A middle of the night update, Apollo is home and thriving!

Apollo: 9 weeks 5 days old
Knightley: 1 year 3 months 2 weeks 3 days old

My very cute and fluffy boy.

So, Apollo is home and has been for the last 3 days. He is everything I could have hoped for and more. He's very enthusiastic, a quick learner and very physically agile - much moreso than Knightley at that age, which I hope bodes well for his hips.

They are getting along very well although Knightley sometimes plays a little rough and I have intervene. Apollo is so small compared to him! It is hard to believe that Knightley was ever that size. Having said that though, Apollo at nearly 10 weeks old is probably the size of Knightley at 8 - or even 7. That doesn't necessarily mean that Apollo will be a small dog, but it does make it more likely. Knightley is a big boy afterall.

A bit wet from playing in the paddling pool... he LOVES water!

It's nearly 4:30am and I just was up taking both dogs outside for a wee. Apollo has been sleeping in the master bedroom with me for the last three nights in a little fabric crate, but when I came back inside after the dogs had done their thing 20 minutes ago or so, I decided to put Apollo in the big metal crate. He will have to get used to it as I have two medical appointments later today, and he'll be left in the crate. I had one on Monday too, but since that was Apollo's first day with us, we took him along to the appointment in a crate. He just slept (yay!) in the reception area. Anyway, so I just left Apollo in the big crate out in what has slowly become 'the dog room', then went back to bed. After nearly 25 minutes he has FINALLY stopped barking and whining like the world is coming to an end. Poor little thing, he sounds so very pitiful, but if I give in and go to him he'll learn that it's a surefire way to get attention. The best idea is to only go when he has a break from whining.

Such a cute little darling. And so small!

So he's already pretty attached to me - and Knightley - which is good because I was a little worried that he would just bond with Knightley a lot and so he and I wouldn't have a close bond. So far though he is well aware of who mummy is. Probably because I supply the food! On the subject of food, Apollo is doing fantastically well with his new raw diet - barring a little grain free kibble and a few splashes of puppy milk every day. I started him with two meals of chicken with bone (he's on four meals per day) and his stool was looking great, not loose at all. It is much easier to swap puppies onto a raw diet, and Apollo had already been eating beef and chicken mince at the breeders which made my next decision to try him on beef heart easier. I figured if he had been eating beef mince for a while he would likely be ok with beef heart, even though it's quite a bit richer. And he has indeed been fine with the heart. I am still giving quite a bit of chicken/bone to ease the transition, but he is doing just great. Takes a good while to eat his food - his teeth are so small and his eating involves a lot of shaking the food to get bits off. He also finds it hard to get through skin, so I sometimes take that off for Knightley. He is getting plenty of fat with the big fat caps on the beef hearts.

Knightley and Apollo together. You can see Apollo's ears are
quite dark, I think he may turn out a little darker than Knightley.
Other than that they look very similar.

I'm currently focusing on housetraining (not even one accident yesterday!) and basic manners, although I have taught sit, which he absorbed like a sponge. I am not sure how I will manage doing the training with Apollo as Knightley always wants to be with me when I am doing interesting things with Apollo (and food!). Apollo comes really well to his name as well, frankly, better than Knightley sometimes sigh! This is thanks to the breeder who used their names all the time and played come games with all the pups. I think he is going to be a very quick study!!

A happy little lad

So despite still struggling to get over these infections everything is going rather well. I have more work than I can handle from Oz Working Dogs, but I guess that is better than not enough. Can't wait until Apollo grows up a little more and we can start taking him outside some more. Since he got his first vaccination quite late (9 weeks old) he won't be good to go out places until at least 13 or 14 weeks, and won't be fully vaccinated and completely safe until 17 or so weeks. Annoying for socialisation reasons! I want to take him places right now!

It's weird having two dogs now, but Apollo is a happy intelligent chap and learns quickly! So everything going well here.