Growing Pains

It has been over a month since we brought Alto home. Watching him grow up in these short weeks has truly been a wonderful experience. For the first week-and-a-half, Alto lived and slept outside. We made him a little makeshift home out of the terrace plastic three-seater serving as a ‘roof’, some cardboard boxes as the ‘floor’ and surrounded the whole thing in a nice long cloth, like a warm wall for his ‘privacy’. Inside, we rolled up a lot of newspapers for him to keep warm.

This cute little ‘house’ did not last long though. He whined all night (that’s just because he couldn’t bark properly yet at the time) and made little puppy yaps. Xav or I had to wake up every 45 minutes or so to see to his needs. Sometimes, he just wanted attention and other times he somehow entangled himself in his loosely tied leash and couldn’t get out of it. It was a nightmare!

Alto sleeps most of the day, coming alive only in the evenings and remaining active through the nights. Xav and I started taking him for long walks to the top of the mountain to tire him out. It worked, though not as effectively as we’d hoped. Then, one day, I made the mistake of allowing him to sleep in the house all morning until late evening. According to websites that I have surfed on puppy training, it’s all right to have him in the house as long as I can keep an eye on him all the time. He even has his own favourite places to sleep - like in the shower when it's cool and damp. Well, ever since then, he has stayed in the house.

Since Alto was too young to have bladder control, Xav and I would take him out for a pee (whether he wants to or not) as soon as he wakes up, every time. We’d also stop his water supply from bedtime onwards. Then, we used a huge cardboard box to block the living room area, where Alto slept, from the rest of the house. Finally, Alto learned to whine for us to open the door for him to go do his business. Even though our living room was not soiled anymore, we had precious little sleep throughout the night. Xav is a really light sleeper, so he’d be the one to attend to Alto most of the time (hey, I do everything else okay!!).

Now, more than four weeks and three vaccinations later, Alto is not only toilet-trained, he takes two walks per day (morning and evening), plays a heck of a lot more, bites everything from our shoes to the curtains (which are now ruined by the way). We had a lot to learn about domination and the vet showed us how to teach puppies to obey and know who is the boss. One technique that has consistently worked for us is to lift Alto by the neck, push him roughly to the floor and say in a loud commanding voice, ‘NON!’ (oh by the way, Alto is French ;D) and then ignore him until he comes to us.

What I can’t get over is how smart he is and how quick he learns things. For instance: Xav always gives me a missed call as he comes up the mountain so that our slow electric gate is already open by the time he reaches our house. I never realized how habitual this was until Alto began waiting at the front door, tail wagging hard, whenever the phone rings!

In fact, Alto has learnt a lot now. He knew his name by the first week and he understands and obeys these commands:
• bonjour (hello)
• au revoir (goodbye)
• fais pee pee (go piss)
• au pied (at heel/come to us) – we usually use this during walks
• viens ici (come here)
• bisous (kiss)
• va chercher (fetch)
• assis (sit)

Currently we are teaching him to coucher (lie down), pas bouger (don’t move) and apportes (bring/carry). We usually use apportes when we play with him and are too lazy to take back the toys we throw for him to fetch :D

Once when I was busy working on the computer on the couch, Alto came to me with les chaussettes (the socks, a toy I made for him by tying socks end-to-end) in his mouth, stood on his backpaws with his forepaws on the couch, touching my knee, and looked at me with this mournful expression in his eyes. I knew he was pleading me to play with him, so I did (I needed a break from work anyway!). One of his favourite toys is le coeur (the heart). It is a heart-shaped soft toy with outstretched arms, which Alto just adores!

Even now, Alto is already very protective (and possessive!) of us. He’s always where Xav and I are. He has already migrated to our bedroom now, and sleeps under our bed, with an option to join us on the bed when we wake up in the morning. Sometimes he gets a little boisterous and plays rough with us. This would normally include biting, growling and when he’s really annoyed, barking. But we’ve trained him to behave though, and he doesn’t bite unless in really rough play, and even then, he doesn’t chomp on us, if you know what I mean.

We are trying to get Alto to love the water. He absolutely goes crazy at the beach by digging his own hole to lie in, and burying his nose in a mound of sand, but he dares not swim in the waters voluntarily. We realized why when we brought him to a different beach – he was afraid of the huge waves at the beach we normally go to (Pointe Venus). The second beach at PK18* is calmer, with little or no waves, and it was at this beach that he swam to us for the first time.

All in all, Xav and I have had our hands full with Alto. It truly is like having a baby in the house – waking up in the middle of the night, disciplining him when he’s cheeky, potty training him. One cold rainy morning, to make up for not being able to go to the beach of for a walk, we made a smaller version of our pancake for Alto. Later on, Alto and I snuggled together on the couch, falling asleep with the sound of the TV in the background.

With Alto, our house will never look the same way again. And, believe it or not, now there is one more ‘person’ to fight with for the remote control!



*PK refers to pointe kilometrique, which means the distance in kilometres any place is from Papeete, the city centre. Therefore, PK18 is not the name of the beach, but actually a beach that is situated 18 km from Papeete.