I love a tired 'houla

Bayou was really tired after daycare Friday. She came home, ate, went out to pee and came in and plopped down. That was all she wrote. She slept the whole night on the couch. I love a tired 'houla.

Love that look

Snow doggy

Tired but still has energy to play in the snow!

Then again,  maybe I am tired...

"Dog Tired"

This is what they must mean when they say someone is dog tired! Look how contorted she is. LOL

Aspen Meadows 1st Anniversary Party

Today is the 1st Anniversary Party at Aspen Meadows Pet Resort where Bayou goes to daycare. I'm looking forward to going and celebrating with them. I really like this daycare and want to be supportive. If David goes with me we'll bring Bayou. If he doesn't go I'll leave her home with him. They are asking the clients to paint pictures of their dog(s) on the wall in the daycare. If they have someone who can help me I'll be happy to do it. I printed out a picture of Bayou as a model. I'm not much of a real life artist so we'll have to see how it goes. I hope they have a lot of people to show up at the party. Bayou really wanted to go to daycare today but it's her day off so she's home with us. She's doing okay. She'll be there tomorrow though. She loves going to Aspen Meadows. It's her favorite place!

Bath Day

Bayou couldn't wait to get to daycare today. She wouldn't even eat her breakfast from her tug-a jug. I had to put it in her bowl so she could eat fast so we could get out the door for daycare. lol When we got there Debbie took her in and Bayou was so excited to get in the door that she almost wiggled herself to death. haha she got a bath today. She was bathed, had her ears cleaned and nails clipped. They even put the cutest bandanna on her. It has "boo" all over it. I've never seen her in a bandanna before and she looks so cute. Aspen Meadows Pet Resort is the best daycare I have ever taken an animal to, ever. If you live in Colorado Springs and need daycare or boarding for your pet (any kind of pet, I've seen a turtle there before) please check with Aspen Meadows Pet Resort first. Beth, Debbie, and all the other ladies at Aspen Meadows are so nice, great with the pets and the customer service is incredible. You also can't beat their pricing! Give them a call if you have a pet daycare, boarding or grooming need. I highly recommend them.

By the way Bayou smells and feels great and looks cute too!

Great time at daycare

Bayou had a great day at daycare. One of the workers hugged Bayou before she left. Of course that made her pee on the floor. LOL. No leg problems though which made me happy. She'll go again on Wednesday.

Off to see the daycare...

Little Miss Bayou went down the yellow brick road to daycare today. She was so excited when she got there. She was jumping all over the place. I really need to work with her on not being like that. It's like having an unruly child in a store. Thankfully they understand at Aspen Meadows and they treat her kindly. I'll probably pick her up a bit early today so she doesn't wear her leg out again.

Go for a ride!!!

We took Bayou for a ride on Saturday. She loves sitting in the back seat.

Stiff legged puppy

Bayou was a bit stiff this morning but not limping near as bad as she was yesterday. It's snowing out and she went out on the porch and played in the snow. She was rolling around on the deck. It was funny. When she goes out again, I'll try to get a video of her if she plays again. She's on the couch right now. I'm glad she is better though.

Limping Lizards (or is that 'houlas)

Little baby Bayou isn't limping as badly tonight as she was this morning. It's supposed to get cold tonight so I'll have to make sure she stays warm tonight in bed. I think we'll all be under the covers tonight since they are saying we might get some snow. I'll keep Bayou out of daycare until Monday, I think. It will depend on her activity level. We can probably get her out on Sunday for a walk at Garden of the Gods if she needs it. I don't want to over do with her since her leg is still sore for her. She's sleeping on the couch again (still!). She started walking better when David got home. She was so excited to see him that I think she forgot about her leg a bit. She is still limping though. I'm sure this is just an issue of her doing too much at daycare this week. I'm glad she's doing better but my hunch is that she will be stiff after sleeping all night. We'll see how that goes. Have to keep her warm though.

Poor little pupper dawg!

Bayou woke up with a sore leg this morning. She's been favoring it and just spending her day snoring and dreaming on the couch. I kept her home from daycare. I'm sure she must have played too hard yesterday in daycare and then it was cold last night so she probably is just sore. I'm sure the sun today will warm it up for her and laying on the couch will give it a chance to heal. If she's still favoring it on Monday, I'll call the vet for an appointment. She did do some artwork this week.

I love the enrichment they do at the daycare. Aspen Meadows Pet Resort, here on the east side of Colorado Springs, is the best daycare I've ever had a dog visit. They are very caring and do lots of fun stuff with the pets they care for (including a turtle they had one day!). I'll leave Bayou just for a bit this afternoon for an appointment but other than that I'll be with her all day today. I'll go to the store later when David gets home. I don't want her spending too much time alone since she is not feeling well.

I want to start taking her hiking but I can see that I'll have to go slow with that. I don't want to hurt her. So we'll start out slow and see how she does. Because she only has a single coat she gets cold easily so I will have do get a doggy coat for her. I'll get something that will work well with hiking.

I think she'll be on the couch most of the day today so it will be a quiet day for both of us. It will give me some time to get some things done around here since she's not asking to go out every 5 minutes. lol

Computer is finally working

It's been too long since I blogged about Bayou because of computer problems. Things have been going good with her. I think we've really bonded over the last couple of weeks in a way that we hadn't bonded before. She is such a sweetheart and I love having her. We don't have training at SMS this week. We'll have class again next week on Wednesday. Clay wanted to give us time to train together and for Bayou to grow up some. Obviously she's still a puppy but she is maturing. I'm really looking forward to the things that she and I will be able to do together. I do need to get her out though. I haven't taken her for a walk out in the neighborhood and I haven't taken her to Petsmart yet either. Mostly I haven't done that because my allergies have been so bad that I've been miserable and sleeping a lot because of the allergy medicine. Anyway, she's getting so big. It's like she grows over night. She's been great sleeping with us and when I nap during the day she sleeps with me on the couch. She's going out on her own but still bringing things in though less often. I'm still working with her on that. She's in for the night now and needs to lay down so I'll be going for tonight.

Training is going well

We had our 3rd lesson this week with Mackenzie. We worked on "place", walking along side me and coming to me. We worked with other dogs there for distractions. Bayou is doing so well. Things at home are a lot  better too. Hardly any biting, she gets down when we tell her to and she comes to us most of the time too. The platforms David made this weekend are awesome and we get to practice place with them. My laptop crashed again so I won't be blogging much this coming week or so but I wanted to update about training. Our next session is on my birthday at 1pm. I'm really looking forward to it. I put her new bed in her kennel and now she goes in there on her own. How ironic. Maria came to clean the house today and I felt like Bayou did a much better job. She didn't bark the whole time and when I let her out she wasn't totally crazy (just a little bit crazy lol). One thing we have to work on is her bringing "stuff" into the house (tumbleweeds, poop, bark, sticks, etc). It's something we really have to work on. It's 8:30pm and she's already asleep in her kennel. Almost time for all of us to go to bed. I'll post when I can.

Oh! My! Gosh!

It's taken me hours to get the software installed to download some pictures of Bayou. They are definitely worth the time it took though. One of the pictures is the one that is now at the top of first page of the blog. Here's a couple more.

This one is Bayou on the bed that I got using my AGC's that I earned on Swagbucks. I only had to pay $1.50 (one dollar and fifty cents) for the bed (it's a $40+ bed too).

David took this one of me and Bayou sleeping on the couch. I of course am wrapped in my Snuggie.

Here is a video of Bayou eating food out of one of her puzzles. She's pretty quick with it. She learns fast.

That's it for tonight. I need to let Bayou out to potty and then head to bed. I'm glad I was able to get some new stuff on here. Can you see how big she is getting? Goodnight.

What a day!

For some reason today was difficult. I think Bayou was just not wanting to wear her collar today. I kept it on her until just a bit ago though. She's sleeping now. I think maybe I had it set too high and it was annoying her instead of getting her attention. Even when we did the long lead exercises she just wasn't wanting to participate. I guess it's only natural that she would want some time off. There are just so many teaching opportunities every day that I think it overwhelms her (and me too sometimes). She is learning though because even with the collar off she listens better than she did before we started SMS.

One of the things that was bad today was she was constantly trying to bring poop in the house. I'm still using the For-Bid but if I forget even once, we're in trouble. I purposely didn't clean up the yard today though because I wanted to work with her on not doing that. I'll clean up the yard in the morning so tomorrow isn't as bad as today (poop wise LOL).

We have our lesson this week at the SMS facility on Thursday at 4pm. I'm thinking we can be a bit more focused there, even though there may be more distractions. (Does that even make sense?) What I'm trying to say is that she'll be in a "work" environment and not home where she's used to everything. I know that I need more training on how to more effectively use the collar. There is a learning curve.

Overall though, things have been great since we started with SMS. Bayou has only been in her kennel once for 2 hours (when I was out at an appointment) since last Wednesday. Other than that, even when we eat, she has been out of the kennel. I like that she is tiring herself out now. I don't have to put her in the kennel to "force" a nap. She even takes naps with me on the couch now. I love that. It reminds me of Huxley and Blitz. It's a good memory and feeling. Especially after a day like today I need to remind myself of how much things have changed for the positive in less than a week. It was a rough one today but better than most good days we had before.

I have taken some pictures of Bayou. I just need to download them to the laptop. I'll do that in a just a bit and then post again. No videos yet though. I should try to get one on Thursday when we are training. I can let David train and I'll shoot video for a portion of the lesson. That will be fun.

Okay, off to download some pictures. Back in a bit.

Where does the time go?

It's already Saturday, March 26!! Clay came by on Wednesday as planned and we started working Bayou with the collar. It has made a huge difference. She's no longer going after the bushes when she's out, she's not going after the wires and plugs inside and the barking is a lot less than it was. The biting has almost stopped. When she gets real excited she tries it but with the collar we can settle her down and get her to stop. I'm amazed that in just an hour of training we were able to accomplish so much. She hasn't had to spend any time in her kennel when I'm home. Before Wednesday she would spend hours in her kennel because she would get into so much mischief when she was free. Now she plays with her toys, chews on chew sticks (bully sticks and a bison bone) and actually lies down to sleep all on her own.

We're still getting used to how to use the collar but I think we have a pretty good handle on it in the short amount of time she's been wearing it. She doesn't seem to mind the collar much. Getting it on her in the morning can be a chore but eventually we get it on her. She wears it all day. I don't take it off of her until she goes out for the last time at night before bed. One night I took it off before I let her out and it took forever to get her back in. One of the issues that is always brought up when using a training collar is that the dog will not behave without the collar on. I'm finding that when I say "off" of "come" when the collar is not on that she pays more attention to me than she did before. "Off" especially is really working well.

Today she's full of energy so she's kind of crazy but not as bad as she was sans collar. Next Thursday we're going to the SMS facility to do some training. I wish we could train more but I know we need the practice time in between sessions to work with Bayou. We're using a long lead to work with her on "come". One of us holds the lead and the other holds the transmitter and we call her back and forth, ping pong style. It works really well. We spend most of the time saying "off" though because that has a few meanings - get off, stop, leave it alone. It's nice to have just one command for all of that instead of having to teach her a different saying for each thing we want her to do or not do. It makes training a lot easier and it helps to move things on quicker too.

I find that I have more trouble than Bayou does. I'm so used to saying "leave it" that it's hard to transition to "off". I'll get it eventually though. lol It also makes it easier for David and I to say the same commands since there aren't so many of them.

I used my AGC's from Swagbucks to buy Bayou a bed big enough to go in her kennel which is 42" long. I paid a whole $1.50 for it. I love Swagbucks!! Only thing is we're not putting anything in her kennel right now because of potty training issues. It's in the living room right now. She seems to like it and how big it is. She still uses her tiny beds too. Or the floor. She's lying on the floor by the back door right now. I think she's ready for a nap. It's really nice, since she's not in her kennel all day, that she actually tires herself out by playing, training and going outside. She's becoming a regular, normal dog now instead of a crazy lunatic dog.

I haven't taken very many pictures of her lately so I need to get on the ball with that. Videos too. I want to get some training videos to post on the blog. I also want to take a picture of her on her new bed to post on the Swagbucks Facebook wall. SB's likes when people post pictures of "prizes" they've received. The trick is to get her on the bed. We don't know place yet so we can't use that command and we don't have a command to make her stay somewhere (beside "sit" which she only does for a few seconds). I'll put some treats on her bed. That should keep her there long enough to get a picture.

I think while she is sleeping I'll clean up the living room. There are beds, blankets, toys and chews everywhere. It will only take a minute or two to do it so it's no big deal. I also need to clean the yard today. There's not much out there because I'm really doing well keeping up with it. It's a lot easier to do a bit every other day instead of waiting a week and doing it all at one time. As she gets older that will become more important.

Today a little girl, a toddler, came running over to the yard to see Bayou. I think she scared Bayou because Bayou came around the deck and ran inside. She really hasn't met any kids. April 4th she gets her last set of puppy shots and then I can take her to Petsmart so she can be around other people and other dogs. She needs that. Speaking of socialization, I haven't emailed Rebekah yet. I was wondering if Bayou would be better this week because of the training, but without the collar on I don't think there would be much of a difference right now. She's not allowed to wear the collar in class. Without it, at this point, I think I would just be holding her back from the other dogs and watching her choking herself by pulling on the leash the whole time. She's too big for me to hold her now. She's got to be close to 25 pounds. They only time I pick her up is to put her in bed at night. I'm going to fix that though by putting the blanket chest at the end of the bed again and teach her to get up there and then up on to the bed. Of course that means she can get out of bed too but I think she'll be okay with that. As long as she doesn't get out to pee on the floor, things should be okay.

I have to decide today whether I'm going to go to the Puppy Class or not. I want to be able to let Rebekah know ahead of time. I won't just not show up. That would be rude. I'd like to give it a shot but if all we do is sit around while Rebekah talks, I won't be able to take it because Bayou will be bored and that is stressful for me. I guess I could ask Rebekah what the plan is for tomorrow. The thing is I just really don't want to go. It's just not fun. When we used to take Watson to Christine, it was at least fun and we learned things every session. I think Rebekah could go over all of this stuff in an orientation session with humans only. Then the 6 puppy classes could start the following week. But, it is her class, not mine.

I'm so excited to go to the SMS facility on Thursday. I'm sure Bayou will love it too. She loves new places. I don't know if any other dogs will be there. Either way, I'm looking forward to learning more. David and I need to spend more time training though. It's been hard this week to get the training in because I have a sore back. I had to get a 2nd shot in 2 weeks on Friday. This time is was in the sacroiliac joint. I couldn't have sedation because I didn't have a driver (David was working, Lisa is in China). I felt everything that Dr. Jenks did. It wasn't horrible or unbearable but it did suck. No more shots without sedation. For 5-7 days I have to watch my activity level but the training doesn't take too much physical energy so I should be able to get back to it now.

Bayou is slowly learning to retrieve. She will go after the ball or toy and bring it back to your general area but doesn't give it to you. She may drop it close enough that you can get it but she doesn't really bring it to you. Of course, she's not a retriever so I'm not expecting miracles from her. She'll get it though. Eventually.

That's it for now. I'll do my best to get some pics and vids to post. Later.

What a pill?!?

Bayou was a total pill today. When she was outside she was tearing apart that bush that Watson tried tearing apart. When she was inside, not in her kennel, she kept trying to chew the wires and plugs to the lamp and laptop. I sprayed Fooey on it and she still went after it. When she was in her kennel she was barking or whining. Yeesh! I couldn't catch a break today. Tonight though she got tired on her own and laid down on the floor and fell asleep. I took her to bed at 9pm. She went right to sleep after figuring out where she wanted to position herself. She always starts out up by my head, or on my head, and then moves down to the side of my legs. She's all about being comfortable. I think I was frustrated with her today because I know that there is a way for us to get her to stop doing things we don't want her to do but we just haven't learned the techniques yet. We're getting close though. Wednesday afternoon is fast approaching. I'm a bit nervous about the remote collar and how it will feel to Bayou. I also worry that I won't be able to do the training correctly and efficiently. I know it's just jitters from knowing knowing the plan yet. Once we get going though, I'll have a lot to do with Bayou everyday getting her to stop things she shouldn't be doing and to do things that I want her to do. That pretty much takes up my whole day. lol

I'm looking forward to when Bayou will sit and stay put or place so we can take some good pictures of her. I need to get outside tomorrow and try to get some outside shots. Her colors will show up a lot better in sunlight. Her eyes too.

We're investing a lot of money into this training so I feel a responsibility to make sure that our investments pays off. We'll start working on that Wednesday.

It's almost 12:30am so I better get back to bed. More later.

2nd Puppy Class

Today I took Bayou to her 2nd puppy class. It wasn't much fun for me or for her because I had to keep her on leash the whole time and away from a couple of the dogs (one was aggressive, the other the tiny dog). She did get to play with a Labradoodle and had fun doing that. There really wasn't much for Bayou to do since there was more talking than training. I'm not worried though because we start training in private one-on-one lessons with Clay on Wednesday. After a few weeks, when she is ready, Bayou will start going to group classes. The puppy class just isn't a good fit for Bayou. I only took her because we've paid for the classes and I hate to waste the money but that hour or so takes everything out of me and Bayou (and not in a good way). So, anyway, I'll email Rebekah and let her know that we won't be coming back to puppy class. I know we will get a lot better results with Clay in private sessions.

I don't even know what I've blogged about or when I did it so I may be repeating some info. Thursday the carpets were cleaned and they pee stains actually look worse now than they did before for 2 reasons. The first reason is because the rest of the carpet is so much cleaner now, the pee stains show up more and second, when he cleaned the stains they all just got bigger. It didn't remove any of them, just made them bigger. Oh well. At least most of the carpet looks better. Bayou has peed in the house since the carpets were cleaned but not very much. We catch her in the act and make a big fuss to get her to go outside. It works for the most part. I think that even though the carpets have been cleaned I'll still need to use some Nature's Miracle to remove whatever it is that Bayou is still able to smell.

Through another dog training website I found out that a new daycare is in where Preppy Pet used to be. It's called Aspen Meadows Dog Resort. I'm going to call to see if I can go and check it out before Bayou goes there. She has to wait until the first week of April, at least, because she has to have her rabies shot. And I'm not even sure if Clay will want her going to doggy daycare. Lots of bad habits can be learned there. I don't want to undermine what Clay will be doing. We're investing a lot of time and money into Bayou's training and I want to make sure that we follow what Clay says we should do (or don't do). If she's able to go to daycare at some point, at least I know there is one closer than Lucky Dog.

I'm up but David and Bayou are in bed. She goes to bed without a problem and stays there until I take her out to pee in the morning (usually around 4:30am when David is up getting ready for work). I'm not sure if we'll train her to sleep on the floor or if it will be okay to have her sleep in bed with us. She's well over 22 pounds now and she's only 15 weeks old. I don't know how big she will get but I don't think she'll be a small dog. That reminds me, when Clay got Watson out of the truck the other day to show us how his training is going, I thought it was a different dog. Watson has really filled out and looks like an adult dog now. He is absolutely beautiful. He did great with the training demonstration. He missed a few things but I'm okay with that. I don't want a perfect dog, I want a happy, obedient dog.

Today when Bayou came in the back door she ran and leaped up onto the couch where I was laying. I couldn't believe the air she got. lol We'll definitely not have that happening once training starts. She will only be on the furniture or us if she is invited. No more jumping, crazy dog. Maria comes on Wednesday morning to clean the house and I'll be glad when she comes back 2 weeks later and Bayou has made some improvement. Maria will be a good judge of how Bayou is doing with her training.

I'm really looking forward to Wednesday afternoon getting here so we can start the training in earnest. The puppy class that we went to today seems to be more of an informational class than a training class so I think working with Clay is the better way to go. There are all kinds of things that Bayou is doing that I can't wait to get her to stop (biting, digging, chewing on power cords, running away from me). I know I have to be patient though because she only is a puppy and training takes time. I just want to get on with it. I'll finally have some guidance and can work with Bayou more often with the specific training behaviors we're working on. I think it will be great for Bayou because she'll get more energy out during the day and learn to be more focused. It will be good for me because I'll have something to do and a plan to follow. So far all I've done is try to stay a step ahead of Bayou and for the most part, that's really not happening. She's running things right now. She's in for a rude awakening when private lessons start. Not that it will be mean or anything, it's just that she's so used to being in charge that once I'm in charge she'll know things have changed. And they do have to change.

At the end of puppy class, Bayou was finally calm enough to do "sit" and "down" with treats. I think she was just worn out from choking herself at the end of the leash all class long. She'll sleep good tonight though. Then we'll be one day closer to training with Clay. I don't want anyone to think that the puppy class is bad, it's just not a good fit for Bayou and me. We don't need all the new puppy info. We need training techniques. I don't think this class will do a whole lot of that. We did use the clicker today but Clay told us we won't be using a clicker with his training. We'll still mark the behavior but it will be with a verbal clue ("YES!!"). I'll be glad to be done with the clicker. It's too hard to hold her leash, hold treats and click the clicker. One less thing will really help. I'm thinking too that we won't have her on leash much in the private lessons so I won't have that to hold onto either. Once she gets comfortable enough with training and we are doing the right techniques (after about a month or so) then she'll be able to go to group classes. That is going to be a lot of fun working with other dogs who are being trained the same way. It will give me something to do and it certainly will give Bayou something to do that will tire her out. I think there are a couple of classes a week. I'll probably try to attend whatever classes are available to me. It will be nice to have a focus again.

Tomorrow I have to go out and clean the yard early because I think the lawn guy is coming to fertilize. I didn't clean today but I did yesterday so it shouldn't be too bad. I let the Scott, the yard guy, know that we have Bayou so he doesn't use any dangerous chemicals. He'll have to pull weeds instead of spraying them to kill them. I may have to get a sprinkler at Lowe's for the fertilizer since the sprinkler system hasn't been turned on yet. I'll have to check with Scott on that too. I can't wait for there to be moist, green grass in the backyard. Right now it's all dry and gets tracked into the house so easily. And fresh grass is so much more fun to play in. It makes cleaning the yard a bit of a challenge but between Scott coming every week and we cleaning up at least every other day it shouldn't be a problem.

I need to get some more pictures of Bayou to post and a video too. I want to tape our classes with Clay. I need to get a before video of how crazy she can get and then a week later video again if she's made improvement. I wish I hadn't sold my camera tripod. I could really use it now. I'll have to look for one on craigslist or online. Speaking of online. I ordered the bed that fits in her whole kennel. The little round beds I got still work but there not as comfortable as they could be for her. Clay also suggested with put a divider in the kennel so she doesn't have as much room to keep her from peeing in there. Right now she has so much room that she can pee on one end and sleep on the other. Not good. I couldn't find any dividers at Petsmart so I'm going to see if I can come up with something from Lowe's. Her bed will be here this week so I need to find a divider soon.

I guess that's it for tonight. I'm getting sleepy and swagbucks is calling my name to Midnight Bucks! lol

Busy, busy, busy

I've been so busy with Bayou and other things that I forgot to update the blog. She got her Bordetella shot on Monday so I could take her to daycare at Lucky Dog on Thursday so we could get the carpet cleaned. She weighs over 21 pounds now!! She was at daycare all day and had a blast but she's still tired today from all the playing she did yesterday. SMS is coming over in about 15 minutes to do their demonstration. I'm also going to check out another trainer (Rick Walkley @ Focus Dog Training) before I make any decisions. He said he would work with her for an hour and then we can decide whether or not his training is for us. He's going to call me today to set up an appointment. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

We're able to let Bayou out on her own now. We just leave the door cracked and she comes and goes as she pleases. It makes life so much easier for me and more enjoyable for Bayou. She is going under the deck so we need to get the rocks put around it. We also need to finish the fence between our yard and Mike's. David's going to try to do that this weekend.

SMS will be here soon so more later.

I am so looking forward to Friday

I am in great need of direction with Bayou and her training. I know that I will get that soon. It seems like she isn't too interested in treats anymore because she gets so many of them. Using a toy as a reward (at some point) will be so much better IF I can get the right toy for her. I spent a lot of time today trying to get her to come in from the back yard. She wasn't getting into any trouble, I just wanted her to come in. She doesn't come when I call her unless she's interested in coming to me. I can't chase after her because my back is still hurting and honestly I don't want to have to chase after my puppy. I'm really hoping to see some change within a weeks time, just a little change. I want to see the possibilities.

I emailed a carpet cleaning place today to see if they can come and clean the carpet this coming week. The carpet is disgusting. It needs to be cleaned. I'll feel better when it is done. Then I'll have to really stay on top of Bayou, making sure that she doesn't have accidents in the house.

David has had hockey Friday, Saturday and tonight. He has his last week of school this week. It's been hard with Bayou because David has to spend time away from home or when he is home, doing his homework. I understand completely that it's necessary but I'm looking forward to him being able to help me more with Bayou. I know he will put in the time once he has some. lol

Thankfully, Bayou is napping which gives me time to do some laundry. It's very much like having a little kid. There are all the ups and downs but mostly joy that I have Bayou. She's going to be a great companion one day soon.

Sit Means Sit (really, it does!)

 

On Friday, March 18th, at 4pm someone from SMS will be here to do the demonstration for us. I have the money set aside to start the program. Bayou is being a little angel right now (sleeping). I tried to get her to nap on our bed so I could get a nap in but she wouldn't settle down. I think that what I really need help with is getting her to come when called and go in her kennel when commanded. All the chasing around and bending is hurting my back and frustrating me. I'm not frustrated with Bayou, I'm frustrated that I'm so out of shape that I can't keep up with this puppy. Getting her trained is going to make all the difference for me. Sit Means Sit is definitely the way to go for me and Bayou. The video above shows a German Shorthair Pointer puppy who is 17 weeks old. He is very energetic and unfocused in the beginning of the video. After a week they  recorded him again and there was marked improvement. He was very focused and obedient. I'm glad to see that there will be a noticeable difference in just a week. I'm looking for perfection in a week just improvement.

I wish that someone from SMS could come sooner but that was the first appointment that I could get so that David could be here too. I just have to make it through the next week and then things will move forward in the direction I want them to. I honestly have no idea what to do to train Bayou to come to me, walk with me, stay, focus, retrieve a toy, etc. I've tried using treats but I think she's sick of treats already. They aren't even special anymore. I don't know if SMS uses lots of treats or not. I know that they do use a toy and of course the e-collar (which is like a tap on the shoulder, I've felt it myself). I look forward to when Bayou wants to do things just to please me and get a toy vs. bribing her with treats to get her to do anything.

I've been watching as many videos as I can on youtube. There are lots of SMS videos. I really look forward to the changes that are to come.

Next week I'll be ordering a new bed for Bayou's kennel (a 28" x 42"). She's too big for the small beds me have right now. Ha! I just looked over at her and she's got her belly up and her legs dangling everywhere. She looks very comfortable. Anyway, I'm going to use an Amazon Gift Card that I got through Swag Bucks to pay for the bed. I may have to pay a little under $2 for it with the AGC. That's such a great deal.

David has hockey tonight and tomorrow night and maybe on Sunday. That's a lot of time for Bayou and I to work on sit, down and stay. We're just beginning "stay" so I'm sure that's going to take a while. We also need to work on paw and high 5. She tends to do high 10. LOL I know she is smart and can learn. I just need to learn the way that works best for her through SMS. I've seen the difference that SMS has made in Harley/Watson so that gives me a lot of hope. Beside that training they also have get together classes around town (at least that's what was happening when we gave up Harley/Watson). I really want to get her out there with other dogs and eventually work her with distractions. We'll definitely be able to practice that with the dogs out back.

I'm just so anxious to get the SMS training started. I want to see change and improvement in my relationship with Bayou. I want her to be focused on me and attentive to what I want her to do. I guess I can be patient.

Not such a great day

Maria told me that Bayou is more hyper than the 2 puppies she had. That made me feel bad. What is it about me that makes crazy dogs? Tonight David said that she's crazy and I need to do more with her during the day. That really made me feel bad. She's been barking all night, all day really, and when she's out of her kennel she runs around like a crazy dog and gets to a point where she jumps at us and bites. Really, why do I bring this out in dogs? I know the best thing I can do is put her in Sit Means Sit training. Puppy classes just don't do it. She has too much energy (not a bad thing) and the puppy classes don't give her an outlet to get that much energy out. I think that SMS would be a better thing for Bayou. I do feel bad though that I'm not doing whatever it is that I need to do to make her a more calm, happy dog. Don't get me wrong, I love her and plan on doing whatever it takes to keep her and make her a calm and happy dog.

Well, she's finally tired herself out and she's sleeping. The snoring is way better than the barking. LOL

Seriously though, I was embarrassed today at Bayou's behavior while Maria was here. She barked almost the whole time she was here and when I let her out, once on leash, once off, she just went nuts jumping up on Maria. She just kept saying how hyper Bayou is and that I seem to bring that out in dogs (she saw Harley before he was given away). I don't want to be embarrassed by my dog and I don't want my dog to be so crazy that she can't have a nice life. I want a companion dog but I pick these breeds that have more energy than I can deal with. I'd take her out walking if I thought she would walk with me but I know she won't at this point. We didn't learn very much in the first puppy class and now we don't meet for another 2 weeks. I need to do something between now and then to try to fix this problem. Maybe tomorrow I'll try to take her to PetSmart and see how she does there. They have slippery floors so I'm not sure she'll like that but she has to get used to them.

I know that she's just a puppy and that barking, digging, biting is all part of the package but I also know that at this point it's excessive. Maybe I'll contact SMS and see what they can do for me. I think Bayou is old enough to start training with them (she's 13 1/2 weeks now). I know they use an e-collar and I have no problem with that. Whatever it takes to get her to behave and make life better for all of us (including Maria). I don't want Maria to dread coming to the house to clean because Bayou is going to bark the whole time.

So, once again I have a dog that is running my life but the difference this time is that I'm not giving up. I'll do whatever it takes to make this work.

Bark, bark, bark

Bayou has been barking her fool head off for the last couple of days. When she's in her kennel she barks. When she's not in her kennel she's either barking or biting. Ugh! I know it's just a puppy stage so it's not a real big deal but it's still not pleasant. We've been letting her go out into the yard and we just watch her from the door. She does just fine. At night or early in the morning she'll go out, do her business and then come right back in. It's nice to not have to take her out on the leash every time (especially when it's raining or snowing or really cold). Maria is here cleaning and Bayou will not stop barking. I just gave her a Kong with some cream cheese in it and she's quieted down since you can't eat and bark at the same time. LOL Maria notices how big Bayou is getting because she only sees her every 2 weeks. Maria says she's much bigger than 2 weeks ago. At puppy class on Sunday Bayou went on the scale by herself and it looked like she weighs about 18 pounds now. She's growing by leaps and bounds. No puppy class this week because Rebekah will be out of town. I'll need to get Bayou out to PetSmart and PetCo so she can meet some other dogs and people. I'm kind of disappointed with the class since there is only one other dog and it's a tiny one. I'll check with Rebekah and see if there are any plans for other dogs joining this class. I really need to get Bayou more socialized.

It's a beautiful day out today so Bayou is having fun going out on her own and running around the yard. That will help her use up some of the energy she has pent up. She is so energetic. She doesn't seem to mind the vacuum while Maria is cleaning the dining room and it stopped her from barking too. Yay! Hopefully it will last for more than 5 minutes. LOL

Good day

It's been a fairly good day today. Bayou hasn't gone out quite as much which makes life a little easier for me. No accidents in the house either (so far - fingers crossed). She is napping right now which gives me a minute to blog. I have to go to Petsmart tomorrow to get treats for puppy class tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to get the Bil Jac Little Jacs. They stay softer longer than the Zukes do. I'll look at others too because she'll need variety. I'll have to get something extra special too for those times when she's not as interested in treats. I have to remember to bring a favorite toy too. That won't be easy since she has so many to play with. I'll probably bring her duckie or her little Kong. That reminds me, I don't know where her baby Kong went to (the pink and white pacifier shaped Kong). It's probably in the toy box so I'll have to check that later. Bayou has been kind of rowdy today. I think it's because I'm not able to exercise her as much because of my back hurting. It's still very painful to walk. She's old enough now that I should start taking her for walks but she's not very good on the leash. She pulls and nearly chokes herself. I know we'll be learning some leash stuff in puppy class so maybe I'll wait until then to take her out of the yard to walk. That's about it for now. Nothing exciting going on here right now.

Can you say "I don't want to go out anymore"?

I can't even count the number of times I took Bayou out today. lol I still have to take her out before we go to bed too. We'll be going to bed at 9pm. I'm hoping that since David doesn't have to get up for work tomorrow that she will sleep past 4:30am. No biggie is she doesn't but it would be nice to sleep a little longer. Bayou is sleeping right now. She got into that crazy frenzy that she gets into just before she crashes and sleeps. I'm hoping she will grow out of that. Sunday she will be 13 weeks old and we'll be starting puppy classes. I hope she's not too aggressive in class. I'm hoping the other puppies put her in her place.

Well, she's awake and wants to go out. Imagine that...

Vet appointment this morning

Bayou had her vet appointment this morning to get her third set of shots. She weighed in at 16.6 lbs! I'm still feeling really bad so I haven't been able to play with her as much as I usually do. It takes all my energy just to take her out during the day. She's been really good and has slept a lot today. That has given me time to sleep too. She was very good at the vet. Dr. McKenney said her infection is getting better and she's good to go with puppy classes. I'm not sure how I'm going to do though. Moving around really hurts and there will be lots of movement during the puppy class. David will have to help out. That's it for now.

Bayou did well while I was gone today

I left Bayou for 2 hours and she did just fine. No accidents and she wasn't barking or whining when I left or when I got home. I'll be leaving her again tomorrow to go pick up my laptop. I miss my laptop but have enjoyed using this netbook. I'm online a lot less than I used to be since I have to watch Bayou every minute that she's out of her kennel. I try not to put her in there too often. She likes being out with me and I like having her with me. There would be no sense in having her if she spent all her time in the kennel. She loves sleeping in bed with us. She is spoiled and I know it. I'm still not feeling great today so I'm not going to blog too much. I get an injection in my back next Monday. David is going to have to take care of Bayou once I get home so I can rest. When he gets home he'll have to let her out and then feed her. She'll have been in her kennel for an hour and a half by then. I know she will do okay. The only thing I worry about is if she has an accident. David can't get down there to clean up and it will be difficult for me to do that too on that day. I'll make sure to take her out many times before I leave. I'm sure it will be okay. Off to surf the net for a while.

Things are getting better for Bayou

I think the Clavamox is working. Bayou isn't peeing as much now. She's still having an accident or two but not nearly as many as before. She's eating and drinking normally and still has tons of energy. On Thursday Bayou goes for her 3rd set of shots and get checked again to see if the infection is gone. She starts puppy class on Sunday so I really hope the infection has cleared up. I'm very excited to see how she behaves with other dogs and people. I'm sure she'll love the people but I'm wondering if she'll be like Harley and be shy. Even if she is I'm sure that won't last long. I'm also anxious to see what her weight will be on Thursday. I rarely pick her up anymore. She's just too heavy. I do lift her up to get on the bed at night though. Yes, she is sleeping with us. It actually makes things a lot easier because she can wake me up right away if she needs to go out. She's doing pretty good sleeping through the night though. She's still waking up for the day at 6:30am which doesn't thrill me but we always seem to get a nap in later in the morning or early in the afternoon. I have a doctor's appointment for me tomorrow so I'll be leaving her alone for a while, about 2 hours. I think she will do okay. I'll make sure I take her out just before I leave and keep her out for a while. It's supposed to be nice out tomorrow and that always helps.

I wasn't feeling too good today (back pain and such) so David helped out with Bayou today. That was so helpful to me. It allowed me to relax and get the rest I needed. I took a shower tonight and that helped too. I feel a whole lot better than I did just a few hours ago. The pain meds help too. ;-) The best thing though was that Bayou was easy to take care of today. She's sleeping in her kennel right now. I'll take her out before we go to bed and then we'll pack it in for the night. I think I'll be feeling better tomorrow and will be able to get more done around the house. Bayou isn't getting in the way of that, the back pain is. She's a joy to own. I took a picture of her today. She's getting bigger every day.

That's it for tonight. I'm going to wake Bayou up and take her out for a potty break then it's off to bed.

Back from the Wizard

Dr. McKenney called me around 12:30pm. She said that Bayou still has the vaginitis but doesn't have a UTI. She's put Bayou on another, stronger, antibiotic. She'll take that two times a day until it's all gone. I think there is a weeks worth of pills. I also have to limit her water. She'll get 1.5 to 2 cups of water every 2-3 hours to control how much she's drinking. She may be peeing so much because she's drinking too much water. I hope this antibiotic helps take care of the problem. Dr. McKenney mentioned surgery but said Bayou is too young for that. I don't want her to have to have surgery. The receptionist said that Bayou isn't as big as she thought she would be. Dr. McKenney wanted her to gain 8 - 10 pounds in a month and she's only gained 6. Maybe she'll be a small dog after all. I've had her out of her kennel as much as possible. She's been biting so I put her in there when she does that. She's her rowdy self so I know she's not feeling bad. I have to make sure the antibiotic doesn't make her throw up or have diarrhea. Well, she's wanting out of her kennel so I better let her out to play.

Off to see the Wizard!

I dropped Bayou off at the vets this morning. I don't know how long they will have her. I'm going to enjoy my time without her even though I miss her already. I put her on the scale when we got there and she now weighs - drum roll please - 14 pounds 2 ounces!! I sent a text to David to let him know her current weight and her sent a text back saying "fatso, ha ha". She is a little chunk now. I can barely pick her up. I'm going to have to do a lot of work with her on walking on the leash and going up and down stairs so I don't have to lift her any more than I have to. I'm aching all over because picking her up is so difficult. She wouldn't walk into the vets so I had to carry her in. I think there were just too many smells out there to distract her. I sure hope Dr. McKenney can figure out what's going on with her. I'm gong to pick up some Nature's Miracle spray and clean up all the places where she's peed in the house to deter her from doing it anymore. I guess if I have to take her out every 15 minutes I'll have to do that to keep her from having accidents in the house.

It's weird not having her here. The house is so empty without her but like I said I'm going to enjoy this little slice of freedom that I am blessed to have. I need to get the house straightened out but I don't really want to do that while I have time to myself. Having a puppy sure does mess the house up. Why is that? lol Part of the problem is the boxes from all the stuff I've ordered for her (though I think everything I've ordered has been delivered now. I'm keeping one of the boxes to see if I can use it to send my printer back to Office Max since it's not working right. Once they get it they'll send me a gift card so I can go buy another printer at Office Max. I don't know what kind of printer I'll get but it will definitely be one that will print out nice pictures. I want to have a nice picture of Bayou to put in my bag. I want to be able to show the picture to people. She's just so darn cute.

I'm kind of hoping that they'll keep her for a few hours so I can get some stuff done around here (besides relaxing that is). It would go faster without Bayou under foot or barking in her kennel. It will give me a chance to change out her kennel too. I have a new waterproof pat for the bottom layer and a new blanket for her to keep cozy on. Both are washable. Heck, everything I have for her is washable.

I've been giving Bayou her meals out of different toys every day. I do that to stimulate her mind. Once in a while I'll just put her food in a bowl but mostly I use the puzzles and Tug-a-Jugs. She loves having to work for her food. I wish there was a way to raise her kennel off the floor so it would be easier to get to her. All the bending over is killing my back and shoulders. I can't believe she's at 14.2 already. No wonder is harder to pick her up. I wonder how big she'll be once she's done growing. Hopefully not too big since she likes sleeping in bed with us. ha ha

Okay, off to get some things done around here. I'll start with Bayou's stuff and then move on from there. Wish me luck!

Yikes!

Bayou was in her kennel all day today because the furnace guys were here from 9am - 3pm. When David got home I went out to run errands. I think she was in her kennel some of that time too. I got her a bully stick when I went to Petsmart and she loves it. I also got her an ID tag that will go right on her collar instead of hanging off of it. She was able to get the tag in her mouth with it hanging off the collar. I've let her out of her kennel tonight but she's so wound up from sleeping a lot today and being in her kennel that she's going ballistic. She's biting on all the cords tonight which makes it difficult to let her out of the kennel. I'm going to have to duct tape the wires down so she doesn't bite them and get caught in them. It will be much more fun for her and me if the wires aren't an issue.

Dr. McKenney called me today. She wants me to bring Bayou in tomorrow and leave her for a while so they can get a urine sample (without poking a needle into her bladder). I'm sure she won't be there too long since she's still peeing constantly. I hope they can find something to help her. because it's getting frustrating having to clean up after her in the house all the time. I know she doesn't mean to do it but it's still frustrating.

Besides that stuff she is still a doll and I love her. I can't wait to go to bed tonight and cuddle with her. Or should I say watch her cuddling with David. :-)

The big crash!

I haven't been able to post until today because my hard drive crashed on my laptop. Lisa was my savior and loaned me a netbook so I could be back in the loop.

Bayou still has an infection. She's peeing 4-5 times when I take her out and then peeing again within 10 minutes or so in the house. She's destroyed the carpet. I left a message with Dr. McKenney and hopefully she'll call today. The antibiotic I've been giving her doesn't seem to have any effect on her potty habits. Something has to change though. It's getting to be very frustrating having her pee in the house. She knows to go to the door when she has to go out but it's like she just can't wait that minute or two. I'm sure we'll get it figured out soon.

Also, our furnace was leaking carbon monoxide yesterday. I was afraid that it would effect Bayou so I called the heating/AC guy and they came by to check it. The heat exchanger is cracked and that's why it's leaking. The system is turned off for now. The furnace guy let us borrow a space heater so it wouldn't get too cold in here overnight. They will be installing the new furnace today. That means that Bayou will spend more time in her kennel than she'd like. She's in there sleeping right now. She tired herself out playing. I'm ready to go back to bed until the furnace guys come to install the new one.Yesterday was going to be such a good day until the CO leak. It went all down hill from there. At the end of the night though I was finally able to get a shower in and get online. Those 2 things make me feel human again. I would have liked to get more sleep but taking a nap on the couch is going to have to suffice.

I have some pictures and video of Bayou that I"ll post once I get my laptop back and can download them from the camera.

Okay off to nap like Bayou.

Naps are good

Bayou and I both napped twice today. I was glad to get the naps in because I wasn't feeling good today. I've given Bayou both her doses of amoxicillin and For-Bid. She ate the food with the For-Bid on it without any problem. I give her the amoxacillin with peanut butter and she eats it up. Dr. McKenney said it would take at least 24 hours for the amoxacillin to work. I haven't seen any change in her peeing habits yet. She's still peeing multiple times on each outing. She slept quite a bit during the day but she's wound up tight tonight. I must go and play with her. Later.

Trip to the vets

I was getting worried about Bayou having trouble peeing. She seemed to have frequency and urgency, both signs of a UTI. I called Ask A Vet on one of the news channels last night and the vet said that I should take her in ASAP. It wasn't urgent but it needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later. So I made an appointment with Dr. McKenney for 7:50am this morning. I tried to get a urine sample (don't even ask lol) but couldn't so they got one this morning by inserting a needle into her bladder. The results showed that there wasn't a lot of bacteria in her urine but there was a little blood (which could have been caused by the needle insertion) and she also has a vaginal discharge. Dr. McKenney gave me amoxacillin for her to take 2x/day and she also gave me some For-Bid to help with the poop eating thing. The Dr. said none of these things were uncommon and should respond to the meds. I've already given her 1 amoxacillin. I forgot to put the For-Bid on her food this morning so I'll do that at lunch time. Bayou should show improvement over the next 24-48 hours. If she isn't showing improvement then I need to call the vet Saturday morning. I hope it clears up with the antibiotic though. The visit, UA sample and meds cost $96.00. It could have been a lot worse, money wise, so I'm going to be grateful that I can afford the care that Bayou needs. She's napping so I'm going to try to get a quick nap in too.

Tornado video

I took a short video of Bayou eating out of the Tornado. She's getting quick at it.

Bluetick Coonhound History

The modern Bluetick's color indicates that it descended from the Grand Bleu de Gascogne (French Staghound) as well as the English Foxhound. Many French hounds were brought to America and contributed to the coonhound breeds. One owned by George Washington was recorded as giving birth to 15 puppies, and Washington likened their musical voices to the "bells of Moscow." The Grand Bleu was too slow on the trail to please the American hunter, but when bred to American hounds, it increased their coldtrailing ability and their endurance.
Although Blueticks were originally classified as English Coonhounds, Bluetick breeders broke away from the English breeders in 1945 because they didn't want to follow the trend toward producing a hot-nosed, faster hunter. Proud of their larger, cold-nosed and resolute, if slower hounds, they named their breed and maintained their own hunting style. For a short time, puppies with blue ticking were classified as Blueticks and those with red ticking were still called English. But that practice soon ceased as each Coonhound maintained its own group of staunch supporters.
An intelligent, cold-nosed hunter that trees hard and long, the Bluetick has the ability and endurance to stay on the most intricate track. He is a free tonguer on the trail with a medium bawl or bugle voice when striking and trailing. This changes to a steady chop when running and a steady course chop at tree.

Catahoula Leopard Dog History

The Catahoula originated in North Central Louisiana in the geographic area around the Catahoula Lake from which it got its name. The word Catahoula is of Choctaw Indian origin and is translated into English as "sacred lake", just as the Choctaw word Choekahoula means "sacred home."
The first settlers to that area of Louisiana found the woods full of wild hogs and these Indian dogs that were indigenous to the area. In fact there were so many wild hogs in the woods that they were considered to be a nuisance and of little value. Early settlers described them as being so poor that you could make "head sauce" (pronounced sowce and meaning hog head cheese) out of them but they had no meat on their bones. This generated the names "razorback" or "piney woods rooter."
The idea that the natives had Catahoulas upon the arrival of the first European settlers to the area is difficult to prove and is best offered as legend. The fact that the natives had domestic dogs was recorded by the scribes of Spanish explorer, Hemando de Soto.
As of 1539, when de Soto's expedition landed in Florida and began their odyssey throughout the Southeastern U.S., there was only one species of domestic animal in North America, the native Indian's dog. This dog was described by members of de Soto's expedition as looking exactly like the wolf except that it barked and the wolf only howled. There were 700 men on the expedition and the various scribes that wrote of their experiences gave only that limited description of the Indian dog (other than numerous references to eating them). It stands to reason that if there were more interesting observations made, they would have been reported.
The Spanish explorers had their "war dogs" with them and they were described as bloodhounds, mastiffs and greyhounds. Legend claims that these war dogs cross bred with the native Indian dogs and produced a new breed or crossbreed for the surviving Native Americans. This information was passed down from generation to generation by the European settlers in what is now North Central Louisiana. Most of these settlers were farmers who had migrated west as the Eastern lands were used up and no longer produced the crops that they were in the habit of raising.
More important to the history of the Catahoula was the herd of swine that de Soto's expedition brought with them from Cuba and Santo Domingo. These hogs were brought along as a reserve or emergency food supply. De Soto would not allow these hogs to be killed as they were for emergency or survival only. Only one time during the 3 years of de Soto's command did he allow for the consumption of pork from these hogs and that was during a time of short corn supplies from the Indians. Of the 300 head of hogs, caught on the islands of Cuba and Santo Domingo and brought with them to North America, 13 sows were recorded as belonging to de Soto. After his death some three years later (on the west side of the Mississippi river) his second in command, de Moscoso auctioned off 700 head of hogs that belonged to de Soto. This sort of increase from 13 sows should give an indication of how many hogs were actually in the herd when the expedition broke down in what is now North Louisiana or Southern Arkansas. The remaining members of the expedition killed and salted the meat of as many hogs as could be carried in the small boats that they built to travel to Mexico. The remaining hogs (the numbers had to be staggering) were given to the friendly Indians or liberated to live in the lush river bottoms of the area. These hogs destined to become known in Arkansas as "razorbacks" and in Louisiana as "pineywoods rooters" were found in the woods as the land was settled.
Just as the Longhorn cattle were left by Spanish explorers the wild hogs were a ready made resource for the settlers. The only flies in the ointment were the facts that there were so many hogs in the woods after 3 centuries of inbreeding and survival of the fittest that they were poor in condition and extremely poor in type; they were also "wild." To overcome these problems the settlers began killing off the sows that must have resembled the original swine (European Wild Boar) and replacing them with modern (for the time) Hampshire Mars. The Hampshire was used because the breed was considered the most active of domestic breeds at the time.
The early settlers around the Catahoula lake region of North Louisiana began to use these Indian dogs and/or crosses of them to pen and catch wild hogs and cows. This practice was soon developed into a method of managing herds of wild cattle and wild hogs. The peculiar way these dogs work stock is what separates them from the rest of dogdom. Their style of working stock is to effectively provide a "canine fence" around wild cows or hogs and hold them for their master. Their masters then provide direction to the movement of these wild cows or hogs while inside this "canine fence."
Catahoulas have been bred by working-oriented breeders since their instincts to work wild hogs and cattle became evident. The ability to handle wild herds is instinct and cannot be taught. A single outcross or crossbreeding so affects the instinct that it eliminates those pups from ever becoming breeding stock. This self governing instinct could easily be lost if bred for pets or show without the trial by fire working aspect being tantamount. Regardless of size, color, or color of eyes, the working instinct is the true acid test of purity in the Catahoula.

Magic lunch is over

I gave Bayou her lunch (just kibble) in the Magic puzzle. She's so quick at getting all the bones off it now to get to the food that it's amazing. I'll remember to take a video of her next time I give her food in the Magic or the Tornado. I let her out of the kennel to eat and then let her run around for a few minutes. I put her in her kennel when she started biting on the furniture. She's not thrilled to be in the kennel but she's playing so she's not doing too bad. If she really hated it she would do what she did last night in the crate and pitch a fit. She hasn't done that at all today. She's content playing with her stuffed birds (a pheasant and a duck).

I ordered the 2 blankets from ABC Distributing (through Swagbucks Shop & Earn) and I also ordered that pad on Amazon. They should be here by next week. She's not tearing up the blanket so we are okay so far.

She's been chasing her tail once in a while. It bothers me because Harley did that. I don't want her to turn into Harley, at least the way he was with me. The good thing is that I know that Sit Means Sit is out there and if I can't make her behave that I have an alternative. I'm not going to let another dog defeat me. I will give it everything I have so it will work. She's not going anywhere.

At quarter to three I'm going to jump in the shower. I don't like leaving her alone for too long so if I take a shower then, David will be home 15 minutes later. She should do okay with that. She's found the bottom of the kennel, the tray, and she's already figured out that she can't pull it apart like she did the carpet. She is learning fast.

I'm going to have to do some research on this tail chasing thing. It worries me.

Got a few things done

Bayou woke up just long enough for me to vacuum and to get the dishes in the dishwasher and get that going. She's napping again/still. I think she likes how open the kennel is compared to the pen and crate. I'm just glad she has settled down. The puppy pen was driving her crazy because she knew she could get out of it if left to her own devices. I think she gets it already that she can't get out of the kennel. I measured it and it's a 42" kennel. I'll have to look for a pad to put in there. I'd like something that wouldn't soak through but is washable. I saw one online for $13 but I'm hoping I can get one in town so I can have it quicker. That's a really good price though. I also should get a blanket for Bayou, something she can cuddle up in. I saw one of those online too for $8. I'll have to think about what I want to do regarding the pad and blankets. I don't remember seeing anything like that and certainly not that inexpensive at Petsmart. Online may be the way to go. Until then I can use blankets and her little bed. Think I'll go window shopping online. lol

She's definitely growing

We've had Bayou for 19 days and she's already outgrown the puppy pen. I had to take it down today because she was climbing up the side of it to get out and she was tearing at the carpet. So, now she is in the big kennel.

She's actually sleeping right now. It's smaller than the puppy pen but still fairly big. She has plenty of room to play in there. I can feed her in there too and that's a plus. I'll list the puppy pen on craigslist and hopefully I can get back the $30 that I paid for it. I just can't believe how fast she is growing. In about 2 weeks she will go to get her 3rd set of shots at the vet. It will be interesting to see what her weight is then. Only 19 days until she starts her puppy classes. I wish it were sooner. I want her to socialize with other dogs and other people. Puppy class will be good for her.

I have to admit that I was feeling overwhelmed this morning when she was trying to get out of the puppy pen and when she was tearing at the carpet. I felt like she was taking over. Then I remembered that I had the big kennel and that putting her in there would solve both problems. She's not going to be able to get out of the big kennel and it has a slide in tray on the bottom so she can't get to the carpet. Problems solved.

Last night she went ballistic when I put her in her crate to go to bed. It was horrible. I let her go for about a half an hour and then when she quieted down a bit I got her out. She fell asleep in my lap. I know I shouldn't have given in even though she was quiet when I took her out. I let her sleep in bed with us too. She did fine. No problems and she slept later than usual. I don't mind her sleeping with us at all and if it means I can get more sleep, I'm all for it. I'm tired because I'm only sleeping a few hours at a time. It doesn't give me a chance to recharge my batteries. Today I feel better though because I was able to sleep more. I'm going to vacuum up the dining room once she's awake and take care of the dishes and laundry too. Having her in the big kennel makes life even easier than having her in the puppy pen. Having her in the right enclosure makes things work so much better. I'm glad I bought the kennel and the puppy pen. I got a lot of use out of that puppy pen in 19 days! lol

I got an estimate to clean the carpet. It is for $75. Do I get it cleaned for $75 or buy a carpet cleaner for $135.00? I know she's not through having accidents so maybe the carpet cleaner is the way to go. That would allow me to clean as we go. If I get the carpet cleaned I'm pretty much assured that she'll have an accident immediately after it's clean then I'd need the carpet cleaner anyway. The dining room floor is worse than I thought it was. Now that I've taken down the puppy pen I can see the carpet more clearly. She had more peeing accidents than I realized. I'm so glad that this isn't permanent carpet. I'd lose my mind if it was. I can live with this carpet as long as it's relatively clean. I can even put up with the holes from the carpet being torn up since I know that at some point we'll have new flooring. We'll probably go with a linoleum or vinyl type flooring instead of the tiles. The tiles take way too long and I want to have it done in a day or two, not in weeks. It was fine that it took that long to do the bedroom because we weren't using it but we use the dining room to walk through every day.

Man, she is out like a light. She's sleeping on her bed which is also getting small for her. I'll have to invest in a bed that fits the big kennel. Right now I have a blanket in there so that she's not sliding all over on that tray. It's easier to wash the blankets and beds than it is to take care of the carpet.

That's about it for now. I may try to nap while Bayou is napping. Sounds like a good plan to me.

So things are calm now and everyone seems to be happy. I guess I can't ask for more than that.

Ugh!

I was out getting dinner and putting gas in the car so David could take it to school tonight. I thought he wasn't leaving until 4:30pm. When I got home at 4:25pm his Jeep was gone. I expected to find Bayou in her crate but instead she was in her pen. She had pooped on the rug (so much for putting the blanket in there to make cleaning easier) and tore a hole in the rug. ~sigh~ The poop is cleaned up, I've moved her pen to the other side of the room and I still need to vacuum up the carpet that was torn out. I definitely need to get the carpet cleaner now. I don't know if I will get it tonight or wait until tomorrow. I should have told David that if he left Bayou alone that she needed to be in her kennel, with a treat to keep her busy and not free in her pen (especially since she can now climb out). None of it was Bayou's fault. It was just mis-communication on the human's parts. Could have been worse, she could have climbed out of her pen. I think you dug up the carpet because it was wet (she dumped her water bowl out) and she was probably thirsty, We are going to replace the carpet anyway so it's not a great big deal. Now we have a hole in the carpet in the master bedroom and the dining room thanks to Harley and Bayou.

I just took her out and she pooped again! She's looking for treats in her Tornado puzzle. She likes that toy. I think she is finally settling down a bit from her little freak out when David left and I wasn't here. I'm keeping her in the pen and not letting her run loose. She's not thrilled to be in the pen all the time but until I can trust her with potty training, she's going to be a penned up pup. She finished with the Tornado is is on her bed. I hope she sleeps for a little while.

I have to admit that when I first came home to all this (poop on the carpet, rug tore up, Bayou in her pen instead of her crate) I got pretty frustrated but I feel just fine now. She's not doing anything that we're not letting her do. Yes, I could be all upset, but really, what good would that do? I'm just so thrilled to have Bayou that things like this aren't going to get me down. She's sleeping now. Ah...

Treat pouches on order

Glad I took time to call about the treat pouches. Neither Petsmart, Petco or Mike's have them with the hinge. So I ordered 2 of them on Amazon, used my $25 AGC's and only had to pay $4.98 for both treat bags (free shipping too!). They'll be her in a week or so. Until then I'll just have to put treats in my pocket. I will need the treat bag for puppy class in March though. I got one for me and one for David.

I've been looking for the "place" blanket but haven't found it yet. I think maybe it's in the car. I'll have to look. I also have those 2 doormats that I bought in the trunk. I need to bring those in too. I may look for a baby blanket though instead of the place blanket I have so I don't have to worry about folding it and it coming unfolded. I think a small blanket would work a lot better.

I researched the carpet cleaners and I think I will go with the Bissell Spotbot Pet Handsfree Spot and Stain Cleaner with Deep Reach Technology. The difference between it and the Little Green ProHeat is that the pet model has a hands free option. You just set the machine on the stain and it cleans it. That would make it easier for me so I wouldn't have to be bending over all the time. I think I like that better than getting an upright. I'll run over to Target and get one when David gets home. I can look at baby blankets while I'm over there.


Bayou is still sleeping. When she gets up I'll take her out to potty. Looks llike she's waking up so I better go.

Every half hour

I've been taking Bayou out every half hour except when she is sleeping. I bring treats with me to reward her for going to the bathroom outside. So far she only had one small accident at the door when we were getting ready to go out. I'm trying to let her walk to the door and go out but I may have to carry her out for a while longer so accidents like that don't happen. Thankfully she stopped when I said "Outside!" and only a few drops of pee went on the carpet. She's sleeping again now. I think she hasn't been getting all the sleep she needs because I've had her out of her pen too much. I'd love to hold her in my lap but she's going to be a much bigger dog soon and having her on our laps won't work. I'm not going to let David hold her on his lap either. I fed her lunch using the Magic puzzle and she got all the bones (caps) off right away and found her food. I went ahead and took out the towel and blanket and will wash them. I put in another blanket and her bed - no more towels. It will be much easier to clean blankets than to clean the rug. I did send an email out for an estimate for cleaning the carpet in the dining room, living room and hallway. I'd like to get them cleaned once the potty training phase is over. I'm still considering buying a carpet cleaner so I can keep up with accidents (including throwing up) as they happen. I don't know though if I should get an upright one or a spot lifter type. They have the carpet cleaners I'm considering at Target. The have a specific pet model though I'm not sure what's different about it. I'll have to do some research on that. I want to get the carpet cleaned though.

Second load of blankets and towels in the washer. I'll only have one more load of laundry after that then I'll be done for the day. I need to get the dishes in the dishwasher too. Because I've had Bayou out of her pen so much I haven't been getting to things like laundry and dishes every day. Now that I'm keeping her in her pen again I'll be able to get more done around the house. I do need to run some errands but I don't know if I want to leave her alone in her crate for about an hour. I know she'll do okay, she's done it before, but she's still young, 9 weeks now. I'd do the errands when David got home but he has school tonight. I'll have to think about how I want to do this. I'm sure I could get the errands done before he leaves for school at 4:30pm. Maybe I'll just run out this afternoon. I think Bayou will be okay in her crate. I want to go look at the carpet cleaners and buy one TODAY! I want to get the carpets cleaned now before stains set in. I can't wait until we can replace the whole carpet in the house. It looks so bad from 10 years of abuse and 6 dogs since 2007.

 I want to get a bigger bin for Bayou's toys. Maybe 2x the size that I have now, which is shoe box size. I'll look on Amazon first to see if they have something. A cute dog toy box would be nice. Okay, I'm going to call about the hinged treat bag before I go anywhere. I don't want to waste time just going from store to store. I'll research the carpet cleaners too so I can just go and get one instead of standing there comparing them. Off to make some calls.

Working on things with Bayou

Today I'm starting over on potty training. She will either be in her pen (the majority of the time) or her crate but not running around the house free. She's having too many accidents in the house. I'm taking her out every half hour or after she wakes up. She's been whining while in her pen but I just ignore her and eventually she goes to sleep. I fed her in her crate using the Tornado puzzle and she loved it. She really is smart and can figure it out. It's fun for her to find her food instead of it just being in a bowl. I've been using treats to reward her for not eating poop and for going potty outside. So far, so good. I need to get a treat bag though. Right now I'm just putting the kibble in my pocket. It doesn't work as well as a treat bag but we're getting along doing it that way for today. I'll probably go out when David gets home and look for a treat bag. I want one that has a hinge so it either stays open or stays closed. The one with the pull string on it isn't very good. Treats fall out of it easily. I've already checked Petsmart and they didn't have one so I'll check Petco and Mike's Natural Pet Food store. Maybe I'll call and see if they have them first. If not there is one on Amazon I can order with my AGC's that I got from doing Swagbucks.

I'll be cleaning the yard later today when David is home to watch Bayou. I saw quite a bit that I missed the other day and of course, she's been out there since then going potty. The less she has to tempt her the better.

I'm going to take the blanket and towel out of her pen and wash them. I'll check her beds too to see if they n eed to be washed. I'd like to be able to wash them once a week but for now it will probably be a daily thing. She's not having accidents in her crate or pen so that's a good thing. Taking her out every half hour helps avoid that happening. I'm thinking of putting her crate in her pen to see if she will go in there on her own. She still isn't thrilled with the crate. I'll have to put treats in there to get her in and also feed her in there like I did this morning.

Bayou is sleeping right now so she didn't go out at 10am. I'll take her out as soon as she wakes up. I have to get her on a schedule so that the accidents in the house are few and far between. I guess while she is napping I will try to nap too. Later.

Has this really only been 1 day?

The morning was a bit rough. Bayou threw up all of her food. It looked undigested. Of course she did it on the carpet that was about 3 feet from the vinyl floor. Oh well. I felt bad for my poor little Bayou. I think the Blue Puppy food I'm giving her doesn't agree with her tummy. So we took it easy most of the day since she was not feeling 100%. In the late afternoon she was asleep in her pen and that gave me time to take my shower. I let her out to play once I was done getting dressed. She was enjoying play time. When David got home she was very excited and went to greet him at the laundry room door. She had rested enough during the day and suddenly had a ton of energy. She was full of piss and vinegar. I left her with David and I went over to Petsmart. I bought some more Bitter Apple, small nail clippers, sensitive stomach food and an ID tag. There was a kiosk where the engraving was done my a laser. It's a small pink heart with her name on the front, our address and cell numbers on the back. When I first put it on her she was flopping around trying to get it in her mouth, which of course she couldn't. It looks cute on her.

UPS delivered the food puzzles (the Magic and the Tornado). I put just a few pieces of food in the puzzles to see if she liked them. She was able to figure them out pretty quick. She's a smart puppy. She really likes the puzzles and the plastic bones that cover the snack sections. She was playing with everything. I'm glad I got such a good deal on them and ordered them.

She had a ton of energy tonight and I let her play it off. She whined and barked when I first put her in her crate but she settled down fairly quickly.I'm sure she'll get me up not long after midnight. I was doing some reading tonight on crate training and potty training. I think I'll follow these new suggestions since things haven't been going as well as I wished they would. The majority of the time she pees multiple times while out in the yard. It's just a dribble each time after the first time where she seems to empty out a lot. Even though I cleaned up the yard, Bayou is finding every single piece of poop that I missed and is trying to eat it. I'm constantly saying "leave it" while we are outside. I keep her on the leash so I can kind of tug on her to let her know that I mean business. I think however that I will start using treats to get her attention, a positive reinforcement vs. a negative one. Anyway, the peeing thing has become an issue because she'll pee outside multiple times and I bring her in and think she's good for at least 30 minutes but all of a sudden she'll just stop what she's doing and pee just a couple of drops, sometimes more. She's very good about letting me know she needs to go out to poop but not so much for peeing. So, what I'm going to do is go back to the beginning and start over with potty training which will also involve crate training. I'll need to get us into a routine so that she knows what's what. We'll start tomorrow.

I'm getting tired so I think I'll stop for tonight. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and working on getting this right. Only 3 weeks until Puppy Class and I want her to be ready to socialize and learn. Goodnight all!

Middle of the night

Bayou woke me up around 1am because she had to go potty. I let her out of her cage and had her follow me to the door. I put her leash on and we went out. It's chilly out right now (40 degrees) but the sky is beautiful. So many stars. I saw on the the dipper constellations, the big one I think. It was only a 3/4 moon but it sure did light up the back yard. We stayed out and walked around the yard for about 10 minutes. Then Bayou started her potty mouth activities so I brought her in. I'm going to start bringing some treats out with me to get her to go with me when I want her to "leave it". I have that spray deterrent that I might bring out with me and spray the poop so she will leave it alone. I did clean up the yard yesterday but obviously didn't pick everything up because my little poop detector found everything that was out there. I do bring a poop bag out with me each time I go out but in the middle of the night it is difficult to see what there is to pick up. While she still has loose stools I'm not picking up immediately. I'm waiting until the next day to pick up. Makes it a lot easier for clean up purposes but more difficult to deter the poop detector.

So, here I sit, in my chair, with my laptop on the arm of the chair and Bayou sound asleep in my lap. I know I should put her back in her kennel but I don't want her to start whining and wake David up. He doesn't have to be up until 4am and he really needs his sleep. And I like to sit with her anyway. It's nice having a lap dog (though she won't be one forever).

We're another week closer to starting puppy classes with Rebekah. I really want to get Bayou around other puppies but I think I have to wait until she has her kennel cough vaccination.for her to visit Petsmart, maybe rabies too. I'm going to check craigslist to see if there is a puppy get together in town. I know there is one up in Monument at the Petsmart but I'm not sure what shots she has to have before joining. I've also seen one at Bear Creek Park. I think they are older than Bayou though, like say, 4 months. I don't want to get her around dogs that will scare her though she doesn't seem intimidated by Zeus (adult black lab) and Freckles (adult St. Bernard). She runs right up to the fence when they are out. Still, there is a fence between them and I don't have to worry about contact just yet. I don't know if Rebekah does more than puppy classes or not. If not, I'll have to get her set up with someone else that is recommended by the vet to continue training.

I was thinking yesterday how much I love having Bayou. She seems to be so much easier than Harley/Watson was. I just hope that as she grows she doesn't acquire an attitude like Harley/Watson did. I'll definitely stay on top of that. I know it's going to be more difficult when she can get out of the pen so I'll have to work on down, stay and wait to keep her in there. I'm not going to fight with her. She will have to obey me. She's growing so much already. When we first got her she couldn't even put her nose over the pen, now she can put her entire head over it. We'll definitely have to start working on down more diligently.

Now might be a good time to get her back into her kennel. She seems to be sound asleep (despite my typing on the laptop lol) and might not put up too much of a fuss. I'm thinking of bringing her to Petsmart tomorrow. I have to get an ID tag for her and some supplies for puppy class. I also need to look at the different brands of dog food and check prices. I'd like to keep her on Blue but if it is a lot more expensive I may have to change her kibble. I'm not looking to give her anything cheap, just not the most expensive thing on the shelf.

I feel like I'm fading so I'll quit before I forget how to spell words or make sentences make sense. Then again, maybe I'm already past that stage. LOL

Slept better last night

Bayou didn't wake me up until 3am. She needed to go to the bathroom. I held her on me until she got back to sleep then I put her in her kennel and I went back to bed. She woke me up again at 6am to go to the bathroom. We went back to bed, Bayou in her kennel, me in my bed, and slept until 8am. David got home around 9am. Right now Bayou is sleeping on David's chest.

They both are sound asleep. It's so cute. Maybe we should put her in her kennel and both of us go back to bed. David didn't get to bed until after midnight and had to be up at 4am to go to work for a few hours. So he's pretty tired. I wouldn't mind getting some more sleep.

Bayou didn't eat her food this morning so I'm going to keep close tabs on her today. I'm sure she's just not hungry because she's tired but I don't want to just blow this off as nothing so I'll watch her.

Playful night

Bayou is in bed. She tired herself out playing. I let her out of her pen, put a blanket down on the floor and put some of her toys out. She had a ball. She finally got sleepy and napped in my lap before I put her to bed at 8:45pm. She went into her crate without a problem. She's such a good girl (most of the time lol). I made her pen into a rectangle earlier today and put it up against the kitchen/dining room wall. I can see her better from my chair now. It also seems more organized. I like this set up better. Now I need to get the rug cleaner and clean up the carpet. I'll go out tomorrow once David is home from work and get one. I was thinking about getting another pen for outside but I'm not sure it would last long because she'll be able to get out of the pen before too long. It would be good to have a pen though so it limits her bathroom area and keeps her from going under the deck or under the fence. Our neighbors dog came under the fence today and actually came in our house because the back door was open. It was kind of funny. He was shy but didn't do anything bad. Mike next door had to come over the fence to get him. With a pen even if another dog got in the yard Bayou would still be protected. We'd have to stake it down though. A new one online costs about $70. I think I'll keep looking on craigslist before I buy online. I'll check on Amazon too because I got $25 in Amazon Gift Cards from Swagbucks today. That could pay for 1/3 to 1/2 of the cost of a pen. I'm so glad I found Swagbucks before we got Bayou. It's really helped out with getting things for her.

Here's a picture of the new pen set up:

I have a towel in there for her to sleep on and a blanket in the rest of the pen. If she has an accident I can wash the towel and blanket which is easier to do than cleaning the carpet. I also have her little bed but it's in the dryer because she peed on it again. I need to be more vigilant about getting her out every hour. She was letting me know when she needed to go but she's not always doing that now. She's been pretty good with the potty training and always wants to go outside to do her business. It's only when we don't notice her need to go out that she has an accident.

We (Bayou and I) did take a nap today. I was exhausted from being up so much the last 2 nights. I'm hoping that she sleeps through the night tonight, well, at least until 4am or so. I think that I can keep her up more in the evening so that she'll sleep later in the morning. She's only 9 weeks old so she does need to go out quite a bit at this point so I'm not looking to get 8 hours of sleep out of her. She's been doing great though. I'm so glad that she is feeling better today. I was worried about her yesterday. She has almost finished the bottle of Pedialyte. I've been giving it to her today instead of water just to boost her electrolytes. I think it has helped a lot.

I'm going to see if David and I can take her for a ride tomorrow. She enjoys being in the car. I'd like to use the tie down but it's way too heavy for her. Maybe I can find something more light weight for now. I don't want her to have to always be in the crate when she's in the car. I think she will definitely be a "head out the window" king of dog.

David told me earlier tonight that Bayou was getting nippy with him so he put her in her pen. We must stop this behavior. I've done some research online and watched some videos that were helpful. She needs to get a timeout, away from us, when she bites. I may have to get a gate for the bathroom so she can go in there for a timeout. I don't want her to bite me like Harley/Watson did. That was a terrible way to live. I don't want a dog that does that. David is on board with whatever we need to do to get her to understand that biting is NOT okay.

Every time I look at Bayou I can't help but think of how beautiful she is. I love her coloring and markings. She is such a joy to have.

David will be home soon from hockey so I'm going to quit blogging for now. More later.