Rip's Pupdate - week 4

Rip is getting bigger, and continues to be a "vibrant" addition to our household.  By vibrant I really mean wild.  Joyful, smiley, and happy - but wild.

A worn out puppy after a day of play.  

Here are some updates:

Socialization:  

It was a busy week for all of us this week, so Rip didn't get out on the town as much as I'd like.  Tonight Ziggy, Rip and I went to training night at the local dog center.  He got to meet a few new people - and visit again with a few people he's already met.  My training friends are a good mix of gender and age, which is good for socialization.

One of my training friends commented that Rip really has confidence and "presence."  She says he should really catch the judge's eye.  Another of my friends commented that he has no idea what Rip's face looks like, because he's always in motion :)


Training:

Rip is a happy, happy, bouncy, food-loving joy to train.  We continue to work on name recognition, and "puppy" fronts, heeling, recalls, sits, downs, and stands.  He's also learning twist and spin (turning counterclockwise and clockwise), as well as tugging and retrieving.  He's got the nose touch down really well.

This week we also did a bit of agility in the yard.  I set up the expen so Rip could watch Maggie and Ziggy doing agility.  He was KEEN to try it himself, so I sent him over a couple of jump poles that were down on the ground.  Maggie also taught him to run through the tunnel.  Tonight we went on the agility pause table.  No problem.  He's a brave and game little dog.


Ears:

His ears continue to be a challenge.  I look on with envy at all of his littermates with their upright ears.  Of course I got the puppy with the challenging ears.  Trial by fire, and all.

So here's where we are:

Left ear UP!!  Only a small fold at the base.

Right ear - working it's way up but still very "foldy"

As a result, here's what he looks like most of the time:

Lovely princess crown.  

In this pic he's staring at the cat who's on the top stair - trying to will him closer, I think.

I'm using duct tape over masking tape.  He has moleskin in right ear (otherwise it folds in the tape).  Thanks to too much wrestling with his brother, I replace the tape every ~36 hours.  Sigh.  On the upside, I'm getting better at taping (of course starting from zero I hope that's the case).  Rip takes the un-taping and re-taping like a trooper.  Good boy.