Kenzie dog

Short post to keep this whole blogging ball rolling. I've promised people more photos of the regal sounding 'Noonbarra McKenzie' the Australian Kelpie or 'that $#&@ dog' (depending on the day) so here they are.

Firstly, he's grown a little since I first posted! (crap, I've just realised that one, if not both of my cameras must have their dates all messed up so I have no idea how old he was in any of the photos! In these two he's about 10 weeks.)

He is now 3 months old which means we've had him for five weeks and we (probably) wouldn't give him up for anything! It has been a wonderful and tiring time integrating a new pup and watching Marty transition to a three year old at the same time. The first few weeks with Kenzie it felt like we were just sitting around watching his digestive system! But we are doing much better on that front now.

He gets on well with Marty and in turn Marty is learning to be a good owner. Big learning curve all round but it has been great for Kenzie in terms of exposing him to all sorts of things like helium balloons, noisy toys, noisy children (by the bucketload - see previous post!), scooters... you get the picture!

When we first got him having Marty around definitely helped settle him and it has been great for other things like bathtime too. I just pop Marty in his bucket bath at one end of the tub and Kenzie will happily be bathed at the other end. Marty is also a good and adventurous walker which is handy when you have a pup that need serious hours of walking per day.

Kenzie as he looks now - all leg and flop-eared

Kenzie is incredibly smart and training him has already been a blast. We've just finished the third week of puppy kinder (highly recommended - ask your local vet) and he has mastered sit, drop, come (although only intermittently when he's distracted outside), wait (even out of line-of-sight), shake with both paws (depending which hand you offer him) and he's working pretty hard at roll over. I need to find some new tricks! He's walking really well although we are probably at the point where we should be starting some formal lead work now. He's also got the meaning of 'off' and 'leave it!' as well as the all important 'do your stuff'. Definitely more ups than downs at this point :)

He's a barker though. Will take us a while to work on that methinks - nothing like a project!

Family resemblance perhaps? (Don't pick on me - I was crashed out exhausted after one of the birthday parties!)