#RiddickPup Is Forty Three Weeks Old

And he's one week short of ten months old!
This morning on the vet's scale he weighed exactly 30kg and the vet's receptionist is very impressed with how much better he behaves now, compared to when he was younger. He's still very excitable when we go out, but he no longer screams his head off constantly!
He is still getting 210g of Nutriphase Adult twice a day, and he knows EXACTLY when its dinner time! For breakfast time he doesn't need to wait too long because it happens shortly after I wake up and we head downstairs. Dinner time has him standing in front of me (or sitting if we're on our bed), gaaaazing at me, yelling at me with his eyes if I am so much as five minutes late!
I still add water to his bowl of pellets to slow down his eating- he's never learned to eat slowly!
He's well into his adolescence now and misbehaves occasionally, but his teen behaviour isn't as bad as I thought it would be.
His new favourite trick is to run into the bathroom and grab the toilet roll! I do give him the toilet roll inners to chew on and play with when the paper is finished, but if he gets half a chance he grabs a full toilet roll and rips it to shreds! He looks very guilty if you catch him with it and tries to look like he has absolutely no idea what you're talking about! Its very comical.
He gets mischievous when he's outside too. When I let him out the door he first waits to see if I am coming too, and perhaps bringing a ball, and if I don't follow him out he races off around the corner to pester Thelma and Louise!

We were back at the vet to check on his right ear again and the vet is very happy with how well it has cleared up. He found no blockage and has suggested we continue the ear cleaning treatment for a couple more weeks, and then sporadically to prevent it getting clogged up with wax again.

We've also spoken to BVH about the possibility of Riddick becoming a blood donor for their canine blood bank when he's a year old! If he is a successful candidate, he will donate four times a year and he will get his annual check up and shots for free! If your dog is healthy, between 2 and 7 years old and over 25kg, he or she could be a donor too!

#RiddickPup Is Forty Two Weeks Old

A while ago I noticed Riddick shaking his head and scratching his right ear a lot. I wasn't too worried about it, but at the beginning of the week I noticed him tilting his head to the right and letting his ear sort of... hang, limply. And that I didn't like all.

We headed to the vet on Friday afternoon (I really like BVH by the way) and they found his right ear was badly blocked with wax. He couldn't tell if there was something in his ear besides the wax, so he gave us an ear cleaning fluid to clear the wax and make sure its nothing more than that. He put a bit of Cortisone in it to help with the itching and gave us a couple of anti-inflammatory tablets because the head shaking is briefly aggravated by the ear cleaning liquid and it can burst blood vessels if it doesn't stop.

We'll go back to the vet this coming Thursday morning so he can make sure his ear is nice and clean again and that there's nothing else stuck in his ear.

Thankfully he's not chewing on his feet or scratching all over so its not allergies, and he's VERY wary of our pool so he hasn't got ears full of water.

On the vet's scale today he weighed 29.9kg so he hasn't gained since last week. He's still getting 210g of the Nutriphase Adult twice a day so it looks like he may have reached his growth plateau at almost 10 months old.

He definitely seems to be well into his adolescent phase, although he's not as OTT teenager as Volt was, thank goodness! Riddick's latest "thing" is stealing and chewing on the toilet rolls! And her will walk into the bathroom while I'm in there too and walk out with the loo roll! Crazy puppy!

#RiddickPup Is Forty One Weeks Old!

He weighed 29.85kg on the vet's scale this morning (he's gained since last week) and he's been eating 210g of Nutriphase adult twice a day for the last month.
The last week was insanely hot so we didn't do as much ball play and walking as we usually do, I'm talking 35°C in the shade at midday! Riddick didn't even miss it as he got as hot as I did and did a lot of sleeping.
I'm a little worried about Riddick's right eye... Last week it seemed to get a bit weepy and then part of his eyelid started going pink! The pigment loss spread (its stopped now) but it doesn't seem to worry him at all...

And just for your entertainment, here are some more photos of our beautiful boy...

he loves the fan in my bedroom as much as I do

when he wants to go outside, he comes and stands next to the bed and rests his head on it until he gets my attention

he looooves his mommy... regularly using my feet as a pillow, he has to lie close to me

#RiddickPup Is Forty Weeks Old!

Our nine month old "pickle" is just the sweetest boy! He is the light of my life!
Riddick weighed 29.5kg on the vet's scale today which is up on last week so he hasn't finished growing yet! And he still got VERY excited to be there! Silly narna! There was a little Yorkie in the vet's office and Riddick couldn't WAIT to say hello!
His "big brother" Volt went back to SA Guide-dogs to complete his training a week ago so, Riddick isn't getting nearly as much exercise as he was getting, but we're playing ball lots and going for walks to make up for it!
We are also still working on getting him accustomed to wearing his new Doggles. When he's chewing on a bone or some such then I put the Doggles on his face fully- over his eyes- but if we're just playing ball then I put them on top of his head so he can get used to the feeling of having something around his head. When we're nearly done playing I will put them over his eyes and throw the ball just once because one or two runs down the lawn will have him trying to pull them off his face.
We're making great progress with them.

New @rogzwhq Lead For #RiddickPup

On New Years' Eve, Riddick was benched* to the security gate with Volt whilst our visitors were coming in and out of the yard, and Riddick decided his lead would be cool to chew on while he waited for me to untie him...

butter wouldn't melt, eh...

You'd swear the lead had been cut! And he did it so fast!

So I needed a new lead. 

I popped into my nearest pet supply store yesterday and I found the Rogz Multi Purpose Lead! Talk about awesome! It has 6 functions, 4 of which I will be using on a regular basis! 

Its like a fabric version of the divine, soft leather lead I borrowed from SAGA when Volt was growing up!

Find Rogz on Facebook and Twitter

*benching a dog is putting them on-lead until they sit quietly to teach them a desired behaviour in a particular situation