Whew! This puppy raising sure has been a journey for both of us. I am happy to say that Jackson has been a real pleasure and such a good pup. We've made it to our 16 week mark!

And wow! You guys were right about growth spurts. After weighing in at 6.2 lbs at 12 weeks, Jackson is now 10.5 lbs at 16 weeks! I am so happy to see that he is growing on his own after all of my previous worry.

Today my amazing little pup got three vaccines... his third set of DA2LPP, Rabies, and Bordetella. I may be boarding him in a few months so I thought it would be okay to go ahead with it. And boy, he's already sleeping it off.

We got vaccination certificates and health certificates as we are flying to Atlanta tomorrow from San Francisco! I hope puppy perks up a little bit before then... and I'm sure he will. Supposedly Airtran does not require any documentation nor do they have any weight restrictions, but I always want to be over prepared. I'm also worried about flying with the Sherpa carrier that I have, which is 18" in length but Airtran's specs are 17". But, of course, I like to worry. The airline is supposed to have carriers for purchase if worse comes to worse...

We had a scare a few weeks ago with worms and giardia in the house. My roommate's dog ended up with roundworm and giardia. It's hard to know where any of this came from, but I had Jackson's stool tested a few days after the other dog's diagnosis and he checked out just fine. I'm thankful that he is healthy and now with proper vaccinations, he can face the outside world.

We did cheat a little bit to attend the San Francisco Corgi social which was SO much fun and SO exciting. I think there were close to 10 dogs there and we were so happy to run and play with like-sized doggies. Jackson had the time of his little life and made some great friends!

I am hoping to accomplish a lot with training during our trip this week. I will be visiting my family who have two chihuahua's and are in a much more suburban environment than I am. We will be walking, playing outside, learning how to potty outside, and hopefully picking up on some other small doggie behaviors. I know that this is going to be a major work in progress... but I've got to get started as early as possible.

Jackson's sable colors are really starting to show. Black is coming in all around the white in his collar, his ears, face, and is becoming more prevalent on the ridge in his back. I'm excited to see what he turns out like :)
Plus his chest has gotten so much more pronounced and fluffy! It's adorable.

Jackson is becoming more assertive in play and it's such a transformation. He is respectful but rambunctious, and thinks he is a much bigger dog than he is.

I look forward to the rest of our time together! He's seriously the best little guy I could have ever hoped for.

The only areas of improvement I can think of... is his extreme attachment to me. I know some of this behavior is normal, but I want him to be comfortable with other people. I leave him in his crate alone frequently, and he has no issues with that. Recently, I went out of town for an evening and left him under the care of a housemate, and he was very worried all night. But when I came home, he was sleeping soundly and very excited to see me.
He also does not like one of my housemates, which I hope I did not encourage. He is reluctant to come to and often runs away from him. So we're working on their relationship!
Jackson loves our vet and our trainer and likes strangers, so I hope there are not any issues developing around his home life or anything like that.

Otherwise, we're good. Trying to get our food at a good amount and frequency. Jackson mouths a lot, but we're working on that as well. I want him to learn all sorts of fun tricks! But he doesn't seem interested most of the time. Ah.

Anyway, here are some more pictures! My little bug. Thanks for reading :)