More life with Wrangler updates for all the #beagle crazy people on the internet.
As we can all see, Wrangler is growing fast! We’re right about to the 5 month age, and I’d estimate he’s tripled in size. He is about 18 pounds now, and probably close to full length. His ears and paws are about fully grown, but his legs and shoulders will still grow some. The breeders thought he would stay under 30 pounds fully grown in a year and a half. So far there are days where I doubt that, and there are days where I think this is as big as he’ll be.
He spends most of his time chewing on anything. He’s made this peculiar practice of trying to bury his chew toys and treats; which doesn’t work well on the carpet in the house. Usually I let him paw at it a bit before I throw a blanket or towel over it. After some more sniffing and hopping around it, it seems to make do for him.
His temperament varies day to day. Most days he’s easily excitable, plays very roughly and will bite quite often. Some days he will be more relaxed, content to chew and jump around from furniture piece to piece and climb stairs for no reason. I definitely know he has no fear of heights anymore! The first few weeks he was at home with me, he struggled to climb stairs and then was too scared to come down. Now he runs up hills and stairs for no reason, jumps to the back of the couch, like a cat, just for a better vantage point. Silly.
He is still eating Purina Pro Pack puppy food. Per the vendor, he should stay on this for at least a year. With his major growth spurt over, I’m playing it by ear when his big bag runs out. I might start weaning him to adult food slowly and go to small bags of puppy food for a few months. My vet told me I could feed him more than I do, which is what the back of the bag said… 1 1/2 cups per day. Some days he’s extra bitey or crazy I feed him and extra helping and it slows him down. Never an issue eating more!
Lastly we are working on learning a few things. We started with a clicker on walks to get his attention. It does work, but its not the most convenient thing to carry around the house. Lately I have him coming to with “peep peep” type whistle noise. Breaking his sense of scent and tracking is difficult with a whistle or a clicker, but with a gentle tap, he usually shakes it off. Sit, is the first real command we are working on. I know everyone says it should be Stop or Drop, but he won’t. Sit seems to be working. We are rewarding with food pieces and he’s about 2 / 3 times reliable to sit with food reward by second call. Much better!
S. + W.
