Fatass.

Cute? Pain.

We understand why it’s called fighting like cats and dogs.

Sudo is now 16.5 weeks, and he’s changed so much. He’s super clever, and so energetic. Walking is much better, interaction with other dogs is greatly improved, and house training is about 95% success. I almost understand why people have children – such a sense of satisfaction watching them learn behaviour you want them to adopt.

Anyway, we’re now playing in the garden and he loves it. It tires him out, too, which means that we love it!

It’s nearly scary how much better-behaved he’s getting. If we’re in the kitchen with him (still don’t trust him to make it outside from the lounge in time) and doing something else, he’ll quite happily sit by us and nap or play or coerce us into playing. He’s gone, very quickly, from quite frequently being a pain in the ass, to hardly ever. Dogs are great.

In lieu of my relinquishing social networks, I’m going to try blogging more frequently. If nothing else, I’ll write more sentences; maybe encourage some abstract thought that I don’t condense to 140 characters.

Considering today has been spent doing a godawful job of painting a bathroom, playing with a puppy in the snow and drinking nasty rum, I thought I’d post some photos of the 21st century’s answer to polaroid; my iPhone.

Dead-centre of this gorgeous, frosty sunrise, trying to stop a dog picking up and eating sticks.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t post some pictures of snow.

I love our house.

It seems that water supplies are intent on giving me crap at the moment. Luckily, the external pipe is low on my list. Downstairs toilet, however, is another matter entirely.

A few rare moments where he’s still enough to capture on the awesome iPhone camera.

Look at those legs. Since we got him, he hasn’t been a 100% proportionate dog. Funny how all his body parts grow at totally different speeds.

Toilet training is getting SO much better this week. He’s getting good at finding a door and sitting by it to let us know he wants to go out. Problem is both our kitchen doors are identical and I think he might get confused a bit. Couldn’t say for sure, though.

We’ve had our last set of jabs, so this time next week, we’ll be going out for walkies, which I’m really excited about. He has so much energy, I think walking’s going to really help.

He’s generally becoming a much nicer dog to me, as well. All the persistent command-shouting is really paying off, and he’s now understanding commands (even if he chooses to ignore them if there’s something better going on). Generally a much more trustworthy member of the household now – I’m a lot more comfortable with him being unsupervised outside his cage for short periods of time, and he’s not doing anything to betray that trust, so it’s going well!

Some people will meme anything. It’s quite staggering how much he changes, even on a daily basis. His ears have now far outgrown his head (I’m assuming this gives some indication that he’s going to be a decent size), closely followed by his paws (not having outgrown his head, pedants).

I will reiterate; having a puppy is super difficult. One day he’s as good as gold, the next he’s a total nightmare, but overall he’s incredibly fun. I’m really looking forward to him realising that a command is not a polite request, but an imperative. At the moment, the interchange is somewhat one-sided; “Sudo, come”, “yeah, in a minute, let me just finish peeing on the kitchen floor”. I’m pretty excited about that ending – then maybe we can have doormats again.

As an aside, I love this lens – you can see me and the sofa and chairs in the reflections in his eyes. Awesome.

Everyone loves puppies (apart from you, Jem) and, as such, people (ok, I) tend to forget just how much work it is owning one. It’s not as simple as “pick up the poo, take him out for walks, get sleepy cuddles”, as people (ok, I) think it should be. You have to learn about them so you can spot when they need these things. You have to have lightning quick reflexes for those nick-of-time moments. You have to shout at those cute little faces. It ain’t right!

The rewards, however, far outweigh the drawbacks. Puppies are amazing. Yeah, they eat your shoes, and they don’t understand the 50th consecutive “NO!”, and they have very little regard for doing their business over the cracks in your nice, clean, wooden floor then kicking it throughout your house, but it’s so rewarding when you get through a whole day and you’re totally in sync.

This is, however, a massive responsibility and investment of time and energy. You have to be totally willing to drop everything you’re doing at any given moment to tend to a puppy. You can’t be sat writing a blog post and just ignore a whining puppy who needs to go out – you have to be up and at it! This goes for ANY time of day. Sleep is deprioritised, as are loved-ones, friends, cameras, code, video games, movies, TV shows and books (it’s a testament to my literacy how low down books are on that list) and there’s nothing you can do about it. This does have its advantages; you’ll get ridiculously good at going from any position to standing, clothed, shoed and alert; you’ll have a feeling of fulfilled responsibility and accomplishment; but, most of all, you’ll be on the way to having a well-rounded, well-behaved, house-trained dog.

Anyway, enough of my indignant, week-old wisdom on raising a puppy. If you’re thinking about it, please seriously think about the implications and the impact it’ll have on your life. Puppies are cute, but they’re so much more than that.

As a reward for wading through the wall of text, so uncharacteristic of this blog, have some pictures of Sudo, in chronological order.

6 weeks, 2 days.

6 weeks, 3 days

7 weeks

7 weeks, 6 days