Meet Spike; The Spotlight Dog for February 2021!
Spike is a 5-month-old German Shepherd puppy.
He’s quite a smart puppy, and even more so when it comes to being manipulative to get yummy treats! It has been quite easy to train him to do several commands, and he has never given us much trouble at all.
He began training from the minute he got home to potty outside the house, and he’s only had a few accidents when he was very young.
I think for every dog owner, two of the biggest training goals are to be able to potty and crate train their dog. Luckily, he took to both very well, as he proved to be a natural den animal that loves his crate. Our main goals were for him to socialize with other dogs, learn basic commands, and get the AKC S.T.A.R. puppy certification.
We must say that the East Valley K9 puppy socialization class accomplished all of those goals for him and us! He won first place twice for recall and leave it! We are so proud of him!
His personality has changed quite a lot when dealing with other dogs. He realizes now that he’s not a human, but in fact a dog! Surprise! He was initially very skittish around other dogs, but has gradually come out of his shell and become quite playful with other dogs through his puppy classes.
Besides that, he absolutely loves playing fetch and could do that the whole day!
He also enjoys playing tug, and when he gets too excited he loves running around the house or chasing his tail. I think he doesn’t realize that it’s his own tail yet. All in all, he is a well-mannered dog, and we are so lucky to have him.
He is just an adorable bundle of joy, and we absolutely love him!
We plan to introduce him to agility courses, while continuing obedience training in the hopes to earn the AKC Canine Good Citizen certification one day. Our only complaint is that he’s growing up too fast.
Karan P.
Scottsdale, AZ
