Merry Christmas!

Advent

We haven't had any more snow. In fact, we've been having incredible weather this December, at least up until today. For last Saturday's puppy Christmas party, we had 60 degree sunny weather to drive up 2 hours north. Zephyr was the oldest puppy at the party (not counting the retired and breeders), so he got first choice in the gift exchange. Sadly, being the oldest puppy means he goes back to school sooner before the rest of the group. We only have about 3 months left now that he is 9 months old.

He is doing well with heeling on a loose leash. He still pulls on occasion and we have to back up and try again. He knows his mat pretty well and we've done enough work with him that he doesn't have problems with the impulse control games. All in all, he is doing well. We'll just try to polish every- thing up in the time we have left.

Christmas- time has brought a few new experiences. We drove in the old, noisy, vibrating Jeep for the first time. He spent most of the trip with his ears pinned back. We brought home a tree and put it up in the living room and decorated it. He spent most of the decorating time sitting pretty, hoping to be rewarded with one of the 'balls'. He has pulled off and chewed one ornament, but not a glass one.

The last picture, which is clearly not 9 month old Zephyr, is his 9 week old half-sister whom we saw at the party. And the head in the second picture is our pet Pico with his hair grown out as compared to previous pictures of Pico in his summer cut.

Snow

Zephyr got his first taste of snow yesterday. We just had a dusting that piled up in the corners, but didn't turn the grass white. He stuck his nose in one of the corners and grabbed some snow repeatedly, but I don't think he knew what to make of it. He is 9 months old now

After Thanksgiving

Zephyr had a good time at my parents' house for Thanks- giving. Their pup, Holly, is 4 months old and being raised for Paws with a Cause. She's still at a very cute age, where Zephyr is looking much less like a puppy and more like a dog. Zephyr was only 58 pounds when I took him to the vet yesterday. I was surprised that he only put on about 2 pounds in a month.

In the pictures, you'll see an old towel that is being used as a 'mat' for Zephyr. It's a new skill that he's learning to go to his mat and get all four feet on and lay down. We introduced the concept about 3 weeks ago and he is doing pretty well, at least when we are within 10-15 feet of the mat. I have been moving it around some so that he associates the command with the material rather than a particular location.

In one of the pictures, he is parading around with a nylabone and a kong in his mouth. He enjoys carrying things, but you'll see he has his feet on the mat.

I'm also transi- tioning him from the gentle leader to the flat collar. I think it is off in all of these pictures, but I'm still using it in high distrac- tion areas, typically only a small portion of the day and not at all some days.