Posts filed under ‘Phoenix’
Should we have called her Chewie?
Puppy Sarcasm?
Let’s talk power chewing – God the power chewing. If it moves, chew it, if it doesn’t move, chew it, if it neither moves nor doesn’t move, chew it anyway, just to be safe.
When we first met Phoenix at three weeks old, the first thing she did when Tim sat in the welping box was to come over and chew his foot and it hasn’t stopped since.
Our favourite chewing episode was discovering the shredded front cover of “The Power of Positive Training” in pieces, which must have been skilfully selected and then stolen while our backs were turned, in order to wreak a terrible hypodermic-tooth filled justice on it. Perhaps this is Phoenix’s first attempt at irony?
On the plus side, the plastic milk bottles come along brand new everyday, so it’s like an ongoing Christmas for Phoenix. Second to bottles are carrots; – busting with vitamin C and oh so crunchy.
Weight Watchers and Knobbly Knees.
Looking at the River for the First Time.
Between the 6th and 13th Phoenix went from six kilos to eight: a 25% increase in body weight in a week! We suddenly thought she was looking skinny – she had the same body on very long and enormously thick legs. Her rear legs looked slightly awkward and we went into a panic spiral thinking she was becoming cow-hocked. Cue much worrying and wailing about what we’d done wrong, what terrible parents we were and how the doggy social workers were gonna come and take her into care.
Luckily, a reassuring email from Diane Parry (Mallard’s human companion and font of all knowledge HWV related) told us to pull ourselves together; she’s just growing and going through a gangly phase!
We now know that Phoenix is going to be a big lady as her legs and paws are huge and we have to wait for the rest of her body to catch up.
Return of the Party Animal
At large.
Today’s puppy party was thrown by Tracey B. the “Puppy Guru” lady. She is very cool, and kept a crowd of eight eager pooches under tight (but gentle) control. Tracey is a strong advocate of positive training methods, she’s an animal behaviourist and a member of the International Positive Dog Training Association. Her brand phrase is “respect, kindness, harmony”. The basic principle is you reward every piece of good behaviour and ignore or interrupt any undesirable ones and NEVER punish your dog.*
Tracey also works with violent teenagers using the same techniques so, respect due!
Apart from a spaniel, Phoenix was the largest dog there, this didn’t stop her getting out and about and pressing the flesh though- she was polite and enthusiastic and remarkably self controlled. She did struggle during the early part of the party, as the dogs were let off the lead one at a time over the two hours, for around ten minutes.
No problems in the car – now definitely established as the provider of good things and the vet as her favourite place EVA!!!
*I love the fact that nothing is ever the puppy’s fault, it’s always the owner who’s to blame for not thinking ahead. It’s a very “oy vey iz mir” approach, but it works.
Gotta love those ears!
Love those Ears!
First ride in New Sling.
Did we mention the baby sling? Well, it came a few days ago, and today we took Phoenix out to our nearest town, Torrington, as part of her socialisation programme. Phoenix can’t go on the ground until her second set of injections have taken effect.
Not many people around, the wind was strong and she found this a little disconcerting – ears a-flapping. We met a labrador and human friend, after checking his vaccinations were in order, they had a brief interaction which went well for everyone.
Today was also the day Phoenix discovered the joy of empty plastic milk bottles. Despite an array of expensive designer dog toys, she prefers to hurtle around with an old milk container in her mouth. This must be a variation on the “kid prefers the cardboard box to the toy inside” routine.
Ice is Nice.
Walking on Water.
First journey around the land – we live on five acres of land which is planted up with around 1900 trees and shrubs. There’s also a river and a woodland. This was the first time our pond had frozen up – Adam took a chance and walked out into the middle. Phoenix decided it looked like fun and slip-walked her way out too, causing mild heart attacks all round. The words “hip dysplasia” and “astronomical vet bills” echoed in our heads as Phoenix effortlessly glided over the ice. Luckily, she soon wandered onto land again.
Phoenix is more or less toilet trained now – apart from an occasional accident. It’s been the use of the crate that has regulated her bladder,we were unsure about the whole crate thing as it seemed like we were caging her up, but she has found it a place of safety and comfort, retreating whenever she needed to. A bit like a den in the wild.
This, along with clicking and treating at the right moment, in the right place, has worked really quickly and really well.
She seems to be a smart cookie this one…but then we would say that wouldn’t we?!
Party Animal
Tim trying out new sling indoors.
First attempts at “stacking” using the clicker and treat method – as a preparation for Phoenix’s big turn in the (future?) show ring…show-biz is calling.
… we had a semi hunger strike on our hands. Phoenix took a look at her biscuit based breakfast and basically refused to eat – where’s the good stuff? Y’know the meaty stuff. Biscuits no longer working as a treat – not cutting the mustard anymore. Luckily we’d already stocked a freezer up with her specialist raw food. We made a 50/50 blend of raw food and biscuit, mixing them up. This was accepted without any problem.
There were only a couple of other dogs at the puppy party – organised by the lovely nurses at the vets in their own time – seven were expected and only two turned up. A springer-spaniel called Sasha (who barked a lot – an unfortunate trick which Phoenix immediately took up as her own. Arf and indeed Arf!). The other party animal was a beautifully trained 14 month old rescue border collie belonging to one of the nurses.
Sasha was quite timid and over-awed by the whole thing and also by Phoenix’s confidence and bouncy demeanour. Phoenix and the collie had an intensive play session and as usual she gave as good as she got…
Sleep update: not much of a problem, a bit of a howl at night but then all is well.
Chewing: oh, the chewing! We have been following the advice of Ian Dunbar (“Before and After Getting Your Puppy”) who says you should allow your dog to bite you in order to give appropriate feedback as to the intensity of the bite, so they can gradually soften the bite pressure. This is called bite inhibition. She seems to be softening her bite: only mouthing gently…
The Joy of Chicken Wings…
Meeting Indi.
This was the day that Phoenix met Indigo – Tim’s mother’s blue rescue Greyhound – as well as Tim’s mother herself! Phoenix was fantastically excited and tried to goad Indi into playing with her, sadly to no avail. Indi was very patient and long suffering as Phoenix romped all over her and it became a valuable early lesson in canine etiquette for the eager pup…
Phoenix flipped into seeing the outdoors as an adventure playground full of untold pleasures and sensory delights today, no longer afraid of the space around her.
Phoenix woke twice in the night and we took her out to go to the loo. Otherwise sleeping through to 7.00am without any problems. She’s sleeping in the bedroom with us (in her own crate, we’re not that soft) and finds the sound of our breathing comforting.
We started to introduce the raw diet to Phoenix today. She had her first chicken wing in the evening which she found to be the most exciting thing she had ever encountered. She was thrilled with it and demolished it over 25 minutes looking very pleased with herself as a result.
Vet Visit.
Phoenix at six weeks.
Today, Phoenix went to the Vets for her first injection. Only the second time ever in the car: she still wasn’t crazy about it. She didn’t mind being in the car, it was the sight of the landscape speeding by that tipped her over the edge. Treats worked well to distract her.
Once we got to the vets, she loved it. Everybody made a huge fuss of her, staff and visitors. Carolyn the vet, noted on her record that she was a “lovely and extremely well socialised pup”. Phoenix was microchipped and, like her injection, she didn’t notice it happening at all, being much more interested in the biscuit bribe that the vet offered her.
Phoenix was given a clean bill of health, the vet commented that Phoenix was big for her age and wasn’t she actually ten weeks old rather than eight weeks!
Phoenix was invited to two puppy parties.
So it begins…
Camouflaged amongst the chair legs.
Day 2: Phoenix woke up every hour on the hour, not much sleep for Daddy A (Tim) and Daddy X (Adam) Phoenix was introduced to the world of clicker and treat today, Phoenix learnt her name, and learnt to sit. Toys were chewed.
First contact was made with the cats, who didn’t want to play. At all. Phoenix couldn’t really understand why her new fluffy puppy friends didn’t want to rumble.
First trip outdoors: Phoenix was overwhelmed by being outdoors. It was really cold and frosty too, in contrast to her supreme confidence in every other situation.
Toilet Training bulletin: a bit hit and miss but give her a break it is day one in a new home! A few puddles. We put in a turf filled tray for her to use but she didn’t know what grass was! Let alone frozen grass.
The Phoenix Has Landed!
Favourite New Toy.
Day 1: Bleary Eyed.
Day 1: Seven and a half hour journey from North Norfolk to North Devon. It went howl, snooze, pee, play, eat, poop, sleep, pee, play, fidget, squirm, howl, arrive! Most importantly, nobody was sick. On touchdown in the kitchen, she arrived like it was her long lost home. She immediately dived into her crate (the one we had been worrying about for weeks about how we were going to entice her into it – involving complex uses of peanut butter, biscuits and stuffed kongs).
Somebody was very excited with her box of new toys and managed to eat a meal before pegging out for the night….
Belatarr Hungarian Wirehaired Vizsla. 