Happy Birthday Cody!!

Today is his first birthday. I put a Greenie "candle" in his dog food in celebration :)

Stats: He's 53 lbs. He uses a large backpack that is a little too big for him (because he's super skinny) and he uses an 18" collar. He's about 2 feet tall (floor to shoulder) and about 4 feet long (tip of nose to tip of tail). I *think* he's full-grown. He is now also tall enough to reach water faucets when we run, and easily jump on furniture. However, the flip side is that he can't fit as well in my car.

Food: He eats on average 2-3 cups a day. (He sometimes eats 2 cups twice a day and sometimes nothing at all). I'm still blending his old food, but he'll be completely switched over in the next week or two (it takes awhile because I'm not entirely sure when he'll eat). He's mostly on Nutro Ultra Large Breed Puppy food. I recently switched him to the Large Breed food since he's over 50 lbs and he's using a weighted backpack some days when we exercise. I just wanted to make sure he's getting some calcium to support the extra weight. I plan on continuing to use the Large Breed Puppy food for another couple of months. The reason is that adult dog food usually has a lower amount of protein because they assume adults are lower energy than puppies. That is true in most cases, but Cody still has a lot of energy. I looked into the ratios of high energy dog food, and it has a higher percentage of protein. To make sure he's getting as much protein as he needs, I'm going to switch over to adult food a little bit later.

Snacks: I still can't find one that he likes enough that he'll stay by my side or come when he's distracted. I'm still working on it though. Greenies are pretty close so I might try to buy mini-Greenies and see how well it works.

Accidents: He is mostly accident-free. I think he can go 8-9 hours without eliminating if he doesn't drink anything, but I've been playing it safe at around 6 hours during the day, especially when he's active.

Activities: We run 45-60 minutes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Thursdays, Cody goes to PlanetPooch for doggie day care. Since day care usually tires him out, we'll go for only a 30-45 minute run on Fridays. On weekends, we'll usually run for 1-2.5 hours. We'll also visit the offleash park and practice some commands there. Weekdays are usually 2-poop days and Weekends can be 3 or 4. I'm hoping that we start agility training soon after we practice a little bit more at the offleash park.

Health and Grooming: He gets a bath about once every two weeks now. I still trim his nails every week to week and a half. To avoid ear infections, I put in ear drops once every couple of days. I also brush his teeth or let him brush his teeth once every few days as well.

Commands: He's just learned the "front" command (coming in front of me and sitting) and the "finish" command (pretty much the same as heel - coming to my left side and sitting). He's pretty good at not pulling most of the time (unless another dog is around that he hasn't greeted yet). In general, he's improved overall, though he does bark from time to time.

Here is a picture of Cody when I got him (13 weeks) and one of him today (1 year). Can you tell the differences? Good thing he's still my handsome vizsla!