Sarge the Boxer Puppy - Training and Development



Sarge the Boxer Puppy at 5 months

Sarge the boxer puppy turned 5 months a few days ago and he is doing incredibly great!  A few "devil dog" days, but he's been totally housetrained for over a month, hasn't destroyed the house yet and hasn't seen the inside of a crate.

He was perfect about staying in his backyard until a few minutes ago (ran to follow a dog being walked), has been perfect about waiting at corners for me to tell him to cross the street, and is a champ at car trips, motel rooms and as a houseguest.

And he's puzzlingly not that thrilled with walks.  He goes, but shows no enthusiasm for it.  He'd much rather play in his backyard.

He's chosen a favorite chair for naps, can leap in the air at least 4 feet, but expects a little boost into the car for rides.  He's shown no interest in chasing squirrels, but likes to watch them, and loves leap in the air after the pigeons invade our bird feeder.  Good boy!

His favorite place in the world is my neighbor Pat's willow tree.  Our backyards are not fenced from each other, and he runs and runs and runs around her tree.  She thinks he's crazy!  His giant teeth are coming in and I've given him a fresh beef bone every day to enjoy and teeth on. 

But it's been a full time job to get him to this point! My art has definitely been backburner, but that's okay. I don't have to be on a schedule, and it's one of the things I really like about working from home! Yesterday I was photographing some vintage to sell and he thought the whole exercise was about knocking the camera out of my hand. Uh, oh!

And he's nicely on his way to being social and trained just as my busy season for portrait approaches.  I am looking forward it!  The difference this year will be that I'll have to take more and longer breaks to make sure Sarge gets lots of playtime!