Hello from New Jersey!

Awww....bless

 

What a lovely boy!

 

Hi, i was just wondering how the Catmate C20 was working for auto dispensing the kongs, i too thought the Kong Time was a great gadget. how do you have it set up, or did you find a better alternative?

 

Well mine is still sitting in a box. Never gave it a try really since I opted in getting a puppy sitter. She feeds him at lunch time when she leaves.

 

I know everyone recommends Orijen, but I can't seem to commit spending that much money on food every month. Are there any other cheaper alternatives that is recall safe? Blue Wilderness Large Breed Puppy seems very similar as far as protein composition but is so much cheaper. Any recommendations?

 

Decided to try Blue Wilderness. Let's see how it goes.

No accidents today which is good. Although, he destroyed his first toy today. Stuffing everywhere in his pen. He left his pee pad holder mostly intact and his bed in place.

 

It's been awhile since I've posted. Sparky is doing well weighing in at 26 lbs today at 14 Weeks. He is getting bigger and I needed to move the divider a couple of notches to give him some more space when he is all splayed out laying in his bed. Still a crocopup but will be happy to chew on a chew toy. I am in the process of transitioning him to Blue Buffalo Wilderness for Large Breeds and it turns out I still have more of the old food, so the transition will be stretched out longer. So far no problems with his stool related to the new puppy food. He tolerates most of the stuff we give him, i.e. yogurt, a hotdog. Nothing so daring.

I missed out on his second day of Puppy School last Saturday due to having family from Canada and showing them around Washington DC and NYC. My sister and my nieces took him. My sister expressed concern that Sparky often went on his back and allowed the other pups to be on top of him while the little pug sniffed his weewee. I told her this is perfectly ok, and that it was a submissive move and not once did Sparky yelp or show that he didn't like what was happening during play. The trainer also thought that he had listening problems and blamed the treats for not smelling enough. My niece is a little meek when trying to handle Sparky. My mom said Sparky had trouble doing the down command, and to my response look. "Sparky, down!" and he laid down no problems. He's just being a puppy, but I guess the trainer can be right. I'm gonna pick up some of her treats that she recommended, and also everyone needs to keep working on their assertiveness. I told them we need to be consistent and persistent when it comes to training him.

Finally the visitors left, and I took off the whole week. This gave us the chance to bring Sparky to Puppy playtime at the dog school. There was only two other pups there, the little Pug and a Doberman puppy. Since there were only three of us, the trainer unleashed her Black Lab/Golden Retriever Mix to play with the puppies. Her dog was about 18 months old and was huge! She said she is training to be a service dog and will soon be leaving her to goto service dog school. During puppy class over the weekend, my sister said he got loose and went straight to Sparky and caused alot of fear and apprehension. When I told my sister today that he was out, and was a perfectly fine playmate she was shocked. I told her that she was transferring her own fear to Sparky. Sparky was hilarious during puppy play time. He was panting and panting with his tongue hanging out. The trainer showed him the water bowl and he just kept on gulping and gulping water. He literally came back four times to drink water. Then he laid down drinking water. The trainer had to remove the bowl.

Finally we get home did his pee. Let him in his pen to rest since he had a long day and my wife and I went to the market to buy some stuff. My mom texts me that Sparky peed all over the pen! He is sleeping when we come back. Finally an hour or so ago I come down to let him out before his official bed time. My wife sits with him for a minute. I get him on his leash and try to lead him out. He goes up the stairs trailing pee all the way to the door! I guess all that water he had at the dog school finally decided to come out. Sparky bad doggy!

 

Third week of Puppy Class today. He did really well compared to what my sister and niece told me about last week. The first part of the class was sort of an agility course with a tunnel, posts, and a ramp. I had to guide him thru the obstacles and manage the distractions and for Sparky it was many. It was a good thing I boiled up some chicken hotdogs this morning and it worked much better than the store bought treats I had. He is more of a smell to visual dog. I found that I can grab his attention first with smell then keep his attention buy having him see the treats. I had a tighter control of him thru course the second go around doing it this way. He kept running to the other pups the first time.

During puppy play, one of the owners noticed blood on Sparky. She was like I think he's bleeding. Turns out it was only blood on his fur. Her own dog was the one bleeding. Her dog has been too busy biting Sparky, that her dog lost a tooth! Sparky didn't even yelp once or acted scared. Quick check on him and no open wounds found.

Back to the vet also after Puppy Class. He received his last two shots today. Vet said he is good to go to be walked in a week. Thank God since he is so heavy now. He weighed in at 28.4 lbs!

 

Sounds like Sparky is having an exciting and stimulating time at puppy class, and is learning the ropes at home too. You sound like you are building a good bond with him, and that you are starting to understand his body language and what motivates him - well done!!

When I train with my dog, I always carry water in a plastic bottle and a small collapsible bowl so I can offer her water throughout, to stop her getting dehydrated and drinking a huge amount of water at once like Sparky did. Best not to let them get to the stage where they are too thirsty and then over-compensate and can't hold their pee afterwards (I've had it happen too; you live and learn!).

I'm in NYC with my daughter and her five-month old puppy this week - so different to what I am used to! But the dogs seem happy, socialized and well-behaved.

How old is Sparky now?

 

He is about 15 weeks now.

I started Pippa's heel training today with some boiled chicken I made. This boy recalled and stayed at my heel while we were doing the training. Trying to get him started for the end of this week to start walking outside. I think initially he will just walk up and down my cul-de-sac with some chicken in my hand.

Last night was ridiculous though speaking about pee. No signs. No squatting. Just peed and trailed it from his pen through the basement to the bottom of the stairs. Then in the middle of playing he just started peeing again with no signs. I was thinking it could have been because of the vaccinations he got. He is fine again today. His crate was dry and the pen was clean this morning. Little more mindful with peeing today and taking him out often.

 

15 weeks old!

 

Oh boy. Just received a phone call from the vet. Sparky has Giardia. She said it was only a positive ELISA. Need to pick up the antibiotics tomorrow.

 

Aargh! Hope that clears up quickly.

 

Sparky started his antibiotics yesterday. Stool comes out mostly solid at first, but the last part is semi soft. Not sure if he's already pushing out food he just ate and water hasn't been completely reabsorbed yet in the large intestine. Never a problem with eating. He is always hungry except when he's sleepy. Tomorrow he is cleared for puppy play and we will need to give him a bath and sterilize his crate and play area even though the vet said she did not find any cysts in his stool.

 

Ah sorry to read about the giardia ,my dog had it when he was a youngster ,it took a couple of courses of antibiotics to clear ....the test can show a false negative so to err on the side of caution I can remember taking him back about a week after it appeared he was better.
x

 

Hopefully that is the answer though!

 

My wife said his poo earlier was soft and didn't come easily when picked up. Tried to rationalize it that he just had a lot of excitement and exercise. We shall see.

Very exciting day today for Sparky. 4th day of Puppy School and he wasn't getting dominated as much anymore. Still very distracted with the other dogs, but he did very well with pass the puppy. The trainer had us practice bringing him to heel (she calls it "Side" which is fine) and Sparky did very well and I didn't have to call for his attention much. He walked fine with a loose leash!

He also met our neighbor's terrier mix today, his name was Lucky!

Part of the Giardia thing, we gave him a shower today. Had to use the mist option on the water hose since the stronger ones was scaring him too much. After that he cooperated. We also disinfected both his crates with bleach, and will do his toys later when the washer frees up.

 

Sparky is now 39.8 lbs. He received his first Lyme's disease and was cleared by the vet. His poop has also been solid for the last couple of days. I reduced his daily portion by 25% from 3 cups/day. I also add some powdered pumpkin to his diet. I think he was eating too much combined with treats given when I am not around. Hopefully his poop stays that way. This Giardia thing had me paranoid and I gave him a second round of Panacur 10 days after his initial dose.

He hasn't had an accident inside the house for one week now. I can leave him almost 2 hours now with no pee accident, and it takes 3-4 hours dinner for him to poo. No matter how much I try he will not poo soon after eating.

He also went to his 5th day of Puppy School today. It has been cancelled the last two weeks. All the pups have gotten so much bigger now. I always thought that I wasn't doing enough training with him, but compared to the other pups he was excellent! The trainer had us do loose leash walking around a set of cones. All the other pups were easily distracted, but Sparky shined and stayed at my heel. I guess it helps we practice around the school playground where there are worse distractions! I'm a proud papa!

 

Well Dönerbuden Sparky, that's great! Top of the class!!

 

Graduation day today! He did excellent except when it was everyone recall at the same time. He chased the pug instead! But was great time. He received a diploma and some treats!

He also learned how to stick his head out the window of the car now! He's a little more behaved back there, but I need to get him in the car more often even for short trips.

We did take him to Petsmart and it so happened that there was an adoption day going on. Lots of doggies for adoption and regular owners too. I tried to take him past the row of crates and out of all the dogs there, it was a chocolate lab that started barking at him. Kinda spooked him and he wouldn't come near. My wife was a little upset that one of the volunteers yelled at us to turn around. I told her I get it. The other dogs were getting upset because of the one chocolate lab barking and there isn't much they can do to calm them down. Easier for us to turn around and reapproach. So I turned him around an aisle and kept edging closer until he was comfy again with the other dogs. He had some good interactions with the other dogs there that he met and was pretty calm. It helped I suppose he hasn't slept yet after a 30 min walk, and puppy school.

Finally received my Freedom No Pull Harness. Oh what a difference it is versus the Kurgo I've been using. It felt like I wasn't even holding a leash. He kept to my side and almost zero pulling. I'll be using this harness from now on.