Sidenote: This was initially written when Arlo was 30 weeks old a few months ago. Although it was published at a later date, it does reflect the time when he was 21-30 weeks old.
Okay, so our little bundle of joy is now sleeping through the night and will quite happily have a sleep-in if we don’t open his crate—which is great for the weekend! As mentioned in his 11-20 week update, his separation anxiety is still an issue, and we will be starting intensive training on overcoming this very soon. As for potty training, he is perfect. We don’t see any random poop anymore, although the odd puddle of pee is still found in the hallway, but this is very rare. We still give him a stern no if he did pee, and he does understand that he shouldn’t be doing this, so I suppose that’s a good thing, and Im confident that potty training is practically solved. We don’t have any real concerns regarding this.
Mouthing Continues, But Getting Better
Arlo now stops mouthing when we say no; however, this is only for me and my wife. He still takes liberties with the kids, and as a stranger (to him) enters the house, he will do this nonstop and jump all over them. This is another area of training that we will be addressing in the near future. On one hand, it’s lovely to see his kind nature because it is a friendly trait of Cavapoo dogs, and basically, they just love people, but then it can become a bit tiresome when they won’t stop, even though the new person in the home will say it’s ok, you kind of know that it’s peeving them off after a while. Another reason to stop this is the fact that he might break the skin with his mouthing, albeit be accident.
Walking Outside: He’s Gaining Confidence
Arlo is now starting to pee and poop outside on walks, which is great! He’s also starting to cock his leg, which I believe is early, but still another positive. Every tree and corner in the street his now Arlo’s to to pee on. However, i have to gently pull him away from car tyres because he thinks they’re fair game too, and I don’t want some angry car lover kicking off! Besides this, he’s now sniffing out other dogs pee, in fact, this seems like a game to him, and he absolutely loves it. It’s come to the stage where we have to say now or distract him because a half hour walk will turn into five hours. He’s still going nuts when another dog walks past and wants to jump on every passing stranger.
He Wants Our Food!
We swore blind that we wouldn’t feed him our food (Food safe for dogs to eat) with him knowing. So, now passing him a piece of chicken from the plate sort of thing, however, someone, or everyone has been found guilty, and honestly, he has become a pest when we eat. He is obsessed with our food and will now turn his nose up at his own food for a short while knowing that our is better. We really need to curb this and have set house rules to only give him leftovers mixed with his food, and without him realising. Seriously, don’t feed your dog from your own plate!
Closing Thoughts On Arlo’s Journey: 21-30 Weeks
Arlo is showing good signs and progressing well. He is almost potty trained and sleeps like a baby through the night. We do still have a few issues regarding food, separation anxiety and nipping, but we are confident of overcoming them soon.
