I know a few folks have gotten puppies recently.  I thought it might be good to start a thread, vent, scream, praise...whatever!

Anyone want to talk about their puppies?

As you know I've got the Jack Russell Terrier.  She's now 10 weeks old and I've had her two weeks.

She's getting the hang of going potty outside, though she still has a couple accidents a day.  She's starting to go to the door.

I've got a playpen since she is so small.  When I'm out of the room it's a safe place for her to be.

Sometimes she overwhelms me.  There is something about 6 pm at night when she becomes Misha Wild Dog of the West.  She goes into wild puppy mode.  Usually, she crashes by 7, but there is an hour there where she is into everything.  Anyone have tips on countering that?  I take her out and run her in the yard, run her in the house, play with toys.  I try to channel it, but she is still pumped up.  I know this phase eventually ends.

How is everyone doing with their puppies?

Hi Melody! I have a boston terrier puppy named Baxter. He'll be 4 months old August 4th. We've had him about a month. Baxter has the same "hyper" period in the evening. I've learned to just try to get through it lol. I don't think there is alot you can do to counter it except try to wear her out as much as possible. I've pretty much puppy proofed the living room and we have a baby gate that keeps him in there with us. Otherwise he is all over the house and into everything. At least if he's in the living room with us I can keep an eye on him.

Main reason we got the baby gate was he would sneak out into the kitchen to potty on the floor. He won't go in front of us. This way when I see him pacing by the gate I know he wants out. He's starting to get the connection between having to potty and going outside.

My biggest adjustment to having Baxter is his barking. Our other dog is a husky and she rarely if ever barks. Baxter on the other hand barks at everything! He barks at the cats when he wants them to play. He barks at Amber if she is playing with a toy he likes. He barks at her when he wants her to play with him. I was used to extreme quiet so that is taking me awhile to get used to.

Here's some pictures of Baxter.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v325/CrystalRose76/Baxter/

Puppies are a handfull aren't they? lol.

Hi Tammy, Baxter is very cute!  Baxter is a little further along than Misha.  She's going to be 11 weeks tomorrow.  She's so small that I have a playpen, which really has been handy.  During that wild period of the day, I throw her in there and she does her best professional wrestling imitation on her stuffed animals.  LOL

She has found her growling voice in the last 3 or 4 days.  I am trying to teach her that growling at people is not okay.  My brother uses a method where he puts the puppy on her back in his arms--like a baby.  But, her controls her.  She fusses, but must submit.  If she growls, I tell her no, while holding her thus.  Then when she gives up, I make her kiss me.  I'm doing it when she isn't being wild too.  Just so she gets the idea that I can pretty much pick her up whenever I feel like it.

Sierra was incredibly wild and I had to get special training at 6 months to regain control.  That was a 75 lb dog.  I'm thinking I'll do much better with 2 1/2 lbs.  LOL

I wish I could close off our living room, but it doesn't have a door (has a big opening).  So, the playpen really helps. 

Misha hasn't found her bark yet, but she does whine.  I'm reading Brian Kilcommons' book and he says that you ignore it unless it goes on for more than 10 minutes.  Then kick the crate or throw a shake can.  So far, if I leave her she eventually gives up except at feeding time.  I soak her food and let it sit for 10 minutes.  You would think I was torturing her to make her weight.  Even if I take her outside or into another room, she is focused on the food in the other room.  I'm trying to make her sit in front of her bowl, so eventually, she will wait for me to say OK.

We have 3 barking chihuahuas on the corner of our street and I'm afraid she will pick up on it from them.  I try not to acknowledge it in anyway.

LOL I know what you mean about the big dog/small dog factor. My Sierra was a husky and she was huge too. When she was 6 months old she was super hyper. She used to practically drag me around the yard on her leash. Baxter kills his animals when he's in his wild mood too. I got him this new toy a couple days ago called a Cuz. It's like a rubber toy but OMG does it have a loud squeak.

Baxter loves it and it keeps him busy for hours but the noise can drive me up the wall. So every once in awhile when his back is turned the Cuz gets relocated to the top of the entertainment center LOL. I'll have to try to ignore the barking but it's HARD to do. He will literally bark for an hour if Amber has a toy or something he wants. Doesn't seem to phase her she just keeps playing with it while Baxter barks at her.

Baxter hasn't done the growling thing. Actually he is extremely submissive to the point of doing the submissive peeing thing. I think part of that is because Amber taught him who was boss right away lol.

Funny you mention barking chi's. My neighbor has two and a pug and when all 3 are out it's a barkfest lol.

Well guys, here I am! I know I've been neglecful for not writing in this thread all this time. It's just been so, so busy with my new guys.

Melody, I STILL don't  have official names for my doggies. I wanted it to be a family thing, but this time nobody can agree. I'm about to chuck out all the names and give them names I pick myself. I wanted to name one of them Honey-Boy, but my whole family thinks it's gay! It never occurred to me gay?? Am i that out of touch with today. Lol.  Anyway, I know names will come soon.

I went to the store yesterday to pick up some food for the dogs and check out healthy doggie treats and walked out without treats. No way am I spending all that money on those little, tiny weeny treats. I'll make my own. Does anyone know of some good receipies for dog treats?

For those who don't know me. I adopted two 32 lb. and 34 lb. Boxer/German Shepard 5 month old puppies at a rescue about 2 weeks ago. I'm create training them. The last 2 days they've only had  one little accident. Knock on wood. They are the sweetest cutie pies you ever did see. They love being brushed and loved and played with. They've become pretty good on the leashes about not pulling. In the beginning I thought I was a sled. Lol  One is more dominant than the other. He's got more of a boxer personality, the other has more of a shepard personality, he trains easier and is more laid back. The one with more of a shepard personality in him has some chow. You can see from the eyes and tongue. They are a joy, but into trouble from time to time. I don't know where they get those miniscule paper bits from :)

Well that's all for now. I'm hoping someone will see my post about dog treat receipies. I think I'm going to direct people here from CMT. Maybe I can get some general recruits. Who knows.

Bye for now

Elona

Hi, I don't have any puppies but I have worked in a pet depart. for nine years now and I can sure agree with you on the price of treats. Now we are getting in a lot of brands of natural or organic labeled treats and they are even more expensive.

 I have several dog treat cookbooks and they have tons of really different kinds of treats- fruit flavors, spice, herb, carob, peaut butter, meat etc. I haven't tried any of them but they sound interesting. My store sells a pizza flavored treat that is popular. This is the books recipe for pizza treats, you could just leave out the spices for a cheese treat.

Pizza-flavored Dog Biscuits

1 1/2 cup unbleached flour

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (the kind in the shaker box)

1/8 cup nonfat dry milk

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt)

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 to 1 1/4 cups of water

 Stir together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the egg, then add the water gradually, stirring with a wooden spoon. The dough should be very stiff; if not, add a little more flour. Knead the dough with your hands to create a smooth texture. Roll the dough 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. You may need to flour the top surface too. Use a cookie cutter cut out biscuits. Place about 1/2 inch apart on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes to one hour. Biscuits should be lightly browned and they should not be moist inside. Turn oven off and let the biscuits stay inside without opening the oven door for five hours, or overnight, to let them harden. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Makes about 5 dozen 3 x1 inch biscuits.

The book it is in is Gourmet Dog Biscuits by Carole Horstmeyer  ISBN 0-9653216-006. Maybe you could find it on PBS,  PM me if you want some other recipes.

Hi Ronda,

Thank you so much for this recipe. We're gonna bake this one tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes over. My sweeties seem to love cheese, so I think it will be a hit.

Elona

Hi Elona, glad to see you here!  You may have to draw puppy names out of a hat and be done with it.  I remember that Sierra got a middle name because my niece was so worked up because we did not name the dog Buttercup!  There was no way I was calling my dog Buttercup.  LOL  The way I look at it is you can give them names, but then you can always have your nicknames too.

I used to have a dog treat recipe that was really simple.  If I find it I will post it.  I was only 4 or 5 ingredients.  Something like rolled oats, peanut butter, flour, and honey.  Very basic.  It was easy to make too.  Sierra used to love them

Tammy, my Sierra was also wild.  I figured out today that at 3 months she was 35 lbs.  She was a handful and a half.  I had to work with her alot.  Around 3 years old, it was like a light bulb went on and suddenly all the commands made sense.

Misha lost two teeth this weekend and has starting the "I need to gnaw on everything" phase.  I have special toys which she loves.  But I would really like some help on getting her to stop gnawing on people.  She gets that wild puppy play thing going and today she bit our neighbor.  It was partially his fault because he knows she doesn't know the difference between the toy and hand 100% yet.  He wasn't paying attention and she jumped up and got him.

I know this behavior will eventually go away, but how do you survive it without locking the puppy up for 6 months?  (I'm kidding there!)  She is 12 weeks old and still has a way to go with manners.

Hi,

I got a WL book today that I really wanted!  It pre-dates Cesar Milan's philosophy and apparently is in line with it. I got the name of the book from a post on Cesar Milan's forum. The site is new and sparsely populated, but informative and friendly. The book is about puppies, so I thought I would post it here.

Book Description:

The Art of Raising a Puppy
Author: Monks of New Skete
ISBN-13: 9780316578394
ISBN-10: 0316578398
Book Type: Hardcover

I also coincidentally got  this WL book today from another member  "How to be your dog's best friend".

Maybe my dogs knew the other member's dogs and their dogs told this member to send me this book. Lol.

Elona

That sounds like an interesting book, Elona.  I might have to wish list it to.  I'm reading Cesar's Way currently.   It doesn't have much for dealing with puppies though. I've been watching his show just to get my head back in the training mode.  My 13 year old lab didn't need much training.

I am also rereading Good Owners, Great Pets by Brian Kilcommons.  I love this book.  It helped me through the rough times with Sierra.  What I like about it, it is easy to follow and pretty much a good dose of common sense (which is what I need when Misha attacks my pant leg for the fifth time in a day LOL)

I found the recipe!

Low-Fat Dog Biscuits

1 cup uncooked oatmeal

1 1/2 cups hot water

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 1/2 cups cornmeal

3 cups whole wheat flour

In a large bowl, pour hot water over oatmeal and applesauce.  Let stand 5 minutes.  Stir in cornmeal.  Add flour 1 cup at a time to make a very stiff dough.  Add additional flour if necessary. 

Roll out to 1/2 inch thickness and cut with floured cooked cutter.  Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 50 minutes at 325.  Let cool until hard.

+++++

Sierra loved these.

Hi Melody,

thank you so much. This sound like an awesome treat. It sound like they will be nice and chewy.

Yesterday we continued to practice "sit". they are so funny. I'm giving them treats for sitting and then they decide that it's not worth sitting for the treats why not just beg whenever I have the food in my hand. Nevermind the command they say. Food in the hand is enough. Lol.

See you later,

Elona

You're welcome!

That's so funny about your dogs.  They do learn quickly!  Misha and I are trying commands with treats again.  The first time I tried a week ago she became Misha whose one obsession is the treat.  It was like "Give me, give me, give me!!!!" She never heard my commands.  I gave up doing it with treats.

I took a different approach today.  I put her in the playpen and then we practiced sit, come, and shake in a controlled environment.  She caught on really quick and it wasn't so frenzied.

Any tips for surviving the biting/teething stage?  I got Misha two more teether toys at PetSmart today.   I hope they help.  I've got a toy you put in the freezer.

She still nips at hands.  I'm doing the yelping and leaving the room.  I think I need moral support ;)

I think I may be on to something.  When I train Misha with food, I am teaching her easy when she takes it from my fingers.  It's better than losing a finger.  I notice that when she approached people's hands today she was a little gentler.  Maybe a side effect of the training?  Keep your fingers crossed!

Hi,

Apollo, my 6 month old Boxer/German Shepard ,has a  fluid filled lump on his elbow. Last night, when I found it, it brought back memories of Luke, who had bone cancer. He died about 2 months ago. The lump is fluid filled. It isn't anything like what Luke had. It just brought back memories. It looks as if he got he injured himself on his joint. You have to look really really carefully to see his ever so slight limp. When I touch the sac it moves around very easily. I can even feel the joint and press and Apollo doesn't mind. He plays rough with his brother and is still playing just fine with his brother today. No change in eating habits or activity level or anything. I'm going to give it 3-4 days for it to get smaller. If it gets worse or doesn't improve, I'm going to take him to the vet. Has this ever happened to your dog?

Elona

Elona, how is Apollo (I see you've got a name now:) doing?  I wanted to mention that my brother noticed something similar on his dog a couple of weeks ago.  When they got home from work, his daughter pointed out a huge lump on the dog's side.  They take the dogs to work and they play alot in a dog run. 

They planned to see the Vets at the end of the week, but 2 days later the lump was gone. After they close the auto shop, they let the dogs run around the shop to get some exercise and freedom before putting them in the car.  They think that the while the dogs were playing and running, she must have hit something.  They have seen no sign of the lump since.

Not sure if that's going on with your dog.  Hope it's been worked out!

Hi,

Thanks for asking. It's a little better so I'm going to hold off on the vet and see what happens. Apollo's running and playing hard as usual. So far so good. If it doesn't go away altogether in a few days I'll take him to the vet.

How is your cutie pie?

Elona

Ohhh doggie recipes yay! I'll have to try some for Baxter and Amber. I ended up clothes shopping for Baxter today. I am NOT a person that normally dresses up a dog BUT Boston Terriers don't have an undercoat. So in colder climates like I live in they need sweaters and jackets for winter. Luckily a website I use to buy toys had a bunch of nice clothes on clearance so I got most of it from there. Petco also had alot of stuff for 75% off when I was in there today so I managed to pick him up a couple hoodies that way. Just in time too because it's supposed to be down in the 40s here the next few nights. Feels like fall already.

Baxter is doing pretty good now with housebreaking. He is however in a major teething stage. He will chew on anything he can find! Under the recommendation of a friend I picked him up some bully sticks. Much safer than rawhide and he LOVES them. Not only that they last forever so it helps with his urge to chew. He did "edit" one of my books for me the other night. I was in the bathroom and he and Amber were playing in the living room. One of them must have bumped into my desk and knocked the book I was reading off. I came out of the bathroom and Baxter had pieces of pages sticking out of the corners of his mouth LOL. It was a WL book too!! Oh well at least the parts he tore out were the parts I already read.

They definately keep me on my toes!

Elona, that is good to hear!  It's always scary when our pets develop these things.  I mentioned my brother's dog with the lump (she is 1 1/2 years old).  A week after that she broke out with acne from her chin down her chest and on her butt.  It turns out he lump and the acne may all be part of a food allergy!  The vet put her on antibiotics to clear it all up and they've put her on special food.  That's been a couple of weeks and all the acne is gone.  Crazy stuff!

Tammy, Misha has entered the same chewing stage. She will sit in the playpen and chew on her bones 30 minutes to an hour.  She chews on her crate and tries to chew on the furniture and the carpeting.  I looked in on her Sunday evening and she had completely unbraided her rope chew toy.  She loves her Nylabone dental chew (it has spikes on it).

What's a bully stick?  I am going to ask the Vet when we go in on the 14th, I'm going to ask what's safe for her to eat.  She's so small.  I know when I gave Sierra any kind of chewy bone she devoured it in about 5 minutes.  I want to keep her safe and not upset her tummy.

Misha is down to about 3 peeing accidents a week, a far cry from the 3-4 a day she started with.  I still have to ration her water but I think she is starting to regulate herself.  I notice she will walk away from the water bowl where a week ago she had to devour every drop every time she drank.

I am infinitely thankful for the playpen.  Misha is getting more and more curious and this keeps her out of trouble.

hey, at least Baxter didn't chew up the ending! LOL

By the way, if you didn't read CMT, these are Misha's latest photos.  She'll be 4 months next week:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=132812&id=641983635&l=a9ab4dc372

If you've got puppy photos online, please post.  I'd like to see how everyone's dogs are growing.

A bully stick is basically a dried bull tendon. My vet recommended them because they are so much safer than rawhide. They don't break off in pieces like rawhide does and since bully sticks are 100% digestible you don't have to worry about them swallowing a large piece and endiing up with an intestinal blockage. They also last ALOT longer than a rawhide as well. I gave one to my husky Amber who can be a major chewer and it kept her busy for 3 days! Rawhide she has gone in no time. Bully Sticks tend to be pretty pricey in pet stores like petsmart and petco but I order most of mine online and they are much cheaper. Here is one of the sites I use in case your interested. I get the small 3-4 inch ones for Baxter and the larger ones for my husky. The small ones would probably be ok for Misha too.

http://www.dog.com/item/bully-sticks/130661/

I put one of the jackets I bought for Baxter on him last night. He looked at me like mom what the heck?!? He just sort of sat there like he didn't know what to do. My vet and some of the other Boston Terrier owners I know told me to leave it on him about an hour at a time and give him a treat when he walks around or plays while wearing it until he gets used to wearing them. It's been down in the 50s here the last few night and when I take him out he shivers so I know when winter actually hits he will probably be glad to have the jackets and sweaters. I even got him doggy boots LOL. I don't know if I will ever get him used to those but hey they were on clearance for 2.00 so I'm not out much if he doesn't take to them.

We had to order Baxter a new bed Monday. He outgrew his little puppy bed. It was so cute he kept trying to make himself fit and couldn't quite make it. He finally sat there looking at the bed then looking at me like...Mom? why did my bed shrink? LOL. He's decided for now that my lap will work just as well until the new bed comes. This time I made sure to get him one that he won't outgrow. Other than that he's been doing pretty good. Some days both him and my husky tearing through the house makes me wanna pull my hair out but I'm glad they get along and have fun playing together. It is however less fun when they are both in bed with me and decide they wanna play lol. Here are some pictures of Baxter. The first 12 are his latest ones. I want to get some new ones of him in the next few days hopefully. Maybe a couple of him wearing some of the cute jackets I got him. :)

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v325/CrystalRose76/Baxter/

Thanks for the info. Tammy.  Right now, Misha loves her Nylabone Dental bone.  It has all these spikes on it and she gnaws on it constantly.  She also likes her plastic wishbone.  She is the first dog I've ever had who would chew on Nylabones.  Sierra had this habit of working on them and chewing them in half and then leaving me the two pieces and that was that.

The photos of Baxter are great!  What an expressive face.

Misha has started this thing where I'll be holding her and walking with her and she wants to be on my shoulder.  I'm not sure if she is going to sit there or attack me from behind, so for now I discourage it.  You may be seeing pictures of her on my shoulder sitting like a parrot!  LOL

She has also started wild puppy running.  She was in the playpen today after she got a little too mean in play.  She attacked her blanket for awhile and then started running in complete circles around the playpen...in between shaking her squirrel around.  She finally stopped quite exhausted, crawled into her blanket cave, and took a nap.  The mean play is her indication that she is over tired and needs to go in her playpen to rest.

She turned 4 months on Wednesday.  She gets her last parvo shot Monday and maybe her rabies.  The Vet was concerned because her first vaccination caused bruising.  She was so sore that I could not touch any part of her without her crying out.  The second shot went much better.  She's bigger and tougher now, so maybe we can do both on Monday and get it over with.

S

Just thought I'd let you know that Misha went to the vets today for her final Parvo shot.  Yeah!  Unfortunately, the Vet decided to wait two weeks to give her the rabies shot-- and she doesn't want me to walk her until then.  :(  I guess I can hold out two more weeks.

Her puppy plan included a blood test and a fecal test, so they did both of those today.  Should have the results in 2-3 days. 

She weighs a hefty 5.4 lbs.  LOL  There is no way she is making it to the 12-20 lb JRT weight range.  She'll be lucky to get to 7 lbs.

She did really well at the Vets.  She was squirmy but in a happy way.  The Vet and the technician both noted that they were pleasantly surprised at how friendly she is.  I guess JRT's have a bit of a bad reputation when it comes to being around people outside the family.

By the way, her ears were tipped when we got her.  Last week one was tipped.  Now they both stand straight up on her head.  It's cute.  It makes her look overly alert.