life with wallace

So Wallace turns 11 weeks tomorrow. He is stubborn as all get out. I keep reminding myself that he is a baby, but when they start willfully doing the chewing, pulling, biting, peeing or other naughty thing you just told them not to, it is easy to forget. Patience. Patience. Patience.

The Wall Street Journal just posted an article today on yelling. Advice taken. Yelling is not helpful to your sanity or the dog. Training a puppy just takes patience, consistency and repetition, and then more patience. Fortunately, even though Wallace has had snow on the ground for at least 20 of the 27 days we have had him, we have been able to take him on walks, train him to sit and stay before he eats his food, and finally, go down the stairs out the back porch and use the doggy door! As his weight goes up, it is getting more difficult to carry him outside or down stairs. 24 lbs this week – more than double his weight when we got him.

Even though he is growing fast, he still can’t wear a regular size collar. I have had a small puppy collar, but bought a harness last week as he was really resisting walking on a leash. He really doesn’t need to do a ton of walking yet, but he does need to learn to be a dog and wear a collar.  As my husband says, you can’t run around naked. You would think we were torturing him by putting it on him. He scratches, sits and rubs his neck against the wall, then stares at us like he is so uncomfortable. He’s not. He’s just irritated that there is something on his neck. We all know that all dogs eventually get used to collars. He will just have to deal.

Yesterday, I tried to put his “grown-up” collar on him. He was at the top of the stairs at my office (trying to run away from the stairs that I was trying to take him down). He pulled out of the collar, turned and ran muzzle first into the glass door. Ouch. Back to the harness.

So, I should recognize and acknowledge that Wallace is/ will be training as a hunting dog. He will be a family dog first and foremost, live inside and hang out with his mama and brother and sister, but September and then November through January, Wallace will hunt dove and ducks with his Dad at our farm and other places in Virginia. I followed, and, am now using Richard Wolter’s Gun Dog and Water Dog books. Whether you agree with hunting or guns is besides the point, and your own personal decision, but Labrador Retrievers were born to work and to hunt. Their coats are water repellent, they can withstand the iciest and coldest of temperatures, and have noses that can find a hot dog buried under 100 feet of trash or a dead duck in 0 degree water 50 yards away. They love it. And they are at their best when they are trained to fetch, retrieve, watch, sit, stay and come.

It is a fascinating process as a mother to work with this new 3rd child. The speed with which they absorb and learn is on super warp speed. If you aren’t careful, you can miss the critical times. Fortunately, Wallace gets to go to work with me so I can keep an eye on him and immediately nip bad habits in the bud, expose him to the world around him and find as many teachable moments as I can. Slowly but surely, Wallace is learning the ropes (and eventually won’t eat them too:)