Puppy Updates...

Hey all.   Hope the summer treated you well.   So those of you wondering how the pups are doing, here's your info:



DUCHESS:

Duchess at the park

She's becoming more social at the dog park.  She's always been a bit of a loner. She'd be walking along the fence line or searching in the woods all by herself. She may run with a dog or two, but she's never really played with any dog.   She's never been overly affectionate and tended to be aloof.

Prior to Peryn she would become playful with her food, tossing it in the air and such. She and I would play a bit after I gave her a cookie.  She had her 2 stuffed animals: Lambchop & Hedgehog that she would play with on the bed.    

She would play with Athena until Athena discovered other dogs, now they don't play (or I should say Athena doesn't really play with her).

Since Peryn though, the jealousy Duchess has is showing. She competes for attention from Peryn. 
After getting over the initial "shock" of having Peryn in the house, she often played with him. Actually it was more of her pushing him around.   Peryn loved it though and her rough play helped him out.
With our wanting to socialize Peryn as much as possible, we often had meetups with others to have the dogs play. This additional one on one time with other dogs has made Duchess a little more comfortable around other dogs.  

While at the park she still tends to be by herself, she'll join in with the group more often than not.
Additionally at home she tends to seek out attention and affection much more often. While she still isn't very affectionate (she does NOT lick ) she has mellowed some.  She tends to curl up against us all the time now.   Her competition with Peryn has made her a much sweeter dog.

While the two of them do not play together as much, and I think that has to do with the constant exercise and dog park visits, pay too much attention to one or the other and a "fight" aka Playing starts.

Duchess is a good dog and very protective. I still don't trust her with strangers.  

One good thing that has happened is now that the dogs play often with Huskies (remember Duchess is half Husky) things are better.  I don't feel I have to explain her when she does some things (like her drive buys or aggressive play) because I'm with others who have dogs that are the same way.

So overall Duchess is good.   She is "aging".  Her snout which had been brownish when we adopted her 3 1/2 years ago is all white.  I am unsure her exact age and that worries me as Duchess is my favorite dog of the current 3.   

Current Likes:  Loves Grafton, Kirtland, & Medina dog parks for their sizes. She loves Grafton because it is wide open and in the country. She LOVES the country.  She loves Median for the woods. And she loves Kirtland for the water and the play area.  She loves to splash. She loves to explore and run free.
Loves running with ponies.   Loves her schedule: morning brusha and cookies & her out times.
Loves to lay or sit at the back of the yard, in the shade, and monitor. She loves to lay out on the patio and sun bathe.

Favorite toy: Anything that dispenses treats as she plays with it.
Car rides?   She is a horrible traveler. HORRIBLE. She paces back and forth and whines and husky howls until she can stick her nose out an open window.

Favorite sibling: Peryn

Athena getting some loving at the park

ATHENA: Athena has come such a long way. I was looking through her paperwork from when we adopted her.  She's gained weight (14 lbs),stronger legs, and her infections are gone.
Personality wise, Athena hasn't really changed much over time. She's pretty much the same dog as she's always been.
She really loves us and loves being with us. She loves playing with other dogs..sort of.
She'll play with Peryn, MC, & Bridger, but at the dog park she's happier to run after other dogs and bark at those wrestling.   
She and Peryn are ok. Peryn loves to bug the crap out of her. He will "munch " on her as she goes up and down stairs.  
They're more likely to play with one another than Duchess and Peryn would.   

She loves loves loves going to the park to "play" with other dogs. She's still obsessed with smaller dogs as she tries to mother them. She tries to break up "fights" (dogs wrestling with one another) and sometimes ends up as a protector of weaker dogs by doing so.

She does not sleep in the bed with us as the uneveness of the bed bothers her legs. She still has weak legs from her life before us. While we've strengthened them by allowing her to play and walk, she still has issues with them.  Her own bed is either the big chair next to the bed or the dog blanket/bed on the floor in front of it. 

She has a bladder of steel and once she's in bed for the night, she won't get up until we force her out the next morning.

She's the best listener of the bunch.   Call her once or ask her to stop and she does. She is a barker.  I call her Barky Bark and the Furry Bunch...
  

Current Likes:  If the place has dogs, she loves it.  She loves other dogs.
She's a doll who loves to be outside. She could be outside watching all day long if we would let her. 

Favorite toy: Rocky the Raccoon.

Car rides?   She is a horrible traveler. HORRIBLE from the minute she got in the car with us. She's better than she was, but only if no one (Duchess or Peryn) encroach on her space in the car.  

Favorite sibling: Peryn

PERYN the Pup: Peryn. Peryn. Peryn.   Lil dude is a handful.  He's an extremely happy dog who loves his Mommy very much. He loves Daddy too, but it's like a 60/40 attachment with Mommy being 60.  Personally I think it's more, but we don't want to upset Daddy!

Peryn loves playing.  Other dogs, balls, toys, anything he finds on the floor, the tie outs... 
He is full of life and loves to show it.    He still is not to be trusted alone, so is crated during the day. 

He loves to swim, play rough with his friends, and most importantly FETCH.   The dog can play FETCH non-stop for hours if you have it in you to keep up.  

He LOVES bodies of water. He loves to run, play, & swim in water.  It's going to be a long winter for him.

If you read up on Cattle Dogs, he's matches everything perfectly.   He has more than the regular puppy exuberance.  We've had 2 dogs at the 9-10 month age and neither of them had Peryn's energy.    We've discovered that if he is not regularly exercised, he's a monster.
He will chew anything he finds, walk all over Mommy in the middle of the night, and just bug the heck out of you until you play.  

We started him in day care 2 days a week-starting last week.   A big difference it's making.  It makes dealing with him the rest of the day and the whole next day much more bearable. 
Yay!


He has a few friends he LOVES to play with: MC, Akira, Apollo, & Kato (last 3 are huskies)

Current Likes:  Fetch, balls(Squeakier the better), going on rides, parks, other dogs, walks, playing

Favorite toy: ALL

Car rides?   He's WONDERFUL in the car.  He's like Galen was.  Quiet, comfortable, and enjoyable. He is a great traveler.


Favorite sibling: to play with: Athena.  TO sleep around & run with: Duchess.

11 Weeks in.......

Today, April 23

I wish I could remember every thing he's done since we last blogged.   It's just been really crazy.  
I can tell you that we've started taking him to a dog park with the girls.  This place has been empty every time we've gone since day 1.

Knowing that, we've taken the 3 to the park.  It's been a joy to watch him run free and play with his sisters.  We took them earlier today.   Additionally he was up early and playing with Duchess for about 3 hours on and off this morning.   Thanks to all that, he's a pooped pup.   It's a nice little break from him.

Daddy has been taking them on walks lately. He takes the girls first and comes back to take Peryn.   It's great as it burns a lot of his energy. When he comes back, we just do a few rounds of fetch and soon he's calmer.    His walks have been getting longer and longer.

He's jumping on the higher bed now.  Athena can't even do that.  Duchess is no longer alone up there. It doesn't matter any ways as the bed is going bye bye tomorrow.   Duchess will not like that one bit.
The office is also the guest room and unfortunately the bed is too big for both my desk and a queen sized bed.   We'll need to look for something smaller.

Duchess and Peryn at the park

The girls are doing fine.   They tolerate their brother most days.   He is a handful and tends to bug them at moments when they're not having it. They put him in his place though.

He's holding it a lot longer.   Our friend who lets him out during the middle of the day was on vacation this past week.  We both had to be at work and that's about 9 hours in the crate.   Each time it was bone dry.   This dog can hold it almost all night and most ogrf the day, but can spend 30 mins outside and come back in to pee in the middle of the floor! I don't get it.

He's got the commands I taught him down now.  He finally FINALLY does paw.   Working with him on Stay & Come.     .......

He's grown so much.  It's like you close your eyes and boom! he's taller/longer.   He's now over 25 lbs.   He was under 9lbs when we brought him home 11 weeks ago.

Buddies

As of today he's also micro-chipped.  I want to make sure i get my baby back.......
Which leads me to this train of thought..
It is absolutely amazing how many people are taken with him.   Rich tells me every time he walks him someone stops him to ask about Peryn. It happened twice today when I went in to have him chipped.  

As a avid dog lover, I was aware of an Australian Cattle Dog/Blue Heeler. When we went to pick him up, it was not a surprise about seeing the breed.   However I'd say almost 98% of the people we've come in contact with or who have seen his picture always ask what he is.  
I posed this question to the online group I belong to and it was mixed. Those down in Texas, where there are ranches galore, know the breed well. Actually most areas where there are farms or ranches with cattle or flocks to be herded, know of the breed.  The rest say they have the same reactions.

Duchess

I was used to the questions about Duchess, but now we get to deal with them about Peryn. In fact, at the drive through today someone was insanely curious about Duchess and then when they saw Peryn, they asked about him as well.   Poor Athena. Looking like the German Shepherd that you are doesn't make people ask about her.

Life is busy with 3 dogs again, but it's been pretty good.  Our only complaints is the chewing on EVERYTHING and the ninja poops.  Otherwise they are a great bunch that I adore.

Oh and MY complaint is Duchess and Peryn feel the need to wrestle on top of me. If they don't start there, they end there. My thighs are bruised up. My lower legs, which are extremely sensitive to begin with , are scratched up.  I have teeth marks from where they go to "bite" at each other and miss, getting me in the mean time.

Double Trouble

It was cute at first, no longer.  I dread and hate it. Even when I get out of the way, Peryn finds me and then uses me as a launch pad to dive at his sister.
It's irritating.

Well, I'll let you enjoy the pics of the pups....












On a sad note, four years ago I lost my little clown.  We said goodbye to my little buddy Goldberg. The first of my kiddos to leave me and the worst as it was so unexpected.   Here's a moment for my little BUG.

Field Trips, Exhaustion, Week 4, 9 Weeks Old.......

Hey hey!

HIS spot in Daddy's office

Welcome back.     Life with a puppy is crazy. I never realized how good we had it with a 4 month old puppy like Galen.   I don't know where we'd be if we didn't have the girls to help take on some of the pups crazy energy.

He's growing like crazy. It's really unbelievable. Even though he's still to young to really hold his bladder, he's doing a good job.   The past few days we had a 5 hour and a 4 hour night between breaks.  
It really wouldn't be so bad if he didn't insist I escort him out on the break. He refuses to go out by himself unless I'm out there with him.   He'll do it without me if the girls go out with him--but I still have to walk him off the patio.    It's COLD out!!!

Working with him on the training.  The only things he seems to comprehend is Potty & sit.  He "knows" Paw, but it's hit or miss if he decides to do it.    We started with Come and Lay Down today, but that we'll work on until he gets.

The girls have had a rough few days. He's tired them out!  Pooped.  No more energy. Leave me alone.  They're not up to his speed.    He likes that he has two different play mates with different play types.  Athena is the typical doggy wrestling type that she does with MC & Bestie.   Duchess on the other hand is really rough.  She pushes him around with her head.   He LOVES it. He goes jumping at her.  He and her go at it every morning.   I love seeing Duchess getting play time.    

We've discovered his love of fetch. When the girls haven't worn him out, a game of fetch will do the job.  

Car Ride

This weekend we were 'kidnapped' for an experiment/field trip.   Hubby forgot his phone at work, so we packed up the car with the girls & Peryn in his crate.  Drove most of the way there before he realized he forgot his entrance key. Turned around to get it and go back to work.   (25+25+40=90 min ride there).   The girls were getting agitated. Peryn slept in his crate.    I happened to remember seeing a dog park not too far from his work, so after he was done we headed there.  It was empty like I figured and we let the 3 dogs go wild.    IT. WAS. AWESOME!!!!!  Peryn had a blast running around with his sisters. The girls got to run off the nervous energy and we were tiring out the pup!


The ride home and the rest of the day was wonderful. They were so mellow.  Most of today, Sunday, was like that as well.   Their energy has returned this evening and they just came in from playing.

Peryn has taken to MC next door. Their tie outs reach just far enough for them to greet each other and do a little wrestling.     We definitely have a social pup.

I'm sad to see the puppy grow up, but he's going to be such an awesome dog as he gets older. Part of me cannot wait.  He's already jumping up on furniture without assistance.   No where is safe for Athena now.

Sleeping beauties

He sleeps in his crate, but one of our daily routines is to have him hang out with Mommy in the bedroom before Daddy retires for the night.   He'll play a bit and then come hang out on the bed with Duchess & Mommy.    He'll cuddle with either Duchess or Mommy.  He'll stay there until Daddy comes and gets him. When Daddy's ready for bed, in the crate he goes.  He accepts it now with little or no complaint.     Sleeping through the night is a dream of ours.

Just let me sleep!!!

I just need a break!!!!!

Hanging out in Daddy's office

With Mommy on the patio

Let me see!!

CHEESE!!! (W/Daddy)

We're just chillin

Let's Play Athena!!!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Week #3

Peryn

Well....I don't know where to begin ....so much I want to say.  First off, the snowy weather and these dogs have caused me some great stress.  The first few days after we brought Peryn home, I ended up falling on my back twice (in one day and within minutes of each other).  Then last week he got loose. After chasing him around and catching him, I slipped and fell down a hill incline and bruised my tailbone. This morning, landed on both knees.
I don't know if I'll be healthy enough to enjoy him.

The dogs are getting along famously. He absolutely positively loves his sisters. They're pretty taken with him too.  It's more than I could ask for.  Athena, who loves to play and loves puppies, is getting her fill.  They can go forever some days.    
Duchess, who only loves to play with his sister (who never wants to play with her) and roughly with bigger dogs has found her match.   The two of them go at it.  He loves her rough play and she loves being able to play.  I am pretty sure they're more physically and mentally active since he's come into their lives.   YAY!

He's still not sleeping through the night,but now his barks are only to let us know he needs to go out.  He sleeps the rest of the time.

With the sisters

Training....we're working on this.   We started bell training.  Galen was inadvertently trained this way when he was a pup. We're now doing it purposefully.   Fingers crossed.
House training ---yeah...this is going to be a tough one.

I started working on sit with him. He got it after 2 days.  Now whether or not he chooses to do it is another thing.  Next we're working on paw.    I want him to have 'sit' down before I work in Stay.
He watches the girls a lot, so that helps. Duchess is so well trained (thank you previous owners) so she is a good example to watch.

I don't like working from home anymore.  It was getting annoying with the sisters always wanting to go out.  He's worse. He has to go out and then he insists I be outside at the same time. It's freaking cold out.

He's a happy puppy that's for sure.  We've many nicknames for him: Blue Devil, Blue Ninja, Daredevil, and Kamikaze, just to name a few.   He's freaking fearless.  The rougher and tougher it is, the more he's interested.

Getting longer

ZZZZZZ

Neighbors have commented on how much he's grown.  It saddens me.  I like my cute little puppy. His ears are almost straight up.   Sigh.

Loves to lay on Mommy at night.

SO that's your update for now.   See you next time.