Blog7weeks

STITCH

the weBlog of a Service Dog, competition dog, pet and friend In Training

THE FIRST WEEK HOME (7 weeks old)

Her daddy.	Late night - Ron's put a sign on the kitchen counter - Welcome Home Stitch! He's also changed the dog doors from the large, heavy Giant Schnauzer doors to middle-sized, softer, easier ones, and built some little stairs so the puppy can reach the doors. What a honey!
The first night.	I'm worried about tonight. Travelling makes Scuba and me tired, I'm exhausted but Stitch has been fast asleep for hours. I offer to take her and sleep in the motor home so Ron at least can get some sleep, but he valiantly declines. I give her her supper, then run her around and wrestle with her until I can't keep my eyes open any more. One last trip outside, then stuff her back into her puppy carrier and immediately turn out the light. There's a little whimpering, but the carrier has a zipper so I can put my hand inside. She likes that and settles right down. Wakes up and has to pee about 4 AM (that would be 6 AM HER time, we're going to have to work on her internal clock!), then goes right back to sleep. Thank goodness. The carrier is small and cozy, and she's still got her litter-smelling toys and blankie in it. I'm sure that helps.
The first day.	Oh my God, what have I done? Ron always says HIS pick is the one sucking her thumb in the corner, but oh no, I have to bring home the baddest one! I'm exhausted and I'm not going to do anything today but relax and let her settle in. And take her outside every 20 minutes. And finish puppy-proofing the kitchen. And the living room. And the dog room. And find the baby gate to put on the stairs in the kitchen. And pick up the rugs. And get all the stuff back that she stole because I haven't put it away yet. Maybe I should hire a babysitter? I need a NAP!
Shutting up the night-time screeches.	Tonight try to keep her up later and feed her later, then put her in her puppy carrier again. She's not so ready to go this time, and starts yapping. Can't shut her up. I lift the carrier up and put it beside me in the bed - how to have a dog in your bed and not in your bed at the same time! That shuts her up. I pet her for a minute and then put the bag back on the floor and she's quiet. Has to go out at 5 the next morning. Well, it's better than 4!
Puppy teeth Queen Of The Universe house-training.	Second Day - Today we're definitely going to discuss the teeth issue. I don't mind dog teeth on me - in fact, if she's going to be a Service Dog, she's going to have to put her teeth all over me and my stuff. I DO mind her drawing blood. Scuba's been telling her off left and right, which Stitch has been taking very well, backing off, remembering the circumstances, trying to be more polite the next time. So the next time she hurts me, instead of just prying my flesh loose from her teeth, I growl and give her a finger-poke on the side of her neck. She bites again, harder. I bark NO! at her and finger-poke harder. Stitch bites harder and growls. I grab a handful of neck-scruff and lift her up by that with most of her weight held with my other hand under her ribcage. I look her right in the eye, snarl KNOCK IT OFF! in my nastiest voice and give her a tiny shake. And she goes off on me! Her voice gets deep and she swings her teeth around trying to get at my hand. How DARE you?! I am the Goddess Stitch, Queen Of The Universe! For this she gets a slightly bigger shake, an even bigger bark, and I let a bit more of her weight onto her scruff. I'm looking tough but I'm having a hard time not laughing at the audacity of this 9-lb scrap of attitude. The second time, she yelps and relaxes. I put her down. She comes back and bites my hand again, but gently this time, so my hand wrestles with her. A billion times more today she bites too hard, but she listens when I growl and backs off. There is a kitchen, a dog room, a dog door, two stairs, a back porch, a kennel pen and another dog door in between the living room and the yard. A long way for an 8 week puppy to go. Today she started leading ahead of me on the way to the first door. I'm very impressed. Since she's obviously understanding where she's going and why, I'm using the cue - Go outside, Hurry up.
The first silent night.	I've set up a small ex-pen around our tiny kitchen table. There's a large dog bed in it, a water bucket, and some toys. She's found the dog bed on her own and goes there regularly for naps during the day. At bedtime, I move Scuba's crate so the door points directly into and right against the ex-pen with Scuba in it. Scuba's not going to be thrilled about this, but I need her help. Scuba goes in the crate and gets a cookie. I toss the second cookie on the dog bed, put Stitch in the pen and lock it up. Immediately turn out the light and cross my fingers. Holy cow, not a sound after the cookie crunching! Both dogs go to sleep and Stitch wakes up to pee at 5:30. Life is good.
House-training Clicker training begins	Third Day - Several times she startles in the middle of playing and runs all the way outside and pees. Several other times she forgets and pees in the kitchen. Housebreaking is my very worst thing, but she's getting the idea and, as my mother used to say, she's unlikely to get her PhD without being housetrained, so not to worry. The entire house is blocked off except for the places she is, and they're tiled. And she's, for Heaven's sake, about three weeks ahead of where I expected her to be, so I'm not going to get excited about the odd error. Especially when it means I don't have to stare at her every moment. Today we start clicker training. Elaine has clicked the pups as she delivered their food, so she certainly knows what the click means. There are 150 kibbles in a quarter cup of dog food, so we do about 50 Sits (nose goes up butt goes down X 5, then wait for it), 30 Downs (almost all lured), 30 Stands (waited for them, clicked when they happened), 20 turn-your-head-to-the-left (that's what she offers me), and the rest eye contact. I could have liked a little more intensity, but OTOH she's working for dry kibble. We work in the screen room. Once she takes a break, goes over to the fish pond, and gets a drink of water.
She meets a llama Turning her over Sharp teeth Begging in the kitchen Starting the Get Lost game.	Fourth Day - only one housebreaking accident today. We take several long walks around the dog yard with Scuba. Find a bunch of half-buried toys, wrestle them from the ground and parade them around. Run full speed into a tree. That doesn't seem to bother her. I'll have to write her a memo about looking where she's driving. Then since she's following so well, we take a private walk down the lane outside the dog yard. She sees RapidFire, one of the llama studs, in his pen by the road, and takes off to visit him. If I had a rock, I'd fire it at her. Or him. I'm horrified, Terrified. Hysterical. I know a yearling llama that killed a Great Pyrenees, and this is a full-grown stud and a puny little brat. Fortunately he thinks she's mildly amusing and I climb through the fence and scoop her out from between his front feet. From now on we walk down the road with the leash on. I try turning her over in my arms when she isn't quite sleepy. She thinks about telling me off and changes her mind, settles for whining, yapping and struggling. I hold her until she relaxes, then put her down. She turns around and wrestles my pant leg. Several more tooth infractions today, but they're getting less painful and she's backing off immediately with a soft "uh" from me. Not so polite with other people. Several college-age guys complain about her mouth. She's figuring out that anyone standing in the kitchen is liable to be a soft touch. She's developed sit as a default, betting that a Sit and Stare in the kitchen is going to get her something interesting. It's a pretty safe bet. So far she's learned about tortillas, tomatoes, bagels, peanut butter, cheese, bologna, chicken, carrots, and corn flakes. Yes, she's purebred. She likes them all. We do another meal's worth of clicking for the same things. Emphasis this time on eye contact. While standing in the kitchen later, I start the Get Lost game. She places her bet on Sit and Stare, gets a treat, gets another one, then I turn my back and continue doing the dishes. Eventually she comes around where she can see me, Sit and Stare, and get more treats. Do this about five times. I'm feeling kind of guilty about how much training I'm not doing, but then I keep telling myself she's only 8 weeks old. She's got another month to learn calculus.
Hurray for crates.	This morning she hit 6 AM before she needed to go out, which is when Ron gets up anyway, so, over to you, big guy! I've moved Scuba's crate back into the dog room and Stitch is sleeping in her ex-pen all alone with no trouble at all. Three cheers for breeders who get their puppies used to crates!
First shots Intro-duction to the leash House-training	Fifth Day - vet comes to the house today to look her over and give her her first shot. We're separating the parvo and distemper into individual shots. I know we've been overvaccinating in the past, I know it, but I was around before vaccines, I've seen distemper AND parvo, and part of me is screaming that she should have a vaccine every three days from birth to 6 months. Most of me agrees with the new regime. Start working with the leash today. Put it on her and go for a walk up the road. She sticks pretty close as she did yesterday, so the leash is mostly redundant. The second time she feels it pull her a bit, she grabs it and spends most of the walk parading it. When she spots RapidFire she wants to run to him again. Some bucking and kicking when the leash stops her, but no panic. More like mild annoyance. Finally starts to settle and I call her, she comes over, grabs the lead, and gets back in the parade. Tries to run all the way back to the house. Next time we take a walk we're going to be discussing Loose Leash, but for now she's pretty darn cute galloping. And she looks VERY good in a trot. This afternoon I notice that she stops short of the second dog door several times, so I'll be accompanying her every time she goes out (as I'm sure I should have been doing from the beginning. Did I mention I'm lazy and I hate housebreaking?).
House-training Alone outside Touch	Day Six - I catch her squatting just short of the second dog door. Give her UH UH UH and pat her suddenly on both sides of the ribs, she goes right outside and pees. Only took twice, then she was heads all the way out again. Clever child. She's very brave outside. The dog yard is huge - 150 X 200' but she goes out and plays in the first half of it, runs around, eats bugs, etc all by herself and comes in when she's ready. Always thrilled to see me when she comes in. I use the clicker to teach her Touch today. Touch this finger, touch that finger. Very quickly get her looking at the treat, thinking about going for it, changing her mind and going AWAY from the treat to touch the appropriate finger to make the treat happen. Clever child.
Scuba's body language is calming down a lot. She can walk by the pup now without looking strained, sit beside the pup without bothering, and eat with their pans only inches apart. I've caught her several times with a toy in her mouth considering that it might be fun to have another dog to play with. Stitch follows her everywhere, proclaiming to the world "That's Scuba! She's my big sister!" Scuba turns around once in a while and tells her to get lost.
Retrieving	Day Seven - start retrieving today. Work half a meal on touching the dumbell in my hand. For the second half, I put the dumbell on the floor and click her for looking at it, moving toward it, and touching it on the ground. She figures that out very quickly. It's fun. Between that and the response to my UH, I'm starting to feel like we're communicating.
Another silent night	And tonight, she follows me into the dog room, watches me give Scuba her goodnight cookie, then runs ahead of me to her ex-pen and jumps up onto the dog bed with a flourish, obviously waiting for her own goodnight cookie. She's finished it and asleep before I get the lights turned off. Tomorrow I'm going to take down the ex-pen and start putting her in a crate for the night. I've got various sizes, one slightly larger than the puppy carrier. Amazingly, in only one week she's gotten big enough that the carrier would be a squeeze.
Well, I was right, it's going to be a heck of a ride!	PREVIOUS Comebefores	8 Weeks Old NEXT