What can I chew on today?

Today Brody turns 18 weeks old.  He had his final set of shots last week and he tipped the scales at 33.5lbs!!  He goes back in 2 weeks for his rabies vaccine, then in another couple months or so he will get neutered.  It's hard to believe that a handsome boy like him will never get the chance to raise little terrors of his own.  But the last thing we need in this house is a testosterone driven dog that may reach 100lbs.

Like most puppies his age he loves to chew stuff.  Thank heavens he hasn't done any major damage to anything in our house.  I think he is a bit of a hoarder.  He runs into Taylor and Katie's room and grabs something, usually and article of clothing on the ground or in the rare case that their room is clean he will jump on the bed and grab a stuffed animal.  Once he finds his treasure he bolts outta the room and into our bedroom where his bed is.  He sometimes softly chews what he found, but usually just drops it in his bed and goes to find something else until he has a nice collection going.  Occasionally, he runs into the front room and will leave his article in there.  In any case at the end of the day we have to go around and pick up everything he has moved around throughout the day and put it back where it goes.  Tomorrow is another day and he will find all news things to move around the house.  


One of his favorite things to chew on and destroy are twigs and sticks that have fallen.  This is pretty great because 1. They are free 2. We don't care if they get destroyed and 3. It seems to satisfy his need to chew.  The one itty bitty problem with this is that he likes to chew them in the house.  Since the weather has warmed we like to keep that back door open and the dogs can freely come in and out.  So Brody goes outside and finds his stick and then drags it back into the house where he continues to chew it into little pieces.  The pieces are too big to vacuum up but little enough that picking them up by hand is a chore.  Oh and they also really hurt when you step on them.  But I guess to date he hasn't caused any real damage to our house or our possessions so I can't complain too much I will just have to get on my hands and knees and pick up the twigs in my carpet. 


There are only 2 more weeks of puppy class so I will for sure give and update after graduation!

Pictures of Brody's dog family

Brody's mom and dad its very small but it's the only pic we have

Brody's mom and siblings

Just a quick story I have to share

Brody is getting so big so fast I don't think he realizes how big he is.  On Friday night I was in the bedroom folding laundry and Roscoe and Brody were running around the house chasing each other and making all sorts of noise.  Eventually, they both calmed down and Roscoe climbed in his bed and fell asleep.  About 10 minutes later I heard some whining, I recognized it as Brody's whine and looked around to see where it was coming from.  I got down on the floor pulled up the bed skirt and sure enough there he was under our bed.  I looked at him and said "what are you doing under there buddy"  He looked at me and whined and wiggled.  I quickly realized he was stuck!!  I yelled for Keith to come see.  Keith came and said "what a dummy". I had to lift up the bed and Keith had to pull the poor guy out.  He was so happy when he got out that he took a couple laps around the house and then came bolting back into the bedroom...and back under the bed!  There seems to be a pattern here with his learning curve.

Does bulldog mean bull headed?

It's been over a month since my last post, we've been so busy I haven't had time to sit down and write an  update on Brody.  Mr. B is now 15 weeks old and weighing in at 30.5lbs.  He is growing like a weed and food is still the driving force in his life.

Brody and Roscoe are getting along fabulously and they stay home all day while we go to work and school.  He is still pretty stubborn about potty training.  He has no problem going outside and he will even go to the door, but if we don't see him standing there, we usually get 30 seconds to 1 minute, then he just pees on the floor.  I am sure he thinks "oh well it's your own fault I tried to go out the door but it was closed"  He has also taken to sitting on the furniture which is not allowed but he doesn't seem to care.  I think he lives by the motto "it's only wrong if you get caught!"

He started puppy training 3 weeks ago and has quickly learned that this is where you get the treats.  The first day of class we all sat with our puppies and listened to the instructor.  Well most of the puppies sat or lied down some even fell asleep.  Not Brody of course he quickly sized up all the other pups and then cried and "talked" throughout the entire class.  Mike, our instructor, called him "mouthy".  This was not offensive because I know he's "mouthy" to see an example go back and watch the video I posted on March 24th.  The second week in class we learned about the right and wrong ways to walk your dog on a leash.  Brody took this as the time when he is supposed to chew on the leash while we were trying to walk him. He started to get the hang of the leash walking towards the end of class and we thought that was a great accomplishment.  Today in class we worked on "take it and leave it".  This is where you show him a treat in your hand then close your hand and tell him to leave it.  Mike knowing now how treat driven Brody is used him as the example.  It took Brody a few times but he caught on.  Again, we were so proud.  The next command was teaching him how to lie down.  We started at a sitting position then bring him down to the ground.  This did not go so well.  Brody gets sit, he's been doing this since week one.  In fact when we cook dinner at night Brody is right there following us around the kitchen constantly standing then sitting hoping that he might just get a treat.  But lying down is not so easy.  At this point he had been in class for 45 minutes and was much more interested in what all the other puppies were doing and couldn't care less what we wanted him to do.  If he was an actual kid in class, Keith and I would have been called into the principals office and we would be discussing ADHD medication with our pediatrician.  While Mike went around and worked with the other puppies Brody just barked and jumped at him, begging for attention.  Mike is very nice he always says "It's very distracting here I am sure he will do better at home"  We just "yah, you're probably right" as we look around at all the other puppies listening to their owners, completely un-distracted by Brody's antics.  As we leave puppy class we discuss how much easier Roscoe was and how he learned everything so quickly and was always the good example in puppy class.  Next week is learning how to sit, stay, and then come when called something the puppies must perfect in order to "graduate" to the next class...can a puppy really fail puppy class??  Stay tuned!!