First Christmas Day with a new Orbit

Heading into week 4 with the new boy has us settling in a bit more. I think we can officially say he is housebroken. He alerts us now when he needs to go out to pee, when previously that was only a '#2' alert. We're still working on the best places to go outside (like, not on the porch the minute he gets outside), but not in the house is really good enough for me right now. It's cold and I understand not wanting to travel too far to pee.

He took a pretty long walk with me on a busy road, complete with 2 bikers (one came up right behind us on the trail), and not one bark came from his little face! Not one!! He is mostly barking for attention, now, and less out of fear. However, the attention barking does get out of control at times.
A vet friend of mine has lent me a couple of her behavior books from school. They are clinical and possibly over my head, but I'll read the chapters on barking, jumping and biting and see what new info I can find to use.

The biting continues to be the biggest hurdle and hardest to correct, I think. Mostly because, though the barking is annoying, it's not really hurting anyone or causing other issues. The biting is annoying, hurts and limits snuggle time and other cute puppy behaviors to shine through.

Anyway, Christmas day was fun. We were coming off a pretty good day with Orbit, the day before, with very little barking, no mounting and just overall good behavior.
Our tiny little tree originally was meant to just be decoration, but once we got the dog, there were gifts to go below.

A friend of mine always gets us a little something, so she also picked up something for Orbit. When we were out getting treats for my other friend's dogs, we also grabbed a couple things for the boy.
We let him open his gifts best he could, and he really liked his new bear toy.

So much so that not only did he finally decide to lay on Moxie's old bed for a few minutes...

...he also took it away to his lair. haha....he's cute, despite the biting, I'll admit it.

We took a long walk, he took a nap while we went out to get Chinese food. Later in the evening he got super cranky and bitey so Hubs took him for a walk before dinner, but we still had to put him down for another little nap. Then he fell asleep in Hubby's office while he worked after I went to bed.

So now here we are on the other side of Christmas, waiting on the new year, and I have an extra day off from work. Now's my chance (albeit, a tiny window before getting the puppy out for his morning walk) to catch up a bit on what's doing out there in Steemit land.

Hope everyone had a lovely time of it this week, whether for holiday traditions or simply to (maybe?) have an extra day off. Here's looking forward to a wonderful new year to come.