Atomic Dog

Meet our new pal, Heisman!  Heisman is 4 months old, weighing in at 6 pounds and measuring 11 inches high (floor to top of head) and 23 inches long (tip of the nose to the tip of his tail).  This was our initial meeting yesterday at the adoption meet and greet event:

Obviously, we had to have him once we met him.  So we made it official, bought him a little collar and a chew toy, and headed home.  Apparently car rides home from Maryland are pretty exhausting.

We did a big run to Petsmart when we got home.  Heisman isn't leash trained yet and riding in the basket was scary for him, so I did most of the shopping while L held him and walked around the store making friends.  Apparently that was also exhausting for the young Heisman, because he was fast asleep after about 20 minutes of being in the store.  Napping is becoming a common theme for our young pup.

This is a better pic of him from the front:

Things Heisman LOVES:
Playing fetch with his stuffed animal turtle
His special teething puppy Nylabone
Licking
Cuddling/snuggling
Exploring
Following me and L all over the house
Naps

Things Heisman HATES:
His collar
Leashes
Jumping off the sofas
Walking outside onto the balcony

To be fair, the last two items aren't so much things he hates as they are things he's afraid of.  He built up courage to jump off the sofas last night, but by this morning, he had lost it.  There was a good two minutes this morning where he just ran back and forth on the love seat in a frustrated mess because he was too afraid to jump off.  I'm sure we'll build back up to leaping soon.

Heisman isn't officially crate trained, but I'm so proud of him because aside from a little whimpering last night when we first put him in his crate for bedtime, he did so well!  At first we had the crate in the living room, but I think he must have been scared by himself, so we moved it into the bedroom.  He did better in there; minimal crying and barking.  I woke up at 6:30 this morning and heard him playing quietly (with his hind feet and tail, obviously - those are the clearly the MOST fun), so Heisman and I got up for a bathroom break.  After that, we spent the next 3 hours snoozing on the couch since neither of us was really ready to wake up for the day.

We're currently working on reinforcing the paper-training he came with.  He was GREAT yesterday, although today we had the first accident (and of course it was on the Christmas tree skirt - thank goodness for Nature's Miracle).  But he's rectified himself since then.

We had a full morning of playing fetch with his little stuffed turtle and chewing on bones and exploring, so the little guy was sacked out next to me on the couch as I started writing this.  However, it's now hours later and since then, we took our first walk ever on a leash (we had to practice in the hall first... still a ways to go before on this) and we went to the park.  Kind of overwhelming for a little guy - it's a whole new world for him today - new family, no mom, no foster family, new house - so we didn't do a whole lot.  Mostly just practicing trailing the leash through grass and some light sniffing.  We attempted to meet some friends at Petsmart to take a picture with Santa, but sadly for us, Santa was gone for the day.  Heisman did get to meet his first official dog friend, Teddy, though, and overall, it went well.  He's still very shy and overwhelmed by crowds of people, so he likes to be held in situations like that.

Hooray for our new little Heisman trophy pup!  He's a hit with us so far.  :)