Confidence

It's been a while since I last posted on here. Dolce is actually doing really well, or so I assume. Last time he had an infection in his mouth we would have never known since he wasn't acting like he was in pain or being less active.

Something that we have noticed recently in regards to Dolce's progress is that he's finally getting stronger and gaining a lot of confidence. Dolce now whines nonstop (at first I was proud that he had learned to do this, but now it's pretty annoying actually) because all he wants to do is go outside and sniff around. When we first brought him home we could take him outside and he barely moved around, but he's now really moving once he gets outside...so it looking like it's finally time to get him a harness and take him for walks. Just last night Brett looked at Dolce and said, "are you really 10?" Dolce's been so active lately it's hard to believe he's a "senior citizen."

Another change with Dolce is his growling. He never really growled before, but lately he's growling nonstop. I would label it a dominance thing and a power struggle, but Dolce will even growl at us while wagging his tail and begging for a belly rub. He growls when we pick him up and place him on the couch, he growls when I'm giving him a belly rub, he growls when I rearrange him when he's sleeping on my chest....growls constantly.

Lastly, because of the shape of Dolce's mouth, Brett and I have to squirt medicated mouth wash into his mouth each night before bed to help keep the bacteria down in his mouth. Lately (most likely bc of this boost in his confidence) he's really fighting us with the mouth wash and getting overly upset. I told Brett that our neighbors probably thing we're abusing poor Dolce. Last night I had to hold him tight against my chest while Brett attempted to squirt the mouth wash into this mouth. I think it's safe to say that it was a traumatizing experience for all of us involved (Brett, Dolce and myself). Dolce tried to bite us several times (not really bite us but he was trying to get us to stop) since he does not like anyone touching his mouth...which is understandable. Anyway we got the mouth wash in, and poor Dolce-boo tucked his head into my arm and hid. :-( Brett and I felt like total dog abusers. So glad Dolce forgives quickly...his tail was wagging about 5 minutes later.