TWO Wildflower Updates!

Let’s begin with a check-in from the puppy formerly known as Paintbrush — Marija shares:

Yesterday, Kjempe weighed in at 26.12 lbs. This puts him almost exactly at a growth of about 12 pounds in 4 weeks. And he is tall...I feel like only last week he was shorter than my cat, Gimli, but now he is about an inch taller. We are still eating Orijen puppy kibble, raw, and homemade food with BalanceIT.

Together, we have continued socializing (85 persons), playing with the neighbors and their older dog named Buddy, going out to new places, sometimes I'll drive to a different park or different block to start a walk so that it is a new environment, but also not a far walk. Plus, I've found that getting away from home allows not only for more distraction, but more focus on me. For a few days, he was not so interested in walks...so I "upgraded" his treats and now walks are more fun and interesting - or enticing at least ha ha! He sits patiently at the front door while we get our gear on, and when we get back he sits to have his gear taken off - he's doing a fabulous job! Kjempe operates well both on and off leash, so this week we started with a "check in" on our walks, which, quite frankly, was an easy one to learn and confirm. I'm proud to say that we know "leave it" and have started using that with the cats - works every time - and on walks when he finds something "interesting," but not a good idea for him to stop and check out, "leave it" works. I am impressed.

I posted on Facebook that Kjempe loves to retrieve - we do this every day, especially during his "cra-cra" times where energy is abundant. I started by appreciating that he loves little tug games with certain toys. When I throw the toy, he'll go get it, which I name "get it" and when he brings it back, I've been naming his behavior as "fetch here." We now respond to the commands. The key here was the tug game (reward) when he brings it back - and a lot of attention and fun play. You can tell this not only pleases Kjempe, but I believe Kjempe understands that this also pleases me. Win Win. I know a little bit about tug toys as rewards, and would appreciate others experiences with tug toy training, or a good website/reference for researching it in more detail.

We are also starting to play "find it" games, similar to Buttercup. I have played this game with my bengal cat for the past 2 years, and Kjempe is catching on. Always great when the cat can teach the dog ha ha! We also have a level 1 and level 2 "find and get the treat" toys that I'll be introducing over the next few weeks to see if Kjempe can figure out how to find treats hidden underneath, flip up the lid, or slide the tray over to get a reward. Let's just say the bengal already mastered this, so we may have Pido demonstrate.

Kjempe is signed up for adventure puppy play time at an adventure training program called Summit Dog Training - he will start September 2nd. After he is 16 weeks, we will start puppy level 1. What I like about this program is what is posted on their homepage:

"Our mission is to help dogs and their owners have amazing outdoor adventures together, whether that is a peaceful walk in the park, or hiking off leash in the backcountry of the Rocky Mountains. By using positive, science-backed training techniques, we build skills on both ends of the leash to promote a life-long, adventure-filled friendship between dogs and their humans."

Special thanks to Alice Clark for the referral. They also focus on building skills for future agility, which we would like to try.

I'm happy to say that Kjempe continues to be a quick study and has mastered many commands. A special kudos to Mary-Ann as my vet specifically noted that Kjempe is so curious and has no issue checking out new things - including getting right up on the scale and sitting patiently for his weight. She was impressed! We showed off a few tricks to her too. A+ Kjempe :-)

All 'n all, Kjempe is happy, joyful, and a Kjempe-Hund ("Super-Dog")!

THANK YOU so much for this awesome update and taking such great care of Kjempe.

And speaking of awesome updates — we get to hear about the puppy formerly known as Sage as well! It is our lucky day. Bridget shares:

Kitsap continues to thrive and be a curious puppy. The tip of giving him a beef bone every morning has cut down tremendously on his attempting to use Bridget as his chew toy. Certainly quite the busy bee in the mornings. Some days he’s up for a short walk in the neighborhood, other days he’s content to stay in his own yard.

Kitsap has developed a fondness for lying in the deep plants in the garden or areas that could use attention in the yard. That got him into a little bit of trouble Tuesday morning as he took a stick to chew into the hostas and ended up disturbing a yellow jacket hangout. Fortunately, I think he only got stung once on his left forepaw and he didn’t have an adverse reaction. We called the vet right away, Dr. Scamahorn asked a few questions, told us to watch for any swelling, gastrointestinal distress, other concerning behaviors and said we could administer 1 mg Benadryl/lb of dog if needed. Certainly it spooked Kitsap in the moment, however, after we got that last yellow jacket that came in on his coat and started buzzing around in the house killed, Kitsap settled in for a good chew, holding the bully stick with the sore paw and then took a nap. There has been no subsequent sign of soreness, he seems no worse for wear. His Mom on the other hand used up a few toy soldiers. For one day he was willing to give that flower bed a wide berth, however, he seems to have forgotten so we have to pay close attention if we go to that side of the house. A project on our list is to get garden fencing to keep him out that bed until we can resolve the nest problem.

He enjoys his Saturday play dates with Hasley, see the great picture of the two of them in the garden yesterday. Hasley will run as hard and fast as Kitsap engages and then go back to watching “frog TV” in the lily pond while Kitsap takes a breather. When Kitsap re-engages Hasley, off they go for another lap. Hasley is the perfect gentleman, tolerating Kitsap coming up behind him to tag him and start the game anew.

Kitsap is always hungry and isn’t terribly patient if you don’t serve a meal fast enough. Every BalanceIt combination I have tried has been a big success. Still the Darwin’s raw in the evening gets a reaction two notches above breakfast kibble and at least one notch above a cooked BalanceIt meal. After a couple hours of morning activity and heavy bone chewing he is now asleep up against my feet.

Like all puppies, when it is time to really sleep there are any number of totally laid back poses of note. One amusing thing is thinking he is sound asleep until the air conditioning kicks on. Then from no matter where he is laying, he gets up to go lay on the vent, must reminding him of the battery powered fan in the x-pen from Mary-Ann’s.

You can sort of tell how much Kitsap is growing in the photo where instead of lying in the bookcase he decided to prop his head up during a nap. He still routinely lays in the bookcase, this was just a recent picture I grabbed.