Playtime for Princeton!

P-dog has made huge strides in his progress with feeling comfortable at home and behaving more like a normal pup. Such a relief!! Our amazing trainer Heather told us that the little man has low self esteem (obviously he didn't get that gene from us) and if we played tug with him and let him win, he'd start to feel a little more confident. Swell, makes sense. However, until recently, the pooch didn't have any interest in toys whatsoever!

He went to cousin Penny's house and while they had a fun time chasing bugs and sniffing butts, he couldn't seem to get into the toys Penny shared.

 

Bryan and Cousin Laura's hands rub down Princeton and Penny 

Cousin Laura cuddles with her daughter Penny and cousin Princeton.

Then, Princeton played with Kahlua, the mutt next door and she even tried to show him what to do with the rubber spike toy and the Ole Ole ball (Kahlua is a dog genius and knows all 30 of her toys by name!). He looked at Kahlua and the toys like they were from outer space.

Neighbor Deanna tries to get Princeton interested in Rubber Spike toy. No dice.

Kahlua chews on the rubber ball o' fun and Princeton doesn't even blink.

 "Ya know guys, I think I'll bow-wow out of the toys and just chill out here in the shade sheltered under the patio table. Yeah, thanks."

So, as you can see, just PLAYING with Princeton was going to be the work before the work.

But, as is the theme in all of my Princeton entries, I just wasn't going to give up. I mean, we wanted a dog. We were gonna HAVE a dog gosh darn it!

So, I figured out that Princeton would need to be annoyed by a toy first before he could love it. After playing a round of "gotchyur feets!" where I grab his tootsies and get him all excited to the point of finger gnaws, I realized that why should a squeaky toy or a rope toy be any different than my flesh toy?!

Enter: The dangle. I took toy that Cousin Penny gave her new cousin when they met a couple weeks ago and dangled it around his nose and muzzle area. After a while, it annoyed him so he mouthed the toy (a squeaky bone that says "Kosher" on it -- Princeton is all ready for his Bark Mitzvah) and realized it was fun to tug on it while I resisted. In between tugs, I threw it across the room and he ran (read: skidded) to plop ontop of it and chew it. Holy moly, my dog was chewing! He was playing! He was doing doggy things!!!

Yup! That's my DOG! We love our little man!

So, we're happy to say that he's playing, eating well, sleeping well, and pottying well (WELL, most of the time...).