It’s been about ten days now since the Vikings went home and Journey found himself alone without his friends and playmates. Granted, his mom has recovered from her spay surgery and they sometimes play, but she does like her mom alone time too. And Aunt Indy tolerates him for a while.

This is where you’ll usually find her. 😉

But the little guy has settled into a routine now and is figuring things out. He wasn’t eating as well for a while (he was a vacuum cleaner when they other pups were here when it came to mealtimes). But yesterday morning he finally cleaned up all of his breakfast!

So you see, even though Journey was born and raised here and his mom is here, he still had to go through an adjustment just like puppies that leave and go to a new home.

I still have him sleeping upstairs in the puppy room at night with Aunt Hope nearby. But he happily follows me up the stairs when it’s bedtime and hops into his puppy pen.

During the day we use the Iris pen in the dining room when he needs to be confined. For instance, if I have to go somewhere or am too busy to keep an eye on him. And he will still moan and whine if he’s locked in there, but it’s not quite as dramatic as it was at first nor does it last long.

Of course if I’m working around the house and can check on him frequently, he gets free rein in the dining room/kitchen area. But I do leave the Iris pen door open in case I miss a sign and he needs to use the box. He’s only had two accidents and those were human error of course. Most of the time I’m able to frequently take him out for breaks and he’s great about doing his job.

And you can see, he’ll go into the pen and into his crate for naps when he feels like it. I love when puppies get comfortable with their crate/den and use it during the day. Auntie Hope loves finding a crate somewhere in the house to nap in.

Hope doesn’t care who’s crate she takes over. LOL!

And sometimes he just finds a bed, the floor or drags a blanket out of the crate to nap on.

❤️