0 Days without Incident - Welcoming Dozer

Today was the day our third pup entered our lives. Actually, yesterday we had the meet and greet with him at his foster home.  We had already gotten approval for adoption, and wanted to make sure Kodo and Tali got along decently well with him.  Thankfully, all went as plan and while he had a TON of energy, everyone's jugulars came out unscathed.
 

We had already decided that if everyone got along, we would offer our place as his permanent home.  First we had to get all the paperwork signed and decided that Monday would be the day.  His foster mom dropped him off at 10:30am, with his box of toys.  All the pups were doing the sniff greet with each other and again, everyone was good. 

At this point, we still hadn't chosen a name for him. (he was originally Scooter)  I think we were tossing around Niffler, Koopa, Tonka, Sonic, Dozer, among plenty of others.  This actually made the first day a little difficult, because I was correcting him left and right, but didn't want to imprint any other name than the one we pick.  So I basically referred to him as "Pup", or more accurately, "PupLeaveit!" aka "DogNoBite!"  

Well, within the first 15 minutes of him arriving and sniffing around, from my view at my work desk, all I saw was the first lamp start shaking back and forth...then the second one started shaking and then fell.  Then the 1st lamp started shaking again.  Out comes the pup by his crate.  This was after he was so excited that we ran right through a baby gate that was supposed to keep him in our morning room.

For me, this solidified his name in my mind.  Dozer, while never really a top pick, rose to the top of the list and eventually became set in stone...though, we still call him Gozer on occasion.

Well he spent almost the entire day sniffing around the house and exploring.  I introduced him to the backyard and him and Tali immediately went into play mode.  I was surprised that Tali outran him...but Dozer does have a pretty awkward gait.  His hind legs seem to be much longer...almost looks like a baby deer when he runs.  Hopefully that isn't a sign of any orthopedic issues.

I will say that I was crazy wiped by the end of the work day. I couldn't wait for Beck to home. We started a similar routine when we first got Kodo. Much of his training came with dinner. I started with name calls (as opposed to name-calling). I would simply say his name, and then treat him when he looked up at me. It took a few tries, but you can tell he started figuring it out. I also started working on "Waits" with him to train him to stop being pushy when I tell him to wait. He's puppy, so part of it that is his normal craziness. It'll take time, but I can already see that he's learning. I'll call it a successful first day.

There's still a bunch of things that we have to figure out in terms of routine. It'll take time. The good news is that Dozer has taken to his crate well.

-bl