Briar turned 11 weeks this past Friday. How he has matured in just one week! We are successfully mastering commands such as "sit", "give me paw" "down" and "stay". We still have more work to do on "stay", but there has been significant progress.
Basil is also more tolerant of Briar and watches him most of the day. I keep Briar's food and treats in the closet just under the stairs. Each time I leave that door open to start feeding Briar...Basil comes to chew into the treats. Every time!
Briar seems to be potty trained...I just don't trust him 100% just yet. I'm waiting for him to be a bit more confident in letting us know he would like to go out. I think this week coming up will be the week he surely gets it. We have him out of his crate/house most of the time and resort to it at night or when we run errands. Otherwise, he's out and about with us in the house. We find ourselves having to pay very close attention to his subtle hints indicating he wants to go outside. He quietly sits by the back door so if we aren't paying attention, we risk ignoring his cue. He does use the bells, just not consistently. Still, I'm very impressed how fast he caught on when we put the bell system in place. At the very least, it helped him with the association.
Briar is much calmer than he was last week and the weeks before. This makes me very happy, since I was really getting worn out on all the puppy chasing and redirecting! He's also biting less and when he does, it is not as hard. Those little needle teeth are finally wearing down! I sometimes allow him to bite my hand so I can teach him when a bite is too hard. He is a very good responder...all I have to say is "Ah" and he stops and looks at me and either discontinues biting or softens his actions. I feel this is a good exercise, just in case he decides to play bite with Basil.
He also went to the vet again to get his parvo booster. The vet said he was the cutest client she had seen all day. The ladies at the vet's office just go ga-ga over him. We are lucky to have such wonderful and well mannered pets, lol!
This week, I plan on taking Briar to work with me to get him socialized a bit more. Over the weekend, I set up a second crate/house in my office so he can feel comfy when I'm in meetings or busy.
Basil is happily curled up on the bed beside me as I type. I just love his soft purs. He is a very special cat and I'm just so glad he seems to be adjusting well to his new brother.
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