This is the rob blatt blog.

So it’s been about a month with the new pup. She recognizes her name and perks up when someone says her name. I’ve never taught a dog that before, so that’s cool in my book. She sits and lays down (with a little apprehension) and can hang in the yard without leaving it. We can turn our backs and she does’t run off and she sleeps through the night without having to be leashed to the bed.

Matty has fully taken the responsibility of this new dog being his dog. He watches her eat to make sure that she does before he eats his food, he shows where she can and can’t hang out and is a role model when it comes to listening. The only thing is that he’s protective of Amber and me. If she’s around us, he’ll put himself between her and us. It’s peculiar. He’s the dominant dog and we don’t want to change that, but at the same time we need to show him that it’s perfectly okay if she’s around us and not him. This only resulted in a serious fight once, and I wasn’t around to see it so I couldn’t put Matty in his place. I’m the discipliner between Amber and me, so he wasn’t really yelled at when it happened.

I suppose the next thing would be to teach them both only to do a command when their name is said before it. I’m no dog training expert, but I think that that task is going to be a very difficult one. We’ll see.

Amber takes some great photos of the dogs. Check out her flickr photos.

If it’s a nice photo of the dogs, chances are, it’s hers