Wednesday, February 8, 2012

[008] Rufus is 11 weeks old!

Time is really flying by. Between work being busy this time of year, the Superbowl, my birthday coming up, and puppy play time, I can't believe we've had Rufus for ONLY three weeks. That being said, I still can't believe he's 11 weeks old already!

I like Rufus best when he first wakes up from naps/sleeping. He's super mellow, and he'll let me pet him and snuggle him and give him lots of kisses. Once our little man gets going, he's hard to stop, and he thinks everything is a game - and therefore a reason to put something he probably shouldn't into his mouth.

We just switched his food from Nutro-Max Puppy to Canidae ALS. I transitioned him onto the Canidae by mixing it into his food, but our little monster loves anything new - so he took to the food right away, and ate around his old food. When I put his food dish down now, I have him sit and stay until it's all the way on the floor and my hand is away. Even then, sometimes he looks at me as if to say, "Is it okay now momma?" We're still mixing in some Wellness Puppy formula wet food with every meal (couldn't see the harm), which he isn't having adverse side-effects to anymore. I stopped giving him canned pumpkin because for whatever reason, it seemed to make him much more hyper and out of control/cranky.

I want to get Rufus enrolled in puppy kindergarten classes, but I'm also wary, especially since the classes we've chosen are at PetSmart with other doggies ranging from 10 weeks - 5 months. We're due for another set of shots next week (I think), so after those, we'll see about official classes outside of the house in a potentially germy environment. Rufus is responding better to sit, stay, and go get it, but he doesn't quite get lie down yet. He'll lay down of his own accord when I'm putting his leash on him by the door, but he hasn't associated the words with the action yet for when we aren't getting ready to go out.

Because Rufus is a bigger boy now, we've given him a little bit more run of the house. His room is at the end of a hallway in our house, with our room immediately to the right, Mike's office to the left, and the bathroom on the right before the bedroom. There is also a hall closet on the right before the bathroom door. We close off all of those areas, and put up his exercise pen/gate across the opening to the kitchen. Now, Rufus can run up and down that hallway from his room down the hallway, into the pool room where the side door is that we take him out through, and back. When we're in the kitchen he can see us, and he sits at the gate and cries when momma is eating her lunch and not sharing! Giving him more run of the house when we're home helps us out a ton because it keeps Rufus busy so he can help tire himself out, but also, we can rest easy knowing if we need to run into the kitchen or use the bathroom, we don't have to herd him down, pick him up, and put him in his crate.

Speaking of being a bigger boy - I can't believe how much our Rufus has grown!! He's definitely getting noticeably heavier (its harder to pick him up now). Until the other day, I couldn't tell if his body was growing any or not, but then one of my friends posted a picture of a baby corgi on my Facebook page, and I noticed that Rufus has definitely gotten bigger size-wise also! I definitely need to be better about taking pictures of him! The one a day thing didn't happen - even though I tried! He doesn't sit still enough for us to take a picture, silly boy.

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