I know, I know...I'm a week late with this post. So sue me! lol. This was suppose to be posted last Sunday, hence the title. Deal with it! ;)
Tucker is now 4.5 months old. He is right about 70 lbs and growing steadily. He never gets pudgy...just keeps getting taller and longer. He's had two puppy classes and is doing great. As he is so enthusiastic about the other dogs and pulls fairly hard, the trainer suggested that I try a Gentle Leader on him. I'm up for pretty much anything when it comes to making training him easier. She said it would also help with teaching him that we are the boss, not him. I did not believe her one bit on this point. I was wrong.
DH and I watched the DVD that came with the head collar and both figured we were in for a huge fight. After we were done, DH fitted the head collar to Tucker and we spent about 45 minutes in the driveway letting him adjust to it.
I was totally amazed that it worked so well. Tucker did spend quite a bit of time trying to get the loop off his nose, and the antics were making us laugh pretty hard. But pretty soon he settled down and we were able to just sit with him.
Salem figured out that Tucker was on leash and decided that it was time for some "No you may not chase the kitty!" lessons. He would get within 3 feet of Tucker then walk away. Poor Tucker....he really wanted that kitty! After the kitty lessons were done we went out to breakfast and then took Tucker on a loooong walk on his new head collar. He did great and it was nice to be able to walk him without all that pulling!
What totally amazed me was the difference in him the next day, without the head collar on even. He seemed to look at me differently and was not as jumpy as he usually is. He was also chewing less. He's certainly settling down more, which is pretty amazing considering his age. He gets into trouble occasionally but really hasn't done too much damage. He did figure out how to get the driveway lights out of the ground, but that seems to be limited to one specific light, so we'll see if that continues or not.
He's grown so much he really doesn't look like a puppy anymore. He still has the puppy antics though and I laugh every day that I'm with him. Part of me misses taking him to work with me and the sane part is glad he stays home now. He's a bit of work, but definitely a wonderful bit of work. lol
Tucker is now 4.5 months old. He is right about 70 lbs and growing steadily. He never gets pudgy...just keeps getting taller and longer. He's had two puppy classes and is doing great. As he is so enthusiastic about the other dogs and pulls fairly hard, the trainer suggested that I try a Gentle Leader on him. I'm up for pretty much anything when it comes to making training him easier. She said it would also help with teaching him that we are the boss, not him. I did not believe her one bit on this point. I was wrong.
DH and I watched the DVD that came with the head collar and both figured we were in for a huge fight. After we were done, DH fitted the head collar to Tucker and we spent about 45 minutes in the driveway letting him adjust to it. 
I was totally amazed that it worked so well. Tucker did spend quite a bit of time trying to get the loop off his nose, and the antics were making us laugh pretty hard. But pretty soon he settled down and we were able to just sit with him. 
Salem figured out that Tucker was on leash and decided that it was time for some "No you may not chase the kitty!" lessons. He would get within 3 feet of Tucker then walk away. Poor Tucker....he really wanted that kitty! After the kitty lessons were done we went out to breakfast and then took Tucker on a loooong walk on his new head collar. He did great and it was nice to be able to walk him without all that pulling!
What totally amazed me was the difference in him the next day, without the head collar on even. He seemed to look at me differently and was not as jumpy as he usually is. He was also chewing less. He's certainly settling down more, which is pretty amazing considering his age. He gets into trouble occasionally but really hasn't done too much damage. He did figure out how to get the driveway lights out of the ground, but that seems to be limited to one specific light, so we'll see if that continues or not. 
He's grown so much he really doesn't look like a puppy anymore. He still has the puppy antics though and I laugh every day that I'm with him. Part of me misses taking him to work with me and the sane part is glad he stays home now. He's a bit of work, but definitely a wonderful bit of work. lol
2 comments:
Wow, Tucker looks awesome. I just got a husky/lab X the end of March and it is challengeing. So much energy. I love him to peices but he is a lot of work so I will keep an eye on your blog to see how you are comming with him. We start puppy classes tonite!.
Mowgli was a lab/husky/rott mix and I totally understand that energy you're talking about. Tucker can hardly contain himself sometime too. It makes me wish I had some of that energy.lol I hope your puppy classes go well!
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