Taking Pup home - Day 1

When I met Pup it was obvious that he was a lovely friendly dog. He's almost all black with a white bib and white patches on all four feet as though he's wandered through wet paint. I'd been warned that there'd been reports of Pup being untrainable from his temporary family and although lovely, he had no manners. Oh, and don't forget that he's a randy teenager too - being around 18 months old and not yet neutered he's found his feelings for the ladies.

Although very excitable he knew how to 'sit' and seemed pretty good on a lead, on the short journey to the car. Getting him in the car, however, was an entirely different matter and it took two of us to persuade him that he really did need to get in so that we could go to his new foster home. He was so nervous that he had a pee incident before we got in. Although we only live a short drive from the kennels I was surprised at how well behaved he was once in the car.

Once we were home it was time for him to sniff everything and make himself at home. It didn't take long until he was ready to play and we had an hour of fetching a tennis ball. He fetches well but isn't very good yet at dropping it on command. This is one of the things we'll work on in training sessions.
A short walk in the afternoon showed me again that he is reasonable on the lead. He needs to learn not to pull and we're working on this by stopping and sitting each time he tries to get too far ahead. We're also working on waiting and sitting at roadsides when we're going to cross and not picking up scraps of food on walks. This is all going well and will need to be continued once he's in his new home.
At our mealtime we found that he was very well behaved and didn't scrounge or beg for food. At his mealtime we discovered that he's a very greedy eater and we need to encourage him to slow down as it can make a dog quite ill by eating too fast. He also snatches treats from your hands rather than taking food nicely. We'll work on this.

When visitors arrived later in the evening he didn't bark or growl but got so excited that he had another pee incident. He needs to be taught to sit instead of jumping up people for a fuss as he would easily knock over a small child or someone infirm. This is a work in progress.

Late evening we took him for a walk to our local pub garden where we spent a happy couple of hours. He was more than comfortable sitting and lying with us quietly and enjoyed being fussed by all sorts of people from young to old, quiet to loud without any problems.
I must admit I was worried about our first bedtime as he doesn't like being left alone and whines and cries. The kennels had been advised that he was destructive too so I was keen to protect my furniture and possessions. We've decided to crate train him for now so that he can't damage anything and so that he has his own safe space that he can retreat too. He isn't at all keen on getting into the crate but once he's in it there are no problems and he slept though until the morning with no accidents or complaining!