aberdeen: (willowme)
Other than the fact that my house hit nearly 80, with all the windows open, and the other fact that I, er, didn't write my paper or grade the students' work, I'd call today a success.
There are brownies cooling on the counter and moose-aka (moussaka made with moose) in my oven, and Cody seems very pleased with the end result of the bone.

I put it down on the floor in the middle of the kitchen. He looked at me, looked at it, looked at me, and then, very gingerly, very slowly, picked up the bone... and darted into his kennel.
Read more... )
Something about the way the flash reflects off the sides makes the kennel look really deep. It's only 4', but it looks like a looooong tunnel.

ETA:
Just ate of the finished moussaka. I am quite pleased. Didn't use tomato (to save my tummy) or nutmeg (because I didn't have any), but you wouldn't know that from the flavor. Very pleased, indeed. (:

Experiment!

Jul. 2nd, 2011 10:40 am
aberdeen: (Puppy)
Today I tried eating my breakfast before Cody got his. It seems to have been successful - I got to eat without being interrupted to go out. That should help us get through the morning a bit more efficiently. Now we'll go for a bit of a walk.
aberdeen: (Default)
That's really all I have to say about it. Cody lost another tooth, this morning (bottom incisor), and will probably lose its neighbor, soon.
aberdeen: (Default)
This is what you get when you say, "Cody! Come!" and he knows you have hot dog bits.

aberdeen: (Puppy)
I think I got more bites in the last 10 minutes than I've gotten in the last ten days. But it was worth it.

I put the 30' lead on Cody and took him out to a relatively safe field by the school. It started raining about three steps out the door, and the wind we'd had earlier in the day was gone, so mosquitos.

It took Cody a second to figure out that he had more than 6 feet that he could roam, but then he had a spurt of PuppyCrazy. If you didn't know, mosquitos rest on grass. If you run through the grass, they get up. If you drag a thirty foot lead over the grass... a thirty foot radius circle worth of mosquitos get up to find the source of food which has awakened them.

So. Mosquito Army and Pouring Rain.

As soon as Cody was done with his first bout of PuppyCrazy, I called him. He did what he usually does, which is completely ignore my existence. Too many interesting smells! So I moved off the boardwalk (bringing my personal cloud of mosquitos with me) to where he could see me, and tried again. This time he looked at me. I'd forgotten the clicker, so I couldn't click. Oops. So instead I got all excited for him, and called him to come, and he sort of waddled over. And I told him he was a GOOD BOY and gave him a bit of hot dog.

HOT DOG! OMG HOT DOG!!!!!

After that one bite, he was /right/ there when I called. He was psyched about having as much free play room in the field as I gave him, and so there were quite a few moments of puppy crazy. I didn't try to call him out of the midst of one, but anytime he was stopped and I called, ZOOM! There he was! And he remembered to sit each time. Though one time he slid right into me at the sit.

We did 6 or 7 repetitions, but then it was just too much mosquito and I couldn't deal anymore.
aberdeen: (Default)
I don't think I did a proper puppy update, last week.
There wasn't much change. We had a few days with some piddle accidents, but none for a while.
I was supposed to do vaccinations last Friday, but I was confused by having 2 syringes with 4 needles for 3 vials, one of which seemed to contain a solid rather than a liquid. And there was no information about how much to give. And then I was avoidy about calling the vet.
I finally called and actually giving the vaccines wasn't bad. The first one was hard (for me). I almost wimped out when I was trying to get the angle right on the needle before jabbing the pup. Once I got over that, it wasn't bad at all. Cody didn't seem to mind at all.

Teething has really started, now. He lost two front teeth, yesterday, and I can already see the grown-up teeth coming in.

Oh, and - I swapped out the small collar we started with for his real collar, today. The small one was just on the verge of too tight, and it couldn't expand any more.

And now: Pictures )
aberdeen: (Default)
We haven't had a day without an accident since my last post.
And I think Cody is teething. He is very whiny, all the time, ... except when he has to pee.

Took Cody on a long walk. He piddled. He pooped. He piddled again.
Went into the school and did some training and played with the ball.
Walked home. He piddled in the yard before we went inside.
Got him his lunch. He started eating like a ravenous beastie.
Went to the store. Wasn't gone more than 15 minutes, but when I came back, he'd peed all over his bed (and hadn't finished his lunch).
Took him out. He peed again.

It's like he has some magical bladder of holding that never empties.
aberdeen: (Default)
The puppy just destroyed a square inch of the carpet.

I moved the puppy gate so that he had a few feet of carpet to lie on, and he went and got two toys and a nylabone and lay down where he could be on the carpet and see me, and started chewing. And I checked, and he was chewing the Nylabone. And then there was some squeaking (from the moose toy), and then he was chewing the bone again, and then... and then, in maybe 10 minutes, probably less, he completely destroyed, down to the floor, a half-dollar sized section of carpet.

Sigh.

Needless to say, the puppy gate has been returned to the kitchen only.
aberdeen: (Default)
I should stop posting about house-training successes.
Since I posted, yesterday, we've had two accidents.

The first was minor and very understandable. I was in the other room talking to Hank-The-God-of-Plumbers, and Cody was WHINING. I mistakenly assumed that this was just because Cody /loves/ Hank, and was sad to be left alone while both of us were within hearing range. (To be fair, this probably was part of what was going on.) I came back just in time to see Cody starting to squat. "Hey!" I said, and he stopped with just a sprinkle. We went outside and he finished.

The other was last night or this morning, and there are three possibilities about what happened.

We went out just before midnight, and Cody was distracted by kids while he was piddling. We stayed out until after he'd found a good place to poop and then went back in, but he never piddled again. I didn't go to bed until about 1:30, and I went through his kitchen several times before I went to bed, so when he whined a ton when I did go, I discounted it as typical 'don't leave me alone' whining. (Which he does a little every night, but usually not quite so much as that.)

Possibility a) He was telling me that he needed to go out at 1:30, and finally gave up and piddled then, and then slept the rest of the night.
Possibility b) I slept through his whining this morning, and he gave up and piddled not long before I got up.
Possibility c) He didn't whine to go out, and just piddled sometime this morning before I got up.

Given that he didn't piddle when I got up and took him out (and he did poop), I'm leaning more toward b or c. I'm /really/ hoping it wasn't c, because that would make things really tricky.

Either way, I'm going back to setting an alarm for early enough to take him out, hopefully before he actually needs to.
aberdeen: (Default)
Cody now weighs 30 pounds. I weighed him, yesterday.
Three weeks ago, including his kennel, his blanket, and a gallon ziplock bag of food, he weighed 23 pounds. Given the kennel weighed about 11 pounds, I think it's safe to estimate Cody's weight on arrival at a bit over 10 pounds. Holy moly.

And he doesn't look chubby. He's actually looking sleeker. There's definitely a shift from puppy-build to dog-build happening.

The last accident we had was the day of my last post, so just about a week. I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm also getting about 6 hours of sleep a night, most nights. (That would probably be more, but the plumber has been working on my boiler all week, and he starts nice and early in the morning.)

I'm going to post some pictures, now, and hopefully get this posted before we need to go out.





(There are ducks in that water. Really. I'm not posting the picture of the eagle that even I can't see... but there was one!)


aberdeen: (Default)
I introduced Sit -> Down a few days ago with a treat-lure, and then again yesterday or the day before. We didn't practice it, those days, just introduced the concept.

Today, we went over to the gym with one of the neighborhood kids. We played a little bit of fetch to get the hyper out, and then started work. I demonstrated sit, and then the kid practiced until he got the gesture and tone right and Cody was listening to him. And we practiced calling the pup and having him sit - just a couple feet apart. Then I demonstrated Sit -> Down, and it took a few seconds but the pup did it. I practiced one more time, and he got it instantly. Then we practiced back and forth. Come -> Sit -> Down. 5 in a row, instantly. Then we worked a little bit on Sit -> Down -> Sit. Cody is not a fan of having to get back up from down, and yipped or whined, but did it.

Then we had the kid go across the gym. We worked on 'Come -> Sit' a few times. Then the puppy's brain was tired and he had a couple minutes of Insane Puppy Hyper running circles in the gym while the boy and I watched. There was some nice pettin' time, in which Cody learned that he can't nibble on other people when they pet him, either. (That's a constant reminder, thing. But he's only 14.5 weeks, so.) We tried bringing him back to work, after that, but his brain was pooped. He sat, but just barely. So we gave him some more pettins and brought him home.

We did 5 minutes of crate time in which he couldn't see me while he chewed on his chicken treat, and then praised extensively and treated for remaining in the kennel when I opened the door.

He is now sacked out on the kitchen floor.

Oh, and he's definitely bigger. I changed the location of the panel in the kennel to make a bigger space for him. I could /almost/ remove the panel altogether, but that would be pushing it.
aberdeen: (Default)
As promised!

Also - It's been 48+ hours, and no accidents.










And, because TK shouldn't be left out:
aberdeen: (Default)
Has it really been another whole week? It doesn't feel like it, but my computer tells me it's Thursday again.

I'll try to get some pictures up in the next couple days. I swear he's twice as big as he was two weeks ago.

Progress:
Indoors or outside, if I have his attention, he's reliable with sit and wait. I can put his dinner down and leave the kitchen (still in sight, but on the other side of the puppy jail), and he'll still wait for the "Okay!" to go and eat.
He's getting better about not snarfing down every bit of trash and mud and wood we encounter. Not there, yet, but significantly improved.
He lets me sleep 6 hours in a row (most nights) in my own bed. Last night it was only 4 hours before we needed to go out, but then I got another three, after.
No accidents in over 24 hours. (And all the ones we had this week were daytime piddles that I could have prevented if I'd listened to him.)

Frustrations:
Still operating on a sleep-deficit.
Still dealing with pica on walks.
More aggressive nipping during play. We're gonna work on that right away, but I need to find a different strategy. There are two types of nipping. 1) A single nip when he's being petted but not completely relaxed - a typical puppy nibble. It isn't something where I can withdraw attention, because by the time I do, he's already done and moved on to chewing on a toy, so then I'm punishing chewing on a toy. 2) When we're playing in the gym, he's started "nipping at my heels". I stop running and turn my back, and he starts tugging on my jeans. He's only done this twice, but the second time (yesterday), he got my calf pretty hard. I'm going to a) stop playing tug-of-war at all with him, and b) keep doing the back-turning, and see if that works. I'll give it a few days. If it doesn't get better, I'll figure out something else.

I'm still struggling to find a routine that will meet his needs, and still let me have a life, but things are definitely getting better.
aberdeen: (Default)
I have all the toys!


And I'm not afraid to use them.


Even when the kennel is half-closed.
aberdeen: (Default)
"Leave it" successful 8 times in the gym, 3 from my hand with treats, 4 from the floor with treats, 1 from the floor with a penny.

"Give" successful 15 times in the gym with the toy. Time to step it up to a low-value treat.

And then one successful "Give" when he got a piece of trash on the way home before I spotted it. And one successful "Leave it".

More pictures soon.
aberdeen: (Default)
Tuesday had a couple accidents.
Yesterday had 1 in the evening.
Today, so far, we're at 0. Were at 0. /While/ he was eating his lunch, he piddled. Ah, well.

My biggest frustration is with the pica. Every walk is a struggle. It's less bad early in the morning or late at night (because there aren't 10,000 unleashed children around), but even then it's a constant stream of, "Cody - Leave it. Cody - Give." With kids around, it's so much worse, because I can't just watch the puppy and so he gets ahold of three times as many things that he shouldn't.

If Cody were reliable with "Leave It", it'd be easier, but he's really not, which means then we get to "Give", which he's also not reliable about. And enough of what he's trying to eat is dangerous for him, that I end up having to physically remove it from him, which isn't fun for either of us. Especially when it's rotten wood that has already started to splinter in his mouth.

I'm hoping that when the worms are resolved and his stomach has gotten used to the new food, a lot of it will resolve itself. Otherwise... Well. If I can make it through the summer, it'll be easier once the snow is here.

Meanwhile, I can totally see why so many of the people on It's Me or the Dog don't walk their dogs enough.
aberdeen: (Default)
Read more... )
aberdeen: (Default)
Two accidents, today. Both were my fault.

We were over at the school, and we hadn't been inside very long, but I'd forgotten that it had been quite a while since Cody had piddled outside before we went in. And we'd lost his squirrel somewhere, so I mistook his looking around the room as looking for the squirrel rather than *sniff*, *sniff*, *piddle*.

Oops.

Then, after all the school-work stuff was over, we came inside. The plan had been to come get the squirrel and go for our walk, but the squirrel wasn't here, and I was going to just sit down for a minute. And then it was two hours later.

That was okay. Cody was asleep for most of it, too, and it was his small whine that woke me up. We went outside. He piddled. It was drizzling, so we came back in pretty quickly. We played a little bit and I decided to go back to the school and get the rest of our stuff and hopefully find the squirrel. I could hear him WHINE*BARK*WHINE from outside when I got back. This was the first time I'd left him alone when he was awake. And when I got inside, I found our first, big, stinky, pile of poo accident.

He hadn't stepped in it, or gotten anything else in it, but, oops.

I definitely need more sleep, because I don't have the energy to be energetic and patient about the things I need to be energetic and patient about.

We didn't do any real training, today, and it's going to take a lot for us to be able to manage a long walk. We had two short walks and some run-around-the-gym time, but I'll be lucky if, between the rain, and the kids, and my general exhaustion, we manage a walk of any real length at all before bed.
aberdeen: (Default)
No accidents yesterday or last night. Woot!

Cody went out around 7 and just before 10, but it was a zoo with kids, both times. We went out briefly at midnight, which was nicer, but we didn't get our long walk. He dozed until 3, while I worked and we went out again. Then I made a bed on the floor on this side of the puppy gate and we both slept until 7:45.

Huzzah!

I think, if he can see me when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he'll happily go back to sleep if he doesn't need to piddle. Tonight, I'm going to try sleeping on the couch. If that works (and every bone, joint, and bit of flesh in my body hopes it does), then I'll do that for a few nights and see if we can get a nice routine before I try moving back into the bedroom.
aberdeen: (Default)
Last night there were no mistakes.

We ended our last walk just a bit after midnight, and were in bed right around 1.

I planned to get up at 4 to take Cody out to piddle.
That was the plan...

At 1:45 there was the most pitiful whining from the puppy-jail. I turned the light on in my room and the whining stopped. I got up, went out to the kitchen, and there was the puppy at the gate looking pitiful.

So I decided I didn't want to take chances. I put the leash on him and we went outside. I said, "Go potty." He looked at me. And then he piddled. There were kids on the other side of the boardwalk from my house (teenagers, rather than little ones), so he was a little distracted, and I walked him around the grassy area a bit. Then we went inside.

I debated how much attention I wanted to give him when we went inside. I gave him lots of kudos for piddling, which rather amused the teenagers, but I didn't want him to think that whining in the middle of the night was a good way to get attention from me. But I also didn't want him to associate piddling outside with being left alone. I ended up splitting the difference. After I took the leash off, I went over to his bed and sat down and when he came over I petted him and gave him his chewy. Once he was flopped over and chewing, I went to the other side of puppy-jail and waited. He was fine. So I got up and went to bed.

It was no more than 10 minutes before the whining started, again. I waited. The whining got louder. I waited. It got louder still, and interspersed with barks, and the sound of a puppy attempting to climb the puppy gate. I called to him. He was silent for about half a second, and then it was all whining all the time. It started to get a bit more frantic, and I didn't want that, so I turned on the light and went out to the kitchen. As soon as he saw me, he was calm. When he'd been calm for a couple seconds, I praised him and then went inside to him. I went to his bed and he came over and I stayed until he started to drift off. Then I slowly extricated myself.

I reset my alarm for 6, instead of 4, and went back to sleep.

Just before 4:30 there was puppy whining again. This time, I didn't hesitate. I got up, went to him, put the leash on, and out we went. He piddled and pooed. And in we went again. This time I stayed until he was falling asleep, and all was fine.

I reset my alarm for 7.

At just about 6:30, we repeated the process. Only there was very little pee and no poo, and when we went inside, he wasn't falling asleep. I tried going to bed, but there was whining. Lots of whining.

So I dragged the blanket to the living room, just on the other side of the gate. I called him over and petted him through the bars and then lay down.

I managed to sleep until just after nine.

He has eaten breakfast, and when I am done posting, we will have a brief outing, come in so that I can eat my own breakfast, and then we will have a LOOOOONG WALK. And hopefully some play/work time at the school. Then we will come back here and he will be tuckered enough that I can do something.
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