Bentley lives in San Francisco. So I originally thought this breeding would be by shipped semen from California to North Carolina. But it turned out that Bentley's owner had a trip planned to New York City that included bringing Bentley. Mandy must have heard this, as Mandy held off coming into season until right before Bentley was scheduled to fly to New York City. So ... road-trip!
But before we left, we had to estimate (by progesterone testing) the best date for a breeding. Hurricane Michael choose that time to hit North Carolina, shutting down NC State University in Raleigh where I go for repro services. Fortunately I knew of a repro vet in Richmond Virginia (Dr. Kolster) who does same-day progesterone testing. So Mandy and I did a day trip to Richmond as the hurricane hit North Carolina. (I live near the border between North Carolina and Virginia, so I was not affected by the hurricane as much as people further south.)
Once the progesterone results told us the estimated best breeding date, Mandy and I drove and stayed in northern New Jersey. Bentley and Annie came down from Manhattan and we met at the offices of Dr. Stora, a repro vet on Staten Island. Once Bentley caught a wiff of Mandy, he was ready! And Mandy, the little hussy, was equally willing, as you can see in this mp4 video (Mandy is in the blue harness):
I actually had to take Mandy outside shortly afterwards as Bentley was just getting so worked up and frustrated. We tried to let Mandy and Bentley breed naturally (with Dr. Stora's assistance), but Bentley was unable to make a tie. So Dr. Stora did an AI. (Think "turkey baster".)
I was really happy to hear that Mandy is pregnant. This is her last breeding opportunity. (Mandy just turned six years old, which is starting to get up there in years for her biological breeding clock.) Also I have had bad luck recently with three consecutive unsuccessful breedings with different girls of mine.
Estimated due date is around 18 November.
Unfortunately, the x-ray showed only one puppy. (When they did the ultrasound, they must have seen the same puppy from different angles; not two puppies.) This explains why Mandy has not been plumping up as I expected. I was worried that I might not be feeding her enough. The reality is that she only has one puppy. Since a singleton puppy does not have to share nutrients with siblings, a singleton puppy is almost always too large to free whelp. So Mandy will be having a scheduled c-section. Exactly when this will be scheduled is still to be determined.
With the due date rapidly approaching, I spent today getting Mandy's welping box ready. (It really is the "nursery", as I never have had any puppies born in it. But because of its configuration, it is called a "whelping box".) First I had to move all the piles of books - unread, half-read, and books that I like to re-read - away from my bed, where they somehow seem to migrate. Then I washed down with a bleach solution all surfaces that the puppy will either come into contact with or be near. (This included the whelping box.) Here is Mandy checking out the welping box now next to my bed.
The repro vets tell me that they will do the c-section tomorrow, no matter what Mandy's progesterone number is. Sometime singleton puppies are so comfortable, that they do not signal to the mother (by a drop in progesterone) that they are ready to come out!
Around 11 am I got a phone call informing me that Mandy would be having her c-section starting at 1:30 pm, and asking that I be in the waiting room at that time in case they needed to consult with me. Around 1:50 pm, one of the vets came out and told me that the puppy was a girl, that both Mandy and puppy were doing find, and that they were just closing Mandy up.
A while later I got my first look at the puppy. Besides trying to get the puppy to nurse to get that important "first milk" (colostrum) that has lots of maternal antibodies, the vets tube fed the puppy some plasma (which also has antibodies) from a donor dog. For approximately twelve hours, a puppy's gut will allow large antibody molecules to pass into the puppy's blood stream. After that, the gut closes and antibodies can not get through. This is why it is important for a puppy to nurse soon after birth.
We spent the rest of the afternoon getting the puppy to nurse. Here are more pictures of the puppy: photo1 and photo2. We had to wrestle Mandy to her side, then lay on the floor holding the puppy up against a teat. Finally the vets were satisfied that the puppy had nursed sufficiently and released us.
Mandy, the puppy, and I got home after dark. After weighing the puppy (188 grams), I wrestled Mandy to her side and got the puppy to nurse. Now the puppy is sleeping up against Mandy. I expect my sleep to be interrupted several times tonight getting the puppy to nurse.
Sometime this morning the puppy seemed to figure out this "nursing thing". Since then I have not had to do much more than point the puppy back to Mandy when the puppy started crawling in the wrong direction. The puppy's belly looks to be fat and full of milk. And this afternoon, I noticed that the constant whimpering had (mercifully) stopped.
Here is a picture of the puppy while she is nursing that shows her size. The red coloring in the picture is from my heat lamp that is over the whelping box.
Mandy has now totally accepted the puppy. Other than quick runs outdoors to do her potty business, Mandy is constantly in the whelping box licking and cuddling her puppy. I have to feed Mandy in the whelping box and bring her water, otherwise she would starve and dehydrate herself.
You will note that I did not have the heat lamp on when I took these pictures. I love my radiant floor heating, but it is not something that you can adjust quickly. You have to raise the thermostat just a few degrees, then let the floor come up to that temperature, then wait a few hours to see how it feels, then repeat as necessary. It you overshoot the mark, you can make the indoors be unbearably hot. I now think I have raised the temperature to where I want it. Because puppies can not generate their own internal body heat until around three weeks of age, and because you do not want them to get a chill which can be deadly, you want their room to be as warm as possible. But not too warm! Otherwise the mother will not want to be there. So I raise the temperature to just where the mother starts to dig up the whelping box (in an attempt to find cooler ground underneath), and then I dial back a bit. I still use the heat lamp, especially at night, if I feel that the room has gotten cool.
Normally when a mother goes outside to do her potty business, puppies will all gather in a pile to conserve heat. Being a singleton, my puppy just starts whimpering as she has no siblings. I have been picking her up and holding her until mommy comes back. Today I started experimenting with using a sock filled with uncooked rice and heated in my microwave, as an artificial sibling.
Puppies normally loose weight in the first 24 or so hours after birth, after which they gain weight. This puppy has done the same; however she now is not gaining weight as quickly as I would like. Her belly always seems full, when sleeping she twitches (which is normal), and she is not crying or whimpering. She is slowly (very slowly) gaining weight. Perhaps I am worrying for nothing, but I wish she would regain her birth weight. With young puppies, there always seems to be something about which to worry!
At NC State, the repro vets carefully checked Mandy's incision and nipples. Everything looked fine. Next, was an ultrasound. The ultrsound showed that Mandy had some fluid in her uterus, and that the uterus had not shrunk normally. Mandy was given a shot of oxytocin for her uterus. Next, Mandy had a blood draw to check her blood chemistry. Then we had to wait for the blood results. While waiting, the puppy got checked out. Another picture of the puppy. While waiting, Mandy continued to keep the puppy clean.
The blood chemistry came back and showed that Mandy's calcium was in the normal range. When nursing, it is easy for a bitch's calcium to get abnormally depleted. But this is unlikely with a singleton puppy, plus I have been giving Mandy cottage cheese to boost her calcium. The blood chemistry also showed that Mandy's white cell count was normal. So there was no sign of infection. The vets were reluctant to put Mandy on antibiotics (which would affect the puppy through Mandy's milk) without a clear sign of infection. All the other blood chemistry values were in the normal range. So there was not a good explanation for Mandy's temperature rise.
The vets gave Mandy some Metacam for her fever. I was told to watch Mandy carefully, given a long list of things to watch out for, and told to call if there was any problem. By the time we got home, Mandy's temperature was down to 100.7.
Mandy has been acting normally, and I have been taking her temperature every four hours. So far her temperature has stayed in a normal range.
Mandy continues to keep the puppy clean. Actually Mandy is licking the puppy to stimulate the puppy to pee and poop ... which Mandy then eats. Yes, it sounds gross, but in the wild it might make the difference between life and death ... a smelly den would attract predators. Afterwards, the puppy twists its body in order to roll over.
"Does this picture make me look fat?"
No, I did not wake the puppy. I admit that every time that I am near the whelping box, I look at the puppy to make sure it is breathing and twitching. (The twitches are believed to be caused by the growth of the nervous system, and are very normal. A puppy that does not twitch is in trouble.) I often turn on my bedside light when I wake up at various times at night to make sure that everything is ok. This is what happened last night. After watching the puppy and observing that all was well, I noticed that Mandy was very still. Usually if I turn on the light, she will open an eye to make sure everything is ok. But her eyes were closed. And when I put my hand on her, again she did not wake up. Now I am starting to panic. After shaking her, she finally woke up. Evidently I had caught Mandy when she was in some deep sleep cycle. After my heartbeat slowed down, I realized that I had acted just like the Debra Winger character.
Mandy is starting to put the puppy on a "schedule". Mandy is feeding the puppy, then coming out of my bedroom to be with my other dogs and me. Right now it is only for a few minutes, as the puppy, while getting better at being alone, will wake up and cry ... and then Mandy heads back to the whelping box. These periods when Mandy is away from the puppy will get longer and longer as time goes on.
Here are two pictures to show the size of the puppy: picture 1 and picture 2. Notice how much the puppy has grown in just a week!
I got up early in the morning, fed everyone (except the dog getting the dental), weighed Mandy and the puppy, and took Mandy's temperature. Then I drove the dog getting the dental to the city for his early morning check-in, and then had to wait in the city until he was finished. While waiting, I got two meetings accomplished in various parts of the city, an agility lesson with another of my dogs, and mailed a package. I admit that I was worried about Mandy and the puppy all day. When we finally got home, everyone was ok. Mandy gave me hell for leaving her (which she always does) ... although in this case she had good reason as it was past her dinner time!
I have not seen the puppy open her eyes yet. That is the next major milestone and should happen any day now.
I have to judge this weekend, so Mandy and the puppy went to stay with some friends, and I took the rest of my dogs to my petsitter. Here are Mandy and puppy in their new temporary home.
Puppy's eyes are still not open.
When we got home, I found that the puppy weighed 470 grams. From my friends' notes, the puppy doubled her birth weight on 30 November, and weighed 428 grams when she turned two weeks old.
Puppies do not see well at first, but I have started adding toys to the welping box to give the puppy something to focus on.
It is time to start thinking about possible names for the puppy. I always name my puppies from characters or actors from the last Shakespeare play that I saw (or was reminded of) prior to the litter being born. In this case it was seeing the movie "The Lord of the Rings" on television. What does "The Lord of the Rings" have to do with Shakespeare, you ask? As you may know, Sir Ian McKellen plays Gandalf in the movie "The Lord of the Rings". Now when I lived in England, I was fortunate enough to see Ian McKellen perform in a couple of Shakespeare plays. But the performance of his that most impressed me was his Iago in the play Othello. The performance was recorded and is available on DVD. So this is my "Othello (1990 film)" litter. You can see the cast list on the Wikipedi page for Othello (1990 film). Any suggestions for a name for the puppy?
After a fearsome battle with an alien invader of the whelping box, a tired puppy rests on the defeated body of her foe.
Catching some rays. (It was rainy and chilly today, so I had the heat lamp on.)
My dogs sometimes try to convince me to get up early ... because you know, they think they are being starved and want breakfast early. Usually if I roll over and ignore them, they will wait for sunrise ... when they get really insistent that I get up and feed them. So it was this morning, at 6 am and still dark outside my dogs wanted me to get up. The puppy was fussing and Mandy was not in the welping box. So I reached over, picked the puppy up and put the puppy in the crook of my arm and laid back down. At this, Mandy came up the ramp onto my bed to check on the puppy. Seeing that the puppy was ok, Mandy laid down next to me with the puppy between us. At this the puppy settled down and went to sleep. Evidently so did I, as the next thing I knew there was light in the sky. (This would have been about 7 am.) What actually woke me was Mandy moving away. The puppy was fine. I put the puppy back in the whelping box and got up to feed my miserable animals who wanted breakfast.
No interesting pictures of the puppy today, just one of her sleeping.
When I got up, I noticed that Mandy was making unusual nasal sounds when she breathed. I also noticed on the floor some grass that had been vomited up. Uh oh, I thought. I hope Mandy does not have some grass up her nose. I could not see anything when I shined a flashlight up Mandy's nose. I decided to take two of my dogs to a scheduled agility lesson, and see how Mandy was when we got back. I know as soon as we returned home that Mandy was not better. Usually Mandy barks (a lot) when I return home. This time she was not barking, and when I got inside I heard the same nasal sounds as in the morning. So I got my other dogs settled, and then took Mandy to my local vet. As I did not expect to be gone long, I left the puppy at home. So this was the first time that Mandy was away from the puppy.
My vet examined Mandy, also could not see any grass up Mandy's nostrals, but also thought the most likely explanation for the nasal sounds was a bit of grass in the nose. My vet flushed Mandy's nasal passages, but did not see any grass. (Mandy could have swallowed it.) Mandy did not sound much better afterwards. My vet said this could be from the nasal irrigation. I was advised that if Mandy did not sound better in the morning to take Mandy to the NC State Vet Hospital.
The staff at NC State evaluated Mandy and decided to do a rhinoscopy - scoping the nasal passages with a camera from both the front (up the nose) and the rear (back of the throat). As Mandy's condition was not considered life threatening, they were unsure when the procedure would happen, as they had scheduled surgeries plus any emergency surgeries that came in. So the puppy and I went to visit some friends, the same ones where Mandy and the puppy had stayed when I was away judging. So the puppy was back in a familar place.
I thought we would only be visiting for a few hours, but it turned out to be the entire day. The puppy got held, did not seemed stressed as evidenced by her yawn, and bottle fed.
Finally around 5 pm, I was told to come get Mandy. They had found a two inch blade of grass up the back of her nose. Evidently when Mandy had vomited up some grass that she had been eating, some of it got lodged up the back of her nasal passage. I could tell as soon as they brought her out, that Mandy was feeling much better. We then drove home, where my other dogs told me that they had been horribly abused because dinner was late. When I weighed the puppy, I found that the puppy had lost two days of weight gain. (Yes, Jennifer, I should have let you feed the puppy more.)
"I can't believe I ate the whole thing."
Today is also "name day". Over the past week I have been trying out various names that have been suggested. (Thank you to all of you who suggested names.) I have decided to call the puppy "Siri" with registered name "Shaksper Serina Mckellen". Serina is a nickname given to Sir Ian McKellen by his friend Stephen Frye. (Say "Sir Ian" and "Serina" quickly together.)
When I hold Siri, I now can smell "puppy breath" ... one of the best smells in the world! If only I could bottle it.
Besides eating and sleeping, Siri is now spending a little time exploring her world of the whelping box. She gets up on her front legs and pushes, while trying (unsuccessfully) to get her back legs underneath her fat belly. So sometimes when she pushes she goes backwards instead of forwards, which frustrates her no end. But after a minute or two she gives up and goes back to sleep.
Mandy seems to be recovering from her ordeal with the blade of grass.
"My first pony".
Hearing is the last sense that a puppy gets, and I think Siri is beginning to hear sounds now.
Mandy really has Siri on a schedule now, as Mandy is spending very little time in the whelping box ... just enough to clean up Siri and let her nurse. Since Siri continues to gain weight, she must be getting enough nourishment.
And now where's Siri? (hard)
Siri sometimes makes what I will call "crocodile cries". (The vocal equivalent of "crocodile tears".) Mandy clearly has this ploy by Siri figured out. Sometimes Mandy will race to see what is wrong; other times Mandy just ignores Siri, and after a moment Siri gives up and goes to sleep.
Sometimes when I pick Siri up, she will make this deep trill sound, which I think is her puppy growl indicating that she is angry (probably because I woke her up).
Siri is starting that stage where she wants to taste everything and put everything in her mouth. If I pick her up, she opens her mouth and puts it on my arm. I have watched her crawl over one toy to get to another and then start "tasting" it. This afternoon, I watched as Siri discovered that Mandy has ears ... and so Siri just had to try to taste them!
Today I got worried that Siri is still not up and walking. Because of her fat belly, her hind legs are not getting underneath her body. So I used some masking tape and hobbled her rear feet so that she could move them, but that her feet are now underneath her belly.
With Sir's hind legs hobbled, she is able to look out of the whelping box, stand on her own, and even walk for a few steps before she plunks down. She clearly knows what to do, but the muscles in her hind legs are not strong enough to carry her belly.
Today Siri met her aunt Tami. Mandy was sitting right next to me at the time, and Tami kept looking over to make sure that Mandy did not mind. Siri was very interested in her aunt.
In the evening I had Siri on my chest while I was laying on my bed. Siri decided to see what my nose tasted like. She opened her mouth and tried to get as much of my nose inside as would fit. Fortunately Siri does not have teeth yet!
Siri stalking the camera.
I was watching Siri in the whelphing box - as I often do now when I notice that she is active - and saw that she was walking backwards. "Well" I thought to myself "you certainly have walking backwards down" as she was walking backwards as well as any puppy that I have seen. Then I realized that Siri was trying to poop. Siri's first poop. Before I could clean it up, Mandy jumped in and did the job by eating the poop. But I changed out the bedding anyway. This is the start of my washing machine working every day!
I just noticed that Siri's ears are now down. They had been up earlier. This is normal and her ears will go back up later.
Today I decided to build Siri's play area next to my desk. Some of my other dogs had to inspect and give their approval. Note Mandy inside the crate.
When I first brought Siri out to her new daytime digs, she was not sure about it. But some of mommy's milk reduced her anxiety. Then Mandy showed Siri the crate. Siri spent most of the day in the crate. Puppies seem to like to have something over their head, especially when sleeping. In the evening I took Siri back to the whelping box next to my bed. She is now officially a commuter!
Siri is still sleeping a lot. Most of the day actually. When Siri is awake aunt Tami has been getting in the playpen and playing with Tami.
I noticed today that Siri is just starting to get teeth.
Mandy (left) and aunt Tami (right) ganging up on Siri. There was much growling from all three. I have seen this in previous litters and call this "toughening up the puppy". If you had not seen it before, you would think that the bigger dogs are hurting the puppy ... but that is not the case. It seems to be some sort of play, or perhaps teaching of manners.
Today I decided to start offering Siri food, in this case some ground up puppy kibble soaked in Esbilac (a milk substitute for puppies). Siri lapped up the Esbilac, but left the kibble ... which Mandy was more than happy to eat.
I remembered today that instead of starting with ground kibble, I should be starting with baby rice cereal mixed with Esbilac. Siri approved of this change of cuisine. Of course Mandy likes to eat what Siri leaves
For her Christmas feast, Siri got her first taste of baby chicken puree. Mandy is always happy to eat any leftovers. When Siri saw Mandy cleaning the bowl, Siri came over to see what mommy was doing. I do not mind the extra calories for Mandy. Until Siri starts eating more on her own, Siri is making a heavy demand on Mandy for nutrition.
Last night when I put Tami in the whelping box, she was very active, wrestling with all the toys, digging up the matting ... it was almost like she was tearing the place up. Today she has been quiet and subdued, and mostly sleeping.
Siri's appetite is improving. She still prefers rice cereal. I offered her some baby turkey puree today, but she only tasted it.
Today. Siri climbed over the wall and went for a "walkabout". Here she is with aunt Tami. Siri figured out how to climb up on my dog beds which are as tall as she is. After further exploration, Siri decided the my slippered foot was a good place for a nap. When I finally had to move my foot because it was falling asleep, Siri went over and played with Mom. Afterwards, I watched as Siri crawled back over the wall into her playpen.
Now that Siri knows how to get out, there will be no rest as I try to keep track of where she is. I also have to do the "puppy shuffle" so that I make sure that I do not step on her. As I write this, she is out again, exploring.
Siri is now more out than in of her playpen, unless I specifically lock her in. Fortunately, Mommy delivers.
In the afternoon, I tried taking Siri
outside again. This was more successful, with Mommy supervising. Or aunt Tami. Here is
Siri on gravel,
looking at something in the distance. And if Mommy
was going to sit on my baby dogwalk, Siri had to check it out.
Here is Siri carrying around a little plush toy in her
mouth.
Breeder lore says that a puppy at six weeks of
age looks like it will as an adult. Here is a side shot and a head shot of Siri. Siri is
a red, even though right now you see a lot of dark black
hairs. The dark hairs are called "guard hairs" and will
eventually fall out. I am not sure why they are called
guard hairs as some breeders pull them out.
Siri made it as far as my bathroom today, before deciding
that was too scary and coming back to my living room. Now
that Siri is running around, I am starting her potty training.
I try to catch her right when she wakes up from a nap. I then
take her outside and praise her when she pees on the grass.
I had to be gone all day today, and expected to find a mess
when I got home. But Mandy is still cleaning up
after Siri.
I saw Siri drink for the first time out of her water dish
in her playpen.
Mandy keeping watch while
Siri is outside.
I was chaning the sheets on my bed today, and Siri
climbed up the ramp that my dogs use to get on my bed.
Siri then proceeded to pee on my bed ... which got her
promptly taken outside. I think every puppy I have had
in my house has baptized my bed.
Siri doing my baby dog walk.
Siri meets an empty paper
towel roll.
Siri meets my tippy
board. This is just a round board with a ball
underneath and is actually a human exercise board for
balance. So far I have only seen Siri put two feet on my
tippy board.
Of course, all this meeting new things is exhausting.
But I do not understand why Siri thinks a wooden block makes a
good pillow.
Siri meets a ball.
After breakfast this morning, I found that Siri had climbed
into her whelping
box in order to take a nap. Evidently Siri feels that
the whelping box is a safe place.
Siri's ears have begun
to come up.
When I went out today to run a brief errand, I left Siri in
a crate to begin to crate train her. She initially fussed,
but then settled down.
Afterwards we went and visited Siri's older
brother, Boo, and his owners. Siri was initially hesitent,
thought biting my
sweater was fun, but eventually got brave enough
to stalk brother
Boo. Later both Mandy and Siri tried to climb onto my lap.
Siri even got to meet
aunt Portia. Portia and Mandy do not get along,
so normally Siri never sees aunt Portia.
I was very pleased with
how Siri reacted to all the new places, people and circumstances.
She showed normal initial hesitation, but quickly adapted to
the new sights and sounds.
Today we had another long car ride. Mandy and aunt Portia needed
to have some blood drawn in preparation for their upcoming annual
dental exams. Siri got passed around by the vet techs ("pass
the puppy"). She also got to see cars whizzing past when we
walked outside. Initially she was frightened, but then she
realized that the cars were not going to hurt her, so mostly
she ignored them afterwards. Like my other dogs, Siri got a chicken
McNugget when I stopped for lunch.
For dinner, after Siri ate some ground-up puppy chow,
I gave her a raw chicken
wing to chew on. (Never give a dog cooked
bones which can splinter.) As Siri's sharp puppy teeth are
coming in, Siri had great fun chewing on the raw chicken
wing. Siri still does not yet have the jaw strength to
eat a chicken wing. She wanted to save the chicken wing
in her crate, at which point I took it away from her.
I had to break out the Bitter Apple today, as Siri started
to pull up and chew on her playpen's Pish Pad, something
that I do not want her to do. Bitter Apple gives a bad
taste to anything that you spray it on ... and is indispensible
when you have teething puppies.
Siri sleeping with one of her favorite toys.
Today I took Mandy and Siri to a friends' house to spend
the next two nights. I have to make a long trip tomorrow,
and it would not be possible to take Siri along to keep
up with her potty training. Staying at my friends' house
will be good socialization for Siri ... lots of new sounds
and people.
Siri did have her introduction to crate training while we
visited. At night I put her in her crate next to my bed.
After a bit of fussing, she settled down and went to sleep.
When I got up during the night, I took Siri outside to
potty. The rule of thumb is that a puppy can spend an
hour in a crate for every month of age. So according to
the rule, Siri can spend up to two hours in a crate without
expecting an accident. In my experience, puppies can go a
bit longer, maybe as much as an extra hour. I will admit
that in the early mornings I sometimes snuck Siri into
bed with me.
I only saw Siri nurse twice. Once was when I was laying on
the couch with Siri on my chest. Mandy was up on the top
of the back of the couch making sure that all was well.
Siri stood up on her hind legs and got some milk. I was
surprised that Mandy let her; although perhaps Mandy was
happy to get rid of the milk.
Siri met Mr. Dremel today. Just a quick meeting touching
every nail. Technically, dogs have claws, not nails.
If Siri gets overtired, she runs around bitting everything.
At such times, she gets the nickname "evil little puppy"
and gets put up until she falls asleep.
Since Siri is no longer using it, I have
packed away the whelping box and set up Siri's high rise next to my bed.
I have also picked up the "Pish Pad" in Siri's play pen.
I want to reduce the number of soft surfaces that would
tempt Siri to have a potty accident.
Most of the field around my house is brown, but
there are a few green spots. Here are (from left
to right) aunt Tami, Siri, and
Mandy. And just Siri.
In the evening, I took Siri to a meeting of
my local dog club. Since I live in the country
it is a two hour drive to the club building, so I do
not get there often. Tonight the guest speaker was
Dr. Brian Hare of Dognition, whose talk I wanted
to hear. Siri was the object of a big game of "pass
the puppy". It was a great way to socialize her
to lots of different people.
Both Mandy and aunt Tami have been playing "toughen up
the puppy". Siri will be running around either inside or
in my yard, then all of a sudden both Mandy and Tami will
charge Siri, flip Siri on
her back, and there is much growling from all three.
For all the noise, Mandy and Tami are surprisingly gentle,
just holding Siri down. Siri of course, does not know
that it is a game, and she is growling and
trying to bite. (Notice
her sharp puppy teeth.) Then all of a sudden it stops, and
Mandy and Tami walk away ... only to turn around
and charge Siri and the whole thing starts over again.
Today we took a walk all the way to the tree
line around my house. Siri liked all the sticks and pine cones.
Notice how Siri blends in. Can you find her in this
picture of "Where's
Siri?". (She is in the middle of the picture.)
As we were driving out of the city, I noticed that the car
in front of me had a bumper sticker that said "I love my
Norwich terrier." So when the car pulled into an office
parking lot, I followed. I introduced myself to the car
owner (Sarah) and asked about her Norwich. Sarah wanted
to see mine, so (socialization moment!) I got Siri out.
Sarah took Siri into her office (more socialization!) to
meet her coworkers.
I have a small garbage can in which I put dog hair that I
have combed or stripped out. When we got home, in a moment
of industy, I dumped the can in my yard. Siri thinks it
is great fun to play with
the hair.
Siri had her first agility lesson today. (Actually Siri
had come along with another of my dogs who had a lesson.)
Siri had great fun meeting the instructor's young children
and chasing them as they ran around. A game of "Siri,
come" had Siri running back and forth among three adults
who had yummy treats. Siri even ran twice through a
shortened straight tunnel, with me calling "Siri, come"
and giving a treat. (Siri had run through my baby tunnel
at home, but on her own initiative.) And at the end of
the lesson, Siri met her
first Sheltie, who arrived for the next lesson.
Afterwards, Siri had a play date with older brother Boo.
Jennifer took several pictures. First of Siri and me:
picture 1,
picture 2, and
picture 3.
Then Jennifer got a series of Siri and Boo playing:
While I continue to take Siri outside to potty on a regular
basis, the "time since last accident" clock keeps being reset as
I mis-time taking Siri outside, and Siri has an accident.
I often feed my dogs a crushed organic blueberry with
their breakfast. (They will not eat the non-organic kind.)
Today I gave Siri her first blueberry, which got quickly
eaten. So from now on, a blueberry will be a normal part
of Siri's breakfast.
Afterwards Siri had
a play date with her older brother Boo. Here are
some pictures Jennifer took:
Siri has learned how to go out my doggy door. So now I have
to get comfortable with her being outside in my fenced yard
without my supervision. Of course, when I notice that she
is not inside, I check on her outside to make sure she is
ok.
With some unseasonably warm weather, I have let Siri accompany
myself and my older dogs in short walks outside my fenced yard.
I keep a bag of treats with me, and call "Siri come" whenever she
gets too far from me. All the dogs when they come get a treat.
Another trip to the city, this time to take aunt Portia
for a progesterone test. So Siri got another play date
with older brother Boo. Here are some pictures Jennifer
took of Siri and her Jennifer's nephew:
When we got home, Siri had a big walk ... all the way around
my barn.
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Siri was very good during the trip. She did not have any
potty accidents while we were visiting. However when we got home,
she ran around greeting all her toys, trying to play with each one,
and then ran up onto my bed and peed on my bed cover. So the "time
since last accident" clock had to be reset to zero.
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Final
