Emme's First Hair Cut

Well, we went to the groomer and Emme looks SO different. Her hair is short, short, short! She really did need to have her hair cut, but this is too short. I guess it is a problem with my communication with the groomer. I told her that I wanted her cut short, but not so short that her skin showed through. I was envisioning more hair than this. I looked on the internet for pictures of Bichons with a "puppy cut" but was unable to find anything that looked like I wanted her. Then I looked in my Bichon book and found only pictures of Bichons in "show coat" and little puppies that hadn't yet been groomed. Lacking a picture, I just described what I wanted and I guess I was not clear enough. The groomer says that the hair will grow about an inch in between visits. I think that when I take her back in 8 weeks, I may tell the groomer, "Just a little off the top." I think that I want her hair about 3/4 of an inch long. Short enough to take care of easily but long enough that it is fluffy. Right now she has so little hair that she feels very different. I miss petting the Old Emme. Ken says not to fret, because the hair will grow back. I am waiting.

First Walk

Yesterday Emme went for her first walk. I was reluctant to let her go out of her yard until the puppy shots were completed. So Friday she got the last shot and Saturday it rained like mad all day. Yesterday was the first nice day. It was very windy, but not all that cold. I read that you can walk puppies one block for every 10 pounds of their weight so I figured the first few walks would be really short. Six pounds would be a little over a half block. So we walked to the house three yards away. We went out the front door: something Emme has never done. She was in heaven: excited and terrified. The wind was blowing and dry leaves were blowing every where. Emme had to try to bite each one. She also had to sniff three yards of smells. We walked on the sidewalk which was another first for Emme. She has walked on rugs, linoleum, and grass but never concrete. She definitely tried to be the alpha dog and pull me down the sidewalk. That must have been a sight, six pounds of her trying to pull me down the street. I am bigger, so I insisted that she walk beside me and not out in from, but she wasn't crazy about that technique. We have a lot of work to do in the walking on a leash department. After we went our three front yards, we turned around and walked home. Everything was new all over again. She really enjoyed the walk and we will do it again today. What a funny little puppy! Everything is an adventure to her.

Today is her first visit to the groomer. She goes at 12:30 and I am excited and curious to see what she looks like when I pick her up.

A Visit to the Vet

Yesterday Emme had her vet appointment to get the last of her puppy shots. She did quite well. She put up an awful fuss when the vet clipped some of her toe nails, but didn’t seem bothered by two shots and some medicine in her nose. She weighs 6.4 pounds and is very healthy according to the vet. The vet gave me some eye drops to reduce the red gunk that gets in the corner of her eyes. He checked her skin over very closely and couldn’t find any reason for the frequent scratching. He suggested the oatmeal shampoo which we are using, so we’ll see what happens over the next few weeks. Emme has an appointment to be spayed on November 10. She goes in at 8 o’clock on Friday morning. Has the surgery on Friday. Stays overnight and we pick her up on Saturday.

Emme continues to love to climb the stairs. Every chance she gets, (when I forget to put the gate up between the front hall and the kitchen) she races up the stairs to our bedroom and dashes around the rug. She still hasn’t mastered going down the stairs, so I need to pick her up to go to the first floor. She is not always happy about leaving the second floor so she races around the rug playing keep-away. I try calling “come” and that never works. I try saying “sit” and that never works. I usually pick up a toy that squeaks and when she comes over to investigate, I grab her up and whisk her to the first floor. We really need a better system.

Groomer Research

Yesterday I visited the groomer that I have picked out for Emme. She has been in business for 13 years and seems very nice, She was grooming a golden retriever while I was there and I could see her interacting with a dog. I asked her a lot of questions and was comfortable with the answers. I asked her about drying cages and she took me back to where the dogs waited to be trimmed. They blow dry them mostly dry and then put them into large wire crates in a room off the grooming room. In the room are three fans that circulate the air. She said that there is not heat and no danger to the dogs. The dogs are not in this area very long because the whole visit takes only two hours. Many of the groomers I called said that it took 4 hours. With getting a bath and then being trimmed it doesn't sound like the dogs are in the crates an excessive amount of time.

I made an appointment for Emme for Monday afternoon. She gets her last puppy shots this Friday and I wanted her trimmed up as soon after that as possible. The hair on her body is about three inches long and she is just like a little Swiffer picking up everything she comes near. Trimmed down, she should be a little easier to care for. The groomer suggested that for the first visit she only bath Emme and trim around her face and bottom. I told her that I couldn't wait another 8 weeks for the second appointment to get rid of some of the hair. Emme is so cute, but so fluffy. The groomer said that she would try trimming and see how Emme handled it. I am hoping that she will be as good for the groomer as she is for me when I am brushing her and we get her trimmed next week. It would make everything easier.

Up the Stairs

Emme learned how to go up the stairs on Friday. I was at Buehler’s buying food for the family picnic on Sunday and Ken was watching the two dogs. The man who put up the gutter guards came by the house to repair a spot that was dripping and Ken greeted him at the front door and then went around the house and went outside through the porch. After talking with the man for about five minutes, he came back into the house to find only Rudy. The gates hadn’t been put up, so he went around the house calling and looking for Emme. He went into his office, looked under the desk and in Rudy’s crate. He went into the laundry room and the family room, living room and kitchen. When he couldn’t find Emme, he went back through each room, even opening closets. No puppy. By then Ken was sure that she had somehow gotten out of the house without him noticing it and was long gone. He started checking the first floor a third time and happened to look up toward the second floor and saw Emme’s little face looking through the spindle rail outside our bedroom. She had gotten up the stairs and couldn’t figure out how to get down. Why she didn’t whimper or bark when he was calling for her is anyone’s guess. After Ken brought her downstairs and he settled down, it began to be funny but it was not during the time she was missing. That was just plain scary. So now she is a stairs champion. When she got outside the gates later that day, she climbed the stairs twice more and did the blitz on the second floor. She was so excited to find that the house had more rooms than she ever realized. Up to this time, she has been carried upstairs for bed and has never walked around on the second floor. Now she goes upstairs by herself at night. We say, “Time for nighty-nite” and she dashes up the stairs, into our bedroom and into her crate and waits for a treat. We have to be very careful that the gates are up or she runs for the second floor in a flash. I guess the attraction is that she should not be there.

We went to the lake for the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa and had a family birthday party for Julius and Chris on Sunday. This was Emme’s first overnight at the lake house and she did just fine. We brought her sleeping crate and put it next to our bed. She slept fine and did all her business outside, all in all, a successful weekend. She was everybody’s best friend and spent all Sunday afternoon being the party entertainment. She was exhausted by the time we got back to Wooster on Sunday night. She spent a long time asleep on my lap while I watched TV and napped a little too.

I have noticed over the last week or so Emme is scratching a lot. I know that we have had the furnace running more with the cooler weather and that may be drying out her skin. She seems to be itching all over, not just in one spot. She scratches behind her ears, chews near the base of her tail, and chews on her paws. I am at a loss. I have looked through her fur and don't see any sign of fleas, sore spots, irritated skin or anything. This morning I gave her a bath with Rudy's oatmeal shampoo which is supposed to be soothing. I also rinsed her very well. Actually, I always try to rinse her well so there is nothing to irritate her skin. I don't think I am bathing her too often. The last time was about three weeks ago when she was playing in leaves at the lake house and got very dirty. I brush her every day and wash off her mouth and paws so I know that her coat is not being neglected. I have a vet appointment on Friday for puppy shots and I will ask him at that time. Until then, I'll see if this morning's bath makes a difference.

Learning Curve

I was reading Life magazine this morning with the newspaper and it said that a 4 month old puppy should be house broken and know the commands: sit, down and stay. Well, we have a long way to go. Emme never messes in her cage, but she sometimes chooses to eliminate on the carpet when we are not looking. She does a pretty bad job of sit and we haven't even tried down or stay. She will turn 4 months old on November 1 and will stay four months old until Dec. 1. That doesn't give us much time to get this all in order. We have enrolled her in puppy class beginning November 2 so that may help.

Worms

Yesterday we learned about worms. When we first got Emme and took her to the vet’s, she saw an associate of Dr. Howard, a woman vet whose name we didn’t learn. Because Emme had just been wormed by the breeder before we picked her up, the vet gave us a second dose of worm medicine to give to Emme in two weeks. She said that all puppies are born with worms (who knew) and that they worm them every two weeks until they are 16 weeks old. When we returned for Emme’s puppy shot at the end of the month, we saw Dr. Howard and he didn’t say anything about worming. Later I wondered if it was an oversight and if I needed to pick up worm medicine to give to Emme before her next visit to the vet’s at the end of the month. I called the office yesterday and talked to Dr. Howard. He said to bring in a stool sample to test for worms and if she did not have any, no worm medicine would be necessary. So Ken went outside to the Buehler’s bag that held the latest deposits and retrieved one little doodle. He put it in a plastic and I took it to the vet’s. After a 10 minute “flotation” test (I don’t think I want to know what they were floating) we found out that Emme did not have worms present so no more medicine was necessary. I like this approach. Worm medicine must be poison in some way if it kills the worms, so I like not putting it in Emme’s system if it is not necessary.

Emme and Rudy had a better day yesterday, less contention over toys. Or maybe I was just more patient. There were actually a few times in the afternoon and evening, when each was laying quietly on the carpet while Ken and I were reading. That didn’t last too long, but it is a beginning.

Primping

Yesterday was a much better day all around: no rain, less contention with the dogs, more patience on my part.

Emme has discovered fall. She is very impressed with the dog toys that fall from the trees with every gust of wind. She goes outside to do her business and has to take the time to pounce on leaves, carry leaves in her mouth, and try to eat leaves before I can stop her. She thinks they are wonderful toys.

Yesterday I went to Petco and purchased a comb for Emme’s coat. I started using it in addition to her brush to comb the long hairs around her mouth and face. I think it does a better job than the brush, because I am always afraid that I am going to poke her eyes with the metal bristles of the brush. I have much better control with the comb. She looks so cute and fluffy right after I brush her, but as the day goes on she gets more and more rumpled. After a few hours, she looks like a preschooler after he comes in from playing: a little dirty around the face and the hair going in every direction. I have great admiration for those people who show dogs and keep them neat. That must really be a task.

She continues to work on “sit” and is getting better at that. She knows “come” from playing. Everytime she dashes toward us, we say “Good come” and I think she understands what it means. I can call her from one room to another by calling “Come, Emme.” I have no idea how she would do outside because she is always on the leash. It will be a while before I would trust her off leash in the yard.

Spitty Bear

Yesterday was a low dog day at the Nuzum household. For two cents, I would have traded both the dogs for a pair of guinea pigs. The afternoon was rainy and neither dog wanted to go outside to do their business. Rudy, who loves water, hates rain and wouldn’t go outside for anything. Emme got carried outside and I stood in the cold rain with a jacket and umbrella waiting for her to do something. She didn’t like getting her feet wet and the rain distracted her so I spent a lot of time waiting. Then after dinner the two dogs were driving us nuts. We were in the living room watching the big TV and the dogs were on the floor. Emme wanted everything that Rudy had. If Rudy had a stuffed toy, Emme wanted that stuffed toy, not another one. She would grab on to a part of the toy and tug; then both would growl, Rudy would stand up, shake the toy with Emme attached and growl.

I tried putting Emme on my lap to put a little distance between the two, but she was like a wild woman. She would wiggle and squirm and finally I got tired of it and put her down. If Rudy was chewing on a bone, Emme wanted that bone, not another one. Rudy would chew on one end of the bone and Emme would chew on the other end of that bone. It didn’t matter that there were three other bones on the floor. Only that one bone would do. Rudy would chew and growl; Emme would chew and growl. Finally, I had enough and put Emme in her crate for a while. Then Rudy would pick up a lovie with a squeaker and take it in front of Emme’s crate and squeak the toy like he was saying: “Neeener, neener, neener; I’m up and you’re not.”

Later, I got her up again and the entire series began again. Then Rudy decided that I wanted to play with his wet, slobbery teddy bear and he would pick it up and put the disgusting thing on my lap over and over. Finally I had enough and I yelled (something I seldom do) “I don’t want that spitty bear on my lap. Lay down.” Rudy looked like he had been whipped. Emme stopped what she was doing and Ken looked amazed.

At that time, I was considering the merits of having two birds as pets. After a few minutes, I apologized to Rudy and to Ken and to Emme for my outburst, but I was just on overload. The rest of the evening wasn’t as bad, and I know that today will be better. It can’t be worse. (Please don’t let me eat those words.)