Weighing In

Emme went to the vet’s yesterday for a puppy shot. They weighed her and she weighs 5.2 pounds. That is up a pound from her first visit three weeks ago. That is amazing when you consider the percentage gain in weight. I guess she is getting enough nutrition in the 1/3 cup portions that she doesn’t finish. She is really growing and should wind up weighing about 12 pounds. That is the weight of her mother and a sister from a previous litter.

She was pretty good at the vet’s but when we went into the office, I was carrying her and I could feel her heart beat speed up considerably. She doesn’t have any negative association with the vet’s so it must have been the many new smells. She was fine, however, with the vet and the assistant touching her. She fussed when she got the shot, but that was inevitable. I also asked them to trim the hair around her eyes. She won’t be able to go to the groomer until she has all of her puppy shots and by then, her eyes would have been completely covered with hair. I didn’t want to get near her eyes with a pair of scissors because she is so wiggly. They took her away and returned her with her eyes showing. A big improvement.

I have been calling groomers in town to get information and to get a feel for their personalities as we talked. After talking to a number of groomers, I think I have chosen a groomer on the north side of town because I liked what she had to say. Emme’s last puppy shot is at the end of October so we will plan to take her to the groomer the beginning of November for a “puppy cut.” It should make brushing her a little easier because she sill have less hair. I hate to think of cutting her fluffy puppy hair, but if we don’t have her groomed, she will get lost in all that hair. The beginning of November is also the beginning of the next puppy classes at the local kennel and I am planning to take Emme to them. It will be a big month.

Routines

Our mornings follow a predicable routine. If it is true that Bichons love routine, Emme is in the right family. The day starts out about 6 AM when Ken and Rudy get up. They go into the bathroom and then downstairs while Emme and I continue to sleep. Ken lets Rudy out, feeds Rudy, and starts the coffee. About 6:30 I wake up and go quickly to the bathroom and then get Emme up. We go downstairs and outside for a quick “hurry up.” Emme always does a “two-fer” so she is ready to be loose in the kitchen. She needs a few minutes to wake up before she eats. We put up the baby gates to the family room and front hall and Ken sits on the floor in the doorway to the dining room. At that time, I go back up stairs to wash my face, brush my teeth and brush my hair.

While I am upstairs, Emme goes to Ken to be rubbed and loved. He gives Emme a morning massage. We are not sure if the term is masseuse or masseur so we call him “Hans, the Swedish massage guy.” While he is doing that, Rudy pushes by his side, goes into the kitchen and grabs a lovie and takes it back to “Rudyland” in the living room. By the time I get back downstairs, most of the lovies have been relocated to Rudyland and the kitchen floor only has chewies left. As soon as I come back downstairs, Emme is ready to play for a while. Ken goes into the dining room with Rudy while I sit on the step stool next to the butcher block and drink coffee while Emme runs around the kitchen and pounces on any toy unlucky enough to get in her way. After about 15 minutes, she is ready to eat. I bring in her 1/3 cup of puppy kibble from the garage. Emme doesn’t like to eat out of the bowl, so I pour the kibble on the floor; she grabs one kibble, wanders under the table or next to the butcher block, eats that one piece, and returns for another. I sit at the kitchen table and drink coffee and read. Today it was Paula Deens’s Christmas magazine. It takes Emme about 10 minutes to eat about three quarters of her kibble and she is done. Then she goes outside again to “hurry up.”

When we return to the house, she goes into her crate and I go to the dining room for breakfast which lasts about an hour and a half: long enough to do a Sudoku, read two morning papers and eat breakfast. All during that time, Emme is quiet in her crate. I don’t know if she sleeps or not because she is always awake when I walk into the kitchen. When we are done breakfast, Ken washes the dishes and I get Emme up to go outside again and then to get washed. After a little playing, she goes back into the crate when we shower and work in our office or sewing room. Then she gets up and is out of the crate until after lunch. This morning schedule works well for all four of us.

Our breeder made a suggestion about teaching "sit" by putting your hand on the puppy's chest while pushing down on the back end. We have been trying that and I hope that Emme is connecting the command with the posture. So far, she still needs hands, but she is sitting and I can tell that she is down. She is so low to the ground that it is sometimes difficult to tell is she is sitting. So that helps me to make sure.

We are doing better with brushing. I have a rubber mat on the top of my dryer and when we go to the laundry room, Emme seems to know that what we are doing. She usually lies down and I brush her back, legs, and face and head. In a Bichon book that I am reading, it says to teach the puppy to lay down on its side for grooming. Well, I tried that and it was like alligator wrestling. She lies on her side sometimes on my lap but did not want to do that on the top of the dryer. Emme was sure that I was mistaken and I couldn't possibly want her to lie in that position. I sure don't like the idea of wrestling her and forcing her to her side when she so obviously doesn't want to do that.

First Bath

Tuesday was Emme’s first bath. We had gone to the lake house for the day and she wallowed in the long, wet grass, walked in dirt, ate bugs, investigated the garden and generally had a great time. When we came home, however, she was filthy, so we decided that after dinner we would give her the first bath. This is not the first bath she has had. The breeder bathed her twice, but it was the first bath we had given to her. It really wasn’t so bad. Ken ran some warm water in the kitchen sink and got her wet. I got the puppy shampoo and lathered her up. Then Ken sprayed her off with the sink sprayer. She was pretty tolerant of all that. After toweling her off, I got the non-slip mat and the hair dryer and we started to blow dry her.

She did not like that at all. So we went back to the towels and just rubbed most of the water off her and then let her dry. We’ll try the hair dryer another time.

Adjusting

We continue to have good quiet nights with Emme sleeping through the night. In one of the gazillion puppy books I read before I got Emme, they said the best way to set up the sleep arrangement was to put the puppy in a crate right next to your bed. That way, if she fussed, you could lean over and comfort her without taking her out of her crate and she would learn to sleep quietly. This has seemed to work, although she never fusses when she is put to bed. The very first night, she whined for two or three minutes and then settled down. Since then, she just settles down and goes to sleep as soon as we go upstairs. I was concerned as we were getting ready to bring the puppy home that Rudy would feel left out if she was sleeping in our bedroom. I didn’t want him to think that he was being replaced by a puppy, that the three of us were going upstairs to bed and he was being left alone in the crate in the living room. So about two weeks before we got the puppy, we began bringing Rudy into our bedroom to sleep on the floor by the bed. He adjusted to that with no problem, so now all four of us go upstairs to bed, the puppy in her crate by my side of the bed, Rudy on the floor and Ken and me in bed. Everyone goes right to sleep and if one of us has to get up to use the bathroom, the dogs continue to sleep. It is working very well.

Emme seems to recognize two words reliably: eat and inside. When it is meal time, I rattle her kibble in the dish and say “eat” I don’t know if she is reacting to the rattle or the word, but she knows what is coming. When we are outside and she is finished her business I tell her it is time to go “inside” At that point she dashes for the porch steps. We are not having as much luck with “sit.” We practice every day, but she still jumps, barks, lays down, stands, or maybe sits at that command. This will still take a little time. When I am working in the kitchen and Rudy is doing a “down/stay” she also will lay on the kitchen floor. However, her attention span is quite short and she is up and down twenty times in a fifteen minute period. When I see her laying down I tell her “Good down/stay” so maybe she will begin to associate the position with the phrase, but I haven’t tried to get her to go down on command. I want to teach her sit first and I don’t want to confuse things by teaching her two new commands at once. It will all come in time. She is bright and I don’t think it will take her long to learn many things.

Learning to Climb Steps

Emme had her first experience with the steps to the upstairs yesterday. Usually we carry her upstairs and put her in her crate next to our bed. Last night, when it was time for bed, Rudy dashed up the steps to the bedroom and Emme followed. She got up about four steps before she realized that she did not know how to do steps. She then tumbled back down the steps to the floor. She goes up the two steps from the back yard to the porch. Sometimes, she approaches them from the side where the mulch is higher and the leap to the first step is smaller. Sometimes she approaches the steps head on. Often as she approaches the steps, she stops and looks at them as if she is trying to figure out how she gets up. Sometimes she is able to make the first step. Other times she doesn’t jump high enough and she bashes her head on the step, steps back and looks confused.

She is still a SLOW eater but is eating a little more. At lunch yesterday she ate almost all of the 1/3 cup kibble. She has never finished all of it and she still does the grab a kibble and walk somewhere in the kitchen to eat it. We call this the “wandering chew” as opposed to Rudy’s “wandering poo.”

Swiffer Duster

I think we may have made a mistake when we named Emme. I think her name should have been "Swiffer." She can't walk anywhere without attracting every piece of dust and dirt in her path. She comes in from outside and she has soaked up the dew from the grass like a little white sponge. Then she walks over mulch, dirt, grass, sticks, and it all comes in with her. Or maybe we should have named her "Orbit" for her dirty mouth. She investigates everything by rubbing her chin over the floor, rug, and yard and biting and licking anything of interest. She usually has a gray, brown, or black mouth until the next time she is cleaned up.

I am trying to teach Emme to sit. The hardest part is trying to tell if she is standing or sitting. She is so low to the ground that it all pretty much looks the same. I use one third of a puppy biscuit and hold it over her head and say "sit." So far we have gotten

1. nothing
2. laying down
3. jumping around
4. walking on her hind legs, and
5. occasionally, sitting.

It is going to take a while for her to figure which one I am looking for.

Rudy continues to become a little more comfortable around her. Less jumping up when she bounds up and pounces on him, a toy, someone's foot, or an imaginary evil. I think they are going to work this out. It just takes time.

It's All About Me

When I was in Canton, I purchased an outside ball for Rudy and a washable "lovie" for Emme. Those lovies get so gross, covered in crusty dog spit, that I was looking for something machine washable. I did find a baby toy, not a dog toy, a soft stuffed dog that can be washed in the machine with cold water and dried in the dryer on low. I have had no luck cleaning dog toys that are "surface washable." I make up a dish of suds and scrub off the toy but that does little to remove dirt, spit and whatever else ends up on the toy. They are as nasty when I have finished cleaning them as before I started. Well, of course, when the baby toy came into the house, Rudy was sure that it was for him. Rudy and Emme spent the afternoon playing keep away from each other. Next time, I will buy TWO baby toys. Live and learn.

My breeder sent the following Bichon Property Laws with other materials when we picked up Emme. I think that Emme has read it.

Bichon Frise Property Laws

1. If I like it, it’s mine.
2. If it’s in my mouth, it’s mine.
3. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine.
4. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.
5. If it’s mine, it must never be yours.
6. If it looks like mine, it’s mine.
7. If I saw it first, it’s mine.
8. If you are playing with it and put it down, it’s mine.
9. If I am chewing something up, all of the pieces are mine.
10. If it used to be yours, get over it.
11. If it’s broken, you can have it back.

Penalty Flags

Emme continues to sleep through the night from about 10 PM to about 6 AM. Not bad for a puppy her age. She continues to have no messes in the crate but she does occasionally have an accident on the floor. We are still learning. There is a major difference in output between Rudy and Emme. When Rudy goes, it is substantial. When she drops a load they look like little cheese doodles: but chocolate, not cheese. They are so small that they present a problem in finding them to pick them up. It is kind of like an Easter egg hunt with jelly beans instead of hard boiled eggs. They kind of hide in the grass. In the beginning I would try to memorize the location of the pile, take Emme back inside and then go back with a paper towel to pick things up. That was a disaster because I could never find the same spot and spend far too much time looking around for landmines. Then I decided to put a tissue in my pocket and drop it over the load, take Emme inside and then come back out to clean up. It has worked except for one time when the wind was blowing and the tissue moved about a foot away. It still was easier than the previous searches. I told your dad that I feel like a football referee dropping penalty flags. That has become the code word. "Emme dropped a penalty." "I have to go outside and pick up a penalty flag." Oh well, it keeps me entertained and the lawn clean.

That's Entertainment!

Emme continues to be the best entertainment that we have. She is really "on" or "off." When she plays, she plays hard and when she rests, she is quiet and still. I don't think she has found "medium" yet. Her favorite toys are a little cotton rope that you probably saw in the initial photos, the cap to an aerosol can (go figure), and Rudy's gorilla toy. She wrestles with the stuffed gorilla and then grabs it between the legs and shakes and fights it.

Living with a White Puppy

Emme continues to sleep the night through. Rudy is the one who wakes up first and then his activity noises causes her to wake up. We go to bed about 10 and we are usually up by 5:30. A little earlier than I'd like, but much better than I had expected. I thought that I would be getting up during the night for a few weeks.

She is such a loving little dog. She plays hard and sleeps well. When I put her in her crate she goes in without protest. Right now she has been washed and is drying out in the crate. Living with a white dog is a new experience for us. I have washed the porch floor twice since she came. We track in mud and mulch when we take the dogs out and the floor gets muddy. Then the puppy picks up every speck of dirt on the floor. I also wash her every morning after we have cleaned up the breakfast dishes. I use puppy shampoo and two bowls: one for soapy water and one for clean water. I wash her mouth, paws and belly. It keeps her clean until she locates the next piece of dust or dirt on the floor. I think it will be a constant in our daily routine. I also brush her each day but I have learned that it doesn't work when her hair is wet. I usually brush her after dinner. We are both still learning the brushing. She wiggles and I am not consistent in what I have brushed and what I haven't. I think we still have a lot to learn about that aspect of grooming.

Genius Puppy

Another good night last night. We are very lucky. We think that Emme is very bright, but we may be prejudiced. She travels in the car very well. Each day we have gone out in the car for at least a 5 or 10 minute ride. I read that in one of the many dog books. It said that if you take a puppy for a short ride every day for a week, it will learn to tolerate the movement of a car and will become a good rider, not throwing up or whining. We have ridden daily, even though she probably didn't need it. She came home from the breeder on the first day with no trouble. At this point she is riding on my lap and laying quietly most of the time. We tried her once in the crate in the car and she barked the whole time. She seemed to want the security of someone holding her. I will try her again in the crate in the near future because if I am traveling alone with her, obviously she will have to be crated.

I have bought her a soft pink collar and she is getting used to it. The first day, I put it on her for about 5 minutes about three different times. She spent most of that time scratching at it. Yesterday she had the collar on for some extended periods about a hour one time, over two hours another. She still scratches at it but not constantly. I think it is like wearing a watch. If you haven't worn one in a long time, you are very aware of the feel of it, but after time you don't even notice it. Wearing the collar is very important because she needs to get used to a leach. The first few days I just put her down on the grass to "hurry up." The trouble is that she is so fast and I am sure she could out run me if she tried. She stays pretty close, but I don't want her taking off to a neighbor's yard. So the collar and leash are two very important items.

Going to Grandma's

We made it a third night in a row with no getting up. We went to bed at 10 and got up at 5:15. I am certainly happy and extremely surprised that Emme has made nights so easy.

We made a change in our schedule for G and G last night. Usually we put Rudy in the crate about 4 PM, go to Buehlers to shop for Grandma and Grandpa and then go directly to Barberton for dinner returning about 8 or 8:30. Rudy handles that amount of time in the crate with no problem. We knew it would be a problem for the puppy. She lasts between 1 1/2 and 2 hours during the day before she needs to make a trip outside. So at 4 I went off to Buehlers and left Ken home with the dogs. When I returned, we put Rudy in the crate and took Emme and her crate to Barberton. After a few minutes of visiting and unpacking groceries at Grandma and Grandpa's, we put Emme in her crate at their house. We went to Angie's and got back to their house about an hour and 15 minutes later. I took Emme outside and then we got in the car to go back to Wooster. It seemed to work out well and we may need to repeat this for a while this fall until she and her bladder get a little bigger. Grandma and Grandpa were excited to meet Emme so it all worked out well.

Life with a New Puppy

We are all doing well. This is the second night Emme has slept through the night. We went to bed about 10 and she woke up at 5:47. Not bad. Right now she is in her crate in the kitchen, I am up in my sewing room and she is quiet. Everything takes much longer when we add in the responsibilities of a puppy. I am just now reading my email and getting ready to take a shower and it is after 9:30. I think things will speed up as we get to know one another.

When she first gets up, she in not ready to eat. She is just so excited to be up and alive that she has to dash around the kitchen, play with toys (for 2 seconds each), bark a little, run over to be cuddled, smell everything and wake up. After about 30 minutes of this, she is ready to eat her tiny bit of kibble. While she is running around the kitchen like a wild thing, Ken and Rudy are in the dining room having coffee and reading the paper and I am sitting on the step stool in the kitchen, drinking my first cup of coffee, petting her when she stops by and SLOWLY waking up. After she eats breakfast, I take her outside and then put her in her crate. Only then do I take down the gate to the dining room and join Ken and Rudy for some quiet breakfast time. She fusses a little and then settles down. After we finish the paper and have breakfast, I get her up again while we clean up the kitchen. Then after I wash her off a little, she is back in the crate again while I go upstairs to check my email, take a shower and dress.

This in and out of crate goes on all day. She is up when we take her outside, feed her, play with her, brush her, etc. She is in the crate at other times. Emme has gotten the message that you don't mess in the crate. She hasn't had an accident in there yet. She has gone outside to pee 100% of the time but we have had two times when she went to the far side of the kitchen to drop a load. The first time was not too bad because I saw it almost as soon as she had done it. The second time was another matter. I had gone to the grocery store and she was gated in the kitchen. When I got home, I carried in groceries and didn't think to look for land mines. As I was walking to the pantry for about the third time, I noticed some squashed poop on the floor. Guess who had squashed it. She doesn't go a lot, but when you step in it and walk it all over the kitchen floor, it covers pretty well. I got to work on the floor with paper towels and cleaner and your dad took my tennis shoes outside and hosed off the soles. Well I guess this is not too bad a track record and I am sure that there will be others. She is not allowed to walk on the carpet so any mistakes will be easier to clean up. Oh, the joys of puppies. She really is a joy, however. So cute and so playful. You will love her when you meet her.

Homecoming

Here is puppy news: We slept through the night last night for the first time! We went to bed right after 10:00 and Emme didn't wake up until 5:21 this morning. It was nice to have uninterrupted sleep.

She is such a cutie. Her favorite toy is a little piece of rope, maybe 6 inches long that has a knot tied at both ends. She pounces on it, shakes it, chews on it and generally has a great time. Her attention span, however, is about 3 seconds long, so she plays with the rope, jumps on a ball, runs back to the rope, lays on the floor, barks a few times, goes back to the rope, etc. etc. etc. She is hilarious to watch. We are doing nothing but "puppy": feeding the puppy, watching the puppy play, walking Rudy, taking the puppy outside, playing with Rudy, taking the puppy outside, grooming the puppy, feeding the puppy, watching the puppy play, walking Rudy, taking the puppy outside, playing with Rudy, taking the puppy outside. You get the idea. We decided that we were going to take a week and just concentrate on the new arrival. After that time, I am sure that things will not take so long and we can get back to a semblance of real life.

Feeding the puppy is funny. She eats a third of a cup of puppy kibble at a meal. She has yet to finish the entire portion. The kibbles are about the shape and size of a pencil eraser. She eats by picking up ONE kibble, running under a chair or the kitchen table, eating that piece of kibble in many bites and then going back for another piece. The process is lengthy. She probably gets as much exercise carrying pieces of kibble around as she gets playing. How funny. We feed Rudy first and then put up puppy gates, put Rudy in the dining room or family room and feed Emme in the kitchen. Rudy takes about a minute and a half to eat 1 3/4 cups of dog food. Emme takes about 10 minutes to eat about half of her 1/3 cup of puppy food.

Grooming her is another challenge. In mid morning I take her to the laundry room and wash off her eyes, mouth and paws. Then I try to brush her. She is so wiggly and I am so awkward that the procedure is like a comedy routine. I don't think I have ever brushed her entire body at one time. I think that I am done and then an hour later I think "Did I brush her tail, or back legs, or some other body part." I think that we both will get better at this. But for now it is a challenge.

Picking up Emme

September 9, 2006
We picked up Emme yesterday at 1 PM at the breeders in Tallmadge. We spent about an hour talking with Darlene, the breeder, about the puppy. We enjoyed our visit and got to meet both McKenna and Brutus, the parents. McKenna spent a long time just curled up on Ken’s lap as we talked. I was sure that he would have just taken that dog home too, if he could.

As we left the breeders, the Emme cried and I told Ken that I felt like we were kidnappers, taking her away from all that was familiar and comfortable. She cried all the way to Tallmadge circle and then she settled down and rode quietly in my lap all the rest of the way home.

We introduced Rudy to the puppy in the back yard and both did well. Emme was quite interested in Rudy. Rudy seems a little nervous around her especially if she makes a sudden movement, but they seem to be getting along fine.

We have purchased a crate for Emme and she slept in it last night in our bedroom. She fussed and we took her out during the night but other than that, we all slept well. This morning I wiped off her eyes and mouth and paws and brushed her a little with a pin brush. Right now I have finished my shower and am working on the computer and she is in the kitchen in her crate. Ken and Rudy and watching TV in the family room and all is peace and quiet.