New Posts to Publish at Dedicated Website

Blogspot is fine and well for a free platform, but...well, it's free, and thus limiting.

So, I took advantage of some cheap domain registration sale at Godaddy, and the generous hosting of a friend to pay a whopping $2 to move things to something better:

All new posts will go live at:

http://puppyparables.com

Thanks!

Exercising Your Puppy

One of my pet peeves that I see in new dog owners (and keep in mind, I am no expert, more just a conscientious owner myself) is the lack of exercise after bringing a puppy home. People bring a pup home, and after the first few days of "cute" wear off, the pup starts to nip, bite, and even exhibit destructive behavior. The owner gets frustrated and either shouts, disciplines the dog, or worse! Often times this is how pups end up in rescues. 

What's This?

So, here's a fun game.  Take an ordinary household item, and use it as expected.  Then, present it to your puppy and see what happens.  Our first item - a water bottle!

Looks normal, right?  So, use it as expected and what do you get?  An empty water bottle:

Easy enough to understand, but what happens when you apply an 8 week old puppy to it? (a.k.a. Kenzie)

Total annihilation!

What other objects should we try this with?  (We're presuming that the objects suggested are safe to present to a puppy - things like batteries, electronics, or choking type hazards will not be items to do this game with...)

Puppies Love to Run

Puppies, regardless of breed, have lots of energy, and as the old adage goes - "A tired dog is a happy dog" so we try to let ours run as much as she wants!  In Kenzie's case, that's quite a bit...here's just a couple segments I've assembled together for viewing enjoyment...

The Only Thing Cuter...

Than a puppy is that same puppy sleeping!

We've had few opportunities to capture pics when Kenzie is sleeping this week primarily because when she crashes, so do we!  But here's one that made it to my iPhone library:

Here's another from the wireless camera we have set up in her sleeping room - not as "awwww-some", but kinda neat in it's own way...

Back at Work

Back at work today, but Tracy took the day off to help Kenzie acclimate to life at home.  Yesterday was quite the schedule - 3 hour cycle seems to be her average:

• Play for 30 minutes
• Eat for 30 minutes
• Exercise for 30 minutes
• Nap for 90 minutes
• Repeat

Just like regular parents, I tried to follow suit:

Our First Play Date

The rope tug is an awesome first toy for a puppy - it satisfies their need to chew with those sharp little teeth, and gives you a way to interact with your pup.  You can tug it lightly (never tug too hard as those teeth are needed right now to each!), lift it out of reach for them to jump, and even race it in front of them.  We had a blast during our 30 minutes of afternoon play time today!

How do you play with your pup?  What kinds of toys do you and your dogs like?  Be sure to sound off in the comments!

Bringing Your Puppy Home

When bringing your puppy home for the first time, it is always very exciting.  This cute adorable bundle of fur and tail and paws and ears and for me, those adorable lab eyes make the first day awesome.

Our day home started with a seven hour car drive.  We started out thinking that maybe we should have the crate, but that went for all of 20 seconds before severe whining started.  Sine we will be hearing a lot of that, opted to go the lap route.  So, with me in the driver seat, and the wife riding shotgun, Kenzie started in her lap.  Begin squirmy syndrome!  After 500 feet I finally suggested that she drive and I'll take first shift of doggie care.

Ten minutes into the ride, things were gong swimmingly well:

By our third hour, the floor in the front of the car was also satisfactory.  The hum of the engine and the darker environment made almost the entire drive home perfect.

But when you think about it from the dogs perspective, it's pretty terrifying.  You've been alive for eight weeks and all you know is your litter mates, then all of a sudden, they are all gone.  There's these new sights and sounds and smells and you have no idea who these strangers are or what the heck is going on.

The best you can hope to do on night one is to really play with them a lot!  It will tire them out and make the first sleep easier.  Mine is sleeping under my legs right now.  There was a little whimpering, but shortly after that she crashed pretty hard.

Make sure you provide plenty of water and get the breeder to give you at least a few cups of what they're feeding with.  Don't freak out if your pup doesn't drink a lot or eat everything...they're going through something pretty traumatic right now.  Pet them, rub tummies, let them nip a little, and just be very attentive. Give water often even if they don't drink it.

Also take them outside often to eliminate. We had one accident already, but it's going to happen. Just try to clean in up when they aren't looking.  Use enzymatic cleaners to kill the scent too and you may as well buy stock in paper towels too because you're gonna be using tons of them.  I also left her BMs in the yard so she knows where to go.  These will get picked up every few days...eventually immediately, but she is in a new learning phase now.

Just remember, patience and love!

Hello to Kenzie! Now at Seven Weeks!

Very excited to announce that we are now in agreement and our pup (barring a major personality discrepancy) will come to us with the name Kenzie!  We are in the final days before picking her up this coming Saturday, so please join us in welcoming Kenzie:

Six Weeks! Time to doggie proof the house!

After Maggie, we pretty much boxed up all her things and are still somewhat emotional about opening the memories, so it's off to the pet store, and boy did we drop some coin.  Collars, leashes, crates, treats, toys, and so much more - it was pretty amazing!

Any guesses as to how much we spent on the following:

And of course, the weekly growth shot:

Shelby Versus Penny - Five Weeks and Counting

Well, we are cruising right along, and are now at 5 weeks old..21 days undle the furry frenzy comes home.  It looks like we are settled in two camps - one of us likes Penny, and the other likes Shelby.  Naturally, neither likes the other's pick, so it will unlikely be either of these names, but it sure has made for some animated discussions!

"Penny?!?!  How can you like Penny?  It's nickname will be Penny-poo!  Who would name a dog poo?!?!"

"Yeah, well it's better than Shelby!  Shelby becomes Shelby-Shoo which means you are constantly telling the dog to get away from you...shoo shoo shoo!"

Oh to be a fly on the wall, eh?

Hello Purple Collar - It's Four weeks and counting

She's getting larger, but still very much a tiny ball of fur!  Without a name, we are referring to her as Purple Collar for the time being. Some of the names under consideration thus far include:

• Amber
• Keely
• Shiva
• Penny

Which one(s) do you like?

Week 3 - Names Under Consideration

We're avoiding names that start with M for obvious reasons.  Here's our other criteria:

• Short - two syllabes is ideal
• Ends with vowel sound - We like the "eee" sound, or the "ahhh" sound.  Hard ends in consonants is not our style.
• Real names - Legitimate names that could also apply to people are under consideration.  For instance, you would never name a kid "Spuds"...
• The name can't be one from our family already - this makes it challenging because both families have lots of names that we have an association with!
• Must be distinctively feminine

Poor girl doesn't have a name yet at 3 weeks old:

Welcoming our Pup to the World

We found a breeder that has some Fox Red Labs that will be ready to take home when we will be back from our trip.  So, without further ado, we put in our deposit and starting searching for names.  After the deposit, the breeder started sending weekly photos too!

Here's the new pup at two weeks old...

Finding a Breeder

Finding a breeder is serious business.  There are several types out there, with various pros and cons:

AKC Certified Breeders

These are the heavyweights in the industry.  Show quality dogs are bred, and championship lineage is the norm.  Expectations coming from these breeders, especially for labs is that they've met several criteria, including conformance, eye tests, hip dysplaysia, EID tests, temperament, and dozens more.

By not breeding dogs that show evidence of these criteria, "the breed" is improved and purified, making for fewer health problems, more predictable temperaments, and carefully almost scientifically  producing the best possible traits one can hope for.

Puppies that are not of the best caliber are spayed and neutered, and sold off to homes to be had as house pets.  The remainder become dams and sires in furthering the breed.  If you wan one of these dams or sires, prepare to pay.  These start in the thousands, and go up from there, depending on lineage.

Back Yard Breeders (BYBs)

These are the tricky ones...they usually will have dogs that exhibit some of the signs of breed excellence, and they've paid for AKC Certification on their dams and sires, but they don't do tons of testing on pups. Some conformance is done, hip dysplaysia is tested, but eyes often aren't, and EID sometimes isn't even considered.

These guys are often frowned upon because they are not genetically testing as much as they "should" to improve the breed, and while there is some interest there, the main focus is profit off producing puppies.  The result is that dams are bred every cycle or every other cycle until their bodies can't take it anymore.  This is apparently frowned upon activity, and people who purchase from such ends are also looked down at because it is believed that buyers here are encouraging bad behavior.

The pups from these outfits usually end up in decent enough homes because pricing scales keep out those shortsighted decision makers.  Here you'll see prices start at $500 or $600, and scale up to $1500, depending on popularity of the breed, costs of the testing that is done, and the costs of vetting applicants.  And yes, of course breeder "greed" is also a factor as well...

Puppy Mills

These outfits are evidently the worst. Registration is meaningless, testing is minimal, and lots of pups are sold at rock bottom pricing so appeal to the mass markets.  Owners are not interviewed, and this is often where rescues and a lot of euthanasia takes place because of not only irresponsible breeders, but also irresponsible buyers.  Pups here are usually somewhere around $250-$500.

A New Chapter

We've had the blessing of a wonderful dog, Maggie for over 12 years, and saying goodbye last May was one of the saddest and most challenging things I've ever had to do.  I knew I would be sad, and mourning the loss takes time, but the depth of sadness was incalculable.

Doggie therapy helped get us through our days.  After rough days at work, spousal stress, and the rigors of life, we'd lost our therapeutic release, and after nearly a year of mourning, it's time to open a new Chapter and thus, the decision was made to search for a new pup.

What do we get?

Maggie was a Black Labrador Retriever, and her personality was the best.  We'd gently "boop" her nose, sniff her paws, scratch her ears and do some of the oddest things to make her ears perk up.  Nicknames and variations to get that inquisitive look became common.  Maggie was our Magga-lugga, Maggie-Waggie, Maggie-Moo, and so many others, but the most affectionate one was Moo.

We know that we will never replace Moo, but we loved the lab so much it just had to be another lab!

Black was out though because the face would always be a reminder.  So, yellow?  An entire clothing wardrobe change is required.  Chocolate?  Possibly...until we saw the Fox Red color tone!  So unique, so pretty, but still the lab essence we love! Done!