Jogging w/the Pack

Snackers and I spent a lot of time yesterday playing with and starting training for the puppy, whom we named Vladimir, after Vladimir Guerrero, Snackers' favorite baseball player (I thought we picked it for Vlad the impaler but found out last night that I was, apparently, mistaken).  And Loki for a middle name, after the god-giant from Norse mythology.  First, I took him down to potty at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., and 1 p.m. yesterday and each time I carried him down the stairs because, on a ten minute break, I didn't have time to stand there and coax him into trying to walk down them himself.  On the way back up, however, I would put his front paws on a step, then his back paws on the one behind it, then do it all again.  Exhausting but it paid off because at some point last night he gained the confidence to give it a shot and now does stairs just fine.

Then we took Vladdy and Codee to the vet for their shots and we found out that at 13 weeks old he weighs over 20 lbs!  WHOA!  (Yeah yesterday I said he was 8 weeks but we had to call the people we got him from to get his exact DOB for the vet records and, turns out, he's older than we realized).  When we got home I made supper and then Snackers and I took Vladdy and Piper downstairs to potty and play.  We're trying to teach Vladdy to fetch because that is something Piper would never do.  He'll chase the ball, which is the first step, and he'll even pick it up so now we just need to work on teaching him to bring it back.  He's still awfully clumsy though because his feet are way too big for him right now.  His feet are actually about as big as you would expect a full grown Dobe to have so he kind of drags his front paws a little when he runs.

We tossed the ball around and then we'd jog with him to retrieve it and praise him when he would pick it up and praise him some more when we would take it out of his mouth.  Then we decided that he just needs to exercise his big legs and build muscle to help with coordination so we took turns jogging up and down the stretch of grass and encouraging him to jog along with us.  We were out there with them for about an hour or so and then Vladdy just flopped on the concrete as if to say 'that's it, I'm beat!' so we came inside.

Right before bed he woke up and started getting rambunctious so we decided to take him and Piper for a walk around the complex.  He's very dependent so he was staying really close, almost too close, to our feet and not out in front pulling which is awesome.  By the half-way point he'd gained some confidence and his tail was up and he was trotting along next to Piper, in front of us but still not pulling.  When we hit the stretch at the back of the complex where all the storage units are we decided to pick up the pace and really make sure he was tuckered out.  We jogged all the way from the beginning to the end and I was huffing and puffing, I'll admit, but aside from bad lung capacity my body could have gone longer.  I can't wait to do it again.  It was fun to jog together as a pack.

Today's Weight: 239.5





Food:
8 glasses of water
1 cup of coffee w/creamer
1 cup seafood soup
1 slice of bread, dry
1 foot long chicken sub
>>the usual
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Daily Caloric Intake: 1,069



Activity:
7 flights of stairs
Walking the dogs w/Snackers: 1.8 miles
Wrestling w/Vladdy (really, truly wrestling his big lunky ass)