Petals

Well it has been a couple of days since my last post. Yesterday Petals and I found out that she has Kennel Cough. I don’t know how she got it but she did. Other then that here are some other things that have come up in the last couple of days:

It is funny that all Petals wants to do is laydown in the chair where either my wife or I sit. She is such a people dog. Petals definitly knows that I am the Alpha dog and she listens to me, but I still thinks she looks at my wife as a play toy. If my wife ignores her she will growl and bark at her. I don’t know what else to do about it. My wife says no but Petals doesn’t listen to her. It gets me so frustrated I have to get up and take care of it. Petals know when I am mad, because as soon as I get up and say No! she will go laydown and get quiet.

Other then that, the leash walking is getting really good, as well as the “Go laydown!” (”place”) command. There is still about 5 more weeks before Petals will start her training, and I am still up in the air about who what or where I will do it. I know that this is going to be important for the future of our relationship! :)

Well yesterday my wife and I met with the trainer from Georgia K9. It was very interesting and informative. Ashleigh (the trainer) brought one of her 8 week old German Shepard puppies with her. Right off the bat Petals went to go tackle him. I wanted my wife to go thru all the exercises so she can get a good feeling. Well first off when Ashleigh sat down on the ground, Petals basically jumped her and started her play biting. Then Ashleigh grabbed Petals and put her hand under Petals muzzle and closed her mouth and started saying “No!” until Petals settled down. Once Petals settled down then she gave her a “Good Girl” and let her go. If Petals came back at her she proceeded with the grab and “No!” routine again.

Ashleigh explained to my wife that all this play biting and barking is a sign of Petals asserting her dominance. By holding Petals and letting her settle down lets Petals know that she is the boss (my wife) and that Petals should listen to her. As long as we are consistent, I think this will settle Petals down and also instill the word “No!” to her.

We went over a couple of more handling things, good toys, bad toys, and some other basic things, but what I want to talk a little about is the interesting take she had on correction collars. Let me explain where I am coming from then explain what she had said. My last puppy, ZuZu, was a “choker” collar baby. It worked for her and worked well. So naturally I would think that it would work for Petals. My sister who is a holistic type of a dog owner only believes in treat training. I don’t like that because I know how smart my last dog was and she was smart enough to know if I don’t have a treat then she wouldn’t have to listen to me. So I asked what types of methods she uses in her training. She swears by eCollars (shock collars) for the people who don’t know what I am talking about. Now to be honest I am not opposed to eCollars just a little sensitive about it. My wife on the other hand, who is a baby about pain to a dog, is totally for it. This is definitely a subject that me and my wife will have to consider seeing that Petals is going to be a pistol. Please leave a comment about what your feelings are on the subject.

Today is the day that we have a trainer coming over. This is going to be 1-on-1. Today is the day that is equal to puppy kindergarten. We will get to learn some of the tricks to deal with a puppy, and my wife will learn how to talk and discipline the puppy. I am looking forward to hearing what the trainer has to say and finding out whether this will be a good trainer for us in the future.

On another note, Petals has had a rough couple of days. Petals and I are learning how to communicate with each other. Petals (at 9.5 weeks) is about 90% house broken. Yesterday, I must have missed a signal because she when into the corner and started to pee. I caught her and she finished outside, which is a good thing because I got to say NO! then praise her when she finished. So often as a Puppy owner you can’t get to your Puppy in time and they never finish outside so you miss that learning experience.

Petals still tries to play real rough with my wife but is more laid back with me. What I hear is my wife SCREAM “NO BITE”….she will do that a couple of times then you hear Petals growl and bark. I don’t have to see it to tell you that Petals has tried to do that to me and I let her know that it won’t be tolerated. I don’t understand why Petals tries to take advantage of my wife and not me. Just some thoughts!!!

Well Petals had a long weekend. My wife stayed home on Friday and spent the day with Petals. I think it was a great bonding experience for the both of them. My wife is starting to get the fact that Petals doesn’t hate her. Petals just wants to play and if playing means nipping at the hands or the feet then that is what she is going to do. Because my wife’s last experience with a dog was with a 10.5 year old totally trained lab she thinks that’s how they come. It is easy to lose patience with a 9 week old puppy.

Petals went into the vet on Saturday to get her 2nd set of shots and get the bordetella, so it will be ok for her to go to doggy day camp as well as start her formal training. She is now about 18 pounds!!! She is a big full figured puppy. We found some ticks so we started her on advantage to take care of those ticks. Other then that Petals looks healthy.

After the vet and the shots Petals settled down till about 5:00 and then jumped up ready to play so I decided that it was a nice cool day here and we can go to the dog park. We started in the small dog area and Petals found another dog that wanted to play. Petals plays so hard. She growls and jumps on the other dog. I don’t know if it is her or the other dogs because when that dog left Petals settled down and was great with the other dogs and people. Petals tends to like the big dogs better, so I decide to see how she would do with the bigger dogs. There were a couple of big dogs there, but petals jumped right in. She went after the 2 dogs that were playing hard. She coward a couple of times and the owners tried to tell me sorry, but I was like “she has to learn”. All in all, Petals kicked some ass and got her ass kicked. It was a good day :)

After all the past negative post I wanted to let people know that yesterday was a good..no great day for Petals. I came home after work and decided that we were going to work on a couple of thing. We do work almost everyday but most of it is inside with no distractions, so I decided that we are going to work outside. I put the leash on and she first started to walk herself. I gave a quick pop and said “No! Let’s Go!” and she shaped right up and started to watch me. I decided that I was going to do some loose leash walking as well has get her involved with staying to my left. I was going to take a different approach…I took some training treats with me and work with the flat collar and 6ft leash.

We started just by walking up and down the back road and anytime she came to the end of the leash she got a little pop with the command “No! Let’s Go!” and she would start to walk. Once she started to walk by my side I would give her a treat and say “Good! Lets Go!”. It only took like maybe a couple of times before she started to learn to keep up. Next was to make sure she stayed to my left and that was very easy because I kept the treats in my left hand. One of the things that I try to enforce is sitting when at rest, and she picked that up without me saying anything. My last dog when we would walk she would sit as soon as I stopped. Petals did that 2 times without me even prompting her. WHAT A SMART GIRL!!!! She got so much praise she loved working. The training lasted longer then I expected…about 20-30 minutes. I think that is something I am going to do everyday.

Next, the biting. Last night my wife sat on the floor with every one of Petals toys and played with her. Petals just wants to play and it helped my wife understand that Petals doesn’t hate her. It was great, my wife would throw the toy and Petals would bring it back and if Petals would decide to forget the toy and go after Mommy, my wife would have another toy for her to focus on. She played well and I think that is something we are going to make time for everyday.

This is not my first puppy that I have raised, but to be honest I don’t really remember ZuZu. In my eyes, she was perfect and never gave me any trouble. I know that is not true, but to go from a 10.5 year old perfectly trained lab to a 9 week old tornado is hard. My wife is getting frustrated which in turn is getting me frustrated. Petals is still trying to bite. I find myself listening to my Wife say “No!” and I can understand why Petals is confused. I try to explain to my wife that Petals needs to be corrected the same way every time. It is hard for her to understand because ZuZu understood just the word “No!” and you really didn’t have to mind your tone.

Hopefully I am going to get in touch with a trainer that will help both me and my wife with the basics with Petals so we can get Petals and ourselves going in the right direction.

Other then that, she is doing a lot better with the potty training. She will come to the door and sit when she wants to go out. I guess I am over sensitive on this one because every time she sits near the door I take her out. Better that then having to clean up. Today at lunch was the first time she didn’t do number 2 when I took her out. I guess she is on a different schedule (we will see this afternoon when I come home). Anyway, enough rambling. Post to you later.

Well every morning when I am getting ready and I leave Petals alone with my wife, all I hear is “No Bite!!” about a thousand times and I also hear Petals bark at her. It is weird, because she doesn’t do that with me. Maybe it is the progression that I do with Petals. I start off with a “No Bite!” then I move to a louder “NO BITE!” until I progress to the point of shutting her mouth and telling her “No Bite!”. If it ever got to that point where I had to grab her, she stops. I don’t allow her to bark at me or even take a dominate role with me. I am thinking about getting a trainer to help train my wife with puppy problems. Petals is starting to mind me and my wife is just getting frustrated.

Well other then that everything is going well. Yesterday Petals learned how to climb the stairs…..she doesn’t know how to get down but going up she is fine. She is starting to push the boundries a little more each day, and it is a working battle to keep up with her.

It was a big weekend for Petals. Since we got her very young I have been very aware that Petals needs to be socialized to other dogs and other people. My last lab I kept close eye on her and she developed separation anxiety which made it impossible to board her overnight. I want to make sure Petals know that she might go away for a day but we will always come back. So on that note my sister came over on Saturday to baby sit Petals because me and my wife had to work. My sister picked her up and brought Petals to her work (she works for a pet grooming/boarding company). I guess I can plug them…..”Best Friends” They are here in Georgia and I don’t know where else. Petals got to run around with other dogs and got to smell all those lovely things.

Sunday was dog park day. We got there around 3pm and there were about 4 or 5 other dogs there. The dog park that we go to have 3 sections (small dogs, large dogs, and dog run). Right now with Petals being only about 18 lbs she goes into the small dog section. It was so fun. It takes her time before she starts to wonder off. She met a bigger puppy called Vader. Vader was very tired so he was perfect for her. Petals has started to play in her water. She will put her paw in and splash around. She went over to another dogs water and put her foot in it and tipped it over. She started to jump around like it was a fun thing. Then she went over to the water fountain where all the dogs drink and put her paw in that and started to splash all the dogs. She might think that is funny but the other dogs didn’t like that.

I know that lab tales had a issue with dog parks and let me put my 2 cents in. As long as your dog isn’t hurting other dogs, I don’t care that petals gets tackled. I think if we leave dogs alone they will police themselves. I sometimes wish we as humans would play and police ourselves like animals do. Petals will go up to other dogs that don’t want to play and the dog will show their teeth and Petals will back down. I once saw Petals get tackled a couple times then she started to fight back and the other dog left her a lone after that. These are the lessons I am bringing Petals to the park to learn. If I can learn as fast as her then we would all be happier.

Well when we got Petals she had a black belly and she had bumps on her. The bumps were almost like little scabs. We thought that they could be scabs from where her litter mates have bitten her. Being the cautious parents that we are we decided to take her to the vet. The vet looked at her and said, “She has Staph”. She said it like it was nothing. After doing some homework, I found that it is pretty common in puppies, because their immune system is not strong. So we have to give her antibiotics and give her a bath 2 or 3 times a week with a medicated shampoo. So last night was bath time.

She does not like baths. My last lab didn’t like baths either. It is kind of funny, because they are water dogs but both my babies’ hated baths.

She is getting so big, and some of the commands are really working and she is starting to push the boundaries. Last night we had some big storms with lightning and thunder and it scared her. All she wanted to do is jump up on me, but I wanted to make sure that she knew that wasn’t ok. All night when she would try to jump up on me or my wife we would pull her off and say “No! Off!”. It wasn’t till like the 20th time before she would look to jump and just sit.

The weekend is coming and I hope it will be nice, because she loves going to the dog park.

Welcome to the home of Petals

I decided that I should write a blog about our daily struggle of raising a puppy, specifically a Labrador puppy. Petals is a Yellow Labrador born right around the beginning of March. We got her very young right around 5 weeks, so raising her is going to be a working process for her and us. Please feel free to let me know how you like or hate what you read. Anyone who would read this is a dog lover like myself and I look forward to hearing from your experiences.