May 28 Update: Progress, progress

I am happy. We have made huge strides since the addition of Deja to the house. Crate training is well underway. Stardust and Nova are each staying in their own crate at night. I hear some vocal protest but not much and I think it coincides more with needing to go out to the washroom as opposed to complaining about being in the crate. Nova will walk right in, Stardust still needs to be picked up or coerced in with food sometimes. THEY WALK ON LEASHES! They also have a good recall at the park. It will take time for them to relearn these skills with a new home, but it will be easy with the right methods (lots of food, praise, and good timing). They are teething right now and get watched like hawks in the house. They like to eat ice cubes. Stardust comes to me for things and will put up with pets from me. Nova still cowers and is a bit shy, but is super friendly at the park when other dogs are around and will let kids (or anyone else) pet her. They have not yet learned to ask to go out and will have accidents in the house, but if we are in the yard and I ask them to "go pee" they will do their business outside.

May 15 - Wowza

We have come so incredibly far since Saturday.

The girls got their second set of vaccinations. Stardust weighs 31 lbs (23@her spay) and Nova weighs 32 lbs (21@her spay).

The girls met my landlords again tonight. After letting themselves be "man-handled" (with wary looks) Nova came running over to ME! Yes, that's right, she came to me.

Tonight I was chilling on the dog bed and since everyone was picking on Stardust, I grabbed her and put her in my lap and shooed away the other two. She stayed put. She looked a little concerned but that was about it. I did the same thing with Nova when she came over to harass Stardust. So this evening, I've had both puppies in my lap multiple times, laying down, getting pets. They aren't so cool when I'm standing up and coming for them but the will come over of their own accord if I'm sitting. I'm giving Deja credit (she of course doesn't need to be dragged to sit with me - she will gladly come lay next to me or on me - all 70lbs - the vet was super nice and let me weigh Deja too!).

Just a bit about Deja: She was an owner surrender, through no fault of her own. She doesn't really like being in the crate but has put up with it while I'm at work during the day. She gets REALLY excited to see me when I get home. At night she sleeps on the dog bed in my room and if she gets up and I tell her to go lay down, she will go back to it. She seems to think the couch is a better place to lay down than the floor but I've been curbing that, and she seems to really like the dog bed if I bring it into the living room. She is SUPER gentle when playing with the puppies but a bit rough when she wants to play with me. She has a really strong prey drive and pulls on the leash a bit if there is another dog or a critter to chase or she wants something but is getting a bit better. This will take work. I have been rollerblading with a front pull harness and she has been doing pretty well with correction on the move. She has adapted to the way I do things really quickly (like straddling her and hanging on to her harness when it's narrow passing). She responds REALLY quickly to her name if she is being harassed by the puppies (we pull the old bait and switch, I'll try and get it on video, it's rather awesome). Not sure what else to say. Yes she could use some work, but I adore her and she has done wonders in only a few short days for Stardust and Nova.

Monday: the day of soccer and the puppy angel

I took everyone out to the park before soccer. The puppies ran after Deja. Nova needs to work on her manners (she accidentally ticked off a dog with her ~lack of~ puppy manners).

I went to soccer. I came home to find that MommaJ had bathed everyone and cleaned up all their muddy paw prints and more. The bath apparently didn't set them back because we worked on food manners again, AND - NOVA CAME AND PUT HER HEAD ON THE COUCH NEXT TO ME AND LET ME PET HER!!!!!

Sunday after the whateverth day of May.

So, hi. What a day. Foster Momma J and I took Deja and the little ones out to a park nearby where there was a big open field and no other dogs and ran around with Deja. The little ones followed her, pulling on their leashes. No problems AT ALL (except for really not knowing how to walk on the leash).

Here are some photos for the day. Sunday morning, waking up with Deja (who slept on the dog bed in my room).

Puppy play time.

"Food Manners" (One of my favorite exercises with dogs. I did this with Sparky, Maalek and Maggie, and Momma J did this with Tillie, Jasmine and Zorro and it was an amazing tool. It turns out the Deja likes to gobble her food and I could see potential food aggression issues with this trio so it's great to be able to curb it before it starts. For one of the MOST FANTASTIC video tutorials on this, check out kikopup on youtube. I LOVE LOVE LOVE her videos. I have been separating them to eat so that Deja doesn't kill a puppy and Stardust gets a turn.)

Roller blading with Deja after dinner. She needs some leash work. You can tell she's a sled dog - the breed-typical prey drive, and pulling is there.

Final verdict: I'm keeping Deja. She is AMAZING with the puppies, so so so so gentle, and I love her personality. If you have some breed knowledge (aka realistic expectations about her personality) then go check her adoption page out!

Saturday May whateverth.

So I'm a little (LOT) behind on updates. I've been busy. So have the puppies.

I am no longer "captain of the starship". Don't get me wrong, Stardust and Nova are still my charges BUT we weren't making much by way of progress. They were ok with me walking around but that's about where we maxed out.

When I got the e-mail about "URGENT FOSTER HOMES NEEDED" I considered adding a dog to bring them out of their shell. After hmm-ing and hawwing, my former first officer and I decided to check out the AARCS/Pound Rescue/ARTS event at Sleep rover.

I had four options if I wanted a third dog. Bubba (Halo) and Lily were just coming back to us and Karma and Deja had needed a home for a while. After some good picking by my former first officer, we took Deja for the weekend to decide if she'd be a good fit. Check out the video!
The puppies LOVE her. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE her. OBSESSED. Deja tried telling them off, but it didn't seem to deter them so I had to give her a few breaks throughout the day and pen the pups.

We had a few tentative leash adventures since I'm impatient. The puppies weren't particularly cool with it. (photos to come)

Stardust followed Deja happily. Nova cowered a bit but met some nice people and another dog and even let the nice girl pet her when she crouched down.


So, Deja. She's awesome. Here are my feet as I read Game of Thrones (first book in A Song of Ice and Fire) on my balcony that afternoon.

Please bare with me, I have some lovely updates to come!

PUPPIES ARE SPAYED!

Please forgive the lack of posts this week.

House training is rolling, in a good way!

When I get up in the morning, come home from work, come home from DDing, I leave the doors open to the stairs and open the pen - I don't need to corral them out anymore, they head straight out.

They aren't comfortable following me out and staying out yet so we aren't yet at working on asking to go out, but if I leave the door open, they will go outside instead of in the house.  Progress is progress.

Star Date: 19

Captain's Log. Star Date: 19 It's been a busy couple of days for me but the puppies are doing really well. We have some important milestones.

• I have had to physically walk AROUND the puppies once.  They did not budge when I walked up.
• The crates have been going in the pen at night so we can work our way to crate training the pups.
• I have relocated the pen so it opens into the hall/stairwell.  Puppies have been going directly outside in the morning/after work.
• This morning, there was only a giant (2 puppy?) pool of pee ONLY.
• After work, there was only ONE poop.
• I had to clean an exorbitant amount of poop out of the yard.

Tomorrow is the big day though, so be sure to check out AARCS website!