Three Months Old!

Three months old!

Kai is three months old!  How time flies.  He's definitely changed in the last month that we've had him.  His muzzle is much lighter on top (still fairly black underneath), he's grown, and his legs look so long now.  His ears are almost up... at times, like at this photo, they are nearly standing, but most of the time they are sort of halfway up and halfway floppy.  He knows sit, down, and touch (a targeting exercise where he touches a hand with his nose).  He's gotten more used to his leash, although we still need a lot of work there.  He's pretty good with potty training, in general... he's never had an accident in his crate and has never pooped in the house.  He has taught Chris and I how to know when he wants to go outside:  he bangs on the cat door.  He does the same when he's out and wants to come in.

Kai did have an "accident" last night.  We were watching TV, and Kai wandered over to the dining area.  I went to see what he was doing, and he was just standing there peeing!  I was like "WTF Kai?!" and said NO and took him outside.  I don't know why he didn't tell us he needed to go out.  Obviously he doesn't totally have it down yet, and we need to be more diligent about letting him out periodically when he's awake.

I hope we did a good job with socialization over his first month, which they say is the most critical time period.  We took him to our climbing gym three times, kept him backstage during Pirates of Penzance for three performances, brought him to five different houses (Chris's parents, my parents, Chris's sister's, and two other places) and had people visit at our place.  He's had a couple of puppy kindergarten classes so far, and more on the way.  He's met a handful of dogs, and has spend a decent amount of time with three of them.  We even took him to a cafe with outdoor seating, and he sat nicely while we ate lunch.  So with all that... we really did try to get him out as much as we could.  He's a fearless little bugger, and seems unfazed by new people and situations.  And of course, whenever we take him anywhere, we get many "Awwwww!"s and "Oh so CUTE" types of reactions.  It's funny how even the most rugged, tattooed, buffed out dude slaying V10s at the climbing gym will turn into mush when he sees the cute puppy.

Kai got to meet Abby, my parents' dog, last weekend.  It went pretty well, although I think Kai's playing style is more suited to Vinny than Abby. 

Kai meets Abby

Chris and Kai have a lot in common.  They are assuming the same tired pose in this photo.

like father, like son

Chris has his own patented version of the Shiba scream.  He is very smart and very stubborn, just like a Shiba.  I let him get away with stuff more often than I should because he's cute and funny, and makes me laugh.  Here is Chris working on "sit" with Kai.

attentive puppy

I still joke that we should have named Kai Chris Jr.  Ha.

many zzzzzs