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.

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.

    

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.

Rubber Duckies and Stuff

We have been leaving Izzy out of her crate at night because she was bored, even if we left her toys and things, and her whining wasn't letting us get any sleep.  Now, She keeps us up jumping on the bed, jumping off the bed, jumping on the bed jumping off the bed, jumping on the bed with a squeaker toy, trying to decimate the squeaker toy. Ugh.
At first she will lay there, curled up, all innocent and warm looking. But sometime in the night, she will get bored. and instead of going to the living room where her toys are and playing with them on the couch, she drags them into the bed and wakes us up playing.

I know this is my fault. I let her in the bed. But theres no real way at the moment to train her out of it. We can't shut the door because the cats food and water is in here.
So on Friday, I am buying an extra high baby gate, that has a small cat door built in to it. So she can see me when we sleep (so she won't have a spazz attack) but it will keep her off us, and the bed at night, and she can sleep in her kennel (I'll move it out of the bedroom) or she can sleep on the couch. Hopefully that will fix everything :D

When I took Izzy out to go to the bathroom she ran under some funky bushes and got this sappy crap on her. So I decided to give her a bath. I put a towel on the floor in front of the bath tub, ran the water to a good temperature, and filled the tub about a quarter of the way.
I got Izzy in to the bath room, stood by the tub and called her. She came over half-assed with this kind of "I'm not going in there" attitude. So I rolled up my jeans to me knee, and jumped in. Well that got her to at least come to the tub, she still wouldn't get in. I really wanted to like take the time for her to explore the whole "lets take a bath" scenario, but the water was getting cooler so I just picked her up and put her in.
She thrashed around for a minute before discovering that the bath tub is like being inside a huge water bowl. Then she wanted to play in it. splishy splashy turning in circles, I can't complain it let me soap her up good. she didn't like rinsing, but she put up with it. She toweled off pretty easily and dried pretty quickly too. However the whole experience got her real excited. she started doing lightning fast laps around the apartment and rolling all over/licking everything.

Now she smells like cucumber melon. such a pretty puppy <3

the sleepless nights are somehow manageable when you see her laying on the couch chewing on a rawhide bone that's just about as long a she is. (and also on the couch when she's keeping your feet warm. yeah that too.)

Sweet Dreams are made of This

So we were having trouble getting Izzy to sleep, or at least be quiet all night. I would go out with her for hours, play with her before bed,  make sure there were treats and toys in her kennel. But it never failed. Around Midnight, 2, 3, 4 every hour or so she would wake us up. We bought a bark collar that stopped her from barking at neighbors, and it stopped her whining in the kennel, but then she learned to make equally obnoxious noises that the collar doesn't pick up on.

Well last week or so when we got Izzy back and before we got the bark collar she kept us up all night so we took the next day off from work. he slept in the living room, I slept in the bedroom and we closed all other doors. Nothing bad happened.

Yesterday was Voting day. So I got home super late and felt bad she didn't get to be outside for as long as usual. I couldn't bring myself to kennel her. So I puppy proofed the living room/dining room/kitchen to the best of my ability.  Threw some blankets on the couch and made sure my phone was charged (I planned to use it like a flashlight if I heard her chewing on stuff).  She was really hyper. she jumped around me for awhile and tried to drown me with licks. Everytime she did I would tell her to lay down because it was bed time, and I would close my eyes and stop interacting with her. She got the hint after a short time. she spent most of the night off and on my feet, and chewing on rawhides and toys. she nosed some stuff shes not supposed to chew but she didn't actually chew anything that I am aware of.

So tonight I am going to try to puppy proof even more, and we are going to see how she does with no one in the living room. she can sleep in the bed if she settles down but if she wont then I'll shut the door. Which will probably upset her for awhile, she doesn't like to be away from me, but we need sleep and she needs to be able to be in a different room then me. she can't follow me about 24/7. she is getting better. If she can prove for a good amount of time she is safe at night, I will leave her out during the day as well.

Clear The Air

Poor Izzy got sick last week. I am not sure if it was the new treats I bought at the store or if she was stressed at being home again and re-adjusting. One thing I am sure of is that when the metal kennel we bought claimed it was "easy to clean in case of accidents" I never though it might be lying. Actually, I never though that "easy to clean" would actually apply to me. The plastic tray in the bottom slides out. cool. so if she has an accident I just have to slide the tray out. Rock on. Whatever. Like that's gonna happen, dog is already house broken. I did not, however, stop to think "well what happens if the accident ISN'T on the tray" or "Well what if she gets sick and can't help it?". no. never thought of that. Until Mike called me from home and asked how far out I was. It was my birthday so I thought it was a fancy schmancy dinner invitation. It wasn't. it was a plea for help. Somehow, when Izzy got sick, she managed to get it all over the back of her kennel and the wall behind it. Yes, I spent my birthday scrubbing walls and trying to get my fingers in between the black metal/wire frame of her kennel. it was not "easy to clean" it was a nightmare and I hope I never have to do it again. I should have just thrown it in the shower or something (that thought didn't apply to my either as I sat there flossing between the wires with a hot soapy rag forever).

She got over it almost overnight, she showed improvement the next morning and was fine by that night. The only smells I have to worry about now is her gas. ugh, I used to wonder how she could stand smelling it since her nose is better then mine, but apparently she deals with it the same way we do (account given by Mike):

Izzy was laying on the couch sleeping and I heard this loud noise, and as I turned to see what it was I realized it was an epic dog fart, right after it happened, Izzy woke up, growled at her ass,  and ran to the other side of the couch and buried her face in the pillows.


Lesson Learned, this is another person who cant have vegetarian re-fried beans.

November 2nd

We had a great day today :D Starting around 4:00 am and ending sometime shortly. I remember doing an assessment on the almost first post I made on here, I'd like to do another on because I think she's made a lot of progress.

Chewing: Izzy hasn't tried to chew much that isn't hers, and when she does we have words for that. She's put her mouth on the couch a few times (leave it - aka not yours/don't touch that). She's also tried to chew up a pillow and a blanket (Drop it - aka . . . drop. . . it? I guess maybe let go. . . ). Oh she still also tried to chew on me, but I pinned her good a few times and she seems to be getting the idea.

Walking: let's not do this one yet. . .

House Breaking:
suh-weeet. not 1 accident. at one point I was cleaning something and I had taken my eyes off her. panicked I dashed for the floor cleaner and some rags. Previously she followed me from room to room and if she disappeared it meant she had left me a present, in one form or another in whatever room she was hiding in. This time she was just laying by the door. I picked up her leash and she sat up and waited for me to clip it on, and she went to the bathroom outside. I was so happy :D
I am guessing when she was staying with my aunt she learned this from the other dogs. that's awesome.

Eating:
I switched from the Beneful to the Purina. She didn't really eat the Beneful, she would nose at it, and walk away. she scarfs down the Purina. So I'll keep it.



I'm pretty happy with the progress she is making, and I know she will pick up more if we are persistent.

October 5th

Wednesday, October 5th. 9:45 P.M.

I think I pretty much have her bathroom pattern down. I sometimes have to walk her longer then she wants (after awhile she jumps around and howls and tries to drag me home) but at least she has, mostly, stopped chewing her leash. Apparently jumping in circles in the new tactic. I just stop her and make her sit and stay until she calms down and then we just start all over and over and over and oops stuck on a loop there, sorry folks!

She is still whining in her crate, but only when I leave the room. I am trying to train her out of whining when I'm gone by ignoring it, and leaving for short periods and coming right back. With any luck she will fall in to routine and realize we aren't abandoning her. 

The only major problem today was going in to the kitchen and finding the cat and the dog fighting over A GREEN BEAN that one of them knocked off the counter while I was cleaning up from dinner. Not Bacon. Not cheese. not peanut butter. A Green Freaken Bean. So I have a dog that likes to eat carpets and green beans and tries to get into my Mikes hard lemonade. At least she has personality.

October 4th

Tuesday October 4th 7:30 P.M.

Chewing:
Izzy still wants to chew everything from slippers to tables. She's completely through one rawhide. the other is in her crate. She's gone in on her own a few times but when I try to go over to reward he she bolts out. She isn't trying to chew on my arm like a toy anymore. She's trying to chew the carpet on the floor. I'm not sure why, but I guess we'll try some some new sturdier toys since half he toys we bought for her Saturday are destroyed. 

Walking:
Izzy made a new friend while we were out walking today. Her name is Honda, and she has a similar lab build but is white and brown and gold and red. They played for a few minutes and Izzy didn't seem violent. It's good to see that she can socially interact. She still stalls a lot, and tries to chew her leash. she didn't throw herself down but she did try to jump back a lot.

House Breaking:
Great news! Izzy has learned that if she goes to the door and sits I'll put her leash on and take her out. However, she does this as she fancies, not just when she has to go to the bathroom. She has me running over every few minutes. I can't ignore her because it might be real, and I want to encourage the fact that if she sits there she will be able to go out but damn, who has who trained? So far she hasn't had any accidents. I'll crate her when Mike gets home with food and let her out and go for a walk after and leave her out till bed.

Eating:
I am trying to get Izzy to eat twice a day, around 6 A.M. and 6 P.M. today is the first day this has succeeded. she was trying to eat cat food so I think she might still be hungry. I am going to up the amount of food I give her a little and see if that helps. I know cat food has far too much sodium in it for dogs so this behavior is being discouraged.


Other:
I moved Izzys crate to the living room in hopes that she won't want to mess near her crate and to help expedite her learning that the whole apartment is her den and that she shouldn't mess in it. I know it's not an "Accident" because she can hold all day while I'm at work, why can't she hold it 10 minutes after she eats it? it's just a matter of training I'm sure.

Other:

Despite the fact she is a Labrador Retriever, she continues to prove herself a Labrador Observer, she chases thrown toys, looks at them and then leaves them laying. <- not a real assessment, just me being a smart ass.


As a side note she just sat by the door and scratched it like it was the end of the world so I took her out, she took two steps, ran in a circle snapped at a bug and ran back inside. Lovely.

It's going to be a long week.