What is life like with a 4 month old Cockapoo Puppy?

Fozzy turns 4 months old this week so time for a little update. Ah I feel as if I say this every time but it feels like he's always been here! He is getting so big now and 10 days ago he was 8.4kg. 

Fozzy is in an excellent little routine. He wakes up at around 7-7:30am and either Dee or Harry take him for a 20 minute walk before school. Then he has an hour of play/being busy as we all get ready / have breakfast etc..... then at around 8:20am it's just usually me and him downstairs. 

After a decent sleep during the night, he still seems to be sleepy in the mornings and generally sleeps at my feet as I work from my desk at 8:30am-10:30am ish. After a few hours, he does get restless and tends to sit by the front door and looking at me with those puppy dog eyes waiting to go out for a walk. 

Fozzy loves going for walks and meeting other dogs and I always like going out and getting some fresh air mid-morning too. 

Once we get back he just plays around a bit when I work. Sometimes he can be mischevious and likes to find empty snail shells from the garden and bring them in our house or try and drink from our pond water fountain - both of which I know he shouldn't be doing and can be dangerous.

We are working on this! He also has a habit of finding random old face masks from the back of our coat cupboard and bringing them into the living room to chew. Gross! He definitely has a bit of a mischevious side to his personality and sometimes you can just see it written all over his face. 

After lunch, he tends to snooze again in the afternoon with a little bit of playing too. Sometimes I will set up a little enrichment activity. I swear he has a good internal body clock though as he seems to know when the kids are coming home and will sit by the door to greet them. Cute! 

After school Dee or Harry will take him for another 20 minute walk and then he has a few fun hours with lots of attention from the kids. 

In the evenings he likes to snuggle up and watch TV, his favourite show is Dogs Behaving Badly. Steve takes him on an evening walk at 8pm ish and I let him out for a quick wee before bed. 

Fozzy's favourite TV show is Dogs Behaving Badly. He genuinely pays attention when it's on the TV. 

We just need to say 'Fozzy bed' now and he trots off into his cage and lies down. He's no bother when it comes to sleeping at all. 

Over the weekends or if it's a beautiful day, we tend to go for longer walks at the beach, park or visit somewhere for the day which Fozzy thoroughly enjoys. 

It has taken a LONG time but we are finally making progress with the lie down command (we call it 'sleep'). He does do it now but he needs to have zero other distractions.

I feel like with other commands such as sit, paw and down, he just does it automatically as soon as we say it but with 'sleep' I still feel like he is thinking about what we are saying and what he should do. I guess this will improve with time and we just need to keep practising. 

Fozzy is still eating a raw diet. He loves it! Unfortunately he had his first lot of sickness last weekend which meant my washing machine was never off. He was ok in himself but just couldn't keep anything down at all. I am pretty sure it's down to the salmon meal he had.

It's the first time he'd had any significant amount of salmon and I just think it was too rich for him. Ah man I felt so awful / guilty for him. I am so pleased he is better now. 

His favourite foods are rabbit ears, sardines and he loves a raw egg cracked onto his dinner which we do a couple of times a week. 

Fozzy's recall is generall good. I am happy to let him off lead at the beach and on the fields near us to play ball. I find as long as he's having fun and focussed, it's absolutely fine and he generally stays very close.

Personally, I don't think I will ever let him off lead when we are just going for daily walks around the streets as there are too many hazards around here (cycle paths, nettles, un-enclosed gardens, schools, roads......). To me, there isn't really any need for him to be off lead here and it's better to be kept for times when the environment is less hazardous but I guess you never know. 

Fozzy has stayed at my mam's house for a few hours this month. He was on his absolute worst behaviour and wee'd and poo'd in her house, constantly ran upstairs (he isn't allowed upstairs here) and stole some of my brother's sausage sandwich. Oooops!

He wouldn't dare do any of that at home. I think he is just testing boundaries there though and hopefully after a few more visits he will learn the house rules. 

Later this month we are off on a little cottage break with Fozzy in Northumberland. I'm not too nervous about it as I think he will be fine with us being there but I am nervous about how we're going to fit everything in the car.

As a family of 5, every seat is taken and Fozzy has a boot crate. We have an estate car so I am HOPING all of our luggage (and dog stuff) will fit. It is only for two nights. I reckon we are definitely going to end up buying a roof rack this summer. 

I am the one who spends most time with Fozzy and Cockapoo's can latch onto one person which is something I am keen to avoid. This doesn't seem to have happened too much yet.

For example he will jump on the sofa and cuddle into Steve and the kids even if I am there and he can be left alone in his crate with no issues at all (in fact I think he loves the quiet time in there). I also leave him downstairs to roam around now if I pop upstairs and he has been ok so far. I think he just lies on the sofa. 

However, if we visit somewhere new and I am there then suddenly disappear (eg if I pop to the loo or something). He doesn't like it and will start crying even if he is with Steve and the kids. Ahhhhh! I think it's because it's a new situation and probably needs reassurance from me. Hopefully as he gets older this will subside. I'm pretty confident it will. 

Fozzy has several nicknames now - Fozzington & Foz Boz are the ones we use the most. I absolutely adore him and I am so lucky to be his dog mama. I can't wait for a summer (and lifetime) of adventures together. 

So this is 4 months! Hope you enjoyed our little pupdate.