One week....

It's been a week now that we've had Clifford and we're just all fitting really well together. It's amazing how good and well trained he really is-I have to think that someone out there is really sad he's gone. We're just working on establishing ourselves as the leaders now and he's getting it. He saw my good friend, Dr. Jen, today for a checkup and she determined that he's really healthy overall. She showed me how to take care of his ears (Hound ears get buildup and infections easily) and he needs a good teeth brushing.
Clifford has a really cool howl and luckily he only uses it rarely. He's been howling at dogs that live across the street (I didn't know those people had dogs and it took me a couple days to figure out what he was howling at)-maybe he just wants to meet them! I used his howling as a good training tool tonight (since we wanted a watchdog afterall). The neighbors were outside and one of their friends came up into our yard, real close to our window, just talking away over the fence to others. It was kind of annoying, so I got Clifford over by the window and i gave a little howl or two. Clifford then just howled a few times and the guy moved away pretty fast. Good...just the way I like it. He stopped as soon as I 'shhhhd' him. Good dog.
Alex really adores Clifford and we're teaching him to be a good dog friend. He tried to touch Clifford's eye today and I caught him in time. I also caught him trying to get on him for a ride. He now knows those are big no-no's. Clifford is very tolerant and sweet, and while he doesn't seem to know what to do with Alex, he's been very good to him. I hope they become good friends.

Alex has expanded his Spanish vocabulary a bit. He just picks stuff up and absorbs it. He can count to 10 in Spanish, and knows Red and Blue. We taught him white and yellow (because that is all I could remember). We're really just enjoying the great weather! He's very excited to see his Gaga and Papa tomorrow, since they've been out of town for the past week-he's really missed them. If we went over that way for something, he would say, "Let's go to see Gaga and Papa".

It's finally quiet in the house. Wil is working. Alex and Clifford are sound asleep. So, I'm going to watch "I love the 80's" on VH1 and read my new book.