The Sewing Mom

Poor Plinko!  My daughter decided last night that Plinko needed a costume.  She looked through her enormous collection of Build-a-Bear clothes and found a pumpkin costume.  It took her quite a while to get it on the poor dog who was not cooperating.  I should’ve had the video camera going on this whole episode.  After finally getting the costume on the dog, Plinko ran outside, went nuts, and then stepped into the pool, so the costume was all wet!

Shew!  My little puppy Plinko came in this afternoon after spending some time outside and she was limping!  She was holding her back leg completely off the ground and not walking on it at all.  She wasn’t whining though so I figured at least it wasn’t broken!  I just had no idea what was wrong.

So, I sat on the floor with her and tried to look at her foot.  Now, this isn’t as easy as it sounds because when ever you sit with her, she just wants to bite on you and play.  Luckily one of her chew bones was laying there so I kept putting it in her mouth to keep her busy while I tried to check out her foot and leg. 

I started my massaging her leg from the hip down so I could feel for any lumps or tender spots.  In between biting me and the bone, I didn’t find anything.  I moved slowly down towards her foot and the closer I got to her foot the more she started biting on me instead of the bone.  When I reached her toes she started biting me and her toes.  This was my sign that the problem was something to do with her toes.   This is also when I’m thankful she has short hair, it makes it easier to see if there is a problem, not having to look through all the hair.

I was able to separate her toes and found what was either a very small thorn or a dead fire ant.  With as many fire ants that are around right now I’d guess that’s what it was.  Once I removed it from between her toes and I continued to massage her foot and toes and she lessened the amount she was biting on me and after a few minutes was up and walking on her foot as if nothing had happened.  I was so thankful as I didn’t want to have to call the vet, that would’ve been expensive I’m sure!

Did you know that most dogs that are taken to shelters are there because their owners couldn’t get them house trained?  That is shocking to me.  I know it’s frustrating, but it’s not impossible.  I think it’s sad that people get a puppy without doing their research and teaching themselves how to teach their puppy.  If a dog cannot be house-trained it is more than likely the fault of the owner, not the dog.  Mind you, we are still in the house-training stage, but we have gone from many accidents in a day to having most days accident free. 

Here are some tips to house-training your dog. 

First, I highly recommend having some sort of crate.  It really doesn’t matter which type you choose, although I don’t recommend using a fabric crate, they are more difficult to clean.  The crate provides a safe zone for your pet where the dog sleeps or rests when you cannot give him your full attention.  The crate should be large enough for your puppy to stand up in and turn around but not too large.  Dogs do not like to mess near their beds, so if the crate is the right size, they will try their hardest to not go potty in it.  Initially you will use the crate frequently, but as the house-training progresses you may use it less frequently.  Place the crate in an area in your home where you spend the most time so that while the dog is in the crate he still feels close to you. 

Next, I recommend keeping your dog on a leash anytime he is not in the crate.  This includes when he is in the house.  When the dog is not in the crate it should be near you at all times and in your line of sight.  This makes it easy for you to see when the dog starts to show signs that he needs to eliminate.  Usually a dog will start sniffing, walking in circles, or some other similar action that will indicate it needs to go outside.  If you have the leash, it is very easy and very quick to get the dog out the door and eliminate the possibility of an accident in the house.

Along the same lines as keeping the dog on a leash, limit the dogs access to areas of your home.  As the house-training progresses, you may wish to add more area.  We keep our puppy’s crate in our family room.  When she is not in the crate she can roam in the family room and kitchen areas only.  This is where we spend the majority of our time.  If we are not in those rooms, she is in her crate.  Never leave your puppy out of the crate unsupervised.

Also, don’t leave a bowl of water down for easy, all day access.  Give your dog water on a schedule, remember, what goes in, must come out, and water goes through a puppy very quickly.  If you know when your dog drank water, you will know when to take it outside to go potty.  Just because a dog is panting, that does not mean they are thirsty.  Panting is how a dog gets rid of its sweat.  Yes, a dog needs fresh water, they just don’t need open access to it, especially as a puppy.

Finally, make sure you are using positive reinforcement to reward your puppy when he does his business outside.  Use the same words repeatedly, each time, so he learns that “good potty” means okay, I peed outside so I get a treat!  Small, soft training treats work the best.  Remember, dogs don’t speak English so it’s important that you use the same words for any command you are trying to teach. 

Remember too that if you do get frustrated, many pet supply stores offer puppy training and potty training.  Many will give you answers to your questions for free if you just ask.  Reach out for help, don’t just give up.

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This dog just cracks me up!  I swear she knows what the camera is and poses.  I just got out the camera, she picked up her “dragonfly”, walked over and sat down in this pose!  I just had to share this photo.

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Plinko is growing so much, sometimes I think she’s bigger by dinnertime than she was in the morning!  The nicest thing is watching her mature.  I know she’s still a puppy, but it’s like going from the baby stage when we brought her home to the toddler stage and now I think she’s entering the child/youth stage.  There are more times when she just wants to sit with us or lay down by us.  After dinner still finds her in her hyper mode, but even that is getting better.  She spent a lot of time outdoors yesterday just chasing birds and chewing mulch.  She’s grown enough that she no longer fits through the fence so she can be outside without us being right there with her.  She really found ways to keep herself busy which is why it was so funny when she finally came inside at 8:30 last night she just crawled under the coffee table and went to sleep!  She was completely worn out.

One thing that I’m so happy I did was remember to use the digital camera from the day we picked her up from the breeder.  I love it because I can just snap away and delete later!  Sometimes I think Plinko knows she’s having her picture taken and poses, she’s a big ham!  My daughter started a Plinko photo album the day we brought her home, she will have a full album in no time!  I wonder if she would like one of those digital frames to put puppy pictures in, that would be sort of cool in her bedroom.

One of these days I’d like to upgrade to the digital Rebel, but for now I’ll just keep using my Sony Cybershot.  I think my favorite thing about having a digital camera is being able to instantly share the pictures. We don’t live near our family so I have to email pictures of Plinko so they can see what she’s up to! I wouldn’t even let my husband take the camera to the Orient with him because I didn’t want to miss any good Plinko shots! 

This is a shot my daughter took of Plinko this evening. It reminds me of those Dog pictures but it’s really Plinko. My sister will appreciate this one, she loves taking close up shots!

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Just when I thought the potty training with the puppy was going well she has the biggest, worst, nastiest, smelliest, accident to date! 

I keep the front hall blocked off with boxes so Plinko can’t get into the front hall, the dining room, my husband’s office, or the 1/2 bathroom.  She’s managed to get through on a rare occasion, and each time, she has either tinkled or pooped in the hall or dining room.  So, for over three months, I’ve had ugly packing boxes blocking the hallway.  Totally unattractive, but it definitely serves a purpose.

I’m not sure how one of the boxes got moved, but while my daughter and I were eating our dinner, Plinko quietly slipped into the dining room.  She wears a rabies tag and a name tag on her collar so we can always hear her tags jingling together and we know where she is.  Well, it got awfully quiet.  I jumped up and saw the box was moved out of position and sure enough, standing in front of the front door looking back at me, innocently, was Plinko.

The smell hit me before I saw it, all over the dining room carpet.  I don’t know what she ate but it came out like soft serve and was soaking into the carpet fast.  My daughter was gagging just handing me the roll of paper towels!  I spent 30 minutes picking it up, getting the piles out of the house and then using vinegar water followed by soapy water on the carpet.  YUCK!

Thanks for letting me vent, I feel better now!

Linked to: Electric Venom

As you know,my puppy Plinko has been going to Puppy Training. Well, today was supossed to be the day when little Plinko graduated. The day before my daughter gave her a bath, cleaned her ears, and brushed her teeth to get Plinko all ready for the big day. With every special event, you need to take pictures! I made sure to put the camera in my purse the night before. Today, around 12:15 we hit the road attempting to get there early so she could socialize before training began. About half way there, my phone rings. I answer it and its PetSmart calling to say that the instructor got sick and would not be able to come to work that day so they would resehedule the graduation.  Bummer!  So, instead of going to training we ended up at Wendy’s to grab some lunch and head home for the day.

Plinko has been growing so fast!  She eats like a horse, so no wonder she’s growing!  The food bag recommends feeding a dog her age and size about 2 cups a day.  A DAY!? Are they kidding me?  She can eat that much in one meal!  She went through a small bag of dry puppy food in two weeks, that seems quick to me.  It seems, especially the past few days, that she is hungry almost all the time. 

A few weeks ago we switched her food.  We went to an all natural food, no additives, no sugar or fillers.  There are quite a few of these to choose from, they are in the high end dog food isle.  The pros of going this route include less hyperness because there is less (or no) sugar in the food, less pooping (because there are no fillers so they digest the food easier and more of it stays in them) and, because they poop less, they are less hungry which means they eat less.  Well, I’m waiting for that last one!

Today I put her back on 3 meals, I was only feeding her in the morning and then again around 4.  Today I gave her half her normal breakfast, then fed her the other half in the early afternoon and a then her dinner around 6.  She also gets biscuits in between, plus all the training treats she’s getting right now.  The last few days, every time I turn around she’s in the laundry room scratching and clawing at her bag of food, trying to get into it!  She bangs her empty food bowl around too when she wants more.  My husband thinks it’s a growth spurt, just like kids have.  I guess it could be, it just seems like she’s eating so much.  I definitely don’t want to over feed her, I don’t want to end up with a porky Plinko!

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Yesterday, as I was cutting fabric, the strangest thing was going on.  I have a long table set up for cutting fabric and I was in the middle of cutting out my valance fabric.  As I was cutting off about a 2 inch strip, the cut strip was slowly falling off the back edge of the table.

Mind you, while I was cutting fabric, my little dog was laying by my feet chewing her toy.  She was being surprisingly good! 

I started noticing however, that the fabric was falling off the back of the table at a faster rate than what I was cutting.  Hmmm, I wondered, what was going on?  I decided to take a peak under the table, only to see this cute little face looking back at me with fabric hanging out of her mouth and the rest of the it wrapped around her body!  She looked like the beginnings of a dog mummy!  Of course, she was looking at me like she was the most innocent thing alive!  I had to snap a photo.  Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera, she had moved, but she did take the fabric strip with her.

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Damn dog!  I had all of my blogging related log-in information with passwords written down.  Somehow the dog, yes the cute little one I keep posting pictures of, ATE the piece of paper with all of that info on it!  I had no idea until I saw something on the carpet and when I picked it up I recognized a small corner that had my writing on it.  My daughter looked at me holding this little tiny piece of chewed up paper and she knew instantly what it was, her eyes got huge!

Well, I just figured there’s nothing I can do now, the deed is done.  So, I sat myself down with a piece of paper and pencil and from memory wrote the ones I could and then went back through all my notes from when my sister was originally setting up my blog and found some I was missing.  What a total pain in the butt!  I better find a cute picture to look at so I don’t kill the dog!

How about this one?

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