Revere - J&A's New Bird Dog!

 After enjoying his weekend at the Central Maine Brittany Club Field Trial our puppy Revere was introduced to his own chukar partridge and this time it was alive! Originally I wanted to bring him to the field trial grounds to see if he could find any of the quail who often covey following a trial but the weather didn't cooperate in the morning. Later in the afternoon however Revere and I joined John on a trip to the field we train in to feed and water the birds.  Another first for pup-pup as he rode in the front seat of the truck with us.  He settled nicely in between us but when he is a little older he'll be introduced to the dog topper.  The video is pretty self explanatory and a joy to watch, I promise!

He's really a nice little boy.  I strictly adhere to the schedule "A Day In The Life of an 8 Week Old Puppy" which is a handout that all our new puppy owners get.  I created it in 2005 when Timberdoodle came into our life and have followed it with every pup that has come into our house since. It works!  Right now a good part of Revere's day is spent resting or napping.  He has his periods of activity, exercise, and training.  I am learning so much about him as I step back and observe him.  Perhaps the biggest challenge right now is getting his bladder under control or reading his signs a whole lot better.  No poops in the house at all ever, but the little puddles are created occasionally.  I know eventually he'll get the hang of it. It's hard to understand how he can go 8 hours in his crate without an accident at night and then during the day a trip outside once every half hour is necessary.  

Revere apparently is a natural retriever which makes me very happy! It doesn't matter what it is that I throw out for him he always runs after it and picks it up and runs back.  Maybe not quite giving it to me or bringing it directly to my hand but usually it is close enough to warrant a whole lot of excitement from me which he really likes. Every other day I have been tossing a frozen gamebird carcass for him to retrieve and carry around. 

In the evening Revere has started to have those crazy puppy spurts otherwise known as the zoomies! He gets super feisty, runs around and around the dining room table with a toy, then jumps into one of the dog beds. (I am reminded of how I use to feel at the end of the day when our children were but toddlers and I was thankful bedtime was approaching!) The timing of the zoomies seems to be anytime after 6 p.m. when he's been fed, exercised, and enjoying some free supervised time.  Sometimes, if Revere settles down enough I'll hold him in my arms until he falls asleep but that doesn't happen a lot! Usually I just say "Kennel! Bedtime!" and with a stuffed Kong handy I walk over to his crate and toss it inside and he happily follows. His crate is in my bedroom which yes, goes against my own advice but it makes it easier in the morning when John gets up and heads out with the rest of the dogs.  Sometimes Revere will need another trip outside when it's my bedtime but I am grateful that 8 p.m. is when his body clock says time to sleep!

Revere was briefly introduced to the show lead that I bought for him a couple of weeks ago at the Summer Specialty show in West Springfield. Gosh that was a fun weekend with two of my granddaughters! Anyway, Revere is getting use to the whole concept of being 'led' around by a leash of sometime and of course the placement of the show collar is slightly different than his regular one.  He protested a little bit but seriously, in just a few moments it felt like power steering with him at the end of the lead!  Knowing full well that reaction is not the norm I only pranced him around for the briefest of minutes and ended on a happy note.  

Every day I do a little manipulating of his legs, feet, mouth, tail and boy parts just to get him use to being handled because I do want him to be shown.  He does so well on the grooming table that I decided it was time to introduce stacking blocks. I've always wanted to try these for show training a young puppy so thanks to John's ability to literally put feet to my ideas I have a set of four.  Never having used them before I wasn't quite sure the best way to start off with them. It's hard enough to get a young puppy to stand still for a "free stack" never mind getting them to stand on stacking blocks! I shouldn't have been surprised to discover that in just a couple of tries at this Mr. Revere seems to grasp what is being expected.  We'll be working on this.

We were enjoying trips down to the farm pond up until midweek.  I had Revere on the 15' lead in the back yard when a huge Tom Turkey appeared on the far side of the pond fence. This turkey was frantically running back and forth and suddenly the reason why became extremely clear as a red fox jumped up from behind him!  I yelled at the fox and he stopped, turned, and looked my way then disappeared. I picked pup-pup up and ran into the house to get John. The turkey eventually got away or at least we hope and there was no sign of the fox again. Revere and I will look for another place nearby for water work training.

Holly and Treasure are great with the little pipsqueak and the games they play with him are appreciated. Pippin is coming around and so is Hemi. Charlie likes to pretend the puppy is invisible. Revere likes to accompany me on kennel chores and enjoys interacting with the rest of the crew. Especially Rosie. She always was a good surrogate sister. It's always been important to me to do my best to give every dog one on one time so they don't seem to mind my little tag along.

It was fun for Revere to be reunited with his cousin "Polly" at the CMBC hunt test.  He was there to cheer on his Aunt Skye who earned her AKC SENIOR HUNTER title.  Skye is loved and owned by our friends at Merrymeeting Brittanys, Bo & Christine Longley, and is from Hemi and Luna's second litter. She's full sister to Toph. We were also happy that our Charlie earned his third leg towards his AKC JUNIOR HUNTER title! Next spring should be a lot of fun when pups from Toph and Holly's litter begin to get involved with hunt tests and even trials.