Chaplin is 3 Months Old!

Chaplin is 3 months old today! He is growing like a weed: he is much taller, looks more like a little dog than a baby puppy and his feet still look incredibly huge! 

He is doing well with house training - he goes to the door to go out and cries if he's in his crate or x-pen to go out. He routinely sleeps through the night and can go about 3-4 hours between potties during the day. At this age, we are responsible for any accidents he has in the house. We keep him in a crate or X-Pen if we can't watch him, both to keep him safe and to stop him from having accidents. When we bring him out from "confinement", we take him out to potty and when he plays for a short time, we take him out again. We take him out when he eats and when he drinks very much. He understands the routine beautifully - he runs down the ramp, finds a spot and then races back up to the back door. Since he gets a treat for coming in, he then runs in to sit in front of the treat container.  So although he still doesn't have the physical capacity to "hold it" for more than about 3-4 hours and I have no doubt he would forget while playing and pee wherever he was, he has had very few accidents and is obviously beginning to understand the idea of letting us know when he has to go outside! Good boy, Chaplin!

Tomorrow is our last AKC STAR Puppy Class. Chaplin is doing very well with the behaviors we've been practicing - sit, folding down (from stand), down (from sit), stand, settle, "with me" (beginnings of loose leash walking), leave it (automatic for us) and stay. We're also playing with food toys, a wobble board, spinning left and right and riding a skateboard. We'll have some tests in class and show our "extra credit" trick - Chaplin can either do the spins or ride the skateboard. He is so much fun to do training with - we are practicing many of the behaviors for short periods at a variety of different places and he is proving to be very quick! 

Last night, I was sitting on the sofa with Chaplin beside me. I started eating ice cream which brought the cat, Maggie running. Of course, Chaplin thought the ice cream and the cat looked inviting but when I very gently told him that he needed to leave them both alone, he stayed right where he was despite the major temptations! He is so food motivated as well as being intensely interested in Maggie so I was very impressed with his understanding and level of self-control! 

This evening, we left Chaplin home for the first time! I got a "nanny cam" program for my computer and iPad/iPhone so that I could make sure he wasn't having a problem with us being gone. We left him in his crate on the floor facing Laurel's and Hardy's crates and I was able to see and hear him on my phone. We ran up the street (literally about 5 minutes from our house) to have dinner with some friends at Panera's. I was delighted to see (and hear) that Chaplin did beautifully while we were gone!

I had forgotten how much work little puppies were and I had also forgotten how quickly they grow up! I'm amazed at everything Chaplin has learned already and how much he has grown mentally and physically!