Rounding out week number sixteen...

Sable is now around the 16 weeks old mark and weighs 18lbs... not showing signs of being a HUGE lab which I think will be a pretty good thing. Plus she's so cute at this size... who can be mad when there are cute little puppy eyes staring back at you.

Dixon and Sable: Partners in crime...

destroying the backyard tree.

Sable had a whirlwind of a weekend (for her), she spent an entire day with her buddy Dixon... whom she usually only sees for a few hours at a time. She pretty much died for the following two days :-P... but of course regained full energy by puppy class time. Made the weekend a little more relaxed for us humans which was nice!

This week Sable officially graduated from her first puppy class! I think both Jeff and I were SURE that she would fail, but she pulled through for us :-)... now it's my turn to graduate :-( boooo... if only they just handed me a certificate after six weeks of class. Note to self: be a cute puppy in my next life.

Sword fighting

Well that's all that's new for this week hopefully more excitement and photos to come, enjoy this week's photos!

Happy Valentines Week!

When she is good, she's so cute!

Today Sable has gone completely psychotic... yes... she's a psycho. It took me a solid hour to eat a simple sandwich all because she could not sit still or stay out of trouble. After all the running around today, chasing the puppy... I am now le tired.

This is Gangsta' Sable

We've also come to realize exactly how stubborn our little puppy really is... initially we began training with a choke collar only to discover that Sable would sooner choke herself than give in to the corrections to stop pulling. It's funny because one day Sable will be the perfect little sweet puppy, obedient and calm. The next day she turns into a small Tasmanian devil with total and utter chaos following her everywhere.

Sable with the flowers Jeff got me

In the midst of all the training ups and downs I wanted to share a few lovely images of the past week... ENJOY!

Sable's Valentines Day heart poop present for me... outside, don't worry.

Lets Socialize!

Last weekend was Superbowl and we held it at our place again this year... with Sable in mind. No sense taking her to someone else's house to pee all over :-P

She's still a little sick, but we're hoping she's really getting better. Due for another vet check up this week and slowly Sable is becoming a very expensive little puppy.

It was funny to see that Sable could care less that there was 8 new people in the house. Initially she was filled with excitement thinking everyone had come to see her, slowly that feeling turned into ambivalence as the focus turned toward the game. She calmed down pretty quickly and seemed relatively oblivious to the loud cheers, which is nice to see.

Puppy classes this week went well enough... we've come to that point in every puppy's life when they realize that the word 'come' has no meaning unless they're attached to a leash. Even then 'come' doesn't mean much if there is something more interesting going on in the general vicinity. Here come the terrible twos....

So in the midst of enjoying our puppy and trying to catch up on sleep, we will be amping up the training regime in hopes of nipping bad habits in the bud!

Where has time gone...

Beside the fact hat I haven't posted something new in a while, it seems like time has flown by... Sable has gotten soooooo much bigger. For whatever reason I've really noticed it in the last week. As for puppy updates:

Dog Classes
The first week we went without the puppy... we did get some awkward looks from the other people at the class, but we also got a good introduction to the trainer and some basic dog command introduction. The other puppies were totally adorable... there was a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever (which I have decided might be my next dog), a Cane Corso Italian Masiff, a 100lb. 1yr old Chocolate Lab (which is HUGE in case you didn't understand by the weight description), and a multitude of other puppies.

This last week we finally got to bring Sable with us to class and she did really well. She behaved much better than I had expected and flew through the obedience practice with a little trouble when it came to teaching her NOT to jump on people when meeting them. She currently thinks that all dogs and humans we encounter were put on earth to love her and play with her... not a bad attitude to have, but training the intensity of her jumping, playing, greeting attitude out of her has proven to be a little tougher than the other tricks she has learned.

Health

Well... she huge! Lol... she is definitely growing... I'm getting excited for the weekly photo montage when we finish it. You can already see lots of growth progress through the images.

She finally finished the antibiotics she was on, but is still seemingly on and off again when it comes to being healthy again, so there might be another vet visit in the near future... we'll see.

Finally on the topic of health... she is very much a Lab... she inhales her food now. Eating roughly 1/2 cup in a minute... I'm surprised she hasn't thrown up more.

Tricks
Sable is finally learning to walk on a leash appropriately... less pulling more walking and finally leaving the yard!

Sable knows commands for come, sit, stay, down, shake, fetch, bring, speak, kennel, and is in the process of learning quiet, heel, stand, and stay (in a position other than sit). Although she knows these commands she still isn't 100% with her follow through... occasionally she decides 'quiet' really means 'speak' and 'stay' really means 'come'.

Either way the commands are a work in progress :-) Until next time! Here's hoping we can make progress in the mean time...

Time flies when you're having funn... err... rriigghhtt

Haha... it's been a while since the last time I wrote...

In the last week Sable has given us a multitude of random things to worry about. Most of the issues dealt with bodily functions, so I'll save you the details. One injury was a much played up injury to her paw that miraculously healed itself within the hour. I'm getting the feeling that she's just as good a faker as any. She's getting no pity party from me from now on.

Today we went to the vet for a nice little check up and wound up coming home with some antibiotics and a recommendation to look into new food. Nothing too serious though... other than being a little extra lazy yesterday and waking up all last night, Sable seems to be in fine form today. So no real worries.

Sable will be getting her third/final round of puppy shots on Saturday so here's to some health and well being, wooo! Because Sable doesn't have the third round of shots we will not be taking her along to her first puppy class (tonight). Sounds pretty pointless to go without a dog, I know, but it should be a good learning experience for us, the trainers. Next week Sable will get to go for the first time... here's hoping she behaves relatively well :-/ but I'm not holding my expectations too high.

In the past week we've enjoyed some more Dixon play time, a new interest in walking, and some more crazy snow! Even though Dixon and Sable have only had a couple play dates, Sable is now fully aware of the front door. The sound of a doorbell on the TV made her go completely bezerk today and it was only after I opened the door to show her that no one was there that she finally calmed down. Apparently Jeff had a similar "Sable's gone nuts" experience after a door-to-door salesman stopped by the other night.

Speaking of crazy Sable moments... I recently found out that salmon makes Sable psychotic. As I was making dinner I place a teeny tiny bit of salmon fat in Sable's food bowl and after she sniffed out the food and devoured it she began to lick her bowl as if she was going to lick a hole to China. She then proceeded to spin wildly in a circle and do a sprint around the kitchen only to return to the bowl and realize nothing was left. I wish I had caught it on video.