Tag Archives: puppy in training

Recall Day

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At noon today we put Banta on the puppy truck for San Rafael, California. There were eight puppies getting on the truck today. (I think that was the right number) It was a very different experience than with Apex because with him we dropped off early in the morning and there were no other raisers dropping of their pups off that morning. All of us where gathered there at the truck and no one wanted to be the first to put their pup on so I figured we might as well go first since Banta is early in the alphabet. She went right into the kennel on the bottom left side of the truck in the very back. She handled it all like a pro and got in the kennel just fine.
It is so quiet around here without Banta’s huge spirit. I’m amazed at how much calmer Casey is too. I had a cub scout pack leaders meeting her tonight and Casey did just great. Usually I have to confine her in the kitchen. She has grown up a lot in the last month, but that isn’t all of it. Casey gained a lot of confidence from Banta’s mentorship but she is ready to be on her own now.
We are going to miss her so much but I’m excited to see where her career path takes her. It will probably be a month or two before we hear anything on Banta unless they find a major problem early in her medical exams. So now starts the waiting period. She will arrive in California on Thursday afternoon.

Banta, Clifford & Juaquin our club’s November recall pups
Bill with Banta and the puppy truck
Banta on the puppy truck
 

Poop Update

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Casey and loose poop have been a fairly common thing. After Monday’s early morning poop trouble she deposited a load of loose poop in the middle of the living room in the afternoon. I’d just taken her out about a half an hour before. Then at about 2 a.m. Tuesday morning she got up in the night and poop in her own private little port-a-potty (the kennel) again. Finally Tuesday afternoon, she her poop started firming up. Casey woke me up at 5:45 a.m. this morning to take her out but her poop was very well formed. And today she has been back to a more normal pooping schedule. Something that she picked up off the ground must have messed up her system. We have spent the last month trying to get her on a food that agrees with her system and we finally seemed to be there when this loose poop episode struck I was worried that we were back to square zero. But yahoo! that isn’t the case. As our club leader use to say “it all comes back to poop.”

What a Night

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We had one of those crazy nights that come to puppy raisers every so often. I should have seen at least part of it coming. Casey pooped at about 10 p.m. and then pooped again right before bed. It is unusually for her to poop so close together but I didn’t clue in. Well we all got to bed with the girls sleeping in their usual places at the bottom of our bed. Then about 1 a.m. I heard one of them walking around in the empty kennel. I got up to check what was going on and found Casey wondering around the room and two piles of loose poop in the kennel. I was upset that she didn’t wake me up to take her out but also so glad that she picked the easiest place in the room to clean up. I took her outside to relieve while Bill started on cleaning up the kennel.

After everything was cleaned up I put two and two together and realized that Casey was having a problem. So I grabbed the quilt off the couch and settled down to sleep on the floor by Banta and Casey. About 3 a.m. Casey got up and I woke up to take her out but I wasn’t fast enough. She went straight into the kennel and deposited another load of loose poop! Bill didn’t wake up this time so I was on my own doing the clean-up.

About a half hour later Banta decided to add her part to the fun. But instead of poop she went for the other end of things. When I heard the retching I grabbed the closest thing to keep it off the carpet, my quilt. I yelled for Bill to grab a garbage can but he didn’t make it in time. Banta’s face had the funnest expression on it between the two deposits she made on the quilt. Her stomach was empty of food so it was just a some liquid. When I was sure that she was done. I took the quilt, rinsed it off in the shower downstairs and threw it in the washing machine.

The girls both slept the rest of the night with no more incidents but needless to say I didn’t sleep too well. Waking at the slightest move by either one of them. All in all consider there were three piles of loose poop and two puddles of throw-up the clean-up was about as easy at it comes. Thank goodness I got to sleep in this morning.

Halloween Party

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Our ward had their Halloween Party tonight. Banta would have loved to go. I can’t wait until she is free to go out socializing again. Casey handled everything very well. There was tons of stuff going on, including balloons popping across the gym. She got to say high to lots of kids in costume including the one in the photo below who’s nick name is KC. I’m very proud of how good Casey is doing. She was so timid and scared when she first got off the truck. Her world had turned up-side-down. Once she adjusted, with Banta’s help, she was a whole new puppy with plenty of confidence.

Fire Station #120

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Tonight Casey and I went to tour a local fire station as part of pack meeting. She was so comfortable on the dog bed that is currently in the back of the car that she didn’t want to get out of the car. Once she got out of the car she did just fine. She got to walk across the grill in the floor under the fire truck several times and handled it fine. Casey got to climb into the fire truck and also the ambulance. She took it all in stride like it was just another trip to the grocery store or the library, which we had stopped by earlier in the day. We also stopped by the city offices today to get her dog license. She is happily snoring away now after an eventful day.

Ear Trouble

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Casey has decided that Banta’s ear is the best chew toy. It is rare these days for Banta’s ears not to have slobber on them either wet or dry. I’ve been discouraging it but Banta doesn’t seem to mind so it is hard to catch Casey chewing on them. They seem to be quietly hanging out together and the next thing I know is Casey is at it again. Well today I had already cleaned Banta’s ears off several times when just before Casey and I were ready to head off for puppy class, I was in for a shock. Banta’s ear was bright red. Apparently Casey is in the middle of loosing a tooth and she left behind as much blood as she did dog slobber!

Corn Maze

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Tonight we went to the Crazy Corn Maze in West Jordan for puppy class. All the puppies did very well. They seemed to take walking among all the cornstalks in stride. Every so often Lindsey would have us trade puppies around so the dogs would get use to different handlers. One person said that Casey was the best behaved dog she had handled so far tonight. Casey is exhausted now. She had a full day with a chance to romp in the back yard with Clifford before class and we ran an errand to Sears after class.

 

Chewing on a Chair

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One of Casey’s biggest challenges at this age is learning when she just needs to settle and lay down quietly at our feet when we are out socializing. I think with age she will do better. It also helps when Banta is there to show her by example. Casey went to choir practice with me today and was doing ok but not great. Toward the end I thought she was happily chewing on her nylabone when I looked down again and realized she was actually happily chewing on a wooden chair leg! She managed to put quite a few teeth marks in three sides of the chair leg. I think some sand paper and an appropriate colored marker should make things look pretty good again. They joys of being a puppy raiser!

Puppy Teeth

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Casey has been teething for several weeks now. I usually know she is loosing a tooth because Banta has blood on her face, ears or body from Casey. It is surprising how much it shows up on a light colored dog. I have been able to save teeth from both Apex and Banta but I wasn’t sure I would ever find one from Casey. She likes to pick up tiny rocks from the ground so I figured that most of her teeth would end up in her stomach. I’m not willing to go through her poop to get a tooth! Now I actually have two of her teeth. I got the first one yesterday. Casey and I were at a district committee meeting for Boy Scouts and noticed that Casey was interested in something on the floor. I checked it out and yeah it was a tooth! Today 24 hours later I noticed she was chewing on something and it was another tooth. Now I have a matching set.

Today marks one month until Banta returns to GDB. It also marks the 10th day of being in season. 18 more days of confinement. Mostly it hasn’t been too bad but she was bit feisty with Casey a few times today and I had to devise new tactics to keep them apart but let them have some freedom. This evening she has been doing the sit and stare at me thing. I tried everything I could think of, potty break, tug, cuddle time, none of it seemed to work. I tried to get a picture of her with the “stare” but she squints when the flash goes off.

Puppy Food

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Banta and Casey love their food like most of these lab pups. Casey has had some diarrhea issues and is currently eating a combination of Science Diet i/d and Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy food. She has been eating Pro Plan Large Breed Puppy food since she started eating solid food at GDB. She never had really normal firm poop since she came to us in August and then it all got worse a few weeks ago. So we decided to try a new food. She does just fine on the i/d food which is kind of the equivalent of chicken and rice. My theory is that she has trouble with wheat and Eukanuba has no wheat so that is what we are switching to. We are taking the switch really, really slow. Today she got 1 cup of the i/d and 1/2 cup of Eukanuba at each meal. We will keep her at that level until we are really sure that she is handling that fine then we will move to equal parts of each food. If all goes well she will be eating just Eukanuba and have well formed poop in just a week or two.