Briar tuned 15 weeks yesterday. His back is up to my knee so he's a lot taller. His head can clear the coffee table so he's able to see a whole lot more than he used to. He's a very active puppy and still learning each day. He has established his favorite places to nap (on the marble by the fire place, next to the shower in our bathroom, and in his house). His favorite toys are his stuffing free weasel with dual squeakers, a large furry ball that's the same color as he is, and either his squeaky piggy or elephant. His very favorite treats are EVERYTHING! The pup just loves any treat we give him...but especially a pig ear before bedtime.
We took Briar to Gruene for his very first public outing. I felt he needed to be around more people in order to further his social skills. Briar doesn't listen to us as well when a visitor comes over...due to his over excitement! So, I decided to get him acclimated more to people and learn to follow directions,even during exciting situations. He got a lot of attention from small children his size. He likes to jump right now so we practiced sitting when meeting new people. Lots of people confused him for a labradoodle and he got lots of smiles. We ended our outing by getting take-out from the Gristmill and eating at the picnic tables outside of the Vineyard. It was very nice and he was so good (tossing him treats every so often helped, too).
We are still working on Briar "asking" us to go outside to potty. I think Briar overly relies on us initiating the outing for potty time; so...when he needs to go, he's still not sure how to ask us. Needless to say, we've had a few accidents these past two weeks. I'm hoping we can work on this some more this coming week and help him develop an asking behavior. Once he's outside, he goes very quickly and seems to do very well understanding what to do when he's out there. I've just got to get into a system where it's more obvious when he's needing to go.
How is it going with Basil? Well, Briar is learning to not react to Basil as much. This makes me happy. Basil, on the other hand, just loves taunting Briar. Hopefully the two will just coexist in bliss. I am looking forward to the weather warming up some so we can spend more time in the garden together. I think both Basil and Briar will be great gardening buddies :)
