So, Izzy's visit with his Grandma continues. I am handling a large dog in a small apartment pretty well. We try to take her out several times a day and for the most part she behaves. I do have to say that this dog has one bad case of ADD when it comes to pooping. We have her on a good schedule. She comes out of her crate every morning, goes out and poops and pees. Comes in and eats and drinks. Then before we crate her for the day, she pees again. But then she doesn't poop again until night time before being crated again for the night. Getting her to poop is sometimes so simple. You take her out, she sniffs twice and goes. Then, there are mornings like this morning where she is distracted by every bug, noise, breeze, car, sound, bird, her own tail. I walked her around the small field back and forth, back and forth, she sniffed a couple thousand times, watched about 25 cars, ate about 10 bugs, chased about 5 birds and never once pooped. But of course, once I got her inside, took my soaked shoes off, and got involved in something - she decides it's time to go out again. And it's not like she is the type that walks over to the door and sits by it to let us know. Nope - she is the drama queen of dogs. She leaps at the door, scratching and yelping like Lassie trying to warn Timmy about a fire. But she does get her point across. So out we go again, sniff sniff, car, sniff sniff, bird, sigh.
She did eventually complete her business and allow me to go back in and finish my breakfast and get started on my own day before she needed to go out again. Gotta love em.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Tails From The Road
Izzy is visiting with her grandma for awhile in Williamsburg. Her parents are buys trying to find a new home for them where Izzy will have a yard and lots of room to play. So for the time being, she is with us, destroying, I mean visiting us in our apartment. Here she has a little human to play with.
The two of them are partners in crime. They both keep us on our toes. We are keeping a close eye on both of them. I am enjoying having a puppy in my house again. But it has its challenges. We are working on leash training, not jumping, and her issues with her other dogs. While we are not making much progress, she is really a good dog for the most part. When her parents get her back, they will be taking her to formal training which will help more. We have actually found something that really seems to help. It is called a ThunderShirt. It is a stretchy vest type thing that she wears. It is similar in concept to a weighted vest that they use to calm children who are on the autistic spectrum. And it does make a huge difference with her. While she is not completely calm and behaved, it has made a difference. We noticed it when we first put it on her. Then after a week or so, we thought we would give her a break from it. Yeah, as soon as we took it off her we realized what a big difference it had made. It went back on and basically stays on. For the most part, when she wears it, she doesn't whine and cry in her crate all night. She doesn't get as wound up as easy, and she focuses better. It's not a perfect solution, but it does help. All in all, a very sweet, loving dog, who we are happy to have, and will be happy to send home - just like real grandkids.
The two of them are partners in crime. They both keep us on our toes. We are keeping a close eye on both of them. I am enjoying having a puppy in my house again. But it has its challenges. We are working on leash training, not jumping, and her issues with her other dogs. While we are not making much progress, she is really a good dog for the most part. When her parents get her back, they will be taking her to formal training which will help more. We have actually found something that really seems to help. It is called a ThunderShirt. It is a stretchy vest type thing that she wears. It is similar in concept to a weighted vest that they use to calm children who are on the autistic spectrum. And it does make a huge difference with her. While she is not completely calm and behaved, it has made a difference. We noticed it when we first put it on her. Then after a week or so, we thought we would give her a break from it. Yeah, as soon as we took it off her we realized what a big difference it had made. It went back on and basically stays on. For the most part, when she wears it, she doesn't whine and cry in her crate all night. She doesn't get as wound up as easy, and she focuses better. It's not a perfect solution, but it does help. All in all, a very sweet, loving dog, who we are happy to have, and will be happy to send home - just like real grandkids.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Oh teh noes
Hey All,
For those of you that hadn't heard poor Izzy got an ear infection. According to the vet it's a yeast infection that's common in dogs with floppy ears. He gave her a cortisone shot, and then a pill she has to take every morning (it's not flavored but she munches it right up if I give it to her inside a piece of cheese or something) And ear drops twice a day (am and pm) that are anti-whatever and more cortisone.
One would imagine, if ones ears were sore and itchy, that anything that makes them feel better would be a good thing. Well, Izzy takes the imagining out of it. While at the Vets, 4 feet off the ground on the examine table, I had my arms wrapped around her like you would do if you were hugging someone. And she DIDN'T MOVE AN INCH while the vet scrubbed out her ear and dried it and poked it and put her ear drops in. "What a lovely well behaved dog I have" I thought. "This should be Easy" I thought. "Only 2 weeks?" I thought.
Well the next morning I woke up, took her out, no problems. Put the pill in a piece of cheese and omnomnom no problem. I asked Mike to come hold her still so I could put her drops in.
For those of you that hadn't heard poor Izzy got an ear infection. According to the vet it's a yeast infection that's common in dogs with floppy ears. He gave her a cortisone shot, and then a pill she has to take every morning (it's not flavored but she munches it right up if I give it to her inside a piece of cheese or something) And ear drops twice a day (am and pm) that are anti-whatever and more cortisone.
One would imagine, if ones ears were sore and itchy, that anything that makes them feel better would be a good thing. Well, Izzy takes the imagining out of it. While at the Vets, 4 feet off the ground on the examine table, I had my arms wrapped around her like you would do if you were hugging someone. And she DIDN'T MOVE AN INCH while the vet scrubbed out her ear and dried it and poked it and put her ear drops in. "What a lovely well behaved dog I have" I thought. "This should be Easy" I thought. "Only 2 weeks?" I thought.
Well the next morning I woke up, took her out, no problems. Put the pill in a piece of cheese and omnomnom no problem. I asked Mike to come hold her still so I could put her drops in.
All Hell Broke Loose.
She threw her head around like a wild horse, she thrashed and threw her 50 pound self around and ran across the room. All I did take the dropper bottle off the table. Good Lord. So we went and got her again. And again. Third times a charm. Or she had just worn herself out. But I doubt it. The dog doesn't known the meaning of expending energy. It's just unlimited. Long Story short it took 2 dropper fulls of medicine to get 1 dropper worth in her ear where it belongs. And it hasn't gotten any easier. I hope the 2 weeks is up soon.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
All pupped up with no place to go
Hey All,
(bonus points if you get the post title reference, it's a parody)
Hope you had a happy holiday, and are ready to face a new year.
Izzy turned one year old in December 2011. We are looking forward to another long happy, healthy year together. Many more, actually (this is assuming I can keep up with her appetite for chewing solid half inch thick beef bones; yes it's gone already)!
Shortly after Christmas I began dedicating more time to training my hardheaded trouble maker, and she is making good progress. I would like to thank my Aunt for that, as she lent me a copy of The Koehler Method of Dog Training until I can order my own copy from amazon.
They also have a website (here).
I finally finished steaming my carpets, despite the fact that the dog seems to think the steamer is her personal "free flowing water dispenser". I thought maybe she would be afraid of it, like the cats are (since she's afraid of the cats!) but no. Once she determined that "hey that thing is putting water on the floor!" it became her goal in life to try to stick her face under it. So much for thinking she would just lounge on the nice, dry, warm, comfy couch. Apparently she only does that after I clean and febreeze it and plan on plopping down after I take the trash out! Thankfully she's not spoiled, If I want to sit there I'll move her quick. She can sit WITH me but I'll be damned if the dog can just stretch out superman style and steal my couch. nu-uh. Not in MY house pup!
Oh, also thanks to my amazing Aunt and Uncle who got me a car harness for the dog. I got it fitted to the dog, and fitted to the short belt on the back seat bench of my truck and put it to good use yesterday. I took my truck to the manual car wash. I emptied all the trash and junk and use the super duper black hole vacuum cleaner and cleaned all my floors. Polished and cleaned my dash and remounted my phone holder (since it's a droid x I use it like a gps and usually have the map on the screen while I'm driving). Then we drove to the car pool lot, dropped off my truck, and picked up Mikes Expedition. Drove back to the car cleaning place and did the expedition. When I say "We" I mean "I". I climbed all over cleaning, Izzy lounged about in the passengers seat and looked up at the sun roof window like she was at a day spa.
Then we came home and I cleaned some more and she jumped around like a jackrabbit while I vacuumed and I took her out on her 25 foot lead and ran her for awhile. Suffice to say she went right to her kennel for bed, and I didn't hear a peep from her till I woke her up to come out of her kennel this morning. That was nice. I wish she would sleep good all time time. At 4:00 am you can hit the snooze to shut up the alarm, there's nothing you can really do about the dog hearing the alarm, knowing you're supposed to be up, and barking to let you know you're supposed to be up - just in case you didn't notice. silly humans.
(bonus points if you get the post title reference, it's a parody)
Hope you had a happy holiday, and are ready to face a new year.
Izzy turned one year old in December 2011. We are looking forward to another long happy, healthy year together. Many more, actually (this is assuming I can keep up with her appetite for chewing solid half inch thick beef bones; yes it's gone already)!
Shortly after Christmas I began dedicating more time to training my hardheaded trouble maker, and she is making good progress. I would like to thank my Aunt for that, as she lent me a copy of The Koehler Method of Dog Training until I can order my own copy from amazon.
They also have a website (here).
I finally finished steaming my carpets, despite the fact that the dog seems to think the steamer is her personal "free flowing water dispenser". I thought maybe she would be afraid of it, like the cats are (since she's afraid of the cats!) but no. Once she determined that "hey that thing is putting water on the floor!" it became her goal in life to try to stick her face under it. So much for thinking she would just lounge on the nice, dry, warm, comfy couch. Apparently she only does that after I clean and febreeze it and plan on plopping down after I take the trash out! Thankfully she's not spoiled, If I want to sit there I'll move her quick. She can sit WITH me but I'll be damned if the dog can just stretch out superman style and steal my couch. nu-uh. Not in MY house pup!
Oh, also thanks to my amazing Aunt and Uncle who got me a car harness for the dog. I got it fitted to the dog, and fitted to the short belt on the back seat bench of my truck and put it to good use yesterday. I took my truck to the manual car wash. I emptied all the trash and junk and use the super duper black hole vacuum cleaner and cleaned all my floors. Polished and cleaned my dash and remounted my phone holder (since it's a droid x I use it like a gps and usually have the map on the screen while I'm driving). Then we drove to the car pool lot, dropped off my truck, and picked up Mikes Expedition. Drove back to the car cleaning place and did the expedition. When I say "We" I mean "I". I climbed all over cleaning, Izzy lounged about in the passengers seat and looked up at the sun roof window like she was at a day spa.
Then we came home and I cleaned some more and she jumped around like a jackrabbit while I vacuumed and I took her out on her 25 foot lead and ran her for awhile. Suffice to say she went right to her kennel for bed, and I didn't hear a peep from her till I woke her up to come out of her kennel this morning. That was nice. I wish she would sleep good all time time. At 4:00 am you can hit the snooze to shut up the alarm, there's nothing you can really do about the dog hearing the alarm, knowing you're supposed to be up, and barking to let you know you're supposed to be up - just in case you didn't notice. silly humans.
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