Tag Archives: new puppy?

May 20, 2017 · 10:39 am

“We are Fam-i-ly”

Abby

I’m feeling rich in animals today. This is Abby, who is still trying to be invisible, or leaves the area whenever Amber is around.

 

Smoke

This is Smoke, our recently adopted cat. She follows Amber and me around the house on our walks, stalking, baiting, then smacking Amber in the mouth if she gets close enough.  She is asleep on my daytimer and dog notes here.

 

Molly is TRYING to accept the new situation. Amber won’t leave her alone, always jumping up, trying to lick her in the face, trying to get her to play. We’re enforcing ‘together time’ on the porch at least once a day, with one of us out there to monitor. We’re making slow progress. We’re giving Molly lots of extra love and attention to help her with the transition. She sits with one of us in the evenings while we’re watching TV, watching a movie, or reading.

 

And this is Amber at 10 weeks. We adopted her last Saturday. She is definitely making progress, having had to leave the only animal and people family she had ever known and come to live with two new people, two hostile cats, and one hostile dog. She is adapting better and better each day. She makes the Energizer Bunny look like an old, feeble senior rabbit.

It was raining hard this morning when I went to get Amber out of her crate and take her for her first morning walk. She is starting to associate “HURRY UP” with taking care of business. Clutching the umbrella and holding it as close to me as possible because of gusty winds, we went to what we HOPE will become ‘her spot,’ and she did all that was required, receiving treats and “Good Girl!”s.

We got back onto the porch, where I dried her off with a towel and fed her, then squeegeed as much water off the floor as possible.

I decided that a laundry basket would be good as a toy box. I ended up putting it on its side, though, as she couldn’t get into it unless she pulled the laundry basket over. We’ll adapt as she grows.

We got a bin with a lid to sit on the table, holding all the ‘stuff’ we need out there, but keeping interesting stuff out of sight. She puts her paws on the table, trying to reach enticing things.  We now have everything in the closed bin on top of the table, accessible to US, but not to Amber.

Our days are long, comprised of long walks with Amber, playing with her, and trying to train her, giving our other animals the love and attention they need, and trying to get the have-to’s done otherwise before falling into bed.

We had our friend, Carla, over yesterday afternoon to meet Amber. She said that labrador retrievers were ‘puppies’ until they are two years old! I may not live long enough to get us through puppyhood if it’s going to be like this for that long. Carla also made a very good suggestion that we use the command, “OFF!” to mean for her to get paws off of us, the table, etc., rather than using “DOWN,” which would mean lying down on the floor. Carla and my brother-in-law, Bill, suggested that we make a point of touching her feet, her mouth, her ears, etc., a lot so that trimming toe nails, putting in ear medicine, and trips to the vet will go much more easily.

I’m hoping that all of our efforts each day will result in our animals at least learning to tolerate each other, if not being actual friends eventually.

Meanwhile, I’m looking for a sugar-free, low carb energy drink…

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May 15, 2017 · 5:23 pm

Amber – Take 3

Even – maybe ESPECIALLY – because we’re old, we had a good Day Three with Amber today. (A HUGE example, even though she’s barking a bit off and on right now, is that we ALL took a short nap this afternoon.

I was up really early for me today. By the time I had hauled on some clothes and come downstairs, I heard Amber barking. This was the first night she had been in her crate.  I had mentally prepared myself for a real mess, so I would have to learn how to get the tray out of the crate, hose it, and the mat, off, and then throw the mat into the washer after walking Amber.

What I discovered, was that the crate was clean!  I put on her leash and got her right outside, having to fight with the steps she hates for a bit. Then she walked right down, as if she’d been doing this for a long time, and then did everything a dog should do on our walk around the house.  I have to really pay attention because she wants to change sides and tries to wrap herself around my legs as we walk. I realize this is a process, but it would be good if I don’t fall on my head while I’m trying to give her a nice walk.

I brought her back in and fed her. She dived into her food bowl, ate every bit, and then looked at me with her big brown eyes. I gave her a bit more, which she took care of, but more slowly.

 

I called the vet to ask when a good time would be for us to bring Amber for a puppy check and a microchip. We were there at 10:00. She amazed us by not barking and not being upset at being at the vet. He checked her all over, pronouncing her very healthy. We made an appointment for her next shots in two weeks, and found out that we should have her spayed at 5 months. She weighs 18 lbs at 9 weeks. She was really good, allowing him to check her all over, open her mouth, put in the microchip, etc. without a peep.  She seems to enjoy riding in the car and wasn’t sick either going, or coming home.

We left her on the porch and set out again to do LOTS of errands, since my husband has his 2nd cataract surgery at 0-dark-thirty tomorrow morning.

We modified the dog run when we got home, putting in better stops for each end. Since spraying her with a water bottle usually results in her trying to catch the spray in her mouth – plus she still tends to step into the non-spill water bowl and then send it skidding across the floor a bit, we got her a kiddie pool today. I filled it less than half full and if the weather is pleasant tomorrow and the water has heated up enough, we’ll see if she likes to swim.

Meanwhile, we brought out the soft green weird toy you can see in the pics above. She LOVES it! She chews on it, shakes it, trying to break its neck, and had a delighted look on her face when one of her chews resulted in a squeak from it.

She still really doesn’t like the harness we got for her, but it’s a great way to control her on the leash at least a LITTLE bit, and the vet agreed she would get used to it soon.

She seems to be making a bit more sense of her new life today and is liking it, for the most part. I found her in her crate lying there happily. She is learning that even though she’s on the porch, she meets with Molly every day, for as long as Molly can stand, she sees neat stuff outside the porch, and that we come by on a regular basis to take her out for a walk, bring her food and toys, and sit and play with her.

We’re very happy with her progress. We are exhausted each night after tending to the puppy (and our other animals and chores) all day. She let me sleep until almost 7 this morning. And I REALLY feel better right now after we all had our naps….

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May 14, 2017 · 6:33 pm

Amber – Take 2

We made two trips to PetCo in Fort Smith today. The first time we THOUGHT we had a crate, but it turned out to be a “Dog Barn” with an open front, which would negate the idea of crate training, which starts tonight….  You can see Sweet Amber lying down BESIDE the crate. This is the only time she was quiet and still today.

 

 

This is a regular rubber welcome mat. Amber likes it.

 

I barracaded the porch screens, trying to protect them from Amber. So far, it has worked!  I tried to sweep the porch. Amber thought it was a LOVELY game, and proceeded to jump on the end of the broom and then chew it. I finally put her on the deck on the leash out there while I finished sweeping, and then mopping the floor.

 

This is part of the barracade to protect the screens.

The barracade continues.

 

I taped down a wee pad over a spot where she had peed earlier. She decided to try to chew on the pad. I squirted her with a water bottle and she finally quit. I don’t know if this will last or not, but it’s worth a try. The trash can is a combination toy and hidey-hole for Amber. Sometimes she rolls it around and other times she climbs into it. THEN she peed between the trash can and the wall….

I mopped things up again and then tried to get some pics with Amber playing with some of her toys. She LOVES to chew. Our other dogs weren’t really ‘playing dogs,’ so we have a bunch of different toys to hopefully entice her to chew on THEM rather than the tabs on the back of my shoes, the edges of my jeans,  or whatever else she can find.

Yesterday we started getting serious about dog-proofing the porch and the tiled area in the house, where we put up a gate. It’s amazing how much ‘stuff’ we have down where she can get into it, dump it over on the floor or on herself, or get hurt with it. We also have stuff hanging from hooks that she would LOVE to pull down….

Today’s project (other than buying a bunch of stuff at PetCo) was to make a dog run. We now have a 100+ foot dog run where we can clip her onto it and she can run from one end of it to the other and back again, not getting hurt or getting into anything. I’ll try to get pics of her on the run tomorrow.

 

This is Amber after she took the non-spill water bowl, stuck a foot in it, and tried to slide it across the floor, over and over. Obviously not non-spill, she spread water all over the floor I just mopped, ran out of water, and pooped herself out. POOR Baby! You can see the harness we got. She doesn’t like it much, and keeps stopping and kicking at herself like she had fleas, trying to get it off. I think in another day or so she won’t notice she has it on.

 

This is Amber on the long leash we have hanging from the dining area window onto the deck. We have it pretty short right now so she won’t get tangled up in the chairs on the deck.  Now she can be on the deck with us, or on the run when outside, if she’s not on the leash taking a walk around the house, out to the shop and the garden, etc. with me. So far, she really doesn’t want to go up or down steps, but with a lot of ‘encouragement,’ she does it.

Smoke whapped her in the face twice in succession. Abby hissed and wanted to go back outside. Molly spent some time with her on the porch. When she came in, she went straight to her bed for a nap.

I understand exactly how she feels.

We got a barking deterrent for Amber, since she goes pretty much nonstop. Her barking is loud, too, grating on our nerves. We didn’t want to spend a fortune, and we didn’t like the idea of shocking her, so we got what my husband has labeled, “The popeil bark discourager.” Do you remember all the products by the Popeil Company? I don’t thing ANYTHING they made actually did what they said it would do….

Anyway, you put the battery in it and locate it anywhere within 25 feet of the dog. When the dog barks, a red light goes on. At that time, it’s supposed to make a high-pitched sound only heard by animals. It’s supposed to be a sound animals don’t like, so they stop barking. Maybe Amber is intelligence-challenged, or isn’t making the connection between her barking and the sound supposedly coming from the discourager, but it isn’t working yet…

We’re all making lots of adjustments in learning to live together. She’s definitely making the days fly by for us, and helping us to heal the hole in our hearts left by Bambi.

Tomorrow – 1st trip to the vet!

 

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May 13, 2017 · 9:51 am

Fingers Crossed

123RF.com

We’re taking a road trip today to see if we can find a new puppy for our family.

My husband and I learned a long time ago – the hard way – that if we get a new puppy quickly, particularly when we feel our guts have been ripped out by the loss of a treasured pet, we are FORCED to reach out to meet the needs of a new little animal, forced to react, forced to hug, feed, water, walk, and with that new bond, we start to heal. We’re still really sad, and will miss Bambi, of course, forever, but we don’t go deep inside ourselves – morose – shutting everything and everyone out.

We are hopeful that we will bring home a sister for Molly, our cocker spaniel/schnauzer cross. Molly is constantly looking for her brother Bambi, and there is no way to explain to her why he is no longer here. We’re hoping that a new addition to the family will give us all new focus, bringing us all closer to heal together while welcoming a new face.

I would adopt most ANY animal, if left to myself, ending up in the newspaper as the crazy woman on the hill who has a gazillion animals. My husband is a harder sell, and he will make the decision today. It’s his turn. I chose Smoke, our newest adoption, a cat who has added a lot of richness to the family. It’s his turn to NAME her, too. I gave him a list of names I had come up with to consider, but we’ll need to see her first, and then he’ll decide.

If we’re successful, I’ll post pics of our new fur baby later today.

Fingers crossed.

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