The Life Of Hugo

[Dju]

Aha! He started doing it again so I took a better picture:

The limbs, they flail everywhere. :p

[tdierikx]

It's way too cute when they have those really fun dreams, isn't it?

I think the one who needs training right now is Mum... err!

T.

[Dju]

Mum was much better today, I read to her some paragraphs out of the book that Cassie gave me (the one by Leonie Darling, 'Swedish Vallhund') about puppy training and she's been doing good things. We've been using the Ferber Method on Hugo (basically, letting him whinge and cry and carry on while ignoring him, meanwhile making sure that he's pottied out). Hopefully this will mean minimal barking when he's older! Today I had a friend coming over, originally we were supposed to be going out somewhere but I didn't have the heart to leave Hugo alone all by himself again! So we had playtime at home. Hugo was very good this morning, after a 5am start and potty, we went peacefully back to bed and slept through to 9am. He played with his breakfast a bit, didn't really eat it at all, so as per the book's instructions and many helpful people on DOL, I removed the bowl after 15 minutes. So he had to go hungry until lunch.

Craig (friend) had come over by 11am and we had this massive playing session with Hugo in the backyard. We introduced Hugo to our lemon tree and Hugo was doing this cute 'sniffing a lemon on the ground, and then throwing himself away from it like it was a bomb' routine, which he seemed absolutely delighted with. The slippery little eel also crawled between our steps and rolled around in the mud under them. Fantastic! He would definitely need a bath later on. Again he was introduced to the chickens through the chicken-wire fence, and he seemed absolutely delighted by them! I don't think they returned the sentiment. It was the first time I had seen our chookie Spot puff herself up to her full potential and make growling noises. Hugo was laying in front of the fence sticking his nose through the wire and she actually reached forwards and gave him a sharp peck on the forehead! I think Hugo was more scared than she was! No blood drawn and it was only a little peck, so we didn't worry much--hopefully it'll teach him to respect the chickens? I'm not sure what it would do exactly, I just hope it won't make him aggressive towards them. I really do want them all to get along one day, and maybe for him to protect them from that bloody bush turkey hanging around (memo to self, borrow dad's bow and arrow set and shoot that bastard). The horrible animal went into the chicken's area today and grabbed one of our girls (Princess) by the leg and ever since she's been really badly limping, and we're so worried about her! We have no idea why he keeps coming in to bother them. That turkey has to go. Maybe Hugo will learn to love our chickens and then deal with that for us? Wishful thinking, I know.

Hugo was fully tired out today after all the playing, but instead of letting him sleep, we decided to give the muddy little tyrant a bath. Hugo was extremely unimpressed. I don't like the smell of dogs, our whole house smells like dog, but DOL's profile about Swedish Vallhunds lied to us when they said Valls don't possess a doggy odor--you come in my house and tell me that you don't smell dog in every cubic inch of the air in this place! Well, the bath made it worse. I cannot fathom what sort of moron thought that weedy-smelling "floral" fragrances in a doggy shampoo would nicely mix with the natural doggy smell. Hugo hated the bath, absolutely despised it. He kept clawing his way out of the tub and staring up at us with a "WHY YOU DO THIS TO ME??" expression. He was squirming too much to do anything properly so we probably only half-finished the job.

(Can you see the expression?)

It was terribly hard to dry him as well, he thought we were trying to play so he'd be biting the towel and dragging it around, which meant he had to mostly dry naturally.

What a fun day!

[Pointees]

Aw, what am impressive little man you have there! And what a great journal!

There a Swedish Vallhund whom comes to the Kepala meets - he is an absolutely stunner.

Looking forward to many more updates, and even more photos.

[Dju]

Hugo will grow up to be an absolute stunner too, I'm sure of it! Today was the first time that he woke up at a semi-decent hour--7 am! Three cheers for the little sleep-in! Of course by that time, it was waaaaaaaaaaaaay too late in the morning to go back to bed, Hugo knew it was sunny outside and he wouldn't let me get back in bed. Naturally I was half asleep for the whole day and napping in bed a lot with Hugo, haha. He pottied on command, which was EXCELLENT, and he only had one accident inside during the day. He's been doing this sneaky thing where I'll wait for him to show signs of potty and if he doesn't show them, I'll go off for maybe 10 seconds to wash my hands or turn my back or something and by the time I look at him again, he's proudly sitting besides some pee. No, Hugo, that behavior will NOT be praised, haha.

We got him a new 'toy' today. I had finished all the tissues up relatively quickly with wiping up all his piddle, and I thought "well, he likes the toilet roll, maybe a bit TOO much, so hopefully this will keep him entertained for a while". Just dropped the empty box right in front of him. This was his response:

Holy mother of Bologna, what the heck is this frightening beast???

He was having immense difficulty grabbing a hold of it, so I opened up the side and he enjoyed it much more that way. Play time at last!

Strangely enough, it got destroyed faster than the toilet roll.

On another related note, I think today was the first day that Hugo finally accepted his position in our family. Before he would be distancing himself a little from me, never really willingly came over to be cuddled close or anything of the sort, but he grabbed his favorite toy today and waddled over to climb into my lap. Trust me, my legs are pretty large in comparison to his, and he had quite the difficulty maneuvering himself into my lap while grabbing onto his oversized rope toy, but he finally managed and collapsed in my lap for a well-deserved rest and a nice long chew. Hugo was doing that all day today, dragging toys over to me and snuggling on my legs, we were inseparable!

There was zoomies going on all day outside. We're worried he might hurt himself somehow, because when he does zoomies, his limbs are usually flailing everywhere and he trips over them quite a lot and ends up nose-first in the dirt! He's such a little clown. Mother mowed the lawn today and it was a MUCH nicer surface to run on, though. We weren't worried about the long grass containing snakes in it anymore, because everything is mowed to pristine condition. Something gave me a bit of a fright today and that was Hugo carrying a leaf from our oleander tree in his mouth. Eep! Quickly got that off him--we're not sure what to do with the oleander trees to be honest. My mother is adamant that they cannot be removed because they provide shade for the garage and stop it from looking ugly and corrugated iron...y. Irony, ha, get it?

Moving on..

We might have to fence the oleander trees and attempt raking any leafs that fly over, Hugo is in the "put everything in your mouth" stage. He proved this as he happily dragged a moldy lemon over into my lap. Gosh, there are some things that mummy doesn't want you to bring over to her, Hugo! Normally he'd be scared of the lemons but this one was turning a weird color, so I guess he couldn't really tell what it was.

Once we were done outside, we went inside for a bit of a midday nap. YAY NAP! The both of us had a rest, we were very tired.

[Dju]

No photo updates for today. Hugo toileted in his bed TWICE for the first times since he's arrived here though! That's a bit worrying. We made his crate a little bit smaller though, hopefully that will curb that habit.

[Naomi]

...On another related note, I think today was the first day that Hugo finally accepted his position in our family. Before he would be distancing himself a little from me, never really willingly came over to be cuddled close or anything of the sort, but he grabbed his favorite toy today and waddled over to climb into my lap. Trust me, my legs are pretty large in comparison to his, and he had quite the difficulty maneuvering himself into my lap while grabbing onto his oversized rope toy, but he finally managed and collapsed in my lap for a well-deserved rest and a nice long chew. Hugo was doing that all day today, dragging toys over to me and snuggling on my legs, we were inseparable!...

Awww that sounds like a great moment. Haha how cute. I'm sure these moments make all the accidents worth the trouble.

[Dju]

Lessons learned during the week:

Hugo is smarter than the average bear dog.

Toilet rolls and empty water bottles are worth their weight in gold. No, double their weight in gold!

It hurts to get whacked over the head with a newspaper every time your dog potties on the floor.

Today I had to go to work.. sob sob. I left Hugo alone for three hours. My crafty plan to play with him like mad before leaving to get him to drop fast asleep in his crate while I was leaving had utterly failed. In fact, it just made him terribly hyper and I could hear the yeowls as I guiltily locked the door behind me and left for the bus stop. OH MY GOD THE GUILT.

Memo to self, put a camera in my room to keep an eye on Hugo when you're at work, utterly distracting yourself enough to get fired and not need the camera anymore. Wait, that won't work, dogs cost money.

Second memo to self, teach Hugo-wugo to play with himself while you're gone.

He's getting the hang of playing with himself, he really is, he just much prefers to have someone sitting there watching him. I have no idea why but when I'm on the computer he sits there and stares at me, but when I sit down next to him, he picks up his bottle and starts chewing. That sneaky bastard, he probably knows that the Vallhund puppy eyes are irresistable and I just can't leave him there when those baby browns are focused on me and that cute little brow furrowed. In my imagination, he has a Greek accent (like that father dude from My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and tells me with that look: "Why you want to LEAVE ME?"

I'll have to devise a way to study for Friday's exam while he's sitting on me. That's his favorite place to chew toys now, even though it's a bit hard for him to climb up (those wombat legs sure do try though!).

Nooo.. slipping.. come back ball..

Aha! I have you now you villainous scoundrel!

What a cutie. Even when he can't climb on top because of ze bony legs I possess and the difficulty with staying on them when you're trying to wrestle with a dastardly naughty ball, he will always have a paw on me, or his butt on me, or he'll be folded over my legs with his body hanging over either side as he chews on the ball. Hugo, you're becoming a little limpet!

On another note, I think I have taught Hugo epic recall skills. I don't know why, I don't know how, but every time I call him in a certain way, no matter what he's doing, he'll drop it and come sprinting over to me. What I do is, I firstly attempt calling him over by various other methods that he ignores, and then, when I think all hope is lost, I crouch down on my knees, spread my arms and reach out towards him, with that tragic hero look on my face and go "Hugo, please come back!". I don't know if I'm appealing to the viking side of Hugo that says "I shall take pity on the poor begging mortal and grace her with my presence", or whether there's something about that pose, but I gotta tell you, it always works. Always.

Something that doesn't always work though, is trying to feed him his kibble. We had a lengthy chat with my breeder tonight (and I passed the phone to my mother because she was being a pest--"Are you SURE Cassie fed them what she told you she fed them?" "Hugo obviously doesn't like his food, ask Cassie what she fed him." ) about Hugo's eating schedule and what exactly she was feeding him, and yes, she was indeed feeding him what she told us she had been feeding him (no surprises there lol), but she also told us to feed him some table scraps and mince as well. Now, I love my breeder and I cannot thank her enough for giving us this bundle of wonderfulness, but mince? Table scraps? Soaked kibble? I gotta wonder how good all this mushy stuff is for his teeth. I don't want him to forget what it feels like crunching on a chicken neck and not touch bones when he's older!

There's a pattern going on here, I'm worried he'll do all his absorbing while I'm doing all the wrong things and then I'll never be able to teach him right when he gets to the age when stuff is "allowed"--e.g. puppy preschool, eating bones, etc etc.

He's been getting mighty skinny though so any advice is good advice! We had rice and vegetables for supper, so we added that into his bowl and mixed it with some kibble. Ho-lee cow, my eyes nearly fell out of my head, from having to keep pushing Hugo back to his kibble the previous times we fed him until he was all done... he licked the bowl. HE LICKED THE BOWL! And continued licking for like five minutes, we actually had to put some more in so he could eat as much as possible.

Look at that happy boy. I think he was staring at the dog food adverts in the magazine, but mother genuinely reckons he enjoyed the rice and vegetables. Hugo is nice and full now, and sleeping safe and sound in bed!

[altheau]

lol what a gorgeous little pup, look forward to hearing more about him as he grows

[Dju]

He is gorgeous! We're still working on the "perfect Vallhund smile", but this was his best attempt today:

What a little cutie, he's so happy. We spent virtually all day playing outside, it still amazes me how incredibly intelligent he is! He has sit down pat completely, we're starting to learn 'down' (from the 'sit' position), but he's being a bit problematic as he seems to think that me moving the treat down means "Oh boy, let's stand up and lean my head down to get it!". But what we were having the most fun with today was teaching him to retrieve. We got a free frisbee from a shopping centre, it's a little bit too big for him, but he loves chasing after it! He would run run run after it with those little wombat legs, try and maneuver it into his mouth (while doing all these cute silly things like standing on it or rolling around to try and pick it up), and finally we'd yell "Bring it back to mommy!!" and he'd waddle right over to us with the frisbee in his mouth. Letting go is another matter, he has retrieving down pat, we just have to teach him to let go.

All in all it was a fun day, we spent all day outside and I got this maaassive sunburn across my back, and a million scratches from his sharp nails all over my legs from him wanting to climb into my lap as he possessively chewed and growled at the frisbee. Listening to him play today, I think we heard the first "proper" growl he's ever done. He was playing with the dishrag and shaking it around like crazy and he was roaring at the poor thing! He's become a little possessive with his stuff, he will bite if you try to pinch something off him, so we'll have to teach him to not do that, because his bites are.. worryingly enough.. getting stronger.

[Dju]

He's such a beautiful boy!

[DogNerd]

He is so unbelievably cute. I LOVE his little/big ears :D. I think I'm officially going to add Swedish Vallhunds onto my future breed list, lol thanks to your Hugo.

[Dju]

Vallhunds are the most perfect breed ever for me I love the ears too! He'll eventually grow into them :D

[Dju]

Hugo had a big week so far. He's become pretty drivey and bitey throughout the week, so we've been asking lots of people for advice on how to handle that. Would still like some advice on the matter, as we've gotten looots of differing opinions. Cassie thinks that we should say "No" firmly, roll him onto his back, growl at him, and then walk away. Others have told me to just walk away, others still tell me about "time out" in the crate, etc etc. His favorite thing to chew on is of course me.

Mmm, delicious mortal.

To avoid all this behavior, we've also been advised to stop letting him play tug with us--mostly because he always wins, and because it's not so good for his teeth either. I don't know how all these sources can say "make sure you win and not your dog" all the time, because hell, when Hugo plays tug, it's like the thing is superglued to his teeth, it is by no measure an easy feat to get something from him without prying his jaws open!

He played with the next-door-neighbors yesterday. They have two young kids there and they were having fun cuddling and petting him (and so was their mother), but from all the attention being on him, Hugo soon turned into a little nutcase, haha. Getting much too bitey with the kids, there was no way I could allow that so I had to postphone play time for him.

Also, that night, we had noticed that his nails were a getting little long, so it was time to clip them. We grabbed some human toenail clippers, advice from our breeder, and then I let him stretch out on the floor while I did his back feet. Now. The back feet were okay to do, while he was playing and still had use of his paws, he'd jump a little from fright from the loud clipping noise, but other than that, he was okay. I thought that the experience would be the same for the front paws too. How wrong I was. Thrashing, screaming, crying, carrying on, sulking, but mostly thrashing. Lots and lots of thrashing. It was like I was some murderer out to eat him or something that way he was behaving. I had to do a very slow process of clipping one nail, letting him carry on, then waiting until he was quiet until I clipped the next one and so on. By God, my legs are covered in scratches from his freshly clipped back paws. We didn't hit any quicks, which was good, but it makes me wonder whether I was cutting enough. I think I clipped about two millimeters off all his little claws, I guess I can gradually increase as he grows, I hear that the quick recedes pretty fast.

He sulked for a while after I cut them though, I don't think he enjoyed the experience very much!

You're a terrible owner and I'm telling Cassie.

I had been feeling sick the past few days and Hugo hadn't been feeling very well either, he had this weird sort of diarrhea where there'd be this normal diarrhea right? And then afterward he'd poop out something that resembled a gob of spit. I will spare you the photos, even though I bet you're simply dying of curiosity! Anyways, the both of us were having similar symptoms and we called up Cassie. May I just say that I love the benefits of buying a pup from a breeder? She tells me that any time I need her, I can call her :D. What isn't to like about that, seriously, it's like a 24 hour puppy hotline! Anyways, as I was saying, she thinks that he has worms. (She thinks we all may have worms because of his worms and my symptoms, so that was some more happy news, as I had no idea what the heck was going on with me!) I am honestly not surprised he has worms, chickens scratch around in the dirt all day, and then poop around the yard, and Hugo has become a regular little feces muncher. My mother says he must be missing some nutrients--with the way he ignores his kibble, I must say I'm honestly not surprised! On that note, my mother has been very naughty and trying to bribe Hugo into eating things. He doesn't want this, she brings him that, he doesn't want that, she brings him something else. Not very good for training I gotta say, I'm going to end up with a really spoiled dog if she keeps that up! She's just sooo worried about him "He's skin and bones", "He arrived here nice and plump but he's wasting away to nothing now"... She says this about me too. Daily. I think it's just the sort of mothering style she has, to assume that everyone is hungry all the time and to make an abundance of sandwiches to keep on hand if that situation ever arises.

"Hey, are you hungry? It's okay, I'll go make you a sandwich."

We took Hugo to the produce store for some Drontal Puppy Wormer, and he had quite the time there. We couldn't put him down on the ground of course, but there were a lot of people touching him nonetheless! We found a woman in a wheelchair, and as mean as it sounds, I rushed straight over to her carrying Hugo because one of the people on the socialization checklist I have is a disabled person and you don't come by them very often. He's not even ten weeks old yet and he's met a lot of people! He's still a little bit shy though, he usually shrinks away from people touching him but after a little bit he starts to warm up. They're all guessing Husky or German Shepherd as the breed, which is funny, because those are the only guesses they can come up with! Nobody has ever heard of a Swedish Vallhund before, of course.

We bought the wormer, which I must say is quite expensive for 30 ml of liquid! It's a strange pinky orange color, and from what I could see and smell, it didn't appear all that appetizing. Remembering the toenail clipping incident just a few days prior, I made sure to caaaalm him down as much as possible. We weighed him, and he's about 4 kilos. I'm not sure if that's a good weight or not to be honest, never having a Vallhund before. I might ask Cassie about it later. So for four kilos I needed 4ml of the formula. It came with a syringe-type device, which I must say I'm pretty grateful for as it didn't look like it was going to be so easy to worm him. I held him gently in my arms, gently pried open his mouth, everything was going good up until this point when... I stuck the syringe sort of deep into his mouth and squirted some of the stuff in.

He absolutely freaked out. Screaming yowling thrashing, frantically licking his lips, yep, it's safe to say he did not enjoy the stuff very much. Luckily though, he didn't spill any of it, I guess I put it a little too deep in his mouth for him to have that opportunity. The next time, I dragged him into my lap and he was already onto me--I just needed the last one and a half milliliters in his mouth, but he wasn't making it easy for me. This time he bit me quite a few times but I got it in and closed his jaw shut! A few seconds later, I released the thrashing Hugo and immediately gave him some water to drink. He was very much so grateful for that, but still giving me what I perceived as death glares as I petted his head. Those Vikings!

As a treat though, I got him a nice denta-stick thingy, and he seemed to warm up the more he chewed. Yum yum, artificial flavors!

I'm so glad I will only have to worm him once every three months when he's an adult, haha!

[Niques]

Oh, that "sulky" photo is much too cute

As for toenails, I recommend letting him play on concrete or brick pavers James has black claws so when we had him at the vet for his third vax we thought we'd better check how to get them done properly so as to not hit the quick - the vet just looked a bit bewildered and pointed out that they were very short already. So he's never actually had it done

I cannot get over how adorable Hugo is.

[Dju]

Oh, that "sulky" photo is much too cute

As for toenails, I recommend letting him play on concrete or brick pavers James has black claws so when we had him at the vet for his third vax we thought we'd better check how to get them done properly so as to not hit the quick - the vet just looked a bit bewildered and pointed out that they were very short already. So he's never actually had it done

I cannot get over how adorable Hugo is.

I can't get over it either He sulks a lot when we're a) ignoring something naughty that he did, b) clipping his nails, and c) brushing him, as he can't eat the brush.

I thought that allowing a puppy to run and bounce around on brick pavers/concrete isn't good for his bone structure or something because it's so hard for their joints? We have a tiny tiny little pavement strip leading up to our washing line, and he much rather prefers to roll around in the dirt.

[Niques]

Oh, certainly not particularly vigorous play, but James has always had a lot of incidental contact with paving/concrete - he eats his bones on pavers, we train, play tug, etc., and just lots of contact around the yard. Probably a little hard for you though, if you've not got much pavement In which case it's a good thing you're getting used to him having them trimmed early!

[Toujour]

Just thought id comment and share some experiences

Hugo had a big week so far. He's become pretty drivey and bitey throughout the week, so we've been asking lots of people for advice on how to handle that. Would still like some advice on the matter, as we've gotten looots of differing opinions. Cassie thinks that we should say "No" firmly, roll him onto his back, growl at him, and then walk away. Others have told me to just walk away, others still tell me about "time out" in the crate, etc etc.

You get lots of different opinions but they all amount to the same result. its all about persistance.

example:

mother is the the supermarket and her kid crys for a lolly, mother says 'no', kid crys harder, mother buys the kid a lolly..... kid learns if cry long enough i get what i want.

you need to be firm with your choices and be adamant that your the boss and what you say goes. Dogs are really smart and will try to find a way to get what they want over you. you must establish pack aurthority as soon as possible (with consideration that Hugo is only a puppy).

To avoid all this behavior, we've also been advised to stop letting him play tug with us--mostly because he always wins, and because it's not so good for his teeth either. I don't know how all these sources can say "make sure you win and not your dog" all the time, because hell, when Hugo plays tug, it's like the thing is superglued to his teeth, it is by no measure an easy feat to get something from him without prying his jaws open!

All behavourists and 'puppy schools' will say 'dont play tug-o-war' because as a puppy its a play game of pack order. Its recommand that unless you use tug-o-war as a reward system, say for agility - its recommanded to NOT play this game with your puppy.

He played with the next-door-neighbors yesterday. They have two young kids there and they were having fun cuddling and petting him (and so was their mother), but from all the attention being on him, Hugo soon turned into a little nutcase, haha. Getting much too bitey with the kids, there was no way I could allow that so I had to postphone play time for him.

i think almost all puppies ive met are 'bitey' i used to go over my friends house who her parents breed shelties and the used to noom on my fingers - puppies dont know any better and this is how they think 'play' is incorporated with humans.

Again persistance will remove this

Also, that night, we had noticed that his nails were a getting little long, so it was time to clip them. We grabbed some human toenail clippers, advice from our breeder, and then I let him stretch out on the floor while I did his back feet. Now. The back feet were okay to do, while he was playing and still had use of his paws, he'd jump a little from fright from the loud clipping noise, but other than that, he was okay. I thought that the experience would be the same for the front paws too. How wrong I was. Thrashing, screaming, crying, carrying on, sulking, but mostly thrashing. Lots and lots of thrashing.

He sulked for a while after I cut them though, I don't think he enjoyed the experience very much!

nail cutting...... must admit this is the only grooming ritual i hate doing - lucky for me i have a friend who is a groomer and she does this for me.

try next time - cut one nail, give treat, cut another nail, give treat. put something really fun in between each cut.

on a daily basis i pick my my dogs paws and simply 'handle' them, do get use to the handling experience - never know when ill have a judge who picks up the feet (which i have had once) my gals arent 'thrilled' by the experience but will let me.

I had been feeling sick the past few days and Hugo hadn't been feeling very well either, he had this weird sort of diarrhea where there'd be this normal diarrhea right? And then afterward he'd poop out something that resembled a gob of spit. I will spare you the photos, even though I bet you're simply dying of curiosity! Anyways, the both of us were having similar symptoms and we called up Cassie. May I just say that I love the benefits of buying a pup from a breeder? She tells me that any time I need her, I can call her . What isn't to like about that, seriously, it's like a 24 hour puppy hotline! Anyways, as I was saying, she thinks that he has worms. (She thinks we all may have worms because of his worms and my symptoms, so that was some more happy news, as I had no idea what the heck was going on with me!) I am honestly not surprised he has worms, chickens scratch around in the dirt all day, and then poop around the yard, and Hugo has become a regular little feces muncher.

puppies should be wormed every 2 weeks untill 12weeks old. then every month for heart worms and every 3months for intestine worms.

i buy my heart worms in bulk off line - i use Heartguard. Which my gals think is the bomb - super yummy liver flavored treats.

With the intestine worm tablets i buy raw mince and roll little balls with the tablet in the middle and my gals (as puppies) have always scoffed these down

i use Advantix (which i buy in bulk off line too) for my dogs on a monthly basis to protect them from fleas and ticks (which can make a puppy really sick and in really bad case - kill them) ticks kill adult dogs if not found fast enough.

Edited November 18, 2010 by Toujour

[minxy]

As well as what Toujour said, I think it was Whisked Away??? who posted this person's channel just before. She has lots of great videos showing you how to teach your dog certain things, but this should give you some idea of how you could introduce Hugo to nail clipping.

http://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup?featur.../21/LHgBvnQ71ss

[Dju]

Suuure, "getting him used to trimming". Yeah let's say he's getting used to it? I'm actually just back from wrestling with him for his foot. As soon as Hugo gets wind that his nails are going to get clipped, he shoots away as far as possible from me! I have to hold him in like some sort of vice grip, with an arm looped around his middle and the other around his shoulders while I somehow figure out how to use both my hands to hold his paw and clip at the same time. Meanwhile, he's squirming like a contortionist and biting everything he comes into contact with. My lesson for the week--His biting hurts less when I don't struggle or yank against it and just let him chew on me . Then again, he can break bones with his mouth so maybe going limp isn't the best resolution.. either way, difficult stuff, he won't let me trim them at all, I only got two done today! And he was struggling so much that I accidentally clipped off more than I intended to (about two millimeters). No blood though, which was good, but the more length I took off the nails, the more my poor Hugo hated me for it. I was trying to do the "clip-treat-clip-treat-clip-treat-etc" routine but the problem was always the clip. He did not care at all for the treat, just the struggling, and the sinking his teeth into human flesh, and the screaming like I'm mortally wounding him..

He's still quite bitey. Now when we're running in the yard, he treats me like cattle and when he reaches me, lunges in the air and snaps at my (often bare) legs. Of course at this point, I have to jump up and start running away from him again. Good for my waistline, bad for training. Oh, my waistline, sheesh, I never expected I was going to be doing so much hardcore exercise from the start! That wombat has legs on him. Luckily, he's pretty good with playing fetch and I usually make him do most of the jumping and running around. I am starting to wonder whether it's any good for his joints, letting him be so active. We've been slacking on the training though, it keeps slipping my mind to do that because I'm not sure what to feed him as a treat. I remember a friend was using some really dry jerky-ish stuff that I have no idea what it was but it was nice because it wasn't soft and squishy and get my hands smelling like meat afterwards, but forgot to ask what it was. He's pretty good at sitting and "down" though, which is great. He's still got a short attention span so we're thinking maybe it would be best to do some hardcore training when he's a leeeettle bit older.

Now, some bad news on my front, I think.. I am developing an allergy to Hugo. Recently, I've been coughing all the time, especially so when I'm in the same room as Hugo, and sometimes it gets a little hard to breathe as well. I am hoping that it is just a bug of some sort (I lost my voice a few days ago and the cough sprouted from there), but other than that, my deadbeat father promised to install floorboards in my room to replace the ancient dusty carpet but I have yet to see any sign of him, so it's safe to say I probably won't get my seventeenth birthday (floorboards.. some present, right?) until I'm seventy.

My mother on the other hand--she is feeding Hugo like no tomorrow. Remember when I was worried about Hugo not eating enough? Now he eats too much. He is starting to get a beer belly. And my mother loves it and thinks it's cute and continues to feed him like a woman possessed. Whenever she goes into the room to coddle him, he wags his tail eagerly, looks at his bowl and back to mum maybe 20 times or something, and you just know he's expecting it to magically fill up any second now that she's arrived in the room. I get sloppy seconds on the lovin', because apparently the way to Hugo's heart is now his stomach and so the traitorous bastard only does his really excited tail wag routine for my mum.

This is Hugo, looking for more food in his bowl.

We took him to the vets earlier this week to get his injections but unfortunately, because of the diarrhea, the vet refused to vaccinate him. Luckily he didn't charge me for his time, but that was about the only thing I liked about that vet. Is it too much for me to expect them to be outfitted at least semi-professionally and not wear pink shorts and a tacky Hawaiian collared shirt while he's on the job? I hand out bloody scratchies at the mall and they insist I wear a white collared shirt and black slacks/skirt. He also said that the three-yearly-vaccinations hype was "rubbish", and insisted that I detick and deflea Hugo on the month every month, regardless of whether he needs it or not. Me and Cassie are big supporters of not over-treating and filling the dog's body with chemicals that it doesn't need. Among lots of other things, that's what makes Cassie awesome, not just blindly going for the treatments just because the packet says so.

Since Hugo's diarrhea has cleared up, we're taking him back for his shots tomorrow, and yes, to the same vet. Until Hugo gets big enough for walks and he's fully vaccinated and/or I get a car soon, we're not going to go to another vet, because I have to carry him there in my duffel bag and it is a pretty hot sweaty experience that I'd rather limit to a nine minute walk rather than a twenty minute walk to the next closest vet (possibly 30). Hugo will be okay, he just needs his shots, it's not like I have to entrust my vet with my dog's life any time soon, so it's alright for now.

Before I forget, here is another photo of Hugo to show you guys how his facial markings are developing:

He's an absolute stunner.

I was looking over that stunning body of his tonight during grooming and my eyes zoomed in on his butt. Not for any romantic reasons because that would be gross, but because I saw something more that wasn't his usual happiness wiggle. I saw.. A FLEA! A FLEEEEAAA!! Rang Cassie in a panic, and luckily she said it was okay to do that because it was quite late at night and I think she was busy lol! So she basically recommended a few products to me that made me confused about which one to get. She first said Fido's Concentrate (apparently it's some sort of bath), but it only lasts for two weeks and I'm not sure bathing him that often is reeaaaally good for his skin. Then her friend interjected and recommended Capstar tablets for small dogs, but then they recommended Frontline Spray. So three products, I'm not sure which to use. Seeing since he's already been caught with a flea, I think it's safe to say that my yard is a flea area and he will probably need the monthly treatments for it. I might switch to Advantix a bit later when I see how he goes with ticks, so I can combine the treatments. Argh, so much to remember, I really need to start writing down when Hugo needs to be treated for what! Let's see, his second shots at 11 weeks now and then ....two or four weeks later, I forget, his next worm treatment at 12 weeks and then at 14 weeks and then at 16 weeks and so on until he's 6 month old or something, his flea treatment at 11 weeks and then what, every month for the rest of his life? I dunno, too many numbers to remember. I soooo wish that Cassie wrote up a table or something for me, because I'm as clueless as they come!