It was a busy, busy week for a wee Waffles — one filled with firsts and with some slightly more stressful adventures. He’s been growing like a weed!

This week, he started Puppy Kindergarten at Cloud Nine and enjoyed his first class. He also went to the vet for a quick visit and some boosters, which led to his first middle-of-the-night ER visit after he kept exploding from nose to hose every hour on the hour. We knew it wasn’t an allergic reaction, but rather an adverse reaction — they’re very rare, and he just got unlucky! — and puppies can dehydrate and get really sick really fast.

Thankfully, Dr. Szenay and her techs at Blue Pearl in Arden Hills took great care of him, gave him some fluids and some nausea meds, ruled out the Big Bad (parvovirus) and other potential problems (like a blockage) and agreed with us that this was indeed just an adverse reaction. Phew! Still, long night for a little man. He did charm the pants off the ER staff and apparently offered them a belly to pet while on their exam table. They snuck in a complimentary ultrasound while he was being so good, just to make sure there wasn’t anything hiding in there. Waffles was happy to oblige. Yay belly rubs!

He’s now back to normal and learning all sorts of new things. He’s also perfecting the art of getting into mischief, like a good Toller puppy. He’s still very madly in love with puzzles and has acquired two new ones. He’s very food motivated but also very toy motivated. Given his parents, that’s no surprise! He has started to learn how to fetch like a big boy (“get it!”) We’re also teaching the “drop it” cue by showing him a treat and dropping it on the floor, timing the cued words to the microsecond he drops whatever he’s fetched.

Over the years, I’ve found this to be a great way to teach puppies to drop things where I want them to, and in a hurry! Later, I’ll shape these behaviors into a more refined, specific pair of skills with new cues (“Take” and “Give” — “Get it” means you’re allowed to tug what you brought back or what I just gave you to play with, “Drop it” means you just drop what’s in your mouth, immediately! Take is reserved for very specific items you’re being asked to pick up and hold and does not involve play. Give is done only to hand and isn’t for playtime either.)

This week also included his very first real playdate with new girlfriend Quoia and her pack — Four golden retrievers and the world’s best Lab! After an initial moment of “OH GOD YOU’RE HUGE WHAT ARE YOU?!” he found his courage and happily played around with his new friends. He had a blast and came home exhausted. He’s a very social little guy who bounces back really fast when faced with new things that make his 3 month old self a little apprehensive at first.

In other funny Waffles bits, he has acquired a number of nicknames (Waffler, Waffs, Wiffle, Waffle House, Young Sir…) and has developed some funny habits. For example, if I’m sitting on the floor with him, he will go hunt up a chew, come all the way back to me, turn around and back up until he hits my legs. He then plops his butt in my lap (front end on the floor!) before starting to chomp away at his chew or toy. In order to chew, we MUST touch the Mama. Preferably partly in the lap, please and thank you. Little weirdo. He’s also a big fan of “I Hold, You Chew” — the ritual where I hold the chew so a puppy can chomp without having it go flying all over the place. He has also become a big fan of tennis balls. His Mama Wit would be proud.

This upcoming two weeks are consolidation weeks. We’ll be drilling the things we know and turning some skills from “introduced” to “savvy”. Waffles is entering a bit of a fear stage, so the timing is good to work on reinforcing all the great things he knows and building up his confidence.

Onward! Here’s to a great training week despite some minor and major hiccups.

(Also, I can’t wait until he doesn’t fit under the couch anymore. Little weasel.)