The new puppy - Little Boy - has arrived and is settling in well. He has been checked out by the vet and has had his first course of vaccinations.
He seems a bold and inquisitive pup, and when brought in to the house and introduced face-to-face to Big Boy and Little Girl, he seemed pretty relaxed about the whole change of scenery and family and began exploring quite happily.
Big Boy is curious, but doesn't really see the need to get involved, although he finds it a bit alarming when the puppy bounces towards him stiff-legged with all four paws off the ground - like a little cartoon character. The puppy has also threatened to nip his toes - and Big Boy hates anyone touching his feet - so as is fitting for the old man that he is, he is keeping his distance and treating the pup with some disdain.
After some initial concerns, Little Girl has been really keen to play with him. However, she weighs 28kg whereas Little Boy weighs in at 3.5kg at the moment. Labbie playtime involves much body-slamming, high speed chasing and crashing in to things - so he is much too little to allow this at the moment. However, despite being closely watched, sadly accidents do happen. Earlier today Little Girl fell over in her excitement and landed on the puppy, then later in the evening she stood on him. Nothing seems to be broken although he is obviously tender and bruised so I will see how he is tomorrow. She too has been injured in their interactions - he has been trying to suckle from her and has nipped her - drawing blood so that too will need to be monitored in case of infection but it should be a relatively superficial wound as his teeth are very sharp but very short.
Toilet training is progressing - we have managed to catch most of his toileting and rush him outside, giving him the command 'Go Toilet' and he seems to be responding, so earning lots of praise or a tiny treat. He also is responding to 'Come' and giving eye-contact when he gets his meal so that is all looking good so far. However I suspect he is going to be a chewer - he has a fascination with chewing shoes already - even when they are on your feet, and he is also fascinated by all the lovely dangling wiring under my computer desk so I will have fun trying to keep little teeth from nipping through thin wires when I am not looking!
He howled and cried when left in his crate in the utility room last night. The crate door was open but the baby gate confined him to the utility room and kept the other two dogs out. He had a blanket that had been rubbed on his mother in his crate, but when he started howling Little Girl bolted downstairs to see him as I think she thought he had been hurt. She soon realised he was OK so ignored him and came back upstairs to her bed. He quietened down fairly quickly and was up 3 or 4 times during the night. Big Boy sleeps downstairs now so he was close by, and my daughter also slept downstairs for his first night and took him out to toilet in the small hours. The floor was relatively clean this morning - just a couple of small puddles and a small poo. Hopefully his night-time toileting needs will decrease as quickly as his physiology will allow.
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