All puppies throw up, don't they?

The first two or three months after Hobbes joined the family, all seemed normal, or at least as normal as a war zone can be!  Adding a 4-month old boy to a household of 6-year-old adult ladies was quite an experience.  Hobbes decided he wanted to be "alpha", much to Sasha's annoyance, although she couldn't decide if she wanted to mother this new puppy, play with him, or dominate him.  She chose the middle option, but couldn't (and still hasn't) quite given up on being head of the pack.  This continues to make for some very noisy encounters.  Through it all, Jada usually stands on the sidelines, refereeing very, very loudly.

We first noticed that Hobbes would run and play, and then just stop and throw up.  Not food, but small amounts of liquid and sometimes a treat.  Then, back to play-time.  My husband and I assumed this was normal--neither of us had ever had a puppy before.  We assumed they all threw up like this because they would get so excited.  So, we cleaned up the puddles and thought nothing of it. 

Hobbes also drank lots of water.  Because we were having a hard time house-breaking him, we began to monitor his water consumption, and had to begin limiting his water intake.  Again, we thought he drank so much because he was running and playing a lot.  We also thought that all this water drinking was causing the odd, sloshing sound he made when he ran.  He sounded like he had a gallon of liquid in his tummy that would splash around when he ran. 

We were so used to having dogs with weird habits, that we didn't pay much attention to how Hobbes ate, either. Hobbes ate in his crate, to protect him and his food from his very hungry sisters (who really wanted some of the yummy, fatty puppy food)!  When we put the bowl in his crate, Hobbes would lay down on his tummy and eat, unlike all other dogs we had who stood up to eat.

So, we just carried on as we had planned.  I took Hobbes to puppy training school, where he was very, very obedient, and learned how to sit and stay and lie down.  One thing he did not like to do, however, is stand.  For the life of me, I couldn't get him to stand on command, or keep him up for more than a minute or so.  He would get up, get his reward, and lie right back down on the floor.  The class instructor joked with me, saying that I would have to train him to stand if I really wanted to show him.  She wasn't kidding.