Another hound dog!

Ahhh - How nice it is to have another hound dog dedicated to the fine art of finding and consuming every single crumb in the house. Now, Clay is still a puppy at the moment, so he is also sniffing out and finding other less desirable targets of his mouth such as the carpet, Munchkin's Dora nightgown, books, etc...but his sense of smell already reminds me of Sammie's. He's committed. In one day, he determined that the perimeter around Munchkin's chair at the dinner table was good hunting ground for morsels and he has revisited this fertile space regularly ever since.

Puppy training can be draining, but it is necessary to have a happy puppy who is truly part of our "pack." It's really fun too - at least for someone like me who enjoys watching true behavioral psychology in action! It has been 10 years since I really trained a puppy. I've helped others, but not been the "primary" trainer in a decade. Thankfully, I found an "Everything Puppy" book on sale at Borders for $4 and wisely bought that with a Christmas gift card in need of usage. Good resource to have. For example, I'm the only human home right now and really can't type this AND keep a watchful eye on a curious puppy, so he is tethered to my ankle and sleeping at my feet.

This is Day 4 of Clay being part of our family. Thanks to dedicated "go potty" outings at prescribed times (immediately after eating or drinking much), he has not pooped inside our house since the day he came home with us! Since he had diarrhea most of Day 2, we are extremely thankful for this trend!! He is doing well with learning "bed," "crate," "out," "sit," "come," "fetch," and of course "NO!" Lots and lots of specific praise! Even Munchkin is mastering the art of noticing when he happens to sit or lay down or lay on a doggie bed or go in the crate and praise him heartily - "Good sit, Clay!!"

He seems to be quite trainable so far and not nearly as pesky as Pepper was as a puppy or as destructive as Sammie was. Mind you, I realize that most of that is probably because I know so much more about how to treat and train a dog than Jason and I did when we got Sammie as a puppy and left her -sans crate - in our apt kitchen to devour the bottoms of our cabinets and attempt to break out through the wall to the outside. :-(

Pepper is holding her own. She's still not quite sure what to do with this bundle of energy. After all, the last months of Sammie's life were the exact opposite as she slowed down with age and cancer. At times, Pepper grins from ear to ear and yaps excitedly at the new puppy, ready to play. At other times, she growls fiercely at him for daring to invade her space. He's learning so much so quickly from ALL of us. He's a mess! He's a joy! He's a puppy! (Anyone else hearing refrains of "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" :-)

Search is over

We are a two dog family again tonight. Sammie must be smiling down on us from Doggie Heaven. Our whole family (Andy, Munchkin, Pepper and I) went over to Operation Kindness in Carrollton, TX today to "interview" three puppy candidates I selected yesterday in a solo trip.

The chosen pup was called Pride at the shelter, but we have dubbed him Clay! He's a three month old brown and white "hound mix." They expect he'll be 40-60 lbs full-grown. He is already neutered, microchipped and up to date on vaccinations. Munchkin and Andy gave him his first bath at our home today. He is eating and drinking well and making himself very much at home. Our existing rather large supply of dog toys got some serious action today!

Clay has christened the carpet and tile several times already, of course. I had forgotten just how badly puppy poop stinks! Egads!! Puppy training has commenced. Clay and Pepper are sharing a crate to sleep in tonight. So far only once have we heard any noise. Amazing. Wonder how long that will last?

Munchkin and Pepper - New Puppy??

Munchkin has not given up - in fact she has redoubled her efforts in her campaign for us to get a new puppy NOW - TODAY- TONIGHT - IMMEDIATELY. She does not want to wait. She is four. Sometimes VERY four.

Pepper is lonely. She doesn't touch her food all day long until I'm home again at night and then she'll eat "breakfast" at suppertime or later. I'm not giving her supper when she does this, hoping it will get her back on her usual twice daily feeding schedule, but it's been 10 days now since Sammie died and so far this has been fairly constant.

Pepper has to be cajoled to go outside. Basically we have to go out there with her. This is a ten-year-old dog, mind you, not a puppy learning the ropes. Pepper has not had a single accident since Sammie's death, but she doesn't want to be alone anymore than absolutely necessary & that means no solo trips out back. God bless neighbor dogs and dogs we meet on walks. She needs a regular canine companion. She has always had one. She always had Sammie...

So I'm searching Petfinder.com and asking others to do so as well. Or, if you're here in the DFW area, let me know of good animal shelters and rescue organizations you think I should look into in the search. An "Everything Puppies" book was on sale at Borders today where I went to use up a gift card from Christmas so I got it. Maybe we can read some in it to hold off Munchkin a bit while we do a full search for our new furry family member.

If you're game for helping in the search, enter the following info at Petfinder.com and go from there: Dog, baby, medium or large, female, and most importantly zipcode 76021. We live in a large metropolitan area here in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, so there is no need to adopt outside of north Texas. There are way too many needy pups right here! Please note that any dog we get must not be averse to living with another dog and young children.

Also, I have a distinct preference for medium to large-sized hound, shepherd, working, sporting dogs - pointers, labs, retrievers, 'hounds. You get the picture. Poodles, pomeranians, pitt bull terriers, and pampered pooches that require regular grooming & favor ear bows need not apply.

All help greatly appreciated.

Training Andy

Any dog trainer worth having will inform you that it is not really the dog who gets trained, but rather the owner/master. One brochure I found when Sammie was a puppy and Jason and I were learning how to be dog parents explained that to not train a dog to house rules is akin to abuse!

As I understand it, dogs are fine with whatever position they have in "the pack," but they desperately need to know what that is and the sooner, the better. And they need to know where all the humans in their lives fit into the pack too (i.e. It's vital that even the youngest child be perceived as more alpha than the oldest dog for obvious safety reasons.)

Sammie wasn't so sure she was ready to let Andy be alpha over her and I'm not sure he was all that ready to assume such responsibility either. It takes time. Sammie was, shall we say, strong-willed and quite independent, but also very loyal and obedient to me. Sammie and I had already had three years together in North Carolina prior to the move to Texas. We were bonded really well after two years of MBA school together. Bonding for life happens in survival mode and I lived in that mode for much of my grad school experience.

But then along came Pepper, a lively puppy with shepherding dog traits that showed up periodically, resulting in the need for all animals and people in the apartment to go outside together - rounded up as a herd. It's easier to get puppies in their respective positions in the pack. They know they have to follow. Sammie trained Pepper well. It wore her out to do so at first, but she did it with aplomb. They both trained Andy. It wore him out at first too!

One of my favorite stories during this time was when Andy took both dogs outside to "do their business." He came in quite frustrated and a bit angry and told me in all seriousness that "They would NOT stay on their sides!" By this he meant that Sammie and Puppy Pepper entwined their leashes and ran around him rather than walking calmly as two adult humans might on either side of him.

I did not win any points with my future husband by my response. I laughed really, really hard, probably until I cried or honked. When I realized Andy was totally 100% surprised by this doggie behavior, I laughed some more. Andy was not amused. At all. But later he was. He's good like that. He has a much better sense of humor than I do and has trained me greatly in this regard - thankfully! When he accepted that this was predictable canine behavior, especially from a puppy, then he was adamant on expressing his need to know how to prevent such aggravating behavior from the two of them. I'm not sure he took the two of them out by himself ever again, actually. Problem solved. It's a skill, I realize, to move two leashes around over your head and through your legs and exchange them between hands, etc. But it was the easiest way to deal with our doggie duo in those early months.

One thing Andy was impressively adept at handling was the first really nasty puppy mess. We arrived at my apt one day to a horrendous odor. Sammie had been left out of the crate since she was long-since housebroken and Pepper was left in the crate since she was not. We searched the apt looking for the mess, sure that Sammie had gotten ill and been unable to control herself since we KNEW dogs rarely mess up their crates. Finally, we came to the terrible realization that the stench was emanating from the crate. There we found Pepper covered in her own excrement & looking clearly unhappy about it. Further examination showed said puppy poop to be spread around the entire crate top to bottom with nary a spot untouched.

Andy and I looked at each other and no doubt had a few choice words on the situation and then we went into action. "Dog or crate?" I asked him. He chose the non-moving filth and we split up to conquer the mess. This, as it turned out, would be a great predictor of our ability to work well as a team. Now I knew I had a soulmate and a teammate in doggie parenting. Go Andy!

The Making of a Great Doggie Daddy

Happy Father's Day to all you men out there who are fathers of human children or furry children or are uncles, brothers, friends! My husband Andy has been a fantastic father of three - two dogters and one daughter. However, in all fairness, he had to grow into the Doggie Daddy role. I hope I don't get myself into too much trouble writing this, but it's Father's Day and some fatherly stories are in order.

For starters, Andy did not grow up with a dog and was not necessarily "dog friendly" when we met. After coming to my apartment several times as friends and then as my boyfriend, Andy was still largely avoiding and ignoring Sammie. (Back then Pepper had yet to be born, much less adopted by us.) Finally one day I made the statement that I hoped Andy realized that Sammie and I were "a package deal" and he might want to consider getting to know her a bit better...

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but appropriate motivation should get credit for something! There was quite a bit for him to learn about dogs and Sammie in particular. For example, it's hard to explain to the uninitiated that rawhide sitting in plain view of everyone is "hidden" and should not be looked at, much less touched, by us humans if we don't want a major re-hiding ritual to commence. Then there's learning to take the dog outside regularly and provide food and water and training. There are vet visits and anti-heartworm/fleas/ticks/parasites pills, rabies (& a multitude of other) vaccinations &, in Sammie's case, bandannas to wear & doggie downers for bad storms. It could overwhelm anyone, but less so the truly motivated. Andy learned a lot and he and Sammie developed a relationship. That made me happy.

In all honesty, though, Andy's true conversion to Doggie Daddyhood came when we adopted Puppy Pepper from a rescue organization. I watched Andy's transformation from relatively uninterested to truly engaged as we walked through PetSmart with our new puppy and found everything she would need. "Does she need this? What about this? Would she like this? What kind of food should she eat? Toys? Treats? Bed? Chew toys?" I'm sure I smiled from ear to ear through the entire store. Sold! I had a viable soulmate now. Andy "got" dogs. :-)

Can we get another dog tomorrow?!

My dear daughter "Munchkin" has regularly requested since Sammie's death that we go find another dog "to be here with us all the time." A minute ago she said: "Can we get a new dog TOMORROW?! A dog we can train, that will live with us. I'll feed it!"

Our neighbor dog Selena is visiting with Pepper this afternoon. It's good for both of them, I think, but Munchkin knows Selena will return home. She's just a visitor. Selena, a Rottie mix, lost her older sister Sadie a couple of months ago so she has been through what poor Pepper is experiencing now. Pepper and Selena have had their fun in the VERY HOT sun and are both inside on the cool tile panting, relaxing, and hoping to get some of Munchkin's snack!

Pepper, by the way, is a black lab/border collie/blue heeler mix who weighs in just under 70 lbs. Her mommy was found dumped pregnant on the side of the road. We got her from a rescue organization when she was still a pup. Sammie ultimately chose her, you may recall, from an earlier blog entry.

So, back to adopting a new doggie. Yes, adopting. We won't be buying a dog. In fact, I've decided I prefer the unique characteristics of mixed breeds over the relatively predictable looks of pure breds, so I doubt we'll be adopting a rescued pure bred dog either. Funny, huh? Not that I don't have preferred breeds. I do. Very much so. In dog show parlance, I'm strictly a working or sporting dog person. "Real" dogs as I call them. Dogs that don't need haircuts and prefer bandannas to bows. Dogs that know they are dogs and don't mistake themselves for cats (think Odie rather than Garfield personality).

Please don't write and harass me that your Papillon or Chihuahua or Scottie is the best thing ever. Of course they are to YOU. That's why you got them. But I like hound dogs. Retrievers. Dogs whose ancestors rounded up other animals or helped hunt. Dogs you'd pay to see run fast or do incredible agility exercises. Dogs from breeds that train to serve as guide dogs, police dogs, rescue dogs ... Those kinds of dogs. Dogs like Pepper. Dogs like Sammie...

Munchkin gets it

Well, it's been two days since Sammie died now and, amazingly to me, four-year-old Munchkin seems to really get it. She has told multiple people that Sammie died and that we won't see her again until we die. She has told me that she knows I'm sad and miss Sammie and she does too, but that she knows Sammie was "your very special dog."

She hasn't asked where Sammie is at all. She seems to know & understand. We avoided euphemisms and evasions of the truth with her and we allowed her to be there as Sammie died. She asked to be there and so we all went together. As with all decisions as a parent, I questioned whether this was the right way to do it or not, but I think this was the right way for her. Each child is different and, goodness knows, so are we parents!

To tell her Sammie was going to sleep or moving to a farm or any of the many other stories we know of dear friends telling their children about pets that disappear just would not have worked with her. I'm glad she is accepting this situation and dealing with her emotions openly.

She wants another dog to keep Pepper company and so we can be a two dog household again. She's very clear on this point. God bless her.