate to bark. We have discouraged barking and growling as part of play since he was little because I want him only to bark or growl to draw my attention to a visitor or intruder.
And here are some pictures of our gawjiss Riddick! He is growing so very fast!



And here he is running after a ball in the back yard! If he faces the direction you're going to throw the ball in he sees it as it passes through his field of vision, and will fetch it and bring it back until he's had enough. If he's not facing the direction of the throw he doesn't see where it goes and then we have to go and fetch it and throw it again. He's really very sweet when we're playing and he just loves it!

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