Potty Training success!

I have tried to be very consistent with Bailey's daily routine. When it comes to potty training, it is absolutely essential that the dog is given the opportunity to potty at key times in his day, when he first wakes up in the morning, when he has been in the crate for a while. About 20 minutes after drinking a lot of water, after vigorous play, after eating.

This morning I took Bailey out first thing. And he pee'd and Poo'd right away. We came back in to the kitchen and I let him run around with toys and playing with Frank. He had a rousing game of tug of war with Frank. and some retrieving for good measure. I was busy on my computer. All of a sudden Frank said, 'Sallee, he went to the door!" I grabbed the leash and took him outside. Sure enough, he had another big poop! Im so proud of him! He knew he had to go. And he knew he had to go outside.  What a special boy!

First Puppy Playdate

Every mother of a toddler looks forward to her child's first play date. She knows how important it is that her child learns to get along with others. It's no different from puppies. They too must learn the 'rules' for getting along with others. There is a social hierarchy among dogs that must be respected. The way the puppy learns the rules is that an older dog and/or another puppy teaches him. They learn first from their mother and litter mates. But they must be able to transfer those lessons to the larger world. That's why it is so important to me that Bailey have this opportunity.
What better place than at the home of my friend Valorie and her wonderful service, therapy dog, Tyler? She has a puppy as well, named Frankie.
On sunday we went down for a visit. First we let Bailey sniff around the property and get to know who was there. Then she brought her older dog Tyler out. Bailey immediately went to him and crouched in the submissive position.  So far so good. After establishing who was in charge, the dogs chased each other around the yard with gay abandon.

Then it was time for Frankie to come out. He is an energetic 4 month old Australian Shepherd.  First it was a nose to nose greeting. Then Frankie showed Bailey his take on things.

Frankie was pretty overwhelming to Bailey, both because he is older and because he is a high energy boy, while Bailey is more mellow. So we couldn't let them loose to play. But we were able to get them quiet for this picture. 

All in all, it was a very successful day!

Learning the basics

Be respectful to Tess

It used to be, that we thought puppies were too young to learn basic commands. We concentrated on potty training and pretty much let the pup run rampant, while we struggled to keep him from damaging everything in the house. That was before crate training. That was before a lot of research. I don't know how I managed to raise my Irish Setter years ago. I don't think I would be willing to take on a puppy if I couldn't crate train him. 
With Bailey, I started right away teaching him how to be a good member of the family. He is learning every day. Here are some of the things he is learning:

Quiet in the crate

Sit! Wait! Ok, you can eat.

Sit, Wait, Ok, you can go out.

Look at me.

When you own a puppy

When you own a puppy, your life turns upside down. Whatever you are doing whether at home or out, you have to plan for the puppy. You create a routine for your puppy, and it becomes your routine too. When did he last pee? poo? When does he usually need to go out. Is it time for his next meal?BE THERE. . The puppy learns when things are going to happen and is less anxious. When we first brought Bailey home, he cried and yiped  whenever I  left the room. I left him alone until he was quiet. After a few days he figured it out. If he is quiet, Mom appears and fun things happen. If he is barking and yipping, nothing good happens. He learns to entertain himself in his crate. He has his favorite toy in there  and he can roll around and have fun with it as much as he wants. Even though he has a lot of needs,  he is on my body clock schedule. He goes to sleep when I go to sleep, and wakes up when I wake up. If I get up in the night, he knows it isn't time to get up, and I will be back in just a few minutes. When he is quiet in the crate and Im sitting near by, he has his head on his toy with an eye on me. 

When you own a puppy,  you keep your little bag of puppy treats attached to your waist at all times, ready to treat him for good behavior. Sometimes he gets treats with praise. And sometimes he just gets praise.
When you own a puppy you get a lot more exercise. No more couch potato. You get up a million times to pry things out of his mouth to remove things that you didn't notice that are not puppy safe.You bend over and squat down a lot, because the puppy is near the floor!!
Every minute you are asking yourself, what is he learning? Is that what I want him to learn. You have to educate the other members of the family to be as consistent as you are. 

When your puppy tires of play and comes over and lies down at your feet, your heart fills up, and you are so glad you own puppy!

Bailey's big day

Today Bailey was out and about. After reading more about puppy socialization, I realized that I had to find ways to get Bailey into new situations even before he had all of his shots. Between the ages of 8-12 weeks, puppies are little sponges, slurping up every experience and storing them in their little hard drives. They are hard wired with this information for life. 
Puppies are most accepting of new experiences between 3 and 12 weeks old. After that age, they become much more cautious of anything they haven’t yet encountered. From about 12 to 18 weeks old the opportunity to easily socialize the puppy ends—and with each passing week it becomes harder to get the pup to accept and enjoy something that he’s initially wary of.
ASPCA

The plan is to take the puppy to places where there are not usually any dogs. So I decided to start with Home Depot. They are dog friendly. But you don't see a lot of dogs there. I have take my other therapy dogs in training there. There are so many sights, sounds and people.  I was hoping it wouldn't be overwhelming for Bailey.
We hadn't even walked across the parking lot when we heard squeals of delight. We were headed to the garden entrance and the Home Depot greeter was so excited to see Bailey. She loved on him and he happily wiggled around. Then I put him in a cart on a towel and pushed him around the store for about 10 minutes. Then back to the exit for more pictures and snuggles before we headed home. Bailey passed the first test with flying colors.

Later in the afternoon, our neighbors came home. They have an 11 year old boy. I called to them to come over and meet Bailey. They were delighted with him. Ethan played with him for quite a while. Then I heard our other neighbors out in their front yard. They have two little girls ages 4 and 6. I walked Bailey over to see them. They were all giggles and cuddles. The loved playing with Bailey. 
Bailey is one tired puppy. I think he learned a lot in one day!

Vets, Vaccinations and Decisions

At the Vet

As with human babies, there are a lot of decisions that need to be made about managing our animal's  health care.  We are bombarded daily with all sorts of pronouncements and 'studies' that influence every decision we make in our daily lives.  
There are several schools of thought about when to vaccinate, what to vaccinate, when to neuter and what to feed our animals.  I won't try to summarize them all. If you want in depth information Google this. You will find as I did, that there are a myriad of opinions, each with appropriate studies to reinforce the opinion and guilt trip if you don't buy into it.
Bailey's breeder is a case in point. She is wary of too many vaccinations for puppies and dogs. She also didn't want me to take the puppy to the vet before 3 months.She says they can get parvo just from going to the vet. She gave me enough vaccine to administer myself. The vaccine was only for Parvo and distemper. She feels that the other vaccines overload the dogs system unnecessarily.  So I didn't take Bailey right in to the vet when we got home. He had had his second distemper/parvo shot from the breeder two days before we picked him up. But I had misgivings about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines she gave me. If they had not be properly refrigerated any way along the supply chain they could be ineffective.I didn't feel good about not putting Bailey into the care of my excellent vet. 
A few days ago I got an email from a woman who volunteers her dog with Paws'itive Teams, the organization Toby and I volunteered with. She wanted to inform me of the Golden Retriever cancer study and encourage me to enroll Bailey. She is a doctor  and professor of medicine at UCSD. So I took the opportunity to ask her opinion about vaccinations. She told me that vaccinations are safe, and that the illnesses they prevent are nasty. This has always been my thinking. It comes from 45 years as an RN. I saw first hand some very sick children who didn't receive all their immunizations. I remember the polio epidemic of the 50's when many died or were paralyzed. When the polio vaccine was developed everyone rushed to get their children vaccinated and polio was eradicated. I decided to return to the main stream and get Bailey all his shots. I felt a great sense of relief. I believe that people come into our lives at just the time that we need them.
So, yesterday was Bailey's first vet visit. He passed everything with flying colors, right down to his poo. He got his shots like a little trooper. I kept him in his crate while transporting to minimize incidental.exposure to pathogens.
Another piece of advice I got from the breeder is about what to feed my puppy. She told me to feed him Costco puppy chow. She said, the higher quality food is too 'hot' and will make the puppy grow too fast, which is bad for his hips and joints. hoo boy!
So that's what Im feeding him. Im going to research this some more. I want to know who makes Costco dog chow.
Im very interested in feedback from this post!

Separation Anxiety

When you love a puppy, all you want to do is be near him and hold him and snuggle him. Soon that's all he wants too. What could be wrong with that? He could develop the dreaded separation anxiety.  Separation anxiety is when a dog gets very stressed whenever he isn't with his people. It can lead to all sorts of problems. If not nipped in the bud, it can be very difficult to overcome. The dog goes from whining and barking to destructive behavior. If he is confined to a crate, he could even start chewing on himself. 

I realized that Bailey was showing early signs of separation anxiety a couple days ago. Whenever he was crated and I was out of the room he began to bark and whine. When I reentered the room, even if I didn't let him out of the crate he quieted down. In the evening we have a routine. After dinner and potty break and play time, I put Bailey in his crate in my bedroom. I like to sit in bed and read, or do computer work or watch TV. I put Bailey in his crate near my bed. He can look out and see me there.He keeps an eye on me. But he doesn't fuss.  Several times in the evening, I leave the room for a while. When I do, Bailey starts to bark and whine. When I return he quiets and doesn't even seem to want to get out of the crate.  So, what Im doing is waiting outside the room until he quiets. Then go back in without acknowledging him. He peers out of the crate with his big black eyes and watches my every move. 
I put a crate in the kitchen, so that I could confine him while I worked in the kitchen. Whenever I left the kitchen he kicked up a terrible fuss. He kept it up for 45 minutes.  Since Frank wasn't home to be bothered, I let him fuss. Finally he quieted enough so that I could let him out.
I called my good friend Cris. She has a wonderful dog training business called Better Dog Training. She is one of the best dog trainers I know. She told me I need to leave him in the crate and let him bark it out. Not easy for a new 'mom'.She also told me to get rid of the crate in the kitchen and just use the one in the bedroom. He needs to get used to not being by me every minute.
I do leave him every morning to do my exercise and errands leaving Bailey in his crate. Some times Frank is home. And sometimes he is alone. Frank says he is usually quiet when Im gone.
Right now he is in his crate in the bedroom. He was quiet for about 20 minutes. But he has started barking and crying. I absolutely must deal with this now. And to do it, I have to go against my strong strong nurturing instincts. It will be rough. But it must be done.