OLLIE

I wanted to update you on Ollie’s growth and development as he turned 6 months old yesterday! He weighs 44.5 lbs, and he stands between 19 and 20″ inches at the shoulder. He is kind and gentle but has a goofy side as well and makes us laugh every single day. He and his brother Punkie get along beautifully. They love and care for one another: if one thinks the other is in distress, he is there in a heartbeat. Instead of making Punkie’s life miserable as the first puppy did, Ollie has brought new life and vigor to Punkin, who turned 10 in February but prances around like a much younger dog and loves to run like a racehorse with Ollie in the field by our house (Ollie looks more like a snowshoe hare).

Ollie has passed puppy kindergarten. He is now having private lessons with Tenderfoot Training in Boulder, and did a few days of board and train with them. The next step will be his CGC. He knows many, many different commands and is leash trained. He has a beautiful gait, as you saw when he was little.

He eats Natural Balance grain-free dog food for all stages. He is very sensitive to any grain products in treats so we avoid them. His favorite treat is grass-fed organic buffalo knee caps. I’ve heard so many times that, “he is the cutest dog I have ever seen in my life” it’s almost (but not quite!) becoming routine on our walks. He has a standing play date weekly with another puppy who is training to be a service dog. I have socialized him to many things, sounds, places people and children and take him out to new places and to meet new people every day. He goes every Saturday to be one of our two (Punkie is the other one) drumline mascots and that crashing, booming percussion has desensitized him to startling at sounds plus he interacts with 30 teens and their families during the day-long competition. He also attends rehearsals in the school.

Everyone at the vets office – from other clients to the entire staff – gathers around him. We did have to have him lightly sedated to have some baby teeth pulled. His baby canines would not fall out, and his adult teeth had grown in. It was affecting his bite, his gums bled continuously, his appetite was down and if his jaw was even lightly touched he yelped in pain. The bottoms fell out finally at five months but the upper baby canines were still strong and healthy. Our trusted vet took care of this and his recovery was over by the end of the day.

Ollie has beautiful long soft silky chalk/cream fleece fur. A few weeks ago, my grandmother had a stroke. When my youngest son was crying on my bed, Ollie showed his calling by jumping up on the bed for the very first time. He curled around Jack’s upper shoulders and head, then gently licked the tears from his face. What a wonderful, wonderful puppy. Every time I think I couldn’t love him any more than I do right now, I love him even more. Thank you so much for our Oliver.