Peeta/Paco went to his new home tonight

It's always a sad/joyous day when a puppy goes to his/her forever home. And since we are keeping Prim (at lease I hope we are, still no word from the rescue as to what we have to do to adopt her) all the puppies are in their own homes tonight. We still have Gidget and someone is missing out on a fabulous dog. She is so smart. I realized tonight that she has learned "wait" just by watching me tell my dog.

We stil need to get her spayed so that we can work on find her a home of her own. I think the ideal home would be where she could be an only dog. She really would like to be the center of attention.

I think it'll be a lot easier to potty train Prim now that she's the only puppy if I can keep Gidget and Brinkley in the house when I take her out. Peeta was actually a lot better than she has been. Hopefully without all the energy being expended playing, she can learn to focus on what we are out there for. We'll see how she does with no other puppies to play with. Her mom had proven to be a rambunctious playmate though.

I have been so impressed at how easily they crate trained. I never had a puppy that was so good.

Just as I was writing this entry, I heard from Gus's (was Haymitch) dad. He says he weighs 3.3# which is about what Peeta (now Paco) weighs. He's catching up.

He also says that he is doing great with his potty training and learning "sit" before getting a treat and "up". He's getting lots of tummy rubs and loving. All the puppies went to such fabulous homes! I am beyond happy.

Here're a few clips of them playing this afternoon

Puppies and the resident dog

Finally! My dog, Brinkley, has decided to play nicely with the puppies (we still have Peeta - now Paco) until next Friday when his new family comes to get him. It makes life so much easier. I can let everyone out at the same time. Prim adores him and chases him all over the yard. He, on the other hand, really isn't into playing with her. I'm not sure if it's because I've worked so hard to keep him from being rough with them or not.

This morning when I let them out, as Brinkley was peeing, Prim tried to crawl under his belly. I just knew she was going to get a shower:-(

If you've been following this blog, you may have noticed that 4 of the puppies have been adopted but we had 5 puppies. I haven't mentioned Prim's adoption. She does have a potential home. It's with us. I'm just waiting to be approved by the rescue (still haven't heard what that entails:-) hopefully I'll be up to snuf). We're proceeding under the assumption that we will be allowed to adopt her. We took her to the vet yesterday. He said she is overweight! How can a 4# puppy be overweight? I know she's a little round. I like curves. And yes, I'll stop worrying about her getting enough to eat and let her regulate herself. I'm not cooking so much for her and trying to go with plain kibble for now. I will transition her to raw as that will help as well.

She was also anemic. None of the others have been. The vet put her on vitamins with iron. I'll get some from the rescue to start Peeta/Paco on as well.

We hadn't intended to adopt a puppy. In fact, we had said after Brinkley, we weren't going to raise another one. So, why, you may ask, did we choose to add Prim to our family? There are probably many more reasons but essentially, we fell in love with her and just couldn't bear the thought of not having her in our lives. We loved all the puppies but there was something special for us in her. If we had set out to look for a puppy to adopt, I doubt that she would have been the one. She's a bit more "active" than we would have chosen and the digging and barking aren't our style. But she is the sweetest, most loving girl and there is just something about her personality that touches our hearts. And her mom is so mellow and has such a great temperament, we figure with a good upbringing she should be a fabulous dog for us.

I put her in a crate last night and had her on my side of the bed. I put the crate on top of another crate so that she was level with me. We went to bed early and I was expecting her to get me up around 2am. Well, she was totally quite until 4:30 when she barked once. I took her outside (it turned cold and windy during the night) and she peed right away. I brought her back to bed with me and she snuggled with me and my dog for a while, slept a bit and then got up with my husband. It was such a sweet morning.

Here are some more photos of Prim and her new big brother.

And now we are two

Katniss (now Ruby) went home this afternoon. Her new sister wasn't feeling well. Hope she gets better soon.

And Peeta is now Pacco (I may be spelling that wrong:-)

Peeta found a new home today. He'll be going to live with his new family next week. It'll be so quiet around here.

Undercover Ops

Prim like to get under the blankets but this is the 1st time I've seen any of the other puppies do it. What a great way to wish Katniss (now Ruby) goodbye.

Katniss is now Ruby and going to her new home today

Katinss found her new family last night. She is now Ruby and she is going to have the most wonderful life with them. Hopefully I'll get a better picture when they come get her today. The puppies were all wiggly:-)

Gael, now Guy, goes to his forever home

Here's Guy (formerly Gael) with his new family.

Here are the 4 before Gael left. Now we are 3.

Friends?

Absolutely never thought I'd live to see this. Gidget will not usually let my dog up on the sofa if she is up there. They stayed like this for quite a while. Until my husband got up. I'm hopeful that Gidget is getting more comfortable with my dog or that her grumpiness with him was pregnancy and maternal related. I haven't seen any stiffness in her today and it was pretty cool this morning.

Gael will be leaving us tomorrow. I don't think that Gidget or the other puppies have even noticed that Haymitch is gone. I can detect no change in their behavior. We'll see how it goes after Gael leaves.

Gidget woke me up at 2 am. I figured one of the puppies had pooped. That seems to be the only thing that causes her to want to go in the pen anymore (well, that and if they leave any food after their meals:-). I must not have latched the puppy pen gate securely last night because I was met by a thundering hoard of puppies along with Gidget. They went back into the pen with no problem but it looks as though we had been invaded. Sure seemed like more than 4 puppies. I could find no signs of anyone having had an accident. My guess is that they didn't make their escape until Gidget sounded the alarm.

After our morning potty break in the yard, I decided to fill the tug-a-jug with kibble and see what they would do with it. I had it hanging over the whelping box for stimulation and didn't take it down after I took the box out of there. Here's a video of their 1st experience with a food puzzle toy. They're still at it 10 minutes later. Amazing.

And we have a doggie door user

I had the puppies out to go potty and play a bit and of course, they all scattered to the 4 winds. I was keeping up with all of them until all of a sudden I couldn't find Peeta. I went from one end of the yard to the other and looked in all the usual hiding places in the bushes. So I decided to put the puppies I could find back in the house so that I could concentrate on finding the lost lamb. Imagine my surprise when I came in to put the puppies back in the pen to find Peeta in the kitchen. The only way he could have gotten in was through the doggie door which has 2 flaps several inches apart.

They have been trying to go through it for a while but could only open the 1st flap and could go no farther (besides the fact that once they got through the flap their legs no longer touched the ground). I can't believe how clever these babies are!

I had washed the puppies bed this morning (we had an accident last night in all the excitement of our visitors). The puppies were sleeping when it came out of the dryer so I piled the laundry in the chair. Gidget decided that it was the nicest bed in the world, and I even provided her with a cover:-) She loves to get under the covers. The weather has gotten kind of cool here lately and even though we have the heat turned up and the fireplace going most of hte time to keep it nice and toasty for the puppies, it must be cool for Gidget. When she jumped down from the chair, I noticed she was limping a bit. Once she moved around a bit, she was ok (gee, do I ever know that feeling). At any rate, I've started her on some of my dog's joint supplements. Hope it'll help. Up until now, I was amazed at how great she gets around. I do need to get a bit of her baby weight off, though. Can't let her keep finishing off the puppies' meals. We mom's know how that is:-)

I had the most delightful afternoon. I had Prim in my lap on the sofa. I try to take one of the puppies out every day to spend time alone with me and also I am still trying to get my dog not to get so exited by the puppies. I don't want them to get hurt so he is not allowed around them. I have to put him in a crate every time I take them outside. My husband was off today so he was sitting on the sofa with us after lunch and could hold our dog if necessary. All went pretty well. Prim had a major tongue bath. My dog licked her all over her face and was pretty gentle. Maybe someday... Prim and my dog (and my husband) eventually fell asleep and I could just sit there and bask in all the oxytocin rush.

Gael found his forever home

Last night we had a visit from the loveliest family and Gael has found his forever home. He'll go to live with them on Sunday. Here's a photo of him with his new big brother.

And then there were 4

Haymitch/Gus has gome to his forever home. Many thanks to the Penick family for giving him such a wonderful, loving family. Here they are.

Last day for all five

This evening, Haymitch (now "Gus") will go home with his new family. It is a very bittersweet day for me. I am thrilled that he is getting such a wonderful family and I will miss him very much. I wanted to get a last photo of them sleeping together. Should have done it earlier this morning as they were all in a pile. I've had the heater and fireplace on all day so the house has gotten warm. Thus, they are all spread out although Gael went over and snuggled with "Gus"after I took the 1st photo.

Cool weather

The weather has turned cool and the puppies are feeling their Wheaties. They had their 1st shots yesterday and I had thought they might be a little sore today but no signs of it. Gidget was a bit frisky as  well and kept taking toys from the puppy pen and bringing them outside. Yesterday, my rescue coordinator brought a raw bone for the puppies to gnaw on but they weren't really interested so we gave it to Gidget who promptly took it off somewhere and hid it (in the yard, thank goodness). I have searched high and low but so far no sign of it.

Some of the puppies have tried to go in the doggie door. It's a double flap deal so they have only gotten 1 so far. I think if it were a single, they'd have it. Here's a short video. You can see Gidget bringing a toy out the door a the end:-)

Haymitch is set to go to his forever home tomorrow. I am going to miss him so much. He's a good little boy and I know he will have a wonderful life with his new family. Here he is playing in the yard this afternoon.

Go Figure

I have been struggling with getting the puppies to eat well. I had them out this morning. (Good puppies, all went potty). When they came in, they started eating from the dry (Royal Canin) food that I leave in their  bowls. They had eaten a good breakfast around 6:30am of scrambled egg, ground turkey, canned Innova and dry Royal Canin mini starter. Gidget had gotten into the pen while the puppies were out and ate most of their dry food (she having turned her nose up at the plain dry food I offered her for breakfast:-). So I was going to put some more dry food in for them and decided to toss in a bit of the dry Innova puppy food I am feeding Gidget and that I had tried when they were first eating solid food. I wasn't expecting them to touch it as they didn't like it before but I am thinking I need to get them transitioned to something not quite so expensive before they go to their forever homes and I am about out of the Royal Canin (how's that for a long sentence?). Well, lo and behold, they scarfed it up. I ended up having to add another scoop as they licked the bowl clean. It's great news and will make my life a lot easier.

I buried some toys in the sand box this morning before taking them outside. They immediately got in and dug the toys out and chased each other around the yard to get whatever toy a sibling had. I had quit taking toys out there because they were far more interested in investigating the yard than in playing with toys out there but they kept them busy for a while this way. Reinforces their digging inthe sandbox, too.

I have been trying to work on "come" with them but have little luck with any other than Gael. He almost always comes when I call the puppies. However, I found that squeaking a squeaky toy gets them all coming en masse. So, what I will do is start pairing "come" with the squeaky toy and see how that works.

They seem to like taking food out of my hand. I am using mostly home made treats that I use for my own dog's training but also using Zuke's Mini natural salmon treats. They are pretty big and chewy but they like them. I can cut them into quarters so that I can give more and it doesn't take so long to eat but as I haven't been thinking ahead and as I keep a pocket full of the Zuke's to treat my dog and Gidget when they do things I like, I always have a supply on hand. The puppies know this too. They are about to chew holes in every pair of pants I own. Whenever I am sitting with them, they try to chew their way into my pocket:-)

Peel me a grape

I find that the puppies eat better out of my hand than out of a bowl. And, I guess I am spoiling them a bit but Haymitch carries it to the extreme. He was laying on his back next to me yesterday and I gave him a piece of kibble to see if he wanted it. Well, he lay there and ate as long as I popped a piece in his mouth. I was about to die laughing. All I could think of of was the line I used in the title of this post. He was perfectly happy:-)

I'm going to miss the "puppy pile on"

The battle of the toy

Gidget sometimes will take a toy out of the puppy pen when she leaves. I found this rubber doggie toy she had evidently tried to bury in the yard a while back. I had scrubbed and scrubbed it and it wasn't coming clean so I put it in the dishwasher. When I emptied it this morning, I put the toy back in the pen. Well, this has got to be the most wonderful toy in the world:-) I have no idea if it was because it was new, if it smelled yummy or if there was some other reason that they all wanted it. I don't remember them ever paying that much attention to it before. The battle had been going on for about 5 minutes when I decided to get the camera out and try to get some video. Usually when I do that, it is a signal to them to stop whatever cute behavior they were doing right away. But, they kept at it, even ending up in the litter pan:-(. Have a look. I thought it was hysterical.

I hit on a winning combination of food that they will eat with relish. Not a very complete ration but I was encouraged. I browned some ground turkey and scrambled an egg. They absolutely gorged themselves. Actually, Peeta threw it all up right after he finished and I hadn't thought he had eaten as much as Prim and Gael (who tend to eat the best, hence their much larger size). He was playing with me just before and went right back to playing afterwards so I guess he didn't suffer any lasting harm. I'll mix some of the ground turkey and an egg with some kibble for their lunch and see how that goes. I fed them kibble by hand earlier. They will eat food out of my hand when they will ignore it in the bowl. Their mamma is that way too, or was, she's back to eating everything that, as the saying goes, "doesnt eat her first". 

Haymitch is the first to get adopted

I've been going through applications and emailing and talking to people on the phone for several days. Tonight the 1st family to see the puppies came to our house. Lovely people who came thinking they wanted to adopt Katness and decided on Haymitch instead. He is so cute and his doe eyes really won them over, I guess. He decided he liked the mom and crawled up in her lap and that was all she wrote. He gazed into her eyes and I was a little jealous:-) I think he will be adored by this family and well cared for. That makes it all worthwhile. I knew it was going to be difficult to see them go. I didn't realize how difficult it was going to be to go through this process.

All the puppies were good although Katness and Peeta tended to stay in the puppy pen and didn't seem all that interested in meeting new people. Got to work on that one:-)

After the family left, Katness woke up and I went in to play with her a bit. She was being so sweet. I took her out of the pen and sat with her on the sofa for a while. Haven't done too much of that and it was so nice. My dog wanted to get in on the action but finally went over and lay next to my husband.

They're all tuckered out. Not sure whether its from playing outside or from the visitors.

sits... click and treat

I had a few small treats left in my pocket that I had been using when I was working with my dog on some Rally behaviors so I decided to see how it would go getting sits with the puppies. There were 4 puppies (Gael was sleeping) that mobbed me when I went into the pen. (probably should have tried this with 1 puppy at a time but I really wanted to see how it would work this way) I sat on the floor and Prim was the 1st to sit so I clicked and treated her. I was able to capture a few sits (mostly Haymitch who tends to be much quieter than the others) but occasionally Prim and Katness as well. I was able to lure them into a sit some. They were mostly jumping all over me and trying to get to the treats but I was seeing a few opportunities to click and treat so I kept it up. When I ran out of treats, I decided to see what would happen if I used some of their kibble. There was a bowl next to me so I just reached in and went to town clicking and treating any sit (Haymitch and Katness ended up being the calmest and getting the most. I was amazed that they were working for the kibble since the bowl is always out for them. Guess it was just the idea of getting it from me.

All in all, I was really pleased with how it went. Since they are not big eaters, I have been hesitant to do much training as I want them to view the treat as a reward and if they don't, then it wouldn't be much incentive for them to learn what I am trying to teach them. I will take them 1 at a time tomorrow and see how that goes. One benefit of doing it in the pen is that they are very familiar with that area. When they go out anywhere else, they want to explore and I will have a harder time keeping their attention. They are smart puppies and I think they will get the hang of it pretty quickly. Will let you know how it goes tomorrow.

EEK, a mouse

When I had the puppies outside yesterday afternoon, they kept digging in  the flower bed along the fence at the back of our yard (we back up to a canal leading to Lake Houston). I brought them back to the sand box several times but they kept heading straight back to this one spot to dig. After several rounds of this dance, I started bringing them back into the house (I am trying not to let them self reward with behaviors that may not be acceptable to their new families). When I picked Prim up, I noticed something hanging out of her mouth. On closer inspection, there were actually 2 small grey legs and a long skinny tail hanging out of her mouth! Luckily my husband was out in the yard with me. I won't tell you how loudly I screamed for him to come get that thing out of her mouth:-). Scared me to death. I contacted my rescue coordinator to make sure there wasn't anything I needed to be concerned about them catching from the mouse. It was a tiny baby. I hate the thought of them having killed it (I guess it may have already been dead but I don't think so).

Then last night, they all started to have loose stools. I am in a panic thinking they have eaten something that has made them sick. Called my rescue coordinator (yes, I am a very high maintenance volunteer) and contacted a supervisor as well. We finally decided that perhaps it was a reaction to the wormer I gave yesterday morning especially since all of them seemed to be affected at the same time. The good news is that they all used the litter pan to go poop. I was changing it out quite a bit but it does show that they are really getting good at understanding where to go.

This morning, they had all gone poop (in the litter pan again) and everyone had firm stools! Yea!!!! Hopefully whatever it was is through their systems now. They never acted like they felt bad. Kept playing and tussling with each other.

Collars

Yesterday I put collars on the puppies to start getting them used to wearing them. I just put them on for an hour or so. At first Gael acted like nothing was going on but after running around a bit (and perhaps noticing that all the other puppies were scratching at their necks) he started scratching too. I don't know if I'll have them long enough to begin leash training as well but I am going to try to get them used to the collars at least. I only have 4 so need to get a 5th. The rescue gave me 3 and I had one from when my dog was a puppy that is the right size. Well, they can be shortened to the right size but they are so small that the collars have a great deal of overlap where they are adjusted. Here are a few photos.

Gidget slept the entire night (well, she didn't get me up at all. I'm not sure she was asleep all that time) outside the puppy pen. Yesterday morning she got me up scratching at the bedroom door. She still doesn't want to come into our room to sleep at night but maybe soon. I'm keeping a onesie on her when she is with the puppies so they don't nurse. They will get their 1st shots on Monday.

Gidget and all the puppies got wormed with Droncit today. They come in a capsule and I was afraid that they would choke the puppies but they took them like champs. Gael did cry but swalloed it real well. The others didn't blink an eye.

Here's a shot of Prim getting her beauty rest. They will sometimes all cuddle in this bed together. Not sure how they do it but a lot of layers are involved. Will have to get a shot of all of them soon.

Sandbox fun

Gidget spent most of last night out of the puppy pen. She wouldn't come into our room but stayed loose in the family room. In fact, I came out around 3:30am afraid of what I might find as it was so quiet out there (I still have the puppy monitor on so I can hear them). They all woke up and Gidget had to go in and clean up where one puppy had pooped in the litter box (good puppy!!!). She went outside herself and then settled back down until I got up at 6.

They were all posted to PetFinder last night. I hope we find really fabulous homes for these spectacular babies!

The puppies are really enjoying the sandbox. Here are a few pictures.

A lovely Sunday

This morning I took the puppies one at a time into the living room and worked on charging the clicker. I tried using ground beef as a treat. The only one who really liked it was Gael. The others took the beef but it wasn't something they seemed to regard as a treat. Gael actually pawed at my hand and chewed on it to get at the hamburger. They may be a bit immature for this but I'll give it a shot again tomorrow and see what happens.

They were all comfortable being separated from the rest of the litter and explored a bit. I'm really pleased at how confident and independent they are.

This afternoon when I took them outside, I was amazed when they jumped right in the sandbox and started digging. Now, a couple of times tehy did dig a bit in the flower bed but when I moved them to the sand box, they went right to it. I think they wil be pretty good at learning where to dig. I was really impressed with them.

China, here we come

I got some video of some of the puppies using the sandbox this morning. These are Fox Terrier puppies and they seem to be displaying what I understand is a breed characteristic, a strong instinct to dig. I will continue to redirect them to the sandbox. Boy are they intent on digging:-)

The adventure continues

The puppies are getting more and more adventurous. And another added bonus. We have diggers! My husband is out as I write getting sand and hopefully some kind of container so that we can set up a sandbox for them to dig in. If you are reading this and are interested in adopting one of these puppies, please note that you will want to set up such a place for them. I will begin working on teaching them that there are places they can dig to their hearts' content and places that they should not dig. Boy were they filthy when they came in this afternoon. But they all had smiles on their faces. They had tons of fun:-) 

I also put a doggie bed in the pen this morning. The seem to like snuggling up in it. I'm not sure if they will transfer to sleeping in it from the whelping box. It would be great to get that thing out of the pen. Not only does it take up a lot of room but it is a real pain to change the bedding now that the puppies are so mobile. I've thought of putting them in a crate when I clean up and may try that tomorrow. 

Today everyone is over 2# each!!! What a milestone. They seem to be very different sizes, even though there is only about 7 oz difference between the smallest (Haymitch) and the biggest (Prim).

I sent a rough draft of biographies of Gidget and the puppies to my foster coordinator today. Weekends are super busy for rescues so I don't expect to have anything set to go before next week but they will all go on PetFinder soon. They aren't ready to go to homes yet but it won't be long. I will miss them terribly.

My husband also built me an enclosure for their potty area. They were using it to play in and Gidget was trying to lie down to nurse them there (although she is not nursing them very much at all anymore and mostly just stands still for a few seconds and they try to grab a snack as she passes through.). I have also switched to using the comercial pee-pee pads. I had read not to use them as it kept things smelling to nice but I have found that they seem to go in the proper place better with them. At any rate. The enclosure helps contain the paper (which they like to chew and shred all over the place). With this frame, I can weight down the edges and they seem to be using it ok. I think they are getting better although I still find a few pees and poos in the play area. I also found a small pee in the whelping box this afternoon. Not sure who did it. It's been days since I found any spots in their bed. If they continue, I may take it out of there. They seem not to sleep in there very much anymore so may not view it as bed now.