This post is part of our weekly series on raising our Vizsla puppy, Zooka.  You can use our posts as a guide to help raise your own puppy, regardless of breed. Keep in mind that different breeds might develop at different rates, so while you can do these things with any breed, your breed might need certain things at slightly different stages or ages.  Click here to see our list of all updates.

Notes from week 18:

• Hit FOUR months old during this week
  • generally start teething around now (see notes below)
  • take his weight at this age and double it for an estimate of how large he will be when full grown
    • this is for medium to large size dogs (not so with toy, small or giant breed dogs)
    • 28 pounds x 2 = 56 pounds = estimated full size
    • based on the weight of his parents, we assume he will be around 55-60 pounds full grown so that matches
• Surgery recovery
  • back to normal activities this week – not sure which of us is happiest about that!
• Continue housetraining
  • no accidents this week
  • still keeping an eye out for signs just in case he does not give us a clear signal
  • despite no accidents for a while, we do not yet assume he is fully housetrained!
• Continue training for meals
  • continue with everything we've been doing so far
  • continue building duration on things like Eye Contact and Kennel Up/Crate Training
  • raising expectations on things like Heel
    • teaching him how to go from Front to Heel
    • teaching him how to join me in Heel when I am already in motion and he needs to find position
    • teaching him that when stopped
      • if I step off with left foot, he Heels with me
      • if I step off with right foot, he Waits in position
  • adding in a variety of objects for shaping/capturing sessions
  • looking for new behaviors during shaping/capturing sessions
    • backing up
    • touching nose to ground
    • moving to a different location (mostly moving to left / Heel side)
    • working on new positions (stand, relax on a hip, sleep)
• Muzzle training, continued
• More walks on property trails
  • loves climbing on our Parkour obstacles
  • transitioning to 20 foot line
    • more freedom to explore
    • learning to stay near me while having more freedom
    • learning to keep track of me better for eventual off leash walks
    • goal is to never hit the end of the 20 foot line
    • doing really well – he actually does not hit the end of the line very often!
• Field trips
  • • local park
      • not as many people at the park this time, so not many face-to-face interactions/greetings
      • working on our leash manners
      • working on walking away from distractions
      • working on being able to sit, wait, etc. in public places
• Play dates
  • lots of play dates this week to make up for two weeks when we were not able to have any!
  • adolescent Collie and young adult Border Collie/Aussie
    • at our place, in the back yard and on the deck
    • the two girls took turns playing with him so they got breaks and he pretty much kept going
    • they like to do more running rather than the wrestling he prefers
    • he tried to entice them both into the kiddie pool – one went for it, the other did not
  • Golden Retriever puppy (from his Puppy Class)
    • at our place, in the back yard and on the deck
    • lots of wrestling and some running
    • playing in the pool
    • this poor guy pooped out long before Zooka did!
  • Chocolate Lab puppy (from his Puppy Class)
    • about a month older than Zooka
    • about 25 pounds heavier
    • had to keep close eye at first, as the Lab could bulldoze Zooka over and we didn't want him to get hurt
    • LOTS of wrestling
    • LOTS of Bitey Face play – their favorite!
    • playing in the pool to keep cool
• More snuggling this week with us
  • Sue's favorite!
  • he tends to run hot, so when it's hot, he needs room to sprawl out and keep cool
  • as the weather cools off, he gets more snuggly
  • he tends to like snuggle time first thing in the morning
• Diet
  • stool test showed positive for hook worms (worms common in puppies), despite using our natural efforts (although no more round worms, so they did help), so started him on a week long protocol of Panacur
  • feeding him close to 3 pounds daily of raw dog food – that is 10% of his bodyweight!
  • more frozen stuffed Kongs this week
  • more frozen snacks – tiny beef broth ice cubes, etc.
  • since he's teething (4 months old now!) he needs plenty of icy snacks to help soothe his sore gums

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