There were two obvious favorites in the name selection for Puppy 7: Burl and Hector. He seems pretty impartial to the names at this point. I'm leaning towards combining the names: Hector the Burled Dog. But I'm open to other choices if anyone has a name that they think might suit him better.
Milo's been suggested.
Having lived with this puppy for a day and half, let me tell you what I know about his forming personality.
He's a bumbling, slow moving dog who loves to chew on things - shoes are a surprising favorite. I say surprising because of all the dogs I've trained and raised, not one has ever been interested in shoes. Of course, all the dogs I've preferred to raise and train have been tiny dogs: Chihuahuas, Min-Pins, Yorkies, Miniature Dachshunds and mixes of those breeds. The one Chihuahua/Jack Russel mix I trained showed a mild interest in shoes, but only when they were being worn or immediately after taking them off. He was quickly trained out of that. Puppy 7 adores shoes for chewing and he doesn't care if feet are in them or not. Knowing this, I am denying him access to shies until he is better trained.
It takes him effort to roll over onto his back:
Part of his bumbliness is his age, he's still quite young and uncoordinated. But he's also a very slow-moving dog, slow even for a young puppy. Exceptionally slow compared to all the other dogs I've raised and trained, and he's older than most I get.
He is a food-driven dog, so training him will be with training treats. Apparently, he scavenged in the brief time between being weaned and ending up with me. Once he understood kibble was food, he had no trouble eating it, but he adores table scraps with every passionate fiber of his being. Nothing that's remotely edible is safe from him. He is not, however, a gorger. He eats until he's full and stops. He nibbles, and he frequently checks his food dish to make sure there's food in it even if he doesn't eat any.
He loves chew toys, too.
He likes to chew on cords, but that will stop really soon. He's already starting to roll his eyes over to me to see what I'll do when he opens his mouth and leans towards a cord. When I say "No cord" about half the time he bites down on the cord then lets go and backs off, and the other half of the time, he snaps his jaws shut just beside the cord and sighs, then turns away. Give me another 48 hours and he won't even look at cords.
Like every other dog we've ever encountered, he adores Itzl. His tail wags so very fast when Itzl deigns to pay any attention to him. Itzl won't play with him because he's clumsy and bumbling, but Itzl will share his favorite potty sites and watches him. When Puppy 7 gets caught or needs to go potty, Itzl tells me. Itzl acts a lot like a benevolent wealthy uncle, waiting for the puppy to grow enough to appreciate the finer things in life.
Puppy 7 is not suitable as a hearing ear dog. Sounds don't seem to affect him. He's not deaf, he just doesn't care about sounds. He adores people and small dogs, but isn't so interested in larger dogs. This means he may be suitable as a therapy dog if he doesn't get too large, and he may be suitable as a PTSD dog for soldiers. I'm going to train him for the PTSD because I think he'll be large enough for most soldiers to feel comfortable with him.
If he stays with me, that training will be useful when my children and their military buddies visit. and it never hurts to have a well behaved, well-trained dog.