Day 35 A.M. & P.M.

Mary-Ann Sontag June 30, 2020

A common puppy training mistake human makes — and we do this with other humans as well — is to think STOP is enough information to change behavior.

It is not.

The problem with telling a dog or human what NOT to do is it does not help them know what to do instead — we need less about stop and more about instead.

Puppy biting — let’s start there.

It is a normal, developmentally appropriate puppy behavior — and it hurts.

It is not ethical or fair to expect a puppy to not use her teeth AND it is okay not to want to bleed all over the place or wind up with a few new piercings.

Telling a puppy to stop biting and chewing won’t work, however, because chewing and biting is part of the Puppy Job Description.

But the puppy cannot bite fingers if the puppy is chewing on the pineapple. Therefore, the trick is instead of human flesh, think toy.

We do not want puppies peeing all over the house BUT it is unrealistic to expect them to understand about house training. Since there are no puppy diapers, we need a different strategy.

Unlimited and unsupervised house access is a Bad Idea — instead we create a schedule and environment in which the puppy has quick access to a potty when needed, which is a lot; you can read more about housetraining HERE.

Our job is to help the puppy be successful — always. This means setting the puppy up for good habits and when we have missed the mark and the puppy is doing something we do not want to continue, we implement the instead.

A focus on YES instead of NO is such good practice for every interaction with humans and dogs.

I love the way dogs invite us to be better humans.

EVENING: Photos from the Day

Five weeks old — amazing! This is Buttercup.

We did not know who sent this Daisy Giraffe until today — thank you, Kay and Sue! We were slightly more grateful before Lincoln learned how to turn it on and we heard the 30-second song over and over and over and over.

But now the giraffe is associated with THREE people we love and so we treasure it even more. Thank you!

This is Mariposa.

Paintbrush having fun in the structure.

Larkspur

Lupine

Poor Karma — this was happening on one end (that is Sage with her)…

…while Clover covered the other end!

Good Night, Friends…

Day 34 A.M.

Mary-Ann Sontag June 29, 2020

I find small humans endlessly fascinating. Like puppies, children bloom in front of us. There are so many layers and nuances to notice — if we pay attention.

An advantage to being a grandparent is that one’s vantage point shifts — like a turn of the kaleidoscope. The same age child is suddenly an entirely different picture from when we were the parent.

Gone are the heavy burdens and responsibilities of parenthood and so you are free to simply marvel at the charming, incredible new person blooming in front of your eyes. It is amazing.

The benefit of time and age is understanding that few things in life are as serious as we think they are in the moment. The puppy will not turn into an ax murderer if she is not house trained by nine weeks or misses an episode of Puppy Einstein.

That doesn’t mean we should not do our best to shape an enriched and loving environment for children and puppies — we should. But if we forget to dremel the puppies nails one day — meh.

Expecting a 19-month-old to manage himself with small puppies is totally unrealistic — and unfair.

In the same way, expecting a puppy not to bite and chew is entirely unrealistic and unfair — and so you wear long sleeves, cover up your toes with a towel, and enjoy what is wonderful about small puppies.

Time will take care of the biting and chewing — and will also take away the small, cute, new puppies. It all goes together.

And it goes so so fast.

Knowing this invites us to cherish the moment and not sweat the small stuff — like tiny puncture wounds or puddles of pee or graham crackers EVERYWHERE.

Sparkle did get most of that graham cracker

Instead, we appreciate that there are puppies to bite us and grandchildren to leave soggy graham crackers in our coffee.

Nothing is forever — except maybe love.

This is the face of a little human who had to leave the puppies and head back to Boise. Sigh.

For those who remember about her health issues — Berkeley still has low blood sugar issues for unknown reasons. Her wonderful parents have figured out how to manage it through diet and frequent testing — and watching her affect, which changes when she is going low — but none of the specialists or the various tests have identified the cause. Hopefully, she will outgrow it…

Have a wonderful day!

EVENING: PHOTOS FROM THE DAY

The puppies will be five weeks old tomorrow and so it seemed like a good day to start eating “solid” food.

The meal was pureed cooked chicken and sweet potato. I want to make sure everyone gets their fair share and discourage them from feeling rushed while eating — and so they eat individually. Well, except Pete joined…

Karma and Lupine.

I bought this toddler extravaganza for the puppies but when I heard the small humans were planning a visit, I saved it for them. It was a hit for a day or two of their visit but like puppies, small humans like novelty.

Since the small humans have left (much sadness) — and it was raining today — I turned the living room into a puppy play area.

Pete is such a social cat — here he is with Larkspur.

A new crinkle toy!!! The pineapple leaves are crinkly and a hit — thank you to Clara and Elena for such a fun toy for the Wildflowers.

The Wildflowers are so happy Lori sent them a chair.

The puppies are practicing in this short tunnel for their longer one.

Daisy is such a great mom!

Please enjoy this brief VIDEO — especially you, Nell and John!

Good Night, Friends!

Day 33 A.M. & P.M.

Mary-Ann Sontag June 28, 2020

First baths!

I picked the kitchen sink to be big enough for puppy baths — it worked perfectly. Berkeley and I gave the baths and passed puppies to Bethany to dry…

I have a new variable speed dryer — they all experienced a wee bit of long distance, gentle blow drying.

Some of you know that we had recently bred Jordan, a Sparkle daughter we co-own with Dianne. I was hoping she would be pregnant because that would help solve the issue of too many great homes for not enough wonderful puppies.

Unfortunately, Jordan is not pregnant.

I will spare all the details but we have no reason to believe there are issues with Jordan’s (or Claire’s) fertility. Breeding can be complicated and adding in a pandemic made it more so — that is really the best explanation.

We are planning on a fall breeding (or two) but that doesn’t help the too many great homes/too few puppies situation for now. I have to settle on homes for the Wildflowers without the immediate option of that additional litter.

Some homes are settled but not all because we still have to let the puppies reveal who and what they are, and who and what they need in their lives going forward.