Going with the flow

 

In the corner of the yard, during Ember's "last call" backyard time on Thursday, The Prisoner crouches on the corner of the fence.  Look out squirrels, the mighty hunter is close to where you chatter!

Prisoner is good at this "going with the flow" thing.  He will take his breakfast downstairs in the laundry room suite, or outside al fresco on the deck, even at times with mom holding the dish while he perches on the rail.  As long as he gets fed, he's OK.

Mom got up for the "middle of the night" potty break for Ember a little too early, because by the time mom woke to check in the 3 a.m. hour, a familiar not so pleasant odor was invading the senses.  

Mom was tempted to go rush and take care of it right that second but opted instead to take her shower and dress before going down.  It gave her the little extra edge to keep her calm as we started the day with a puppy who had earned her first (at my house) bath... maybe even first in her life, I don't know.

We went outside to give her a chance to finish the job before that, and to also check and see how dirty she was.  Then clean out the crate while she played, feed her breakfast, and interrupt breakfast once the edge of hunger was off to have that bath.  

Mom has some bath gloves for the purpose, and they worked well.  Puppy did not strip them off of mom. She was polite about letting go when asked.

In fact, puppy did pretty well.  She did not panic over the bath, and now the towels used in the process of all the cleanup have been laundered.  

It was over an hour earlier than our normal time, but we went on with the routine.  The Prisoner had to "go with the flow" and let Ember have her breakfast first.  We had some indoor play time, since the sun was not yet up.  Then mom enticed Emmy into her crate, not just to test that it had been adequately cleaned but for "safe passage for kitty".

That turned into a puppy nap time, and started typing this blog!

Here's the puppy drying off after her bath.

She smelled so good, and when she dried off, her coat was so soft!

After puppy nap #1, we went out on a "big girl leash walk" around the block.  During this walk we encountered a neighbor named Chad.  He had just finished walking his two dogs, Husker and _____.  He has seeded his backyard, so is having to leash walk them until the grass gets a good start.

Barnaby (rough coated collie) and Bill (human) came by as Chad and I were chatting about dogs and their rearing and quirks.  Barnaby and Ember greeted one another nicely.  I took note that Barnaby doesn't rough-house with Ember, he tolerates her licks and licks her back.  Carl is a great believer in the rough housing.  And once you get Ember going, it takes an effort to calm her down.  I shall be keeping a close eye on that in future / ongoing visits.

Puppy nap #2 followed the walk.  During puppy nap #2 I nodded off for a few minutes myself.  I figured I needed that worse than I needed to weed.  The result was that I tried to pull sticky William after Ember got up from her nap.  When I do yard work, it gets the puppy worked up.  If I let her pick part of the weeds or branches to play with while I put the rest in the trash cans, it seems to work better.  Puppy:  distract!

Once calmed down, I got out the harness, and surprise:  with the sizing adjustments I had made, and it being attempt #3 over 3 separate days, successfully buckled it on without her mouth being clamped on the chest strap!

We took the new vest on a test drive around the big block, The obligatory selfie in the car, with disheveled dog-mom and puppy looking attentive.  You really can't see the pretty pink, but you can see the reflective chest strap.

I left the harness on for a while just being around at home after we got back.  She proved that bodily functions work without interference.  

Before puppy nap #3 (now in progress), I took it off her.  We'll see if it's less of a big deal to get it on next time.

And now I'm headed to have mini-human nap #2!

Life is good!  Spark on!

Toys and their spaces

For every plaything, there is a "spot".  Ember has decided that cardboard tubes mommy gives her to chew to destruction should be played with in this spot.  Different toys are for the staircase, or the cat tree, the TV room, or the parlor... and of course, there are special toys for outside!

Bunny goes in the crate or in the car as a comfort toy.  I find it endearing that in the morning or after a nap, as soon as we come back inside from our potty opportunity, Ember "rescues" bunny from the den, and takes him to whatever room she (or Mommy) has chosen to play in.

Thursday was a good day!  No overnight accidents, Mommy found the overnight poos to clean up, got a little yard cleanup done, with Emmy's help, and stopped before demon puppy came out in her.

She is responding to "let go" command better, along with a treat.  When she has hold of your wrist, and you try to pick her up with your other hand, you're asking to start a dog fight.  She doesn't know what else to do! 

I managed to be calmer in issuing "let go", and offered the treat right away, as a trade:  you let go, you get the treat.  Also, I reintroduced the house lead.  I had let her off it for a couple of days, but that left me with fewer options in getting her calmed down.  She's getting to be a bit big for the scoop a puppy and get her to listen to mommy's heartbeat, so we've moved on to treat swap.  Wouldn't you rather have a treat than feel scared and fight?

No broken skin or blood today!  A calmer puppy, who took a nap by the couch while mommy nodded off in the chair in the photo in the 3 p.m. hour.

Today's adventures included attempting to get her into her new harness, and discovering she may still be a bit small for it.  It's a size medium that purports to be for dogs 26-44 pounds, and I haven't tried to weigh her since that last vet visit, when she came in at 23.4 pounds.  Soon, though.  I managed to get in on her and buckled, but she could still grab the chest strap with her teeth.  I called it a success, unbuckled, praised her when she "let go", and we'll keep trying as appropriate.

I have also acquired a puppy life vest in the hopes of getting her to get on a kayak with me sometime this summer, but the first attempt at sizing it onto her was not successful (this was before the vest arrived), and I have put it away for now.  The harness is a higher priority.

Another adventure was a short car ride to the gas station.  Ember had not been through this exercise with me, anyway.  That was really why I wanted to get her in the vest:  for the car ride, to see if it helped her stay calmer?  Another day, another adventure.  With a little one, patience and repetition will lead to eventual success. 

Life is still good.  Spark on!

 

Work in progress

 The woodpecker situation, work in progress

At this point in the process, Jeremy the handyman had removed three smallish pieces of the siding and was getting the color match for the paint.  

Angel/demon puppy report

Overnight Miss Emmy was the little angel.  She quietly came out, I quietly waited on her system to process, and we got the mostly liquid poo out such that she didn't have to urgently go in her crate.  The morning result is that it's back to a soft serve, rather than soupy consistency.  We continue to monitor.  

After her big girl leash walk (Angel puppy), the backyard play puppy turned into the demon doggy.  I always take her to the back yard after the leash walk unless she used the leash walk for eliminations, too.  Demon puppy kept going after my pants legs, ankles and hamstring levels.  I swear this dog's instincts to bring down bigger game are excellent.  I'm sorry to report that I am NOT good at staying calm when nipped.  I can usually calm down after, but a loud "Ouch" has to sound like a win to a squeaky toy trained puppy, right?

Anyhow, I was washing and bandaging a hand, and noticed I'd got blood on my white t-shirt... so I changed it before Jeremy got here.  No sense alarming the service people.  😆

Ember was calm and quiet in her den.  She knows she "hurt mommy", but I'm sure she thought she was defending herself in a wrestling match as mommy kept pulling against her tugs.  One of these days I will "get it right", I keep telling myself.  And sometimes I do.  One of the dog training videos I watched talked about how many things affect a puppy's tendency to nip.  Among them is the schedule, i.e. time of day, relative to meals, exercise, and need for a nap.  I can see that in her.  When she's tired, hungry, or overexcited... or any overlap of the three, watch out.  I think I have tended to over rather than under exercise her, so that, too, can be a contributing factor to "tired".

Another training video I caught talked about the dog emotional state of "overexcited", and this seems to match my Miss Emmy.  I'm not sure if this is what they call a reactive dog or not.  I only know it has to be resolved before she grows up!

To be fair, after that incident this morning, she was mostly angel puppy all day long.  We even napped together in the 3 p.m. hour before her Auntie Alicia came over and helped with our afternoon leash walk.

Back to the siding repair, the after photos

Looks nice, doesn't it?  Jeremy left me a quart of the touch up paint in case it's needed.  I mean, after all, who else is going to use such a small amount?

That's Jeremy documenting his work.  I wrote them a check. Turned out with materials and labor to over $900.  Remember the initial estimate was $550, for labor alone.  The materials were siding, paint and I presume insulation.  

I committed to the shower replacement.

This is the time of year when I generally announce that I'm keeping the economy going single-handed.  Because I have already committed to that landscaping, too.  I gave them the down-payment for the shower.  The landscapers have not asked for theirs yet, nor have they given me firm dates.  But the bottom line is that Miss Emmy and I will have a lot of disruption to routine over the rest of Spring and into the Summer.

It may be stress, but it's the "good" kind of stress!

Life is good.  Spark on!

Pupsickle and such

Monday another Chewy package arrived.  I had ordered a puppy life jacket for Ember.  I made the mistake of showing it to her and attempting to dress her in it to check the size.  She was having none of it, and it triggered a "demon puppy" period for a while.  I put it away to "try again later".  Trying too many new things at once is not something she handles well.

I was also lured in by an ad. In this case, it lived up to its advertising.  I popped the filling into the Pup Sickle toy, smearing some peanut butter on its top.  Then I put it in Ember's den.  She followed the toy in and started licking away.  She was quiet for quite some time while I worked on upping my levels of puppy proofing yet again.

The downside is that I am pretty sure it was the pre-made "pop" filling that gave my puppy diarrhea, and I'm still cleaning up after her on Tuesday at 6 p.m.!  There is this puzzle of a puppy that knows this belongs outside but can't make it there when the urgency hits!  Once today it was on tile, and once on carpet.  

And why, you may ask, am I needed to up the level of puppy proofing?  Because the little big paws can now top the edge of the dining room table.  They can reach, but not yet top the kitchen counter.  

When I started pulling the puzzles out to fill for her dinner, she abandoned the Pup Sickle and asked to come out and supervise.

Look how long this 14-week-old is!

I kept trying to get Miss Emmy outside in hopes that her digestive system would work on eliminations of the solid kind before the predicted rainstorms.  We made it!  At long last, after she'd already ingested her supper, or most of it.

I zapped my little entree for supper, and she willingly went back into her den.  I turned on her dog music and turned off the lights.  I will go back down when I'm ready for bedtime eye drops (that I store in the 'fridge), to give her a "last call" before the midnight outing.  We're in a tornado watch Monday until 11 p.m., though, so I'm prepared for the possibility she could decline.  

As it turned out, I didn't have the patience to outwait her in that "last call", and this was a mistake.  When I got up to my 12:30 a.m. alarm, and opened my bedroom door, the odor of the puppy with diarrhea hit hard.  I was up for about an hour cleaning up while she played fairly politely.  Between the loose stools and her having to be kenneled for the time I went to workout, she was in a crummy mood all day.  "Demon puppy" kept going after my shoes, my wrist, slipped and got my hand, etc.  Sigh.  

Tuesday afternoon, she attacked the underside of my chair.  This one, the one she tried to sneak into in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday.  I had just turned around for a minute to sip my coffee!  Those training videos that say if you can't keep two eyes on the puppy, put them in their den were not kidding!

Having got away with that, she next attempted to take over the couch.  I called a halt and picked her up and put her on my lap:  only in this chair when you're with Mommy!

After the mid-afternoon attack on the chair, I sent her to her safe space while I did "repairs" of the underside, essentially cutting off some of the fiberglass material.

On the lighter side, from Monday:

Here's the new kitchen faucet.  Luxury item, it looks much like my retired sister's in her "redone" kitchen.  It has a sprayer setting, and the head extends, for easier cleaning of the sink as well as "pots and pans" as the plumber said.  I don't think he has any idea how seldom I cook in anything larger than a single size... but I do sometimes, and especially when it comes to soup season, that could come in handy.

Wish me luck making it through the night, as I'm not sure of Ember's digestive health status... sleep with one ear open!

Tomorrow the handyman is coming back to do the permanent repair on the siding, and also the plumbing estimator will be coming to give me an estimate on replacing the tub/shower in the main bathroom with a walk-in shower, the kind with grab bars and a seat.  Hey, we have to plan for the future, as well as the present, and the part the plumber was going to order to repair the diverter is no longer available.  I guess my fixtures are officially considered "old" now.

Despite all this, Life is Good.  Spark on!

Sunday afternoon, Monday morning

 

The robins were out in force.  This chipper young fellow was singing his heart out on the backyard fence Sunday afternoon.

This was while Ember and I were out playing chase the ball.  She did her business, came inside and decided she needed den time, even though it was not yet suppertime.

Ember had a big day on Sunday.  We have introduced a new game related to getting The Prisoner safely inside when his schedule and Ember's don't quite dovetail with avoidance.  Ember goes "four paws in" to her den, and we close her in just long enough for Mommy to carry The Prisoner to the steps to the laundry room.  Prisoner goes about his business, Ember comes out to play or continue her lessons, or whatever.

On a late afternoon "big girl leash" walk, Ember met a man named Greg who has two big dogs (the dogs were not out with him), but he went to pet her, she rolled on her back and then nipped at him.  He was bleeding!  I felt so bad!  He shrugged it off... puppies, and "I should know better".  

Monday morning dawned foggy.  Our routine went fairly smoothly.  The cat got his breakfast, the puppy got hers, and mommy got hers as well, with the puppy being a good girl and not disturbing mommy while she ate!  Victory!  She got an extra blueberry for a reward.

We played some ball chase, mom did poo patrol for the overnight collections, and then Ember and mom went on a big girl leash walk.  During this walk we encountered Barnaby the rough-coated collie, and Bella, an aging looks like a yellow lab.  Bella was such a sweet girl, and I petted her while her daddy made a fuss over Ember. I know this is one of those TMI things, but mommy practically cheered:  this was the first time that Ember took a poo on a big girl leash walk!  And she was good about waiting for mommy to pick it up.

Despite my concerns expressed at puppy class, Ember for the most part does not pull at the leash.  Mom stops when she does.  And mom treats to get her started again.  She was pretty polite meeting Bella, although she kind of takes more liberties with Barnaby because she knows him and he's nice to her.  But he needed a longer walk than she did, so we parted ways.

Ember pulling the "Oliver" line, "Please can I have some more?"  Puppies always seem to be hungry.  Until they are not.  During Sunday morning puppy class, Ember decided she didn't care about the treats, she just wanted to play!  But we persevered.

The plumber is here now, he's replacing the kitchen faucet this morning, and the aerator on the wet bar sink.  He is putting a part on order for the upstairs main bath shower, and will let me know when it comes in.

Those are all items I had on my list before he got here, and other than that, he's doing a general check of the systems.

Ember is in her den, but I did let her out long enough to meet Jesse the plumber.  He likes big dogs, so that's always a good thing.  She went back in with a little whining and complaining off and on.  During one of her quiet spells I gave her a couple of kibbles and told her she was being a good puppy.

The Prisoner is inside, but immediately made himself invisible with the arrival of Jesse.  This is par for the course.

And that is life at the House of the Animals (as opposed to Animal House, the movie). Life is Good.  Spark on!

Weekend adventures

 

Saturday's culinary adventure:  a grape tomato.  It takes longer to conquer than a blueberry, and it's juicy inside.  This was her treat while Mommy was fixing her own salad, along with a cucumber slice, one slice of mushroom, and a tiny bite of lettuce.

Since Ember seems to have learned to lie quietly on the Muddy Mat, only needing the regular reminders that this is mommy's mat, not Ember's mat, I decided to start conditioning her to use a soft dog-bed, and hopefully teach her not to destroy it.  Carl was a bed-destroyer, so we shall see.  Today we got this far before Mom decided that the lesson was "good for today" and put the bed away.  See how soft and comfy this is, compared to the floor, Ember?  Wouldn't you like to have a bed like this for your forever bed?

Saturday Ember had a visit from cousin Carl, after he'd already had an outing at a nearby dog park.  They once again wore each other out, and in this case it only took about 20 minutes before the humans saw the signs and called it "done".

Ember was wearing her house line in the back yard and it wrapped Carl at times, which then "anchored" Ember.  Last week in Carl's yard neither wore a leash of any kind.  I'm thinking future visits with Carl will be the same:  no leash.

It is my hope that Ember won't be as wired for Puppy Preschool tomorrow as she was last Sunday.

After Carl left, I tucked Ember into her den, and went out on weed control duty.  Did a little over half an hour, tacking sticky William, Spanish needle, a few milk weed plants and two sizable thistles.  Then I decided I needed a bit of a break.

Sunday morning report

I have decided to graduate Ember from the house line.  I have not put it on her since late Saturday afternoon.  I wasn't really using it to extract her from places any more, going straight for collar when needed.  And it was just getting in the way.  So... no more house line.  Big girl leash when needed.

Puppy Preschool:  I was hoping that having been with Carl the day before she would calm down during puppy play time.  In fact, we had to watch her and Paisley closely, lest they get over excited.  Small breaks to calm down were enforced.  That worked much better.

We didn't poo on the floor this time.  No, no, instead we pulled on the leash so much wanting to play with the other puppies that we choked ourselves into vomiting.  At the end of class my question to the trainers was about how to work on leash pulling, and they gave me a couple of suggestions... like practicing inside and treating as we go, or possibly a peanut butter spoon for her to follow as we walk?  We shall see how this goes.

I also asked about when a puppy should have her first professional grooming.  They recommended that I ask the groomer about "puppy services" that focus more on getting used to the process, touch, etc., rather than a full grooming.  Sounds like a plan.

Ember had a fine time at class and is now chilling in her den while mommy recovers.  Monday's challenge will be a plumber here to inspect the systems in the house!

I think I read somewhere that this sleeping posture indicates she trusts me?  I've been allowing more napping outside the den, but then I get less done around the house, and things start piling up!  

Laundry, here I come!  That said, I'll wrap this one up.

Life is good!  Spark on!

Puppy antics

 

Hoarding toys on the stairs is just expanding the general idea of hoarding toys.  During rainy periods, the staircase becomes an exercise venue for the puppy.

I found a human artifact, and I'm seeing if I can destroy it before Mom comes to take it away.  Mom debated over whether she even wanted to take it away.  It's an old-fashioned map on paper, of our state's highways.  How old?  Our governors serve 6-year terms, I think.  This one has the photo of the third past governor.  (It did get rescued, by the way... we can't let her learn bad habits just because I don't particularly care about this item.)

This is a level 3 food puzzle, but Mom set it up so that Ember doesn't have to "unlock", only slide the little covers.  I'm thinking that might drop it to a level 2.  

Ember figured it out and got ALL the kibble hidden within.

As long as mom puts the chair on the deck, I should be allowed to swipe it, shouldn't I?  Besides, my cousin Carl has a chair all his own on HIS deck!

All these photos were from Friday.

Saturday morning

It was raining during the midnight potty break, and Ember showed signs of not wanting to hunt for a poo spot.  Mommy did the math in her head... she had a good poo at 7:30 p.m., she would probably last the night, so we came back in and went back to bed.

Mommy did not panic in the morning, but took her shower and fed the cat in the now cleaned up laundry room before taking Ember out for her morning drill.  Ahhh! The peace of routine.  A good pee/poo, and back inside for breakfast.  We're working on "drop it" as a command, as well as continuing with "off" and "let it go".

The first successes with "drop it" started to happen from the cat tree.  Drop the toy, get a treat!  How easy is that, Little One?

They moved to the staircase, with a couple of different toys.  We are working at it.

"Leave it" seems to work OK (for now) on outside walks and in the back yard with most things.

We are starting to have little hug sessions at the end of a "sit", "down", "stand" sequence, when mom is seated in a chair or on the couch.  Ember decides that she's done all three, and she needs to set us up for the eventual "off" command.  She's so wiley!  But mom has to admit she loves these "pet the puppy all over" things.  And then the "off" gets her a treat.

When I first got her, I didn't do a lot of lap-sitting sessions, mainly due to the nipping thing.  But as she has got better at responding to "let go" of mommy's clothes (or wrist, or shoes, or ankle), she gets a little more lap time.  And mommy gets the huggles that goes with lap time.

Ember was a good girl and stayed outside of her den all the way until mommy's breakfast was cooked.  Here she is anticipating her morning blueberry!

"See what a good girl I'm being, Mom?"

Life is good!  Spark on!