What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

[minkee]

Sanna don't tell me you've forgotten the bad bits already

[Sanna]

Hell no but somehow cuuuute puppies seem to override the awful memories how's Breeze doing now minkee?

[Sweetie's Human]

I never got the 'bad' bits as Sweetie was 6 when we got her (don't worry - it's not all roses!) so I'll just keep swooning happily over puppy pictures!

[Erica]

Ah, well, they are already very soft mouthed. They were very nibbly but I never got past "Huh, there are teeth on my skin." Not a single dent, sorry!

I'm sure there will be horror stories eventually though!

Now I'm off to do paperwork and then head home. Puppies had a big day yesterday (grooming and vet in the same day, me oh my!) so hopefully he'll be tired still.

[Nettle]

She did take scrapings and said we'll get a phone call with the results.
We'll most probably try and get her some lavender oil, no matter the diagnoses, because she certainly is an itchy girl.

The strange thing with the lab was, he wasnt young, the owner said he was around 9, and he was definitely grey around the muzzle. I've never seen a male dog react like that to her, even when she was in season. It was pretty weird really. Especially for an older dog.

In that case he may have prostate trouble. It's very common in older male dogs, whether entire or not, and it can cause some visuals.

[gwd]

Oh my.............oodles of poodles! I'm having puppy cravings. Please, tell me a quick horror story as a cautionary tale!

Erica, I think he's just adorable. More, MORE pic's!

[emmabeth]

More Poodle pics!

I am recovering from a week (well nearly, sat/sun/mon and then wed/thurs/friday) of entertaining friend, her daughter and their labrador puppy.

Reggie puppy (nearly 5 months) is the CALMEST puppy in the world, to the point where I initially worried there was something wrong with him, but there really isn't, he is just THAT calm! It doesnt help that this week I was going out for walks with him and Womble, and the direct comparison is ridiculous. Reggie is the steady dependable John Deere tractor to Wombles thoroughly outrageous Ferrari! Reg took one look at Womble chasing swallows (and giving them a serious run for their money!) and went 'nope. thats just silly' and plodded on!

On the slightly smug side, am glad i am not the only one who has a pup who is a demon for swiping things and eating them, Reg scored a bag full of bread rolls and countless plates of cat food! My dad liked him, lots of 'why isn't your black puppy like THIS black puppy' - the concept that 'this one' is a show bred labrador and THAT one is a saluki bred lurcher is entirely lost on my Dad!

Rocky, Dilly and Kelda all went for walks with Reggie as well, very cute watching Reggie sidle up to Kel and say 'i rather like you tall lady, I will walk beside you' and Kelda sneakily speeding up her walk to a slow jog that was just too fast for puppy to maintain - shes NOT a fan of puppies, but v polite about it!

Reggies socialisation is going so well, he's actually been on holiday for a fortnight with his mum and her daughter, staying in several places in wales, hes done beaches, met cows, sheep and horses, countless hours on the road travelling well, seen tractors, two RAF Hawk jets flying VERY low over us doing some silly zoomy shizzle, banking steeply and chasing each other, been in various pubs, slept in five or six different houses, met a variety of cats and eaten so many different kinds of poo he is now a poo expert! Am v proud of friend and pup, he already IS the most bombproof puppy in the world!

[Erica]

Internet is being verrrryyy slow so pictures will have to wait until to tomorrow.

Delta whined a bit every time I started driving, but within a minute or so he'd turn around a few times, plop down, and fall asleep. I would post pictures but my computer literally will not load a single thing so I can't even grab them off of where they already are. If you go to my puppy blog the pictures are there! (There are also a couple swear words; if that kind of thing bothers you don't scroll down too far.) I'll also start a thread for pix of him when the internet isn't slow as molasses.

So basically, the drive back down from NJ was very easy. Labor Day traffic turned a "7.5 hours without traffic" drive into a good 11 hours yesterday. Today, with potty breaks for him, it took...10 hours. I started off stopping every 45 minutes, except he wasn't pottying every time, so we were able to drive 1.5 hours at a time no problem. He only likes his water out of a stainless steel bowl for now. Honestly that's the most annoying thing he's done so far so sorry I can't provide horror stories!

We got home, I gave Delta a chance to potty, then we let Opal out. He was a bit scared of her at first, but quickly got over it. Then it was dinner time for puppy, but he didn't eat much. If he's not hungry at breakfast tomorrow I'll start worrying, but today was very stressful for him, I'm sure, and that's probably affected his appetite. After we played in the yard a bit, he took a nap, then interacted with Opal some more. She is intrigued by him, but neither of them are overly obsessing over the other. Very promising. He fell asleep again quickly, and I'm about to do the same, haha!

Little Wing the cat was not at all sure what was in my mom's lap when she first saw him. She started walking over, I started giving him treats for being calm around kitty (something I want to start from day one!), and then she realized, "Sh--! That's a dog!" puffed up, and slunk away. Poor kitten, I will have to spend some extra time with her.

We'll see how meeting Marble goes tomorrow.

[DianeLDL]

Erica,

Congratulations on Mr. Delta. Lovely photos of all the pups.

Glad the drive home went well. Also, happy that Opal handled it all well, too.

Now, it will be getting to know you time and learn Delta's quirks.

Maybe, as Emmabeth did with Womble, start a new thread on Mr. Delta once your computer is up and working.

Once again, congratulations, and looking forward to more stories and photos.

Diane

[ClareMarsh]

Yay Erica. I'm going to be totally fascinated by Delta's development as I have almost no experience, real life or 'tinterweb based, of standard poodles. I was struck by how unpuppy like they looked and also by how calm they were around you. They seemed quite thoughtful also, which I know from Ted is both a blessing and a curse

I've posted in the lady dog and being on heat thread but Ella came into season on Thursday. So far, apart from separating them when I'm not in the room and stopping what I'm doing when they're playing so I can focus on watching them nothing has really had to change. But of course it's early days (day 4) but am glad Ted knows his stuff enough to know there's nothing doing right now

[MPbandmom]

Great pictures Erica. I too was struck at how much they looked like little adult dogs as opposed to puppish. But it may have just been the way the pictures were.

Interesting comments from OH lately. He attended a scootering workshop with me which was attended by many from the sammy club. I was aware that several of the many have temperaments that I have been told are not typical of the breed. My husband came away from that encounter with the opinion that "those dogs are just as crazy as ours." Not a good initial impression for him of a potential future pet.

With our two, he has been walking Sirius, because she is generally the easier one to manage and he has been learning how to distract her from things with treats, and she just generally has him wrapped around her paws. He doesn't take particularly well to her moments of extreme excitement or arousal though and those have been rather frequent recently as our quiet walks have been in areas with plentiful deer and the occasional horse and rider passing by.

The dogs are getting a bit better about the deer, since they haven't been able to actually take off in hot pursuit, but it is still very exciting for them to see deer. Sky pretty much spends her whole time while walking at the battlefield in tracking mode. The quiet park across town isn't much better as we have had several close encounters with deer there recently too. Sirius is a bit more hit or miss, as in "oh wait, there is a marvelous smell away over there that I just have to check out right this instant." Or, "lookie, lookie! There are deer over there!"

Those kinds of things give my husband enough grief with her, but we have had a couple of recent encounters that yesterday got him to the point where he said he thought this whole rescue dog thing was a bad idea. The first issue was the spotting of horse and rider. That was arousing enough, but yesterday, we spotted horse and rider and dalmatian alongside. The rider was kind enough to stop and wait for us to pass and Sky passed fairly well. Sirius did not. For her the ideal would have been to have her stop and feed her treats while the horse and dog passed, but that isn't how things worked out. The dalmatian's behavior was excellent.

Very shortly after this encounter we found ourselves being approached by an oncoming jogger with a dog. Jogger and dog dodged to the horse trail, which would have been our tactic had she not gone that direction. However, jogger continued jogging with dog. Dogs running are extremely arousing to Sirius. Dogs coming towards her are extremely arousing to Sirius. The combination so closely after the sighting of the horse, rider and dog was really horrible timing. I didn't see Sirius' full response because she an OH were behind me and I was having to focus a lot of attention on Sky and keeping her from freaking out. (She was doing a lot of "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, whatever will I do?" anxious whining and threatening to dash all about in random directions.) I did hear the angry junk yard guard dog vocalizations and sounds of OH struggling to keep a grip on her and keep her semi under control.

I had commented that this wouldn't end well, when I spotted the jogger and dog, but that was the first time OH had experienced Sirius' reaction to joggers running dogs, and that is what lead to his comment that he thinks the rescue dog thing is a bad idea.

[gwd]

If you go to my puppy blog the pictures are there!

Ha! I'm still going to weigh in on the collar even thought you didn't ask for opinions. I think you'll appreciate the benefits of a very narrow rolled collar for every day wear. I keep one on my dogs for their tags. I know opal has a wider nylon collar but with coated breeds, the narrower the better.......... otherwise it causes mats.

[Sweetie's Human]

OMG I just looked at your blog Erica. He is gorgeous! I agree with the others though - he just looks like a little version of a fully grown poodle. Maybe the breed just looks less 'puppyish' - I always expect them to be a bit more round . He's very striking.

I agree with you on the harness and collar combo. Not that it's anyone's business and I'd rile to any comments about it (not GWD's advice about collar type so much, just the fact that you use both). Sweetie has a collar on constantly and it's there to hold her tags - almost like a necklace. It's so loose it could be slipped over her head with one hand. Harness goes on for walks and that's what the lead is attached to, but she also has her collar. Why would anyone comment on that?

[Nettle]

Pure ignorance never stopped anyone from offering an opinion.

[JudyN]

Last night, while reading before lights-out, I heard the distinctive sound of the cat flap rattling repeatedly - a sign that someone has left their chair too near it so Monty could get out, but not back in again. I mentioned it to OH, but Jasper immediately picked up on the 'there's something out there that needs dealing with' and came round my side of the bed, looking at the door. Rather than have him try to keep me in the room, I said 'let's go see what it is,' which worked, and we went along the landing to the top of the stairs. But of course, the prospect of meeting whatever might be downstairs was a bit scary, so he had a brief snark at me as I started to head downstairs - nothing much though, not even teeth on skin, and he stopped immediately when I told him to desist.

Monty was now sitting outside the door, having given up on the cat flap, and knowing that Jasper, in his heightened state, wouldn't give him a gentle welcome back into the house, I then had to manouvre J to where I could shut him out of the conservatory before opening the door into the garden, which of course stressed him more. By now Monty had disappeared, so I had the job of calling to a nearly deaf cat to let him know he could come in now... it's a good job he hadn't wandered far

Eventually Monty was back in the house, and slunk off upstairs without Jasper noticing, and Jasper settled down to sleep in the front room (which meant I had to leave the bedroom door open and get woken up every time DS2 (with his screwed sleep cycle) left his room and turned the landing light on ).