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.