Zooka's 23rd month of life, March 2021, hits our 100th week of life! We don't usually talk about things in weeks by this point in time, of course. We don't even usually talk about it in months at this point. He's nearly two years old.

Originally, I posted weekly updates since puppies change so much from week to week. That's why I originally recorded things by week. At around seven months, I changed to monthly updates. The plan is to continue with the monthly updates until he reaches two years old – that will be in May 2021. Very soon!

After that, I will continue to post updates on specific events or longer periods of time but not strictly by weeks or months as I have done up to now.

At nearly two years old, Zooka is maturing each month. However, he is not really an adult yet. He is still considered an adolescent at this stage. While some dogs are mature by now, that's generally smaller breed dogs. Large breed dogs can take until two years, three years or even longer to be fully mature.

With Romeo, my previous Vizsla, I would say he reached maturity between three and four years old. And he definitely changed in that year. So we will see what Zooka's future brings for us.

Zooka and his brother Blitzen continue to do well together. If you think teenage boys have a lot of energy, you really get a dose of it when they live together! They play a TON. They love being outside. They love wrestling inside. They love playing the game I call Bitey Face. It's pretty much wrestling, but it involves a lot of biting at each others faces since they do not have opposable thumbs to use.

The Bitey Face game sometimes looks “aggressive” or ferocious. I know some people do not like to see their dogs use their teeth. But guess what? That's how they handle lots of things when they do not have hands/fingers that can grip like ours do. The important thing is that they understand HOW to use their teeth.

When playing Bitey Face, you can “bite” the other dog in the face, body, legs, whatever you can reach. The key is to never bite so hard that your opponent squeals or gets worried or upset. If you control your bites, your buddy has fun and reciprocates.

In all the Bitey Face / Wrestling these boys have done, I have never once heard one of them squeal. Once in a great while, someone gets ticked off and I can see it in their face and their demeanor. I call them away and get them to calm down. And everyone is fine.

Zooka continues to attend group classes. He has been doing very well in class. While he does sometimes get distracted by what the other dogs are doing, for the most part he is very good at staying focused on the task at hand.

Zooka also continues to help me by being my demo dog in the first session of Basic Training Group Class. That first session of Basic is without dogs. Zooka comes out for the latter part of that class to demo what clicker training looks like. When he first comes out, I usually let him greet anyone in class that he wants to say hello to. Typically, he says hello to everyone and is very polite.

After his greetings, then he is asked to focus and demonstrate some of what he can do. He likes to perform for everyone. Once in a while he gets distracted again by smells. This gives me a chance to show how I get his focus back.

Zooka also helps me out with some of my private training sessions. Many of my clients have dogs who struggle with minding their manners around other dogs. Zooka is my helper dog. I bring him out as the “distraction dog” and he focuses on me and doing what I ask as we help the other dog learn how to stay focused on their people and not overreact to the other dog in the environment. Zooka is very good at being calm when needed and being more energetic when I need it. He is turning into a very good helper.

Zooka is doing a good job as both Big Brother and Momma's Assistant. Most dogs don't have actual jobs. Zooka has several. His jobs are not what his breed was bred to do, but he does a very nice job at the tasks he has been assigned.

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