Pepper 4 months old

C'mon, we don't have kids... 

Over the last 8 weeks we have enjoyed growing a relationship of love, trust and fun while teaching obedience, bribery and boundaries.

From day one, she has loved her blankie.

'My precious'

'This is chair?'

And my lap.

After some time she now enjoys her hair brush, kennel, peanut butter and to obey with words and/or hand gestures:

Sit, lay, stand, jump, stay, roll over, jump, speak, ball, rope, kennel, kong (what we put pb in), food, water, outside, inside, truck, car, kisses and the all important 'get the squirrel'!

Come, down, quiet and heel still need voice commands and are apparently optional depending on her mood.







This is huge. After the first week of having her, I began to doubt we would have been able to teach her half of these things. She is very stubborn. Zero attention span. Seriously, when I signed her up for puppy training, I was almost in tears, figuring it was going to be a waste of money.

Now she is excelling in puppy class with a St.Bernard of the same age. Every week he gently places his giant mouth on her neck...and then lets her fight him and dominate him, exhausting her by the end of the play time. We are looking forward to play dates in the future (don't laugh, nothing wears a puppy out like another puppy).

'Hot Pink is so haute right now'

Mr. Klas gets Pepper up in the mornings, takes her out and feeds her. She and I enjoy cuddle time, then training, a walk, then she has her outside time. Brushing and grooming includes weekly cleaning her ears, trimming and painting her nails (no she doesn't seem to mind it, so I will keep doing it thank you).

Kisses!

Sometimes Mr. will bring her out to sit with me as I read at night. She falls asleep so quickly and deeply! (I am truly jealous) And she is so warm! I absolutely love her. Right now when we can't wake her up we just carry her to her kennel...in 50 lbs it might take us both to carry her...or we could invest in a bull horn?

Truly as anyone who has ever loved a pet knows, all the messes, frustrations, sounds and smells are worth it. They are growing pains. God entrusted us to take care of them and they love us absolutely unconditionally in return.

We had a huge victory this week!

This is Topaz, my in-law's dog. She is sweet to people, but when it comes to other animals, she is domineering, territorial and very, very jealous. The fam noticed Topaz plays well with other dogs - if there are no people around, so after I said no, Mr Klas let Pepper out...just to see what would happen.

I sweated and fretted, picturing Topaz eating Pepper in two easy bites.
"If she eats her, you owe me another puppy!" I said

Pepper jumped and licked Topaz. 
Topaz growled and Pepper submitted! 
We were all shocked and excited! 
(picture all seven of us watching out the sliding glass door.) 
I didn't know Pepper knew how to submit! Truly dog's have natural instincts...and I doubted her's because I'd never seen a dog she didn't dominate. We are happy that we can keep these two in the yard together (more battles to come as Pepper gets bigger I am sure).

So while I'm sure it can be easier to train other breeds of puppies, we are very very proud of the progress Pepper has made. Plott hounds (she takes most after her papa dog) as a breed are very independent and that nose of hers gets distracted easily, as she has more than 250 million scent receptors...compared to our measly 5 million human ones. 

Pepper checking out the Horses

Over the next 6 weeks we hope to train her to:

Greet others without jumping. Pepper loves all other animals and people and should learn etiquette before she becomes 70 lbs. She really loves little kids, so it's important she learn to be gentle. 

Be able to obey all commands with distractions. She does great right now-when it's just me. This test in 6 weeks will be in a public place with strangers distracting her with treats and sounds. At this point I would be able to take her out of the yard for walks and runs without her ripping my arm out of socket. 'New person! Must greet! A dog! Must lick! Cat! Cat play with me!'

Learn 'leave it' when she walks by treats or new smells. This will be a huge success with that nose of hers. So far she is doing okay with it.

An I Need To Go Outside sound....instead of just walking up and going pee in front of Bridgie. She is not a very vocal dog, teaching her 'speak' was difficult, this...this is taking time too. I've tried having her bring me her leash, we shall see which sticks first.

Our instructor encouraged us to pick fun commands for this next class, she suggested getting her to dance and to retrieve things; 'take this to Brandon' etc.

I think once we have this all down, Pepper will hit her adolescence...where she pushes boundaries and disobeys to test the family pack. Yay pre-teen puppy!

I am really looking forward to the weather warming up a bit so we can take her to the reservoir. I have never had a dog that loved water, but her breed is supposed to love it. If not, I know she loves laying in warm grass, so either way we will enjoy our time. She is a blessing!

'I getting too big for this chair. You let me on couch. Yes?'