School Days

As my mom pointed out yesterday, Angel and I are the only ones not in school now. Carly started puppy class and will spend the next 7 Sundays learning a little about being a good dog.

We're taking her to the classes at our local Petsmart. When you google online, there are pretty mixed reviews of the Petsmart classes, but honestly, it all depends on the trainer, right? At our local store, there is only one trainer, and I've kind of watched her with her dogs when we've been in there and I'm impressed with how she handles them. Plus, it's an affordable class and we're talking puppy class, not agility training anyway, so I figured we'd give it a go. Since we want Sierra taking ownership, she is attending the class and Josh is going with her. He says it sounds like the class is going to be well worth our time and money. It sounds like there was plenty of information covered, but the main skill this week was "watch me". They are working with clickers and treats and the goal is to be able to walk into class next week and give the "watch me" command and have the dog focus only on you for 10 seconds. Sierra's been working with Carly and she's already doing quite good at it.

And last night, we created a video message from Santa for Sierra at this site. Check it out, it's really neat!

Carly

Having a new puppy is like a mini-dose of having a new baby. A doctor once told my mom that if she wanted to have a baby, she should try a puppy first. Good advice, I say! I only have two caveats: start with a young pup and do it right. That means you take the time to use positive reinforcement, you "puppy proof" the house, and you make the effort to get up in the night for potty breaks. Well, okay, Josh is making the effort to get up in the night for potty breaks, but I did nurse through the night for over 2 years total, so I've put in a fair amount of time already.

After two human babies, canine baby isn't such a difficult job. I've found out a set of cloth diapers will last through two babies and one puppy (she's doing great on house breaking, but there are still plenty of puddles to soak up throughout the day). It gets a bit crazy when both girls are home and Josh is gone. That's a little worse than just having a human baby. A 7 week old human baby doesn't run laps through the house grabbing kids by their pant legs and occasionally catching skin with a needle-like tooth. So the canine baby requires either constant supervision or kenneling at this point, which is doable, just a bit busy.

Carly wants so badly to play with Angel (my 11 year old labrador), but Angel wants nothing to do with her. She's not mean, just indifferent. Carly pounces on Angel's tail and tries to gnaw on it, Angel just flicks it away. Carly jumps up and paws at Angel's shoulder, Angel just looks down like, "why is this runt jumping on me?" For now, they're mostly leading separate lives. I think Angel is a bit jealous of the attention Carly gets from the kids, but then she is definitely gloating about the fact that she is always free to roam the house while Carly is kenneled whenever we're gone or sleeping.

We Puppied

We took the plunge, we got the puppy. We picked her up last night and Sierra is very very excited. Her name is Carly, she had her first trip to the vet this morning and she's just under 7 pounds. I still can't believe my human babies were this size at one point in time!

Given the lifespan of a dog, this is pretty much a one time shot at a childhood dog for the girls and we want to do it right, so we had a big talk with Sierra about what's involved with taking care of a dog. She will be spending some of the money she's saved up to contribute towards the cost of the vet, food, collar, leash, toys and puppy classes. She will be attending puppy training classes too(as much for her as the puppy). There wasn't much time last night to do much, but starting today, she will be putting food out and taking her outside and poop scooping. I know she's just a kid and at the end of the day, I'm the one who has to make sure the puppy's taken care of, but I've learned kids are largely capable of meeting your expectations, so I'm setting them slightly high. Obviously, we'll do the middle of the night potty breaks and things like that and she will handle (with guidance and supervision) all the daytime stuff she's physically capable of.

So, without further ado....Carly!