August 12 Rowdy Pupdate

Happy 14 week birthday to the babydogs tonight. And luckily for me, Rowdy (fka Limey) is here! I get to keep him for 10 days while his people are on vacation at a place that (gasp) doesn’t allow dogs.
He’s currently napping in the ex pen after some playing, retrieving, chewing and dinner (not necessarily in that order.) So far, he hasn’t had any accidents in the house and has been willing to potty every time I’ve taken him out. What a good boy. Aside from a little barking for attention, he’s doing very well. Once I gave him a bone to chew on, he quit barking for attention.
His mother and sister had to remind him how to appropriately greet grown up dogs (or at least the queen and princess.) They sound AWFUL when they do that but they never have to put a tooth on anyone. I think Jill tested him – she got out a chewing toy and when he showed interest (read that as he went running right up into her face) she yelled at him. He took off running into the other room and got in Sammie’s crate and waited for me to come rescue him. At which point he checked to make sure there wasn’t’ anything good in any of the other crates ;-) After he came back in, SammieDoodle apparently decided to demonstrate the appropriate way to show interest in what the other dogs have and Jill gave it right to her. Neither Jill nor Sammie actually wanted it. Sammie continued the lesson when Rowdy wanted Jack’s toy (Jack just turns his head and if that doesn’t work, he tells me about it.) Poor Jack was the only one that actually wanted his toy.
Rowdy and I practiced some sits and downs and then played some retrieving games. He doesn’t sit beside me very well but he has a slight concept of waiting until released to retrieve the tossed/thrown toy. He goes flying after it and when he gets there, he pounces and barks, then flies back to put it in my hand. What a good boy.
His mama says that he gets up very early (5:30 early) so we’ll see how late he sleeps here. I hope it’s later than that. Maybe if I make it good and dark in the dogs’ room, he’ll sleep later. Guess we’ll find out. For now: Nighty, nighty, nighty.