Don't Buy a Puppy in a Rainy Season

I have decided that not only should you not buy a new (un-housebroken puppy) when the weather is cold and snowy, you shouldn't get a new puppy in a rainy season. I have gone inside and outside of the house more often since we got Emme than in the 16 years we have lived in this house. We go in and out from the porch to go "hurry up" and I have discovered that with any amount of rain, we have a puddle at the bottom of the stairs. After frequent mopping of the porch floor and carrying Emme over the puddle at the bottom of the steps hundreds of time as we go in and out, I asked Ken if he had a solution. He went to Lowe's and bought some materials to solve the problem. He got coarse rocks for a bottom layer, fine sand for the middle layer and three 12 inch concrete blocks for the top. During this mild weather, we went outside and dug out the compacted and muddy soil at the bottom of the steps. Then we put in the new materials and so far we have a secure landing with no mud. Success. Less mud, cleaner dog, happier owner.

This Hurts Me More Than It Hurts You

I think one of the most difficult parts of training a puppy is resisting the over exuberant greetings when you return to the house. I have read that if you don’t want a dog jumping all over you and visitors, they must learn to greet people in a quiet manner. They recommend that when you return to the house and the puppy is jumping and barking, you absolutely ignore her. Don’t respond in any way: don’t say “quiet,” don’t push her down, don’t even make eye contact. After the puppy is done and is quiet, sometimes as many as five to ten minutes, you call the puppy to you to say hello. This is SO difficult. No one else is ever as glad to see me when I return to the house. Ken never jumps up and drools when I return home. So it is hard to resist responding to such a welcoming puppy. However, we are trying and Emme is getting better. Yesterday I was gone all day to a UFO (Unfinished Objects) day with my quilt guild. Emme was enthusiastic when I returned and jumped up a little but did no barking. After she was quiet, I called her to me and picked her up and said hello. This is harder on me than on the puppy.

Sweet Potatoes

Emme got a bath yesterday morning and she really needed on. She looks better, feels better, and smells better. We had to wait 10 to 14 days after her surgery to bathe her and yesterday was it. We are using an oatmeal shampoo instead of the puppy shampoo. The oatmeal shampoo is supposed to be especially soothing and she scratches a lot. Hopefully the oatmeal shampoo will make a difference.

This morning, for the first time, Emme came upstairs with me when I took my shower. Usually I just put her in her crate but today I tried leaving her loose. I brought her sweet potato chew upstairs with her and she had a ball. Last week at the puppy class, the trainer gave each of us a piece of sliced dried sweet potato which he recommends instead of rawhide. He said that dogs often swallow a large piece of rawhide and it does not digest quickly enough and they need surgery to remove the rawhide. He has found a chew treat made entirely of dehydrated sliced sweet potatoes. He passed one out to each puppy in class and they met with a mixed reaction. Jim said that about 20 percent of dogs will have nothing to do with the sweet potato chews and the others like them. That is what happened in class. One puppy sniffed it and immediately turned away. Others were mildly interested and others like Emme thought they were heaven. She chewed her potato slice a little in class and then I put it into the refrigerator. I didn’t want to give it back to Emme because I had nothing special to give to Rudy while she chewed her potato.

This morning Ken went to Canton to the dentist and took Rudy along for the ride. Since Emme and I were alone in the house, I got out the sweet potato chew. She was delighted. She chewed, pounced, pushed, growled, and generally had a grand time. When it was time to leave for People to People this morning, I took the chew away from Emme, it still is a large piece of potato, and it is back in the refrigerator. I think I am going to buy a bag of the chews Thursday night at puppy class. We’ll see what Rudy thinks of them.

Me & My Shadow

Emme and Rudy continue to get along better and better. Rudy is not jumpy when Emme is near and she is often near him. She will go up to him and sniff all over his body. I mean ALL over his body. He tolerates this well. When he is retrieving a toy, Emme grabs onto a part of it and trots back with Rudy and the toy as he is fetching. She likes to lay down near him but has never curled up right next to him. This morning for the first time, she laid down right next to him to rest while we were having breakfast. Rudy was laying on his side and Emme laid down right next to his back on her side. He was facing one way and she another. She came down just past his shoulder blade. It really was cute. As we were cleaning up from breakfast, they both were resting in the dining room as we worked. She is copying Rudy’s “waiting behavior” more and more.

Nitey-Nite

This picture was taken on July 1 when Emme was born.

When we are ready to put Emme in her crate, we say “Time to go nighty-nite.” About 80 percent of the time she dashes for her crate (and the puppy biscuit that she gets when she goes inside). The other twenty per cent of the time, she thinks it is an invitation to play keep away. She dashes all over the house and is much faster than either of us. Ken has discovered that when she starts running, if he says “Sit” she sits right down. Then we swoop her up and carry her to the crate. It seems to work every time. Soon she may realize what we are doing and won’t respond, but for now it works.

She also is beginning to sit high up on her back legs with her back straight up in the air. She did it the first time when I was opening a package of Pepperidge Farms cookies. She has never tasted people food, but she heard or smelled something she liked with that bag. We decided we needed a command for the posture other than “Sit” so we wouldn’t mix up the commands. So now we say “Beg” to get her to sit straight up. She gets that well. She still doesn’t get any Pepperidge Farms cookies.

Emme and Rudy are starting to eat their evening meal at the same time. Rudy has learned that he needs to do a “Down stay” when Emme is eating her lunch so we tried yesterday to feed them their evening meal at the same time. It worked well. Of course Rudy was done way before Emme but he just did a Down stay and watched her finish her meal. She didn’t bother with his food so I think we will continue to do this. Prior to this time, one of us would take the puppy in another room while Rudy ate and then we would switch: Rudy in the living room and Emme in the kitchen while she ate her dinner. This makes things less complicated.

Second Floor Discovery

Emme is in love with the second floor. Every chance she gets she dashes up the stairs to sniff around. I decided earlier this afternoon to let her come to my sewing room with me while I read my email. Mistake. She sniffed around on the floor and than dashed out into the hall carrying something in her mouth. I followed her to the first floor and retrieved a little felt disk that goes on my sewing machine under a spool of thread. It must have fallen on the rug when I removed some thread and she found that in a nanosecond. So Emme is resting in her crate in the kitchen while I read my email. She doesn’t miss anything and my sewing room is just too full of temptations.

House breaking is going more slowly than I would like. Emme is 100 per cent perfect in her crate but she continues to have occasional accidents in the house. Sometimes she will go a week between mistakes and other times, we will find a little pile of doodles or a wet spot on the rug on a daily basis. I am not sure what the deal is. I have read that Bichons are notoriously difficult to housebreak but I was sure that I would have no problem. I have housebroken puppies successfully in the past and I am pretty good about getting Emme outside on a regular basis. When she has accidents in the house, sometimes I think she chooses to go on the rug. I am sure that she knows that she should not be doing it because she runs and hides and does it somewhere where we can’t see her. Last night she was out of her crate while we ate dinner. She must have found a minute or two when I was not watching her because when we cleaned up after dinner, I walked out into the laundry room with a bag of garbage and on the floor in front of the dryer were doodles. She had been outside right before we ate but she must have things saved up. She is so good most of the time, I am sure she is getting the idea. But she still is not reliable. I read that a dog is not housebroken until there have been no accidents for 12 weeks. I may be a really old lady before that happens.

Back Steps!

Emme has learned how to go down the back steps off the porch to go out to the yard. Why it took her this long to figure them out is a mystery. She has been going down the steps from the second floor to the first floor for a week or so but has been reluctant to go down the two steps from the porch to the back lawn. Well, she can do it now, another step toward maturity.

We continue to play “leave it” but we have an addition to the game. When I sit on the floor with Emme, Rudy comes right along and lays down next to me. Whenever I give Emme a treat and say “Take it,” Rudy gets a treat too. We have been working with leftover puppy kibble at home so I know that the game is not interfering with Emme’s meals. She seems to get it, but let’s see when we go back to smelly chicken hot dogs if she still will leave it alone. It may be easier to resist kibble than hot dogs.

Her incision continues to heal and we are no longer using the pain medication. The end of the incision near the middle of her belly, it think it is where they removed the umbilical hernia, is the reddest; the rest looks pretty quiet and is beginning to look more like a scar than in incision.

Her coat is looking better too with a few weeks of growth. She looked so naked and skinny when she came back from the groomer and now the hair is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long and she looks fluffier. Much better.

"Leave It"

Last night at puppy class, the lesson was “leave it.” That is a lesson that has worked well for Rudy. He is pretty good about leaving anything dropped on the floor if he is told “Leave it.” Not perfect, but pretty good. Last night we cooked up another chicken hot dog and went off to class. The number of dogs was down by one. There was a shepherd in class last week that was very aggressive and pretty out of control. The trainer decided to do some private lessons with that dog so we were down to five dogs in the class.

Emme did pretty well with “leave it” but we have lots more practice time until she gets it completely. We started with a piece of treat in our closed fingers. We presented it to the puppy and said “Leave it.” We continued to repeat “Leave it” as long as the puppy continued to nibble for the treat. As soon as she looked away, we said “Yes” and gave her a treat from the other hand. As soon as the puppy learned that from one hand, we switched hands. When she got that figured out, we went to the floor. We put a treat on the floor, said “Leave it” and blocked the treat from the puppy with our fingers. As soon as she gave up trying to get the treat, we said “Yes, take it” and gave her another treat. Emme is persistent and didn’t lose interest in the “leave it” treat quickly but eventually she did look away and got rewarded.

It takes many repetitions to have it really sink in, but eventually she should be able to leave a treat put on the floor in front of her without a second thought. This could be a life saver if medicine or something dangerous dropped on the floor. It is an important lesson and she doesn’t know she is learning anything. She thinks she is playing the “leave it” game and she gets lots of pieces of chicken hot dog for doing it right.

Back to Normal

This is a picture of Emme's father, Brutus, when he won a championship.

Everyday Emme seems perkier and more herself. She is eating well and sleeping through the night with no problem. The vet sent her home with pain medicine. We gave it to her the first night, but she hasn’t seemed to need it since. Watching her activity level is a challenge. She gets more active each day. She is jumping up on the couch and down again. The first time she did it, we tried to grab for her, but she was too fast and suffered no ill effects. She jumps up and down several times a day. She also is running around playing with toys. When she gets a little too active, we try to distract her, but I think that she is feeling well and isn’t being hurt by the activity.

We all went for a ride in the car today to North Canton to my dentist. I had the last appointment for my replacement bridge this morning. Both the dogs were fine in the car: both slept most of the time we were traveling. They are both good car travelers and a pleasure to take with us. When we went into Borders for a celebratory cup of coffee, Emme stayed in her crate in the back of Ken’s car and Rudy stayed on the back seat. They both seem comfortable being left in the car. Of course we only do it when the temperature is appropriate: we don’t want to cook them in the sun. This works well for us in the fall and winter.

She is sitting on my lap as I write this. She licks the keyboard and pushes the space bar. I think this is enough of an entry for today.

Recovery

We picked up Emme at 10 this morning. She was so excited to see us. The vet assistant walked her out into the lobby and when Emme saw me she started wiggling and peeing. She has never done that before, but I don't think she has ever been so glad to see us. She had a "normal spay" and during the surgery, they discovered an umbilical hernia which they went ahead and repaired. She has dissolvable stitches so she does not have to return to the vet's. She has some pain medication she will take for the next five days and she is not to be bathed for 10-14 days. We are also to watch her activity level for the next 10-14 days.

As soon as she came home she went outside and peed twice. Then she wanted to be held and cuddled. She has been on the couch with me and a quilt or on Ken's chair with Ken and a quilt. I tried to give her some lunch, but she was not interested. I think she ate breakfast late so we are just going to wait until dinner to give her more food.

She has sad eyes. She jumps up occasionally and tires to lick the incision so I know that she is not feeling all that well. When I am not feeling well, I want to be in my own home wrapped up in a quilt. I think that Emme needs the same thing. I had a dentist's appointment for this afternoon that I cancelled so I can just be home with Emme. I think we both need that.

Rudy went to the vet's yesterday to have his bandage changed. The vet said that the foot is healing well, but the surgery spot was moist from seepage and licking. Now he has a new, dry bandage and he seems to be much more comfortable. Rudy returns to the vet's on Monday to have his sutures removed.

Spaying

I took Emme to the vet's this morning to be spayed. Doesn't she seem to be little for this? Our vet said that this was the time and I am following his recommendation. It was so hard taking her in this morning and leaving her at the vet's. She started trembling as we entered the office and while I was filling out forms, she was shaking so hard the hair on her head was bouncing. The surgery is scheduled for this morning and I can call in after 2 o'clock to see how she is doing. I pick her up tomorrow morning after 10 AM and that can't come soon enough. She has wormed her way into my heart and I will miss her tremendously.

Rudy goes back to the vet today to have his bandage changed. He licks the bandage a lot and I have started putting a sock over the bandage to try to get him to stop. It is moderately successful. He is on antibiotics and pain medication and seems to be doing well.

Puppy School

Last night was Emme’s first day of puppy school and she did better than we predicted. We were sure that she would bark and carry on through out the class. She was surprisingly quiet and did things well. We bought some chicken hot dogs, sliced them up, microwaved them for two minutes, and patted them with paper towels. They smelled remarkably like dirty feet and Emme loved them. I cut them up into quarters and took them to class in a plastic bag. We worked on name recognition. We would say “Emme” once and she was supposed to look at us. If she didn’t respond, we were not to repeat her name but pester her: tapping her head, neck, back or blowing in her ear. When she got tired of being pestered and looked at us, we were to say “Yes” and give her a dog treat. Well, every time we said “Emme” she looked directly at our face and got her chicken hot dog. We never got to pester her.

There were six other dogs in the class, all much bigger than Emme. I don’t know their ages, but each one of them was many times larger than Emme. She was interested and attentive in everything they did. She kept her eyes on the trainer because he had treats that he gave to the dogs. She discovered that she liked pepperoni. I wonder if dogs get heartburn.

The class was only one hour long, but Emme was exhausted when we left. She fell asleep in the car in my arms and slept the whole way home. All in all, a good evening.

Climbing Down the Stairs

Rudy is home and doing well. He has a bandage on his foot and pain pills and antibiotics but he seems comfortable. He is actually here in my sewing room with me as I write this. As soon as he got home he had to go back to the vet's because the bandage had come apart and his sore toe spot was showing. Ken took him back to get him re-bandaged and it seems to be holding.

Emme had some firsts yesterday. This was the first time she had been in the crate for an extended period of time except for night time. We usually limit her crate time to two hours or less but last night we had to go to Canton for a dinner and she had to stay home. I was presenting Mary Regula, the founder of the National First Ladies Library, who had been selected for an award of achievement from the Canton Chamber of Commerce. We left for the dinner at 5:00 and did not get back until 9:30: four and a half hours in the crate, the longest time ever. Emme did OK. She was more than eager to get out and go outside to do her business and to hop all over us. We stayed up about an hour so she would have some time to play before we went to bed. We did go to bed about 10:30 and she slept until 6:50 this morning with no problem.

Emme was able to climb down the stairs last night. For a few weeks, she has been able to climb up to the second floor, which she does every chance she gets. Ken has been encouraging her to try to climb back down after we go up the change into our pajamas each night. Sometime after dinner, Rudy, Emme, Ken and I go upstairs to play "closet ball." This means that we throw a ball or other toy for Rudy to retrieve while we are getting changed. Emme spends her time smelling everything in the bedroom, trying to eat the fringe on the oriental rugs or chewing our clothes when we take them off to put on our pajamas. When we return to downstairs, we used to have to carry Emme who was terrified of going down the steps. Ken has been trying to lure Emme down the steps one at a time by sitting on the steps, patting the lower step and calling Emme down. She has done a few steps, but usually gets frightened and needs a lift downstairs. Last night was the first time that she walked down the steps completely by herself. Ken was always one step lower than she, ready to catch her if necessary, but she did all the steps herself.

Tonight is puppy class and this is the first night that the puppies attend. I am sure that I will have stories tomorrow.

Furniture is Fun!

Emme has learned to jump up on furniture. When I lay down on the couch to read, she jumps up to burrow in back or underneath the pillows to find a little "hidey hole." She will stay there for a while, then with a great amount of movement and effort, change positions and settle down again. She will sometimes stay there with me for an hour or more. She delights in jumping up on our laps when we watch TV in the evenings. She settles down next to us or snuggles into whatever quilt is on our laps. Ken says that you can tell she is a quilter's dog, because everytime she is around a quilt, she settles in for a nap.

We are playing a game: "Find me for food." I put her on the leash and go out into the yard. I walk a few feet and call "Emme, come." When she comes, I tell her "Emme, sit" and I give her a treat. She is doing quite well but I am concerned about the treats. When we played this game with Rudy he was 85 pounds and I gave him little pieces of broken dog biscuits. Emme, on the other hand, is six pounds and I am concerned about filling her up with treats. Instead, I am using her usual puppy food as treats. She doesn't seem to mind and I figure that if she gets filled up and doesn't eat her dinner, she has actually eaten her dinner during the game.

First Day of School

Last night was the first night of Emme's puppy class. It was at Brigadoon Kennels here in town, the same place that Rudy took his obedience class. We went without dogs the first night and just listened to the trainer. He will teach only four things: respond to their name, come when called, "leave it" and walking on a leash. Next week we bring the dogs. We did pick up a good book on housebreaking and have already started using one of the suggestions.

Emme is 100 percent house broken in her crate. She has never had an accident there. She occasionally will have an accident in the house so she is still working on that. One of the most annoying things, however, is that she sometimes takes FOREVER to decide where to pee. The book suggested that you always go to the same spot; plant yourself and don't move; and say over and over the words you use to tell her to go. The book says that letting the dog wander, looking for the perfect place to go, only complicates things. They get distracted by smells and sounds around the yard and don't do their business. I certainly have been doing that wrong. I let her wander all over the yard until she finds the magic spot and goes. I may be making the process longer and more difficult than it needs to be. Especially with cold weather coming, it will be good if we can get her to go more quickly. There is always something new to learn about puppies, isn't there?

Smell-Me-Good

I sent a note to Darlene, the breeder, to tell her that Emme had taken her first walk and she replied: "You know, someone told me that when a dog goes for a walk and has to smell EVERYTHING along the way, it's compared to us reading the newspaper. They can find out, who's been where, who's in season, who's stressed out and on and on....! Can you imagine? Not me. I guess that's why they love walks. They can find out what's going on in their neighborhood, just by sniffing the ground." I thought that was a vivid description of why dogs love walking.