We absolutely love our new member of the family, Haku. (We renamed Rockfish.) He is gentle, playful, and hilarious. He has been healthy, other than some minor sneezing after we adopted him. We took him to the vet four days after adoption and the vet gave him a clean bill of health and said that he probably just had a minor cold from his transport from the south. Within a few days his sneezing was gone.
As far as training, Haku is very smart! Within just three days of adopting him, he was going to the door and telling us when he needed to go out! He is already housebroken. My husband and I have spent a lot of time enjoying him and training him. He can sit, shake, lie down, roll over, drop things he has picked up, hop up on his back paws, and come when called. He loves his crate and goes into it all on his own when he wants to take a nap or go to sleep at night. His only fault is that he barks when he gets excited or wants a treat. Ha ha ha. We are working on this and we understand that he is just a puppy and that it will take time. If you have any suggestions, however, we are open to them.
As far as socialization, Haku is SUPER friendly with everyone he meets and he shows no signs of agression. You can even put your hand in his food bowl while he is eating and he won’t bite you. I have been working very hard on socializing him and keeping him friendly and gentle with everyone he meets. I take him on a long walk at least twice a day. And almost every other day we go together as a family to a local dog park where he meets other puppies and plays with them. He is so adorable and lovable and my husband and I can’t imagine life without him.
Haku loves to play with his bouncy ball that holds treats. He rolls it across the floor slowly, then creeps up on it like a cat, then pounces on it. The first time he got to the beach he barked at the waves, ran up to them, touched them with his paws, then ran away. After a few approaches at the waves he finally jumped in and swam around. About two minutes into swimming, he realized he was all wet and barked at the waves and bolted out of the water and rolled all over in the sand. Ha ha. He is a character! He also loves to chase bugs and snatch at them. He loves lying on his back with his legs straight up in the air and looks longingly at you, till you rub his belly.
The biggest difficulty with Haku has been his fear of the car. I spent many days desensitizing him to the car by snuggling with him in the backseat while the car was parked, then taking him on short drives to parks where he could run around. He now has no fear of the car and gets in all by himself with his tail wagging! We have gone on a few family trips to visit friends and he has been great! The only trouble we are having now is with his barking, but I think we are beginning to have some breakthroughs. He barks at dogs when they won’t play with him and he barks for food or toys when he doesn’t get them instantly. We NEVER give him what he wants when he is barking, but only reward him when he is quiet and calm. It is still difficult to get him to stop barking once he gets started though. But nothing could stop us from loving our best friend!
He really is such a great member of our family. My husband and I have only been married for a month and we think that having Haku has brought us closer and given us a beautiful start to our lives together. He is our comfort, our snuggle companion, and our laughter throughout the day.
