Mister Jackson is going through a pretty rough teething phase right now. I don’t really remember Aspen teething this much at this stage; however, I remember her being particularly challenging at 4 1/2 months, so she was probably teething and I just didn’t realize it. Our poor buddy is not very happy this week, given the fact that half of his mouth is toothless and he has his adult teeth poking their way through his sensitive gums. Hopefully this passes quickly!
We are providing a lot of ice for him to chew on, as well as his kong toy with frozen peanut butter and his usual bones and other hard chew toys. Hopefully this helps him feel more comfortable!
In other Jackson news, he is doing great. We are missing puppy class this week due to a work conflict, but I am hopeful that the remaining sessions will hone in on “stay,” “emergency recall,” and “drop it,” which we have not learned yet. I do really like our puppy classes structure; however, there are a lot of things I had expected we would have worked on by now that we haven’t, so that is disappointing. Last week our puppy class was canceled due to the “oppressive heat.” It was 80 degrees. Give me a break!! We are so looking forward to getting back to class and hope that they can teach us something new next week.
Fun facts about Jackson as a 4 1/2 month old pup:
- Jackson weighs 42 pounds (as of 8.12.13).
- Our little guy’s coat is getting so much darker! He has a beautiful golden tone to his soft coat.
- The cats continue to amaze us with how well they are doing with their dog brother, even as he gets bigger and bigger. I am waiting for the day that I find Jackson curled up in his bed with Oliver or Henry.
- Probably going along with his teething, Jackson has been particularly whiny for the last week or so. He may also be going through another period of fear.
- After many weeks of digestive issues we finally figured out that Jackson’s canned food was causing him an upset stomach. It seems like we’ve gotten that sorted out by eliminating the canned food and sticking to kibble.
- Since there is more nutritional value in a lot of canned/dehydrated foods than most kibble I am hoping we can find a canned or dehydrated food to supplement his kibble in the future.
- Jackson discovered {i.e. remembered} that he can jump over the seats from the back of our SUV into the backseat while we were driving to our camping location last week. We were not thrilled that he reminded himself he could do that since it’s not super safe. We’ll be looking into one of those annoying barrier things to put up to keep him in the back…
- Action Jackson still has yet to fall in love with playing fetch. We’re going to keep working on it….
- Since we haven’t had puppy class for a while, Jackson hasn’t learned anything new. I have decided to take matters into my own hands and this week Jackson will be learning “stay.”
