Eating furniture

Any reason as to why my 6month old dog is now chewing on my couches?? Is he hungry, thirsty, bored? He has not chewed anything that wasn't his for the 4 months we've had him. He is getting daily exercise and playtime... I'm losing it.

Here's what's neu...

Knox Was neutered last week and is healing well. He still has stitches so he hasn't been able to go to play group. He'll get the stitches out Tuesday. He's supposed to be "taking it easy" but he sure misses playing with his dog friends. I'm having some trouble training my 4 year old to keep to the rules of doggie bahavior because Knox will treat him like another dog when he touches him or gets down on the ground with him. It's a conversation I have to have with him every 4-5 weeks. We will keep at it though. On another note, Brad has totally fallen for Knox and its cute to watch. He is 6 months old today and 50lbs!!

Dog food help

So my dog food has been recalled due to salmonella and it doesn't appear to be available right now at all. This doesn't give me much time to ease into a new food but I don't have much choice. Apparently ths breed can be particular about food. Does anyone know of a comparable food to Taste of the Wild, dry puppy food, venison & bison grain free???

Win some, lose some

I think it's largely attributed to the heat, but Knox is actually listening today. Down command successfully enforced in under a minute, even the "time" command has seen improvement. He loves to run away from me when I say time but I find that the more I do it (like 10 times in one hour)the more he understands that it's just a game of tag. The kids and I have also been hand feeding him and he has really softened his mouth. Question: he takes turns sleeping in the kids rooms (in his crate) but seems to have more trouble in the girls' room (quietly barking when he's first put in there or rising early), coincidence?? Also, he was barking at 4:30AM this morning and I don't get up til 5:30. I did take him out but did not "engage" him in any way. He only peeda nd didn't poop. Did he really need to go out or did he get bored? Can I blow him off until 5:30? The other problem is that he's likely to wake up the kids with barking at that hour. It's not even his loudest bark, you can tell he's kinda subdued, but anything seems loud at that hour.

Cancel the celebration

Well, this is why I have a hard time celebrating the little things... I gave Knox his down command today and the bdd took 34 minutes! I tried real hard not to show my frustration, honest, I did. When I asked him to do it again he complied much quicker although after the first sucky attempt I was not that impressed. Why do I have such a hard time accepting this training as a process and not a finish line? All my life people have always said, "you're so patient". HA!!! Apparently I've used it all up. I am often asking myself, "Why did I take on this responsibility? Why did I add one more thing to my life that needs my constant attention?"

Down he goes!

Knox successfully went down today, 2x by Brad and me. Yayayayayay!!! In less than 2 minutes!! Another yayayayayay!!! I'm going to concentrate on celebrating the good things with him. He is cute and loving, I'm just slow to warm up to him because I don't want him to harm the kids. I have been only focusing in the "bad" behaviors but I am working hard to change my focus. The kids adore him by the way. My 4 yr old recently said, "I'm taking Knox to college with me"!