Fantastic fifteen!

Jamie here, filling in for Mr. Ziggy.

Ziggy will be fifteen weeks tomorrow and is truly capturing my heart more and
more each day. He's adjusted well to staying in his kennel while I am at work,
and having the pet sitter come and take him out instead. This week I am working
12p-1030p.m. so it's late when I come home and Ziggy zooms around the living
room in sheer delight after I release him from the kennel. I feel badly that I
then have to turn around and crate him again in an hour or so when I go to bed,
but he rarely complains about being put in the kennel any more, and if he does,
it's short and sweet... but I figure many dogs are confined to their crate all
day long and they, too, adjust.

He's a very vocal puppy who likes to bark when he's playing (even by himself
with his toys) and barks particularly hard at the Kong Wobbler once the kibble
is gone. It's as if he's mad that he's pushing it around and the toy isn't
producing kibble anymore--drat it! "How dare the Kong Wobbler defy me and not
produce kibble?!" Ziggy seems to be saying. I guess Ziggy's just a socialite who
loves a good running banter between you, him, and the food dish you're preparing ;-).

He is (knock on wood) doing better in the housetraining department than last
week, when he had a few accidents. While most of it is still management, he
does ask to go outside some of the time, and I think it's starting to sink in
that outside = potty area since I take him to the exact same spot time after
time. No accidents in his kennel this week, either (there have been a couple
over the course of time, but in general he doesn't mess in there).

I've ratcheted down my puppy kindergarten expectations a great deal and mostly
see it as an opportunity for him to meet other people and other puppies and
socialize, with a wee bit of training thrown in as a side benefit. I know some
puppies are able to do amazing amounts of things at his age, but Ziggy is Ziggy
and we're just happy he's his bright, cheerful, optimistic and opinionated
self--the obedience stuff will sink in later, though of course we're setting the
foundation now.

Also, he's growing like a weed. I had to buy the next size up harness for him,
and he's already had to have it loosened around the belly once. I also had to
buy him another collar as he was outgrowing his puppy collar.

To celebrate the Fourth of July, we're taking him down to the near the water,
just for the treat of taking him on a long walk (with my hours and the
weather competing for walk time, he's been sadly short changed this week). He hasn't
had any reaction to the random fireworks shot off in anticipation of the Fourth
around the neighborhood, so I'm hopeful he'll remain calm and unflappable during
the fireworks tonight, though of course we won't be bringing him to see the
fireworks. I probably won't even go, as traffic is likely to be a nightmare and
so forth.

And that's Ziggy in a nutshell at fifteen weeks. Can't believe he's going to be
four months old next week... where did the time go?