Our First Week

Levi's first week home has been a fun but exhausting one.  He was really noisy in his crate the first night but since then he has settled down and now he goes to sleep with minimal whining.  He also sleeps through the night until about 6am which I have been thankful for.  He still isn't very good about being left alone in his x-pen and he will bark and whine a bit, but we're working on it so hopefully it will get better in the next week or so.  He is a really cute and funny puppy and I love running around the house or yard with him chasing after me.  He also loves to fetch so we've been doing a lot of that.  He is already so good about bringing the toys back to me rather than just running off with them.  His potty training is going better than at the beginning of the week.  He now seems to understand more that he is supposed to go to the bathroom when I take him to his potty spot outside.  Before he just wanted to play or eat all the leaves and bark on the ground.

It was kind of a stressful week for me because the first three days I had class/meetings in the evenings so I couldn't be there to take care of him.  Thankfully my roommate Alicia babysat him for me so I didn't have to worry.  Levi has had a few visitors now, all of whom he is very excited to play with and see what fun things they are wearing that he can grab a hold of.  His favorite thing right now is hair.

Last Sunday Levi went to puppy class where he got to see his brother Jamie who also now lives in Davis.  He was really excited to see the other puppies, and just wanted to play the whole time.  He didn't really have the patience or attention span for the obedience work though.

If he is good this week he might get to come to school one day to meet everyone.  I know there are several people that have been looking forward to seeing him but I haven't trusted him to be quiet in his crate at school yet so he has had to stay home.  Ok, back to studying.  Only a week and a half of school left until summer!

Welcome Home Levi

This morning Alicia came with me to pick up Levi.  He did great on the car ride home, he only whined a few times and the rest of the time he slept in Alicia's lap.  Once we got home I set up the little exercise pen for him with his toys and his blanket from Christine with all of the other puppies' scents on it.

I tried to figure out his lunch which is quite complicated because I am transitioning him from the raw food diet to a dry puppy food.  Christine gave me some of the mix that she used for the puppies food and then you just add meat to it.  It was pretty complicated because it is a dehydrated mix so you add water to it to make up the final weight.  It took me awhile to calculate how much of it I needed dry to equal the right amount once it was rehydrated, but I think I've got it now.  I tried putting some of his lunch into a Kong for him to eat while I made myself lunch but he didn't really understand it and he was pretty upset in the x-pen by himself so i just put it into a bowl for him to eat and he chowed down.

I left him in the x-pen while Alicia and I ate lunch and he wasn't very happy about it.  He whined and barked quite a bit which reminded me of how stressful and exhausting puppies are.  I hate seeing him upset but I know that I can't let him out every time he cries.  I played with him a little bit outside in our new grass after lunch and then I put him in his crate for nap time.  He was really noisy at first but after 5 minutes or so he calmed down and went to sleep.  He slept for almost two hours which was really nice!  I was able to do a little bit of homework and relax a little bit myself.  Once he woke up I took him outside and he went potty and then I took him back to my room and we played for awhile.  Now he is napping on his own, and then it will probably be dinnertime soon.

He really loves the blue hippo toy that Alicia got him, as well as his puppy nylabone.  The hippo seems to be his favorite so far.  I had some of his toys in his crate for him, and right when he first came into my room he saw the toys and wanted to play with them.  I opened the crate door and he went right in and started playing.  He seems to like going into his crate on his own when it's open, so maybe he will get better about enjoying it in there when he is confined.

That's been it so far for the day.  I'm taking advantage of the napping to get some studying (and blogging) done. :-)  I might take a nap too just so I don't get too worn out.  Hopefully he does better about being confined tonight.

Green Boy's the One!

I just found out that I'm getting Green Boy!  I'm really excited since he was one of my favorites and I was really hoping for him.

Some of the things Christine told me from his puppy testing:
Green boy is very structurally sound with good angles so he should hold up well with agility.  He showed confidence and he did really well with the retrieves, bringing the toy back to the evaluators' lap each time.  He even returned a bird wing to the evaluator rather than just taking it off on his own.

I'm really happy and think that he is a perfect match for me.  I get to pick him up at 10 am tomorrow.

Soon to Be Spoiled Puppy

This puppy is going to be very spoiled!  Today Alicia came home from the store with three new toys for the puppy!  They are all very cute and I'm sure the puppy (and we) will love playing with them.  I started getting little Levi's room ready for him today.  I set his crate up with the new custom made bed (thanks to Mom) and custom made divider (thanks to Dad).  I just got a soft crate today in the mail that will be his truck crate this summer since the metal folding crates that I have are almost impossible to fit in the back seat of my truck.  I think I'm just about ready!  I need to do some yard work tomorrow to clear the weeds out of what will be his potty area, and then I'll be done.  Only 5 more days!  I can't believe how fast the last couple months have gone by.  It seems like just yesterday that I was meeting Sport and Christine for the first time before the puppies were even born.