Kato at 12 Weeks: Growing Pains

Our puppy is having some growing pains. Not just physically, but emotionally as well. His legs seem to bother him, and one of them gets stuck sometimes. He went to the vet yesterday and he said lameness is a sign of growing pains. It's no surprise, this guy is growing like a weed! The first time we took him to the vet he was 13 pounds. Yesterday he weighed in at 22 pounds! Not as big as I thought though, when I pick him up he is HEAVY! =) He had a good vet visit though, everything seems fine. Emotionally he is really starting to test us, and assert his dominance. We are doing everything we can to knock this down.  Yesterday he would look at us, then grab a shoe and run off. He KNOWS this is not okay, and he did it over and over and over until we finally put him in time out.  He is also barking at us when he doesn't get his way, and he pouted, yes pouted, when I took something away yesterday.  Time out seems to be the most effective thing at calming him down. We also try to get up and walk away when he starts getting too rough. The physical corrections that Cesar suggests don't seem to be working, unless he is on a leash. We've been keeping his harness on, mostly so that we have more control over him and can physically move him away from things he shouldn't be chewing or messing with.  We are all learning, and I have hope that we will get through this emotional roller coaster we are all on!

 This past week was pretty crazy.  With the snow storm on Sunday, we were cramped in the house all day Monday & Tuesday, and Kato didn't even go outside until Wednesday.  Wednesday we did our best to run him outside, but there was still a LOT of snow and it was still cold, so it was a challenge!

I took his tennis ball outside and let him chase it around. It wouldn't go very far once it hit the ground, and Kato loved to bury it deep in the snow and then uncover it as fast as he could!

Our snowy faced pup after trying to get his ball out of the snow!

This week, Kato also discovered 2 new things that he loves.  One is this spot:

This cracks me up  because as a kid I sat under this table, and so has every other kid that has ever been around it.  Now Kato does the same! It helps that there is a heat vent under there, blowing nice warm air. When he first came home the vents confused him, but he likes them now!

Ah, warmth!

The other thing Kato learned to love this week is peanut butter. One morning Ben had peanut butter on a bagel and Kato was just going nuts trying to get it.  This is the first time we have seen him really beg for our food, (we don't ever give him people food, except peanut butter now, so he doesn't really know what he's missing, therefore he doesn't beg. At least that's what we hope!), so I decided to give him a little. He has his own jar.  :) He licked it off the end of a plastic spoon first, and really liked it, so I put some in his kong. Amazing...it kept him entertained for a LONG time, and he got every drop of peanut butter out of there that he could!

Loving some peanut butter!

On Friday, I gave Kato a bath. He did good other than jumping out of the tub twice!

One fresh and clean puppy ready for the next adventure!

This week we also went on our long-anticipated adventure to Kentucky! We were leaving Friday when Ben got home from work, so when Kato woke up from his long nap I kept him awake. This meant he was awake from 2:30, until he eventually fell asleep in the car, around 6. That's a LONG time for him. He is usually not awake for more than 2-2.5 hours at a time.  It was good though, he did GREAT on the ride. He cried for a little bit, but not out of fear, it seemed to mostly be annoyance that he couldn't find a comfortable spot to lay down.  Once he did, he slept great, and we didn't even have to stop on our 3 hour ride.

When we arrived at my parent's, he was super excited.  He LOVES Grandma & Grandpa's house.  He just walked around exploring almost the whole time, and he loved playing with his Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Morgan.  He did really well at their house, and even started telling us when he had to go outside.  (Finally!) We had one hiccup when we introduced him to the neighbor's dog Max. Max is not the world's most social dog, and all Kato wanted to do was play.  He went a little crazy but we had him on the leash so we could control him, sorta. There was a party at Mom & Dad's Saturday night, and again Kato did well. I think the people socialization is going really well for him. We kept him on the leash for most of the night.  Everyone thought he was adorable, and he seemed to like all the attention! My cousin had her sweet 4 month old (human) baby Zander with her, so we put the two of them together at one point. Kato was great, just wanted to sniff and explore this small creature, (again we had him on the leash and never let him super close), but Zander wanted nothing to do with him! One look and Zander burst into tears. It was actually quite hilarious, especially Kato's reaction to the crying...he did his characteristic head turn, like "What is that noise? What IS this thing? What did I do?" It was funny. At one point everyone was sitting in a circle so we let Kato off the leash and he ran around the circle getting lovins from everyone. He loved that.  It was a very successful trip to my parents!

On Sunday we went to Ben's parents, and again, Kato had a fun time! They live on a farm, so there was tons of room for running and exploring. I wish the weather had been nicer, it was chilly and cloudy, which didn't make any of us want to be outside.  We did run around a paddock though, and let Kato chase his ball in a contained area, so that was fun. It really made me want a fence for our yard! I can't wait for the day when we can play with him off the leash in our yard. Kato met a cat and a horse while we were there! (Thanks to my MIL for these photos): 

Cougar the cat was NOT amused by our energetic puppy. Kato barked and barked because this thing wouldn't play with him!

Meeting Dolly the horse. Kato had no fear whatsoever, again, he couldn't understand why this giant thing wouldn't play! Silly doggie.

"Oh please oh please let me sniff it!"

Tuckered out from all that playing and exploring!

When it was time to go home, Kato was exhausted., which was exactly what we wanted! He barely made a noise once we got on the road, and slept for a while in the car. When he woke up he played with his toys quietly like a good boy! We stopped for everyone to go potty, and after that he slept for the rest of the trip! Good boy Kato!

Still snuggling that zebra!!

Kato has had a decent week, and tonight we hope to take him to his first puppy kindergarten class! He really needs the socialization with other dogs, as well as some obedience lessons.  I am very excited and hopeful that the place we are taking him to will be nice, friendly, and a place he can feel comfortable in, because they also do boarding and doggie day camp there, which we anticipate we will need in the not so distant future.  Although, to think about leaving my sweet boy for even a day makes me sad. Life has to continue on though! There are places we have to go that he can't, and that's just a fact of life that we all have to accept.  

Here's the pup today, pretty tired after lots of exercise (the sun is finally shining and the snow is mostly melted woohoo!):

Happy 12 weeks Kato-bato!