Zephyr

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Confession





My husband says I have to confess on the "Leave it Game" post. The amazing picture of Zephyr ignoring the food dish was taken under slightly deceptive cir- cumstances. The picture was not doctored, and the food was really present in the dish, and Zephyr is in the kennel and not eating it. However, he had no clue at the time of the photo that there was food in his dish.
When we went home for lunch, he went out in the yard to relieve himself, and he usually runs back in promptly to get his lunch. He took longer than I expected, and so I had already put the food in the dish before he came back in the house. He ran straight into his kennel and looked up at me hopefully and never noticed the food. As soon as he became aware of the food, he dove into it.

These pictures show Zephyr riding nicely in the car, at work, at the food pantry to deliver a check from Pampered Chef, and at work again.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Tail chasing


Zephyr has discovered his tail in the past week. Round and round he goes chasing his tail. It is very amusing, but unfort- unately, I can't capture it in still images. Yesterday, he showed some progress in object permanence and continuity of motion. He chased Pico around the room divider, continuing to run even when he couldn't see Pico. This is a step up from forgetting that he was chasing Pico when losing sight of him. Pico didn't play fair and sometimes changed direction, surprising Zephyr. Yet, I think Pico enjoyed getting to play. It's more fun for Pico now than when Zephyr would sit down and take a chomp anytime Pico ran by.

Leave it game



Who can top this at 11 weeks?

First Vet visit




Zephyr went in to the vet's office for the first time on Thursday. He met a new friend in the picture, a chocolate lab about 3 weeks younger. After getting his shots, he slept a lot, but was fine later that evening.

Monday, May 15, 2006

Pink Panther?




This post should have been written previously as the event happened over a week ago. In the vehicle I drive for work, Zephyr jumped up on the seat and onto a can of marking paint. He spray painted the back of his front, left leg. He worked at licking it off which required me to call poison control. I talked it over with poison control and we cconcluded that most of the hazard is in ingesting or inhaling the accelerant, and that Zephyr had consumed a rather low quantity of the paint. So, I washed most of the paint off of him and kept an eye on him the rest of the day for any signs of lethargy or intoxication. He was fine except for the residual pink paint on his leg as you can see in the pictures which were taken about a week after the event. He still has a little pink color.

The third picture shows him obeying the down command for the first time.

Fire Safety






Fire Safety has been the theme for the past two weekends. A week ago, a nearby town got a new fire truck and the surrounding fire departments initiated it. Zephyr helped clean it off afterward. On Saturday, we went to a facility that trains the public to exit a smoke-filled staircase. Zephyr wasn't the least bit bothered by the fire equipment. He rolled over on his back for a family friend. And another puppy checks out the firefighter.

Also, Zephyr obeyed the 'down' command on his own for the first time on Friday. He did it 3 times that day, including in the car on the way to work. He hasn't been quite as good about following the command since then, but he does continue to show evidence that he knows what the command means, which is pretty good for 10 weeks old.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Progress






Zephyr is making progress. He has a good grasp on 'sit'. He is doing very well on 'leave it' at dinnertime, especially given what a chowhound he is. House- breaking is going fairly well, with a few accidents still happening, but we haven't had to clean his crate in probably a week's time. Speaking of his crate, he's grown so much that we will be moving his divider back to give him more room. He's more active now, running and playing and chewing, particularly on shoes. He still sleeps a lot too.
We also need to work on sleeping in the footwell of the car. He thinks that is too far away, and so he works at beaching himself on the console as shown in the last picture.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Looks can be deceiving


Now, look very closely at this picture. You may need to click on the photo to view the larger size. This is something that you never want to see. This is the look of a puppy who is loose in the bathroom at work because on our way to work, he defecated in my car and walked in it and dragged the leash through it. Hence, being loose while the leash is being washed in the sink. He looks like a sweet innocent puppy, but really he ignored the command to park in the back yard and waited to do it in the car, and then made a really big mess of the car and his leash.

Dishwasher inspection




Over the weekend, Zephyr helped to inspect the dishwasher to make sure it was ready to be used.