Amelia At 15 Weeks Progress

Amelia turned 15 weeks this week! She had her final set of puppy vaccinations on Friday, which I was excited about. Those are finally done, so we have been trying to take her out, finally on grass. We have been careful not to take her on strange grass, because I have been terrified about her contracting parvo, or even distemper.

We take her out to potty on the grass outside of our apartment, but when we go for walks elsewhere, we walk out in the street. Occasionally, I come across drivers who have an issue with it (like the grouchy woman who was determined to make her point that I should be on the sidewalk), but I imagine they don't realize that I have a reason for it. So the fact that we can start behaving like a normal dog walking family, and not some obsessing weirdo, is a good thing.

Anyway, we have been having issues with her having loose stools. Every time we visited the vet, we came home with some kind of medication. First it was some medicine that we had to give her in pill form, next, we were given some powder that we were to sprinkle on her food. Neither worked to hardened her stool up. Finally, I decided to switch her food. We switched from Nutro Max Large Breed Puppy to Purina ProPlan Large Breed Puppy. We changed food cold turkey because I thought... How much worse can her poop get? I was glad I did, because almost instantly, we had much more solid poops.

With all the medication she was being put on and the problems with her stool, I was also starting to get even more disappointed with our breeder. I had paid much more money for this puppy than I ever spent on an animal, I expected her to be healthy. However, apparently it was my fault for feeding her food that she didn't like! Oops!

We have successfully got her potty trained with a bell, which is really exciting because that was my number one thing I wanted. I did not want a dog that had accidents in the house. As much as I complained about her "not getting it" when it came to potty training, I think I was extremely lucky in how quickly she picked it up (as opposed to those who struggle for months with potty training). Now that we have been training other things, such as sit and stay, I am coming to the conclusion that yes, she is also very smart. We now know sit, stay, and on occasion, down. We make her sit and stay for food, any kind of treat she gets, and even before we open the door to come in the house from a walk. It has been a difficult road to train her, but I am determined! So far, it has been worth it.