Three Months Old!

Milo turned three months old today! I had been thinking of his age in terms of how many weeks old he was, but I think I'll switch to thinking in terms of months; I remember going through the same transition with my three babies. He might not have received a new toy on Christmas Day, but we bought this little puppy a LOT of things this month including a variety of toys. Ian and Oliver care for him and play with him a little bit, but the vast majority of his care has been attended to by myself, Nadia, and Paul. Nadia takes him outside the most, and I spend the most time with him when he's inside during the day time. He sleeps in his crate in Nadia's bedroom at night. 

Training a puppy is challenging. My friend, Cheri, has trained nine puppies over the decades. She currently has four large black dogs. She said it takes three days. Well it's taking a lot longer than three days to train Milo to do his business outside, but when I read about the breed I knew that was listed as the biggest disadvantage for Bichon Frise - one of the hardest to house train. He goes to the bathroom almost every time we take him outside, but the problem is that sometimes he has an accident shortly after he comes inside even after he's just gone outside. Ugh! Honestly he was doing better with not having accidents last week than he has been this week, which is very frustrating and discouraging. There are definitely times I regret that we got a puppy. If I wasn't allergic to many dogs, I would never have gotten a puppy, but considering how much we've spent on him over the past 18 days, there's no way we're giving up. We're in this for the long haul. Aside from learning to only go to the bathroom outside there are many things he needs to learn - what he can chew, not to bite us, not to beg when we're eating, not to terrorize the guinea pigs, etc. I am always thankful to get a break from dog supervision when he takes a nap. Never in my life have I owned a pet who required SO much supervision all day long. It's exhausting. I keep reminding myself that he won't be a puppy forever. At some point he won't require so much of my time and energy. I do enjoy it when he takes a nap on my lap. I signed him up for puppy kindergarten. Normally it's a group session, but due to COVID he's instruction will be one-on-one. His first session is next Tuesday afternoon. I'm hoping that the trainer will help him, and I assume I also will learn some tips as well. She said the class usually lasts 6 weeks but that when the training is individualized it usually only lasts 4 weeks. It will save us $50 if the training takes 4 weeks instead of 6 weeks. Time will tell. If Milo is nipping at Oliver, he ignores Oliver's commands even if Oliver screams NO at the top of his lungs. Hopefully the training will help.

• He's only had one accident in the past 18 days in his crate. He sleeps inside his crate in Nadia's bedroom.
• At first he was very fierce if he saw his reflection in a mirror or the glass of the fireplace. He would bark and growl and carry on for quite a long time. I haven't seen him do that recently.
• He also goes into guard/attack mode when I'm using the vacuum cleaner or mop. He also used to do that with the broom (seriously?!?), but lately the broom doesn't seem scary to him. Another thing that caused him to bark like crazy was when Oliver was pulling a shirt over his head. A headless person is VERY scary to Milo! 
• We have baby gates up in two places to protect the guinea pigs. We keep all the bedroom and bathroom doors closed. This means the places he can go inside the house are the family room, kitchen, foyer, stairs (going upstairs), and upstairs hallway. 
• I brush him every day. Nadia has clipped his nails once. I have ordered shampoo and ear cleaning solution for him. We have given him partial baths in the kitchen sink when his backside has needed to be cleaned. Now if I could trim the fur around his eyes a little bit so we could see his eyes more clearly. I think we'll have to wait until he has a professional grooming. 
• He wants to be with people 24 hours a day. He loves to give kisses. 
• He's gotten better about being outside in the cold/snow. I bought him a jacket at my Aunt's suggestion, but he doesn't like wearing it so we've only used it a couple of times.
• He takes at least one nap a day on the blue sofa in the family room. 
• He tries to eat EVERYTHING (grass, leaves, any crumbs of food he can find, the rust on the stove, etc.) and has chewed just about everything aside from our walls. Thankfully he's been doing better lately with not chewing the cords in the family room (my laptop and the Echo dot). The newest thing he's taken to chewing is the dish towel in the kitchen.
• Although Bichons are not known for being "guard" dogs, he definitely barks when the door from the garage opens or when Ken has come to work on the master bathroom.