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Robs part I
May. 19th, 2026 09:59 amPuppy is here. His name at his previous house was Rico, before that Roko, and here he'll be Robs (Robson) if I can remember. Like my mom before me I call through a couple names before hitting the right one for my children.
It's a fascinating process. Very, very demanding. I don't think his previous owners did much official training, and I can see some of their personalities in how he responds to things. Then there's the layer of him being a teenager and having big feelings, and the layer of seperation anxiety, and then under all those and kind of shining through them is the dog he'll be. I don't know who that is yet. Right now it's like wearing dirty glasses, or maybe the last few days are like turning the knob on a microscope and it gets slightly less fuzzy but you don't know what you're looking at until it resolves.
He also doesn't love me yet. He accepts me as the human around and is fine with that, but he's both still in his feelings and past training, and maybe too young, and maybe just not yet bonded enough to be watching my every move and thinking about how to handle it. I mean, that makes sense: he has access to a lot of things which are not an apartment. Even a very few days of routine and exposure are helping him though.
I'll need to figure out how to play with him. I don't play in normal ways, and while it would be ideal to play in ways that feel natural to me and also help him learn I don't necessarily have the ability to put those games together right now. We're also limited by the cats and muscovies, who come into the front yard and who he needs to be very calm around before he can be off-leash there.
He's had a good bedtime routine before he came here. It shows in the way he settles well at night. His playtime or his natural energy peaks around 2-4pm, which is when I originally tried to being him to bed for a nap, and the difference is night and day. Thus the need for some play first that leaves him wanting to rest.
Thea is annoyed by him (reasonable) and I think would benefit by some time with him offleash in the evening, since evening is when she wants to play. She's done well warning him away when she wants him to go and he's listened well so far. Solly hasn't been officially introduced yet but they've seen each other through a corner of a fence and oh thank goodness she is letting him through the basement to the bedroom so far so long as I prep them both. At first I was putting her in the bathroom which has a shutting door, bringing him into the bedroom with a shutting door, and then letting her out and she was very very good about it but it was awkward and uncomfortable for us all. Right now I can ask her to go under the pottery bench (which she's decided is her crate) with a nice chewy stick and she lets us do a smooth walk down the hall. Robs is learning that routine quickly too.
He's good enough with cats indoors and way too interested outdoors. With the birds he's getting good at ignoring them but maybe one time out of ten wants to chase, especially if he comes around a corner quickly. So far he's been kept far enough away that the birds don't startle when he lunges, I stop him with the leash, and he doesn't start the self-rewarding cycle that chasing birds can create for bored little pups.
There's no innate guardian dog caution yet. Avallu and Thea could walk through a crowd of birds without bothering them. Solly is getting better at it, especially on our 4x/day walks; previously she just stayed right away. So it's partially a long skill as well as a talent and after he learns to pay more attention to me on the leash he'll start noticing those patterns.
Right now he's mostly in the run in the carport when we're not walking or playing during the day, and then we sleep downstairs together during the night. He can see out, but it's built to withstand the first day and a half of tantrum. At this point he's getting really good in it, and I'm reinforcing him as much as possible. I'd like to extend a bit of an outdoor run so he can sit further out into the yard; not sure whether I'll do that there or in the pig house from last winter. He needs to be able to observe me and Thea interacting with everything around us to learn what's appropriate.
He's very very very food motivated and also skinnier than he should be. He eats, not everthing thank goodness but a lot, with an emphasis on poop of every kind, including his own if he finds it more than a couple days old. He did not eat the sweatpants I tied into a tug toy for him. He did figure out how to empty the food kong that Solly ignored. We'll get him fed up.
When Solly arrived I remember thinking her coat would never be thick enough for winter work, and this pup is the same. I imagine he'll lose the puppy coat and bulk up well this winter and magnificently next winter.
Too tired to think of how to wrap up and I'm sure there'll be more later. He does sure make me appreciate the cats, Thea, and Solly, all of whom are gentle and have learned to mold into a family uit with me. It'll come, of course.
It's a fascinating process. Very, very demanding. I don't think his previous owners did much official training, and I can see some of their personalities in how he responds to things. Then there's the layer of him being a teenager and having big feelings, and the layer of seperation anxiety, and then under all those and kind of shining through them is the dog he'll be. I don't know who that is yet. Right now it's like wearing dirty glasses, or maybe the last few days are like turning the knob on a microscope and it gets slightly less fuzzy but you don't know what you're looking at until it resolves.
He also doesn't love me yet. He accepts me as the human around and is fine with that, but he's both still in his feelings and past training, and maybe too young, and maybe just not yet bonded enough to be watching my every move and thinking about how to handle it. I mean, that makes sense: he has access to a lot of things which are not an apartment. Even a very few days of routine and exposure are helping him though.
I'll need to figure out how to play with him. I don't play in normal ways, and while it would be ideal to play in ways that feel natural to me and also help him learn I don't necessarily have the ability to put those games together right now. We're also limited by the cats and muscovies, who come into the front yard and who he needs to be very calm around before he can be off-leash there.
He's had a good bedtime routine before he came here. It shows in the way he settles well at night. His playtime or his natural energy peaks around 2-4pm, which is when I originally tried to being him to bed for a nap, and the difference is night and day. Thus the need for some play first that leaves him wanting to rest.
Thea is annoyed by him (reasonable) and I think would benefit by some time with him offleash in the evening, since evening is when she wants to play. She's done well warning him away when she wants him to go and he's listened well so far. Solly hasn't been officially introduced yet but they've seen each other through a corner of a fence and oh thank goodness she is letting him through the basement to the bedroom so far so long as I prep them both. At first I was putting her in the bathroom which has a shutting door, bringing him into the bedroom with a shutting door, and then letting her out and she was very very good about it but it was awkward and uncomfortable for us all. Right now I can ask her to go under the pottery bench (which she's decided is her crate) with a nice chewy stick and she lets us do a smooth walk down the hall. Robs is learning that routine quickly too.
He's good enough with cats indoors and way too interested outdoors. With the birds he's getting good at ignoring them but maybe one time out of ten wants to chase, especially if he comes around a corner quickly. So far he's been kept far enough away that the birds don't startle when he lunges, I stop him with the leash, and he doesn't start the self-rewarding cycle that chasing birds can create for bored little pups.
There's no innate guardian dog caution yet. Avallu and Thea could walk through a crowd of birds without bothering them. Solly is getting better at it, especially on our 4x/day walks; previously she just stayed right away. So it's partially a long skill as well as a talent and after he learns to pay more attention to me on the leash he'll start noticing those patterns.
Right now he's mostly in the run in the carport when we're not walking or playing during the day, and then we sleep downstairs together during the night. He can see out, but it's built to withstand the first day and a half of tantrum. At this point he's getting really good in it, and I'm reinforcing him as much as possible. I'd like to extend a bit of an outdoor run so he can sit further out into the yard; not sure whether I'll do that there or in the pig house from last winter. He needs to be able to observe me and Thea interacting with everything around us to learn what's appropriate.
He's very very very food motivated and also skinnier than he should be. He eats, not everthing thank goodness but a lot, with an emphasis on poop of every kind, including his own if he finds it more than a couple days old. He did not eat the sweatpants I tied into a tug toy for him. He did figure out how to empty the food kong that Solly ignored. We'll get him fed up.
When Solly arrived I remember thinking her coat would never be thick enough for winter work, and this pup is the same. I imagine he'll lose the puppy coat and bulk up well this winter and magnificently next winter.
Too tired to think of how to wrap up and I'm sure there'll be more later. He does sure make me appreciate the cats, Thea, and Solly, all of whom are gentle and have learned to mold into a family uit with me. It'll come, of course.
