Agamemnon the Onion

It's a strange name for a dog, yes, we know. Regardless, Agamemnon the Onion arrived in his new forever home on Friday, 16 May. We aren't entirely sure what he is. Beagle, they said. Chihuahua, they said. We think there might be a bit of wiener dog in him. Don't know, doesn't matter. He's around 8 weeks old and a sweetie.

Agems has been a delight so far; very mellow and curious but not aggressive or snappish. He's working on his housebreaking and has only had one accident (because Daddy wasn't paying attention to his signal at the back door.) We've learned "focus", "exam" and "C'mere!" Unfortunately, we're still learning our name, and commands are still at the "repeat it several times" stage before we see a result. Mmmm... it's worth it for a nibble of boiled chicken breast, though! Our favorite toys are Weasel, Chicki-Bone, Swirly Ball and Green Thing. He has a few puppy-sized tennis balls but those are for fetching (which he's learning well) and aren't left down - I'm not a fan of scooping tennis ball fuzz from mouths every few minutes.

He's a fast learner. I started him off with the lower portion of a portable kennel. We put the lid on the day before last and it didn't phase him. The gate went on today and he cried a bit, but it was "sleepy-bye" time and his cries died back after a two minutes. Hey, it's not our first rodeo! We've been training dogs for over twenty years!

Of course, we're still isolated in the kitchen. The house isn't puppy proofed and the large-hole floor registers are dangerous to puppy paws. I tune in Pandora and big band music, make my coffee and stage my day around training, eat and play, and sleep, with trips outside interspersed between. That's probably the most time-consuming thing. But, do it right at the beginning and you'll get a properly trained dog in record time.

The nights have been fairly good. Our dogs are bed-trained, meaning they settle into bed with us each evening and they get let out once or twice during the night when we feel them moving around. It means light sleep but it also prevents the dog from learning to soil a kennel. Agems sleeps solidly and has a tendency to move from between our pillows to the foot of the bed (under the covers) but he doesn't jump down.

Ah, but this heavenly period will end soon once he's big enough to jump from the bed, climb up stairs, jump onto couches and get into mischief. We're right there on the cusp of the puppy version of the "terrible two's".