Manners
Kato in general has good manners. He waits for his food, walks nicely on a leash (as long as we are using a pronged collar..), rarely barks, and loves to please. (Aka loves to get treats!). He is nice to everyone he meets, dog and human alike, although he does get wound up when someone comes in the front door. This is one thing we have not mastered yet. He still runs for the door when the doorbell rings, and usually jumps on the poor person that comes in. However, this only lasts for about 2 minutes, and then he is good. He also gets really excited when he sees another dog. All he wants to do is sniff and play with whoever this other dog is. It has been tough to get him to break his focus when he is looking at another dog. In our neighborhood we have a large park and anytime we take Kato there for a walk, you can bet money there will be another dog there. He will jump around and stare and be crazy, but we do our best to keep moving forward. In instances where he has met other dogs, he is very playful. Sometimes other dogs like this and sometimes they do not. Some can't understand why this crazy dog is jumping around like a maniac! However, in general, Kato is a very well-mannered boy.
Personality
If there is one word to describe Kato's personality, it would be GOOFY. He is the biggest goof I have ever seen. He sighs when he is bored(? honestly I don't know why he sighs but it is funny!), and he grumbles (like back talk) when he is mad. He is very expressive, and we can always tell what he is thinking. He is so silly, and he loves to make us laugh, which he does on the daily. He stares at us with toys hanging out of his mouth, or sleeps with his huge tongue out, gives the world's slobberiest kisses and loves to run sprints in the house when he hasn't received enough exercise. Kato needs at least 2 walks per day at this point in his life, and luckily the weather has been nice enough the past few months to make that happen. He also loves to take bike rides, aka run along side the bike while we ride. This is a great way to burn off his extra energy. When he is being extra crazy, we take him out for a bike ride. Works every time. Of course, when we get back, he looks like this:
Tongue hanging out, waitin' for some water!Kato LOVES toys. Currently he has a moose, a beaver, an alligator, a Kong Wubba, a bone, a rope, a few balls, and a raccoon. He loves all of them, although many toys have been destroyed within 1 day of purchase. He doesn't know his own strength. He tries to kill the animals by shaking them or stomping on them, and loves to play tug with the rope. He is also getting pretty good at fetch with the ball, although he doesn't always like to give the ball back! In general, Kato just really loves to play. He loves to be chased, although we don't play chase in the house anymore because for a while he would steal things like socks and try to get us to chase him around! He had to learn that he can only play with his things, not ours!
Kato-Potato is the snuggliest dog ever. He loves to lay on the couch with us, head in our lap. Or. if you are sitting on the couch, (or the ground!), there is an 85% chance Kato will come and sit ON you. No matter that he is huge, he just wants to be on your lap! I think this is because he was on our laps so much as a little pup, and he just doesn't know how big he is these days. :)
He is also very good with children. I was a nanny this Spring and Summer and whenever I would bring the children over to "see Kato" (We were really coming over to let him go potty, I still don't trust him to go 8 hours in the crate during the day without peeing), he would do great! He loves to lick baby's hands, and chase kids around, and he loves when kids give him treats! One day this summer I had 7 kids over to the house to see him, and Kato did AMAZING. He just stood there while they all petted him, played with his ears, touched his tail, and tried to get him to do tricks. He is such a good kid-dog, and I can't wait to see him interact with his future human brothers and sisters. :)
Training
Kato has done very well with his training. He can sit, lay down, play dead, shake, give high 5's, leave it, and stay. He has only escaped from the house once. That was mortifying, but I caught him pretty quickly, no harm done. He is potty trained, but it took a long time to be able to say that. Probably 6 months, which seems ridiculous for such a smart dog. It also took a long time after he was potty trained to get him to stop peeing in his crate. The crate-wetting thing started this spring after he had been at a kennel. (We no longer take him to that particular kennel, bed-wetting wasn't the only issue). I think he was used to going out on a certain schedule at home, usually exactly 8 hours after he had gone to bed, and when no one was around at the kennel to take him out from whenever they closed to whenever they opened, he just went. Which is to be expected. However, for some reason he couldn't differentiate between the kennel and his crate, and peed in his crate every night or every other night for months. The peeing in the crate has only stopped in the last 2-3 months, which is nuts. I'm glad it has stopped though, it was getting old washing his blanket every single day. Now he can go 8-10 hours in his crate at night with no problems. However, we have another crate issue...Kato has become a bed-ripper. This has started within the last month. When I made him a pillow in January, he only wanted to chew it up but I assumed it was because he was a puppy. I made him a blanket that he slept on in his crate for a long time, but I ended up having to throw it away because it was just nasty. I made him a new one, and ever since then, he tears up whatever is in his crate. The new blanket has a huge tear in it. He had a wonderful cushy bed at my parents, and while they babysat him last month, he completely destroyed it. Then, a few weeks ago, my mom gave us a comforter for him to sleep on. It was eaten and destroyed within 2 days. I put a blanket from the couch in there thinking that he loves this blanket (he sleeps on it on the couch ALL the time), surely he won't chew it up. Wrong. Destroyed. So now, I have ordered an "indestructible" crate pad. We shall see if it holds up to Jaws over here...I think he is chewing because he is bored, but Kato cannot be trusted out of his crate at this point. It ends up like this...
We tried to buy Kato a bigger crate just last week, because he is really starting to grow out of his. Guess what? He HATED it. Refused to go in. We would coax him with treats and he would run in grab it and run right out. Guess he likes his tiny house....
Other than the crate issues, Kato is a very good boy! He has done so well with training, and is a well-behaved, mostly balanced puppy dog!
Physical changes
The last time we weighed Kato was about 3 weeks ago, and he was 63 pounds. This is actually a lot smaller than I thought he would be at this point, but that is a good thing! He still has his puppy face, but his body is really filling out, and he is very muscular. We can feel all 63 of those pounds when he sits on us. :)
Here are some recent photos of my boy....we love this dog so much, and are so thankful he is a part of our family!!
Kato being the bestest boy and Gramma and Grampas!
Here are some photos for perspective...he is HUGE compared to the tiny puppy he was!
Kato at his "Birthday Party". He was waiting very patiently for that cake!
He loves this green ball!
Kato got to meet his cousin Frankie! They were besties.
LOVE this look that he often gives when someone is leaving...like "Um excuse me..where are you going?
His favorite spot to lay while Mommy is working!
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