Today I had a treat.
A big baby!
I went to see a fifteen week old Dogue de Bordeaux called Porter. Porter is a very big puppy and he’s going to grow into a huge dog!
His owners want to make sure that they start off the right way, so that he grows up to be a well-mannered friendly dog. He will bark if he hears something, but won’t assume the role of guard duty or be a threat in any way.
He is also going to learn to walk nicely on a loose lead.
At just fifteen weeks old he is already a little wary of people coming up too close to him and he may bark at them.
We are working to make sure Porter grows up to be confident and self-controlled.
It is so tempting to play exciting and rough games with a puppy like this, but tug games not done properly encourage mouthing, grabbing and biting. Chase games can encourage a puppy to run away or even to get scared if cornered – and this invites aggression.
He is unusually lazy for a puppy. He’s house trained already. He doesn’t jump up and he doesn’t chew much – apart from socks – when they have feet in them!