A Rare Sight

That's right - it's a calm Oscar. Take a close look, everyone, because you may not see this again for a while! It didn't even take a long day at the dog park or a day full of new places to get him this relaxed, but only a long game of fetch and some Drop It practice. I gave him a treat for being so good. Usually as soon as he gets a treat, he gets up to go exploring or to play because he has a bit of a short attention span, but this time he didn't even move. What a pleasant surprise!

A Big Day

Oscar has had a busy Sunday. We walked him after lunch and then we met up with our friends and their cockapoo at a pet store/coffee shop in town. What a cute little place - I dream of quitting my day job and owning a pet store/coffee shop. That would be so much fun!

We have something for the car that is hooked onto a seat belt and attaches to his harness. It's so short that it keeps him from standing up, and he has to sit or lie down to be comfortable. We thought this would be handy because he tends to stand up and run around in the backseat if he's not secured, which obviously can be dangerous. It was the first time we tried it though, and he was pretty agitated at not being able to stand up or move around. Even treats didn't get his attention, and he whined pretty much the whole ride.

He looks happy here...but he
definitely wasn't pleased at all.

By the time we got to the pet store/coffee shop, he was a little overexcited. We tried to sit with him in the car until he calmed down but it didn't really work. We should have waited longer, but we were already late! We'll leave more time the next time we try something new. He barked like crazy at people and dogs when we first got inside, but after a while he quieted down (more or less).

I'm going to read up (more) on how to help with the barking, because what I've been doing hasn't really helped. I try to correct the barking and then treat when he's quiet, but that hasn't done anything at all. I think maybe the treating confuses him and I am inadvertently rewarding the barking. I have also tried to stay quiet to convey that there's nothing wrong, but that doesn't really work either since he's not paying any attention to me when he's barking. The barking is definitely a miniature schnauzer trait, but I'm going to keep working on it. Also, we want to get him out and about more when the weather improves so that he can get used to being in different settings with other people and dogs. He could definitely use more socialization - that will probably help with the barking in the long run.

We headed to grandma and grandpa's house after the pet store/coffee shop. He was much calmer when we used the seatbelt harness attachment for that ride. He got another short walk, and then he had a ball exploring the house and stealing gloves and other interesting things. It's hard keeping an eye on a rambunctious puppy in a house that hasn't been puppy-proofed, that's for sure!

By the time he got into the car for the ride home, he was way too pooped to protest about the harness attachment at all. It's the calmest he's ever been in the car. Now he's napping. Tuckered out puppy = happy owners!

He was pretty chilled out at first...

...and then he fell asleep.

Just Another Lazy Saturday...

That Explains It!

I was looking around online for some durable dog toys, since Oscar has been absolutely destroying everything this week. This crazy destruction phase just seemed to come out of nowhere. I had noticed Tuffy toys in one of the pet stores near our house but never bought one. I thought I'd get one for him to try this week, since they've gotten great reviews online and they sounded fantastic. I bought the junior ring for Oscar and brought it home, and I was pretty excited about my purchase.

Oscar seemed to like it. He played with it for less than an hour, and then this happened:

Destruction again. Sigh. For a toy that is built to be durable, it didn't last very long for Oscar - he's that intense right now. He ripped it right near where the squeaker was, so I took it away right away before he could do more damage and/or swallow the squeaker. We went back to the pet store and returned the toy. I know fabric toys aren't meant to be indestructible and all that, but it was still a surprise how quickly he managed to rip it, since it was marketed as being very tough and durable. It felt pretty sturdy - maybe when Oscar calms down a bit down the road, we'll try the toys again, because I liked it...at least until Oscar defeated it.

They let us exchange the toy for another one, so we got an Orbo Bone. It's very bouncy rubber, so hopefully he'll like chewing it, even though it's not made of fabric. We are definitely avoiding fabric toys for the foreseeable future, no matter how "durable." He seemed to like it when we first let him play with it. The time that he spent playing with it was the longest I've ever seen him show interest in a rubber dog toy. The toy tags says that the Orbo Bone tastes like mint, so maybe that's why he was intrigued by it.

I was doing some reading online tonight, trying to figure out why all of a sudden Oscar became an even more intense chewer than he was before (and that's saying something!). It turns out that puppies may go through a second chewing phase. That was news to me! Apparently it takes place between around 6-10 months of age. That would explain why it was like a switch went off this week with the chewing. Knotted rope bones that he's had for ages with no trouble suddenly got literally chewed in half, and he's destroyed several toys in the last few days alone. The cushion in his crate that he has slept on with no problem for months got de-stuffed. Towels get eaten, or he pulls long threads out of them, so he doesn't get those in his crate either. He only gets fleece blankets now, because he either can't or isn't interested in chewing through them.

I'm crossing my fingers that this second chewing phase passes quickly! It's exhausting!