Feeling better, learning to sit.

What happened to Tuesday? I have no idea. Oh, Monday night I had a cold so I doctored up and went to bed for 14 hours. Tuesday I was better (no sniffles) but was feeling very run down, so I didn't blog much, or take many pictures. Taking the dog out and feeding him and giving him medicine and entertaining him took alot out of me. All of that is harder when you are sick/run-down.

Riley is doing so good. He continues to test his boundaries, but overall he's doing really good. I think he's getting bigger. His first vet visit a week ago Monday he was about 2 pounds 7 ounces, and this past monday he was "three three", so I guess 3 pounds 3 ounces. And he just looks a little bigger.

Riley learned to SIT! It wasn't even intentional. When he first wakes up he is SO sleepy and docile, so I take that time to clean the crud off his face. He still has that cold so he wakes up w/ two oysters on his face (sorry) and a tons of crusties on his face and in his facial folds. When he fusses I sit him down and say "Sit" real firm but not mean. And if he is real good about not struggling, I give him some treats when we're done.

Well, today we were playing w/ his toys, and I got out the treat bag. He went ape-sh*t, jumping on me, acting out of control. So I got out a treat, and on a whim, said "Riley! Sit!" and he backed down off my leg, backed up along the floor a few inches, and then very deliberately sat down and looked at me! He was completely out of control a second ago. And in one fell swoop backed off and sat very deliberately. I gave him a treat. He's 9 weeks old! :D

I didn't want to start a treat-reward system, but he's really responding. So I have to see if I'm on the right track here. I'd prefer a praise-reward system, but I don't know if that works well w/ pugs or not. Pugs are quite food motivated. That could mean that treat-reward training works like gold, or it could mean that the day you don't have a treat in your hand it'll be all over (plus Pugs don't need the extra calories). I intend to consult a trainer asap. Riley seems to be very intelligent, and I want to take advantage of that and get started w/ training early.

What's really funny is that I got a really good SIT on video w/ my camera phone. I played it back so I could view it, and when Riley heard my voice on the camera-phone say "Riley! Sit!", he stopped play and SAT RIGHT DOWN! LOL! I totally lost it! It was so funny!

Anyway, I got video of him doing the SIT w/ my camera phone, and I uploaded it to my moblog, and you can see it here:

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