Bruno didn't think much of the long car ride home. He did manage to sleep in his basket a few hours, but mostly wanted to be in my lap. The back of the Tahoe tends to be a rough ride, and he was a little motion sick at the start. Josh said that just means he will fit right in.
It took him a few days to feel up to exploring, but he's quickly acclimated to his new home. He's trying to take charge, as his breeder warned us he would. He has learned to like his crate, though that did take about a week. He's sleeping through the night, which is awesome. He's eating well and doing pretty well on the house training (a few accidents here and there, mostly the humans fault for not paying close enough attention to the signs). He's adapting to a very noisy and chaotic house with three boys home from school for the summer and their CLS workers coming and going most days of the week. He's learning to like the leash on our walks, but he's still not a fan of the little yappy dogs who live down the street and have an invisible front yard fence. They're scary, he says. But I'm sure it will be the other way around one day soon ...
Now that Bruno is setting in, we've moved on to basic commands like sit, stay, come, and down. He likes the training treats we picked up, so it's been pretty motivating. We're having to work a little harder on keeping him from being spoiled. He keeps climbing up onto the couch when no one's looking, though he does know better as he hops down when he sees you coming. He also likes to sit on my lounge chair on the back patio, but Buster always did that, too. We'll do puppy training classes a little later, once he's old enough to actually benefit from the efforts.
We are so excited to have a new member of our family. Well, some of us are. Connor has loved helping to "train" him him, particularly being the one to hand out the puppy treats. He's been a big help taking him out back to potty and also cleaning up the back yard on occasion. Sawyer doesn't mind the puppy, as long as he's not nipping at his toes. Xander is taking a little more work, as his first instinct is to shout "No, Bruno!" any time he sees the puppy. In fairness, the puppy is usually nipping at his feet, too. But even when he's not, Xander still wants to correct him. We have to offer lots of treats during these times, too, to make sure the puppy knows he's not doing anything wrong just walking by the kids.
Welcome home, Bruno. Welcome home.