Visiting the Puppies

Week One

Week Three

Week Three

Ongoing

Sunday – Oct. 17, 1999
Monday – Oct. 18, 1999
Tuesday – Oct. 19, 1999
Wednesday – Oct. 20, 1999
Thursday – Oct. 21, 1999
Friday – Oct. 22, 1999
Saturday – Oct 23, 1999

Sleepy Day

Both Woodie and Pi are healthy again. Seems like any puppy nylabone they ate has either come up or gone out. It started raining last night and the temperature dropped. Today's been a cool, rainy day and the dogs are reacting with lots of sleep. It's kind of nice to have the house a little quieter.

Pi's been chasing her tail and nipping at her back legs. It's gotta be an anxiety thing. I've tried putting a bitter tasting dog training substance on her tail, but that doesn't discourage her from biting it. Maybe she'll grow out of it, but we'll talk to the vet about it. Tail chasing can be an obsessive behavior. They sometimes prescribe Prozac for it. That's all we need, a dog on Prozac.

Jumping When She Wants

Picard still can't jump on the sofa when she wants, but when she sees someone next door, she can go over the 18-inch fence like a champion show jumper. I'll have to get a taller fence. That's going to be necessary anyway. Jim G, the guy who cuts our lawn can't get his mower or trimmer around to parts of the yard where I've got the short fence. I'll get some 4-foot plastic fencing and set it up from the garage to the fence and from the house to the fence to keep the dogs out of trouble and allow Jim G to mow the lawn.

The fence has become a priority since Pi decided to jump the short fence and bark at something in back in the yard behind us. She was running around and I was afraid she'd figure out that part of the fence behind the garage is down. It was cheap wire and the no-neck kids who cut through mashed most of it down back there. The plastic fence should do the job until next spring when we'll get new fencing around the yard. We're going for the solid picket white plastic – Woodie won't see the neighbors and bark at them and the plastic is maintenance free.

I had both Woodie and Picard last night. Pi woke up about 4:15 and got Woodie up. We went out and then back to bed. She's making it later and later. I'll let Mary Ann take Woodie tonight. The two together get synergistic – one wakes up, wakes up the other, the other walks around and wants up, etc.

Picard Makes It Through the Night

I got up and hit the bathroom about 2:30 last night, or I should say this morning, and Pi stayed in bed. We both went back to sleep when I came back. She finally started to get antsy about 5:15 and we got up. I had to wake up Mary Ann and Woodie to get Woodie, but for all intents and purposes, Pi made it all night.

I went out and got fencing and 3/4-inch conduit from Home Depot. The conduit came in 10-foot lengths, so I just cut them in half and I'll use them to stake up the fencing. It's not a real barrier for someone determined, but it keeps Pi from jumping over it. I've got it set up so Jim G can get past both sections.

Catching Up

I've skipped a bunch of days and glossed over others because I haven't been able to make daily entries. The only way I could, prior to today, was to put the dogs in their crates and then come in my office. Some days I couldn't do that. So here's the news from the past week or so.

Pi's been improving. She recognizes her name now and knows that "No!" and "Hey!" are signals to stop doing what she's doing. Whether she obeys them is another matter. We don't have to keep a constant eye on her as much. She's pretty safe in the part of the house we've got blocked off by gates. She's still not allowed upstairs or in my office on her own, but she's learning.

We're still putting the eye drops in and she's reconciled to it as long as we do it a certain way. I get on my knees and pull Picard between my legs and have her sit. I then hold each eye open and put the drops in from behind. That seems to cause less anxiety for all around.

I found that she likes it when I whistle. She'll come up and try to see where the sound it coming from. I've encouraged that as another signal for "come." Mary Ann isn't too pleased with that since she can't whistle very well.

Picard is becoming more independent. It used to be that when Woodie came in from the yard, Pi would follow her. Now, Pi decides when she wants to come in. Some days, she'll run in like she's been trained for it all of her life. Other days – or even other parts of the same day – she pays no attention.

She doesn't resist going into her crate, but she doesn't go in voluntarily either. I had both of them in their crates for about three hours on Monday or Tuesday – whichever day it was that I went out and got the fencing and put it up [don't ask me to go back and look, since I've only approximated it in this log, the days blend together after the first five days with just dogs]. No accidents in the crate.

But, Pi still isn't absolutely reliable. I was busy Monday or Tuesday afternoon and ignored Pi. When I came out of the galley – I was washing dishes – I found a puddle by the back door. She tried to hold it, evidenced by the location, but just couldn't. No use punishing her since I didn't catch her in the act. We all went out and then I came in and cleaned up. She shows she wants out, it's just that she can't hold it very long. I suppose she won't be fully reliable until she at least a year. Golly, only eight more months to go.

The "attacks" on Mary Ann have all but stopped. Part of the problem is that Pi get wound and starts jumping at Mary Ann's floppy clothing. Mary Ann pushes Pi away and Pi thinks its a game and comes back with renewed vigor. Mary Ann's got to react more sternly, but they're both learning.

I'm supposed to go out to Great Northern today and sign us up for Puppy Preschool at PetsMart. We'd have preferred to go to Grace Cohera, but Grace no longer give puppy class – don't believe in 'em she says. Too bad. We'll go to PetsMart for preschool and then take Pi to Grace's obedience classes later in the year in Independence.

Pi slept through the night last night, though she will wake up and bark at strange sounds. She gets fussy around 4 a.m. and throws herself around the bed, but she eventually settles in. She barks when the alarm in Mary Ann's room goes off.

I put them in their crates today at 7:15 to simulate my going to work. Pi cried a bit and I came in and told her "No!" and then "left" again. After she was quit for about a minute, I came back in and went into my room to do some web page stuff. They were quiet until about 10:30 when Pi began whimpering. I waited for a break in it – I don't want to encourage her thinking that whimpering will be rewarded – and then went out and let them out. I took them out and she peed for a long time. We'll try again tomorrow.

After the bathroom break, I brought them into my office. I put Woodie behind me on my chair – her favorite spot – and then watched Pi roam around exploring. She was pretty good. There's really too much stuff for her to get into trouble with in here – lots of electrical chords, boxes, trash cans, books, and a bunch of other junk I have on the floor – but she stayed away from most of it and a "no" kept here away from the rest. She doesn't like being cooped up – I've got a gate across the doorway – but she resigned to the inevitable. She chased here tail a bit and dug at the carpet and then decided to go to sleep. She crawled under the drawers of my desk's turnaround – it's a six-foot executive desk with a secretarial turnaround for a typewriter – and is asleep.

She's due for her eyedroppers. I'll have them hit the yard, I'll give her the drops, and then I'll crate them again so I can get ready to go do some errands.

By the way, I was growing a beard since my vacation started. It came off on Monday. First, I don't look good in one, second, it itched.

Mary Ann broke Woodie's water bowl yesterday and that gave me an excuse to go to PetsMart today to get another bowl and to sign her and Picard up for puppy preschool class. The first session is tomorrow at 6:30 p.m., but you don't bring your pup – probably an overview of what they'll be doing, what kind of collars they need, the types of leads, and suchlike administrivia. It was $40 for six sessions. That's not really that much per session.

Picard did well for both of her extended sessions in the crate. I hope she'll be able to hold out for four hours when I go back to work. I'll probably crate her and Woodie between 7:15 and 7:30 and then come home at 11:30 on my lunch hour. That will give them about an hour out of the crates. They go back in about 12:30 and I'll be home by 4:30. That's four hours each time. I'll be getting a crummy parking spot when I get back after lunch, but that can't be helped.

I figure I'll keep up the lunchtime visits until she's about six months and then taper them off.

I have to say that I am looking forward to going back to work. Sitting around all day watching dogs play, sleep, and fight is not exactly mentally stimulating. I've got some books on tape to finish out as well as some old radio shows [Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade]. I'm not really looking forward to going back to NCC per se, but having some intellectual stimulation will help.

I think tomorrow I'll move paver over the mud left when the garage was built and work with Pi on being on leash.

I brought her into the office just now and all she's done is chase her tail. Right now I'm holding her on my lap while trying to type this. I think she's going to sleep, but it doesn't make typing much easier. More tomorrow.

Eyedrops, Spotted Rump, and Crazy for Sneezes

When we last took Picard to the vet, I mentioned that her eyelids looked a little red. The vet stained her eyes to check for lesions and didn't find any. He did say that here tear ducts were blocked since none of the dye showed up in her nasal passages. He gave us some cortisone eyedrops for her. The drops could open up her tear ducts, if they don't, there are other alternatives [I think I mentioned them in a previous entry]. Anyway, the drops don't seem to be working. If anything, they're making her eyes look worse since the tears and drops spread beyond her eye and discolor the fur around them. She goes to the vet on Monday. We'll talk to the vet then.

What I thought was a grease spot on her right hip, a tiny discolored dot, turns out to be a bit of colored coat. She's got about six brindle hairs there.

She's growing by leaps and bounds, but still is relatively clueless about jumping onto the sofa. When she gets excited, she can leap onto it, but if she thinks about it, she put her front paws on the sofa and then can't jump up without a boost. We know she can jump. Sometimes when Woodie's on the sofa or love seat and Pi wants to get at her, she'll attempt to jump, but since she's thinking about it, all she manages to do is leap about a foot in the air without any forward momentum. It's not a jump, where her body is vertical, it's more like she pops straight up off of the ground like a sprinbok gazelle.

For some reason she gets excited by sneezes. I sneezed last night and she jumped into my lap and went after my mouth. She even "bit" me. It wasn't a bite, more like she was trying to get a grip on where the sneeze sound came from. But, she did use her mouth, so she got a scolding. She's beginning to react to them. After I told her "no" and what a bad girl she was, she curled up next to me and hid her face under my thigh.

Picard routinely gets through the night now. I had both her an Woodie last night. Too much dog. I woke up with a temperature of about 58 degrees because she and Woodie had somehow managed to bunch the blanket under themselves.

I moved the pavers from where I was storing them on the patio to the mud flat that was left when the garage was built. They covered the muddy area with a few left over to put beside the garage. Next Spring we'll regrade the back yard and patio and figure out where we want the pavers.

Got a call yesterday. The Thursday night puppy preschool class at PetsMart was cancelled due to insuffient registrees. There are other classes and the person hosting them will give us a call next week about alternatives.

Dry Runs, Laundry, and an Accident That's My Fault

Mary Ann and I tried a dry run for Monday. I got up with the dogs and fed them and then took them upstairs after Mary Ann was out of the shower. We put the on her bed while I left the room. I ironed a couple of shirts [Mary Ann says that's my favorite hobby]. What I'll do on Monday is take my shower and such. What we'll do when she has to leave is close all of the doors upstairs except for the room I'm in and gate off the stairs. They can play with toys in the hallway while I finish getting ready. That all means that I'll have to have my clothes pressed prior to that. Not too much of a change.

We came back downstairs and waited until Mary Ann left and then I took them out. It turns out that I called Picard back in too soon. While I was making coffee she dropped a load of fudge in the dining room. I didn't find it until a couple of minutes later. Can't punish her since I didn't catch her in the act. I picked it up, sanitized the spot, and deodorized the room. That Bissell Spot Lifter came in handy again.

I've been letting Picard into my office. Lots of "no"s, but she hasn't gotten into trouble. Right now she and Woodie are asleep under my chair.

I'm doing about 83 pounds of my laundry today, preparing for going back to work.

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