It’s been exactly a month since Sean and I picked up Jax from the rescue! Wow, I can’t believe it, but time really does fly. It hasn’t been an easy month and we still have a lot to learn, but we’ve also made a ton of progress already!
Looking back, I remember Jax was very comfortable from the get-go. He’s naturally just a friendly pup. He loves people and always greets them as if they were his best friend that he hadn’t seen in years. I told Sean the other day that he’d be a horrible guard dog, but he sure does make a great family dog. During the first few couple of days that we spent together, we felt that he was still very reserved; like he still didn’t think of us as his parents yet. But after spending a little bit more time with him, I think he’s caught on that we are his forever home. Even if we leave him in his crate for a couple of hours, we’re always going to come back.
He no longer cries when he’s put in his crate. I think he still whines a little bit in the beginning, but it wasn’t like before when he’d bark for ages. Honestly, that stage didn’t even last that long either. I made sure to read up on a bunch of puppy training tips on Reddit, and research more about crate training to improve his crate comfortability. After spending more time in his crate, getting him to play in there, feeding him in there, and making it a habit to let him sleep in there, he’s definitely grown to like it. I even hear him playing with his toys in the middle of the night. We’ve learned that he barks up a storm when he needs to pee or poo, so we try to empty him out as much as we can before we leave and directly after we get home.
He’s gone on two plane rides so far, one to the Bay Area and one coming back to Portland. He’s done extremely well both times and is about to go on his second trip to and from the Bay in a couple of weeks for Christmas. I’m not worried at all! The only area we really have trouble with is when he sees other dogs at the airport, but other than that, he just sleeps!
He’s no longer afraid of stairs and goes up and down flawlessly. I think his fear of stairs was the first obstacle we were able to overcome together. Now, he likes to take the lead but patiently waits for us at the platform after every flight.
He knows a few tricks here and there now! He knows sit, lay down, paw, high-five, say please, and speak. When he’s on the bed or on the couches, he knows “off” pretty well, but I usually just say, “hey!” and he already knows he’s not supposed to be on them. We’re still working on his obedience, but hopefully, we’ll get that worked out and shaped once he’s in actual training classes. He likes to take shoes and sometimes chew on them, but we try to stay on top of making sure that’s immediately corrected. We take the shoe, say no, and replace it with one of his toys; indicating what he can and cannot chew on.
He’s very good about being touched and petted when he’s eating, drinking, or playing. We tend to take his toys and bones when he’s busy with them so he’s not territorial, same goes with his food. He gets tickled and bothered, but he’s still pretty okay with me cleaning his ears, touching his nails and paws, touching in between his paw pads, and looking at his teeth. He enjoys it when Sean picks him up but has grown to be uncomfortable when I do it…I honestly think he’s getting bigger.
Other than that, we’ve successfully put him on a feeding schedule, which then works out well with his bathroom schedule. We feed him twice a day and take him out maybe three, sometimes four times a day. He no longer pees in the house since we’ve learned that he’s only done that when he really, really needs to go, and we’ve been especially attentive to when he’s barking up a storm; it usually means he’s either hungry or needs to pee/poo.
As dog parents, we’ve learned a lot as well. Jax has definitely taught us to be more patient and responsible. We plan on going on more adventures with our little pup, hopefully going on hikes and trips pretty soon. Once the holiday chaos is over and things are a little bit more back to normal, we hope to do more with him and make tons of happy memories!
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