3rd Day here

Oliver showed his snarly side this morning when we were on the sofa. My husband and I were reading the paper and it was piled between us on the sofa. He started chewing on the edge and my husband reached down casually, as he would if our own puppy was chewing on the paper, to just move it out of his reach. He snarled and lunged at him. Did that again so I picked him up and put him in the exercise pen. I don't have any idea if that was a correct thing to do or not. I don't want for him to think that growling in and of itself is bad. Don't want to lost the early warning signal. But I  would like for him to learn that growling and snapping does not get him what he wants.

I've been doing some reading and part of the problem may be inadequate socialization (hard to be socialized when you spend all your time in the back yard) coupled with adolescence. Add on top of that the genetic predisposition to fearfulness and you've got quite a combination.

I worked with him on his sit this morning along with a bit more impulse control. I used the homemade treats I use with my own dogs but their value was way less than the chicken I used the day before so I'll probably have to up the ante there and he had no trouble at all ignoring the treats:-)

Other than the newspaper incident, though, he's been pretty good. My puppy woke up around 5:00 this morning and I really didn't want to get up then. Once I get up with 1, then all 3 have to go out. She barked a time or 2 and got Oliver to whoofing (soft sound). I petted her and told her to go back to sleep and she did. Amazing but what was more amazing was that Oliver quieted down too. He is sleeping in a crate in our bedroom. Our guys sleep on our bed but with 2 dogs and a cat already, we figured we didn't need 1 more animal in the bed. Also, he might not be allowed on the bed in his next home. So we got another hour of quiet before the pandemonium of morning toileting and feeding.

He had a bit of a hard time the 1st night he was here and a little bit less difficulty the 2nd night but by last night, he was sleeping well in there.

I'm still not sure what I can do to help him. Sure wish I did. But I'm just keep on loving him and trying to make him feel safe.