First day of school

Making himself comfortable (pre-splint change)

Duncan officially started school on Thursday evening. Of course, he can't do a lot of the sitting, standing, and so on, but he did enjoy looking around the hall and watching all the other dogs work. And he's really good at the Attention Game. The rules are simple - human shows puppy a treat, then holds it out at arm's length to the side. As soon as the puppy looks away from the treat to the human's face, they get praise and a different treat that's produced magically from behind the back. The instructor demonstrated it using a big Lab puppy across from us. He(?) showed a very impressive attention span for staring at the treat in the hand, but wasn't quite seeing the relevance of a face. Duncan, on the other hand, follows the treat out to the side, then looks at us with a sort of "Really? Is that the best distraction you can think of?" expression on his face. Have I mentioned that he's smart? 

(We even played a round of the Attention Game to give him his Tramadol this morning. He loves Pill Pockets, so we broke one up into pieces and he played for them. One of the pieces just happened to have a tablet hidden in it...)

Friday was a sleepy day. Not surprising, after both the vet and school on Thursday! He spent a lot of time snuggled in on Kerry's old Sesame Street comforter on the family room couch, watching TV and napping beside Megan. We've had our money's worth out of that comforter - I think we bought it for Erin's first bed! He also got hold of Megan's phone and called Dad at work. Have I mentioned that he's smart? ;)

 

This morning he seems a bit fussy and nippy, so we brought out a new chew for him - an antler. He isn't at all sure that this is something he wants to put in his mouth, which is unusual to say the least. He normally puts anything and everything into his mouth, and I have the scabs to prove it! We'll have to stock up again on chewies. He likes most of his chews - the puppy Nylabone is a favourite -  but he does get bored with them so we'll have to try some new ones.

He's finally napping now, and Dad and Megan have gone to get the Christmas tree. We won't decorate it until everyone's home (you'll have to try to stay awake after your red-eye flight, Evan!), but it will be interesting to see his reaction to having a random tree move in.