And More...

I love these Wildflower Updates, and hope you do as well. We have two today — the first is from Penny and Caleb about the puppy formerly known as Mallow…

We met Jennifer and Alex in Ritzville, WA last Monday to meet Zeus (Mallow) and Lupine. Zeus really handled the 5-1/2 hour car ride home in his crate very well. Our children, who are 5 and 8 years old, and their grandparents who also live with us, were all overjoyed to meet Zeus and welcome him into our family.

We settled on the name Zeus because of our home here on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, with the Olympic Mountains in our backyard. They were named by Captain John Meares because the Mountains appeared to be like the Greek Mount Olympus, a home fit for the gods. And hence the name, Kaibab's King of Olympus...our Zeus. He even has a white lightning bolt on his forehead!

Over the last week, Zeus has really shown off his Mr. Congeniality spirit and is full of love to give, curiosity to explore, and confidence to engage in new experiences. We have an exercise pen in our living room, in our bedroom where I telework, and outside. Zeus has done really well with using his potty pad when necessary and also definitely understands the rewards of potty outside. We have a couple tunnels and a splash pad (not a big fan) we have introduced outside for fun, an array of toys which we have been changing out, and he has even been getting used to a balance beam Caleb set up! We have also been working on Sit-Down-Stand and he is a quick learner, especially since treats are involved. 

Zeus is also doing great with his crate. Last night, he slept from 10pm to 5:30am without waking up. Up until last night, we have been getting up with him once around 3-3:30 am to go outside then back to bed. 

He definitely looks forward to mealtime and has enjoyed all of the BalanceIt recipes that Mary-Ann has sent. He is eating a rotation of those meals, raw food patties, and Orijen kibble. He does not discriminate! According to our bathroom scale he weighs 16.2 lbs. He goes to the vet on Thursday morning for a checkup. 

One minor struggle right now is the excitement of children combined with the excitement of a puppy and his main method of interaction being teeth-based. We are working with the kids on understanding Zeus's needs and energy level and redirecting with a chew toy. We tried the Puppy Pong game and the Name Game and both are a big hit with all involved. It's a great way to combine the kid's desire to play with Zeus and his desire to play with them in a fun, rewarding way. And we're really looking forward to meeting Patty and Buttercup for a play date!

We are so happy to have Zeus as part of our family!

Thank you so much, Penny and Caleb, for the photos and wonderful update. I am excited to see photos of Buttercup and Zeus together again :)

We interrupt these Wildflower Updates to bring you this photo of their almost 12 years old great-great auntie Maddie — she lives close to Zeus!

Thank you, Barb — Maddie looks amazing and ready to celebrate her upcoming birthday!

Alex sends our next report — but first some context. When Alex was 11, I gave him Mesa from our H Moon Litter…

Sadly, Mesa died of Leukemia before she was six years old.

Alex has been waiting for a puppy that was closely related to Mesa and that puppy is Lupine…

Alex sends us all this report:

Wildflower Fan Club,

Lupine is doing great! She continues to be incredibly intelligent, engaged, and confident -- our family fell in love with her the moment she got home. Lupine reminds me of her great-aunt Mesa; although unique and different in many ways, she carries Mesa's same energetic and very much alive energy. 

Lupine loves to terrorise our adult dogs (she's perfected guerilla tactics) and rough house with me. She also loves to chase water bottles, play in water (baby pools were sold out so a small bin is acting as placeholder), and sleep in the most uncomfortable looking positions.

Oh, and did I mention eating? She LOVES to eat. On that note, she has grown quite a bit since she arrived here. She wasn't able to drink out of the big dogs' water bucket but now, a week later, she does so with ease as long as it's full. 

She sleeps in my room in a crate and with the exceptions of one or two rough nights, sleeps around 8 hours with one potty break. She was a howler on our way home from Montana but eye contact made her calm down -- I think she has some separation anxiety but we are working through that. 

Lupine has kept up on her socializing -- we estimate she's seen a bit more than 25 new people in the week we've had her. She loves meeting new people and receiving their love!

In terms of training, I think the first couple days of Lupine's stay here were marked by a little bit of overconfidence and ambition on my part. She picked up on anything I was teaching her incredibly quickly, leading me to think of future titles and great things that she might do in the future; this thinking started adding a little stress to training because I wanted to live up to Lupine's potential. I didn't hold that mindset for long, though, as I caught myself and corrected it -- but I think it was a mistake nonetheless. The theme of this litter, from my perspective, has been strong foundations. Mary-Ann set these puppies up for great success -- Lupine and I decided we're going to continue this theme and make our mission just to have fun and be engaged while working on basic foundational behaviors and a minuscule amount of scent work (she really enjoys it!).

Lupine is already provides such a great presence in our household and we are grateful to have to her!

Thank you, Alex! I love your self-awareness and your willingness to own a tiny misstep.

Alex identified that he was feeling some pressure to make sure Lupine lives up to her potential and he quickly recognized the dangers of that mindset when it drives us to do too much, too soon. Of course Team Lupine will do wonderful things — in fact, they already are because what matters most is that a puppy is valued and loved and clearly that is happening.

Have a Happy Wednesday!

More Wildflower Updates

We have two more wonderful Wildflower Updates — thanks to all the families for keeping us updated on our little friends.

We have this from the King family in Idaho:

Lucy (Clover) is doing great!  She is getting so much love from our two girls as well (Clara & Elena).  They are continuing to reinforce sit, down, come and stay.  

We crate her at night without piddle pad, and she’s sleeping about four hours at a time and then asking to go out.  She is super sweet and cuddly and fun.  She has about an hour and a half in the morning during which she is a land shark, but thankfully our black lab Sadie takes the brunt of that.  

She’s a great eater and always eager to help in the kitchen.  Lisa is cooking for her (using the BalanceIt recipes), and we are also using the raw and Orijen.  She loves any place that is cool, stretching out in the shade, under the coffee table or on the hardwood floors in the kitchen.  This stage is so much fun!!  

HA! Do we see a theme in these puppies??

Thank you, Kevin and Lisa! We love watching kids and puppies grow up together :)

Buttercup is living the lucky life with Georgia and Patty and their crew way up north in Washington — very close to where Zeus Mallow lives. Georgia sends us this report:

Well...We sure have enjoyed Buttercup immensely these past 2 weeks!  It seems everyone else is as enamored with their puppies as we are!  We can see the glint in all of their eyes!  Mary-Ann has given them such a wonderful start.  We kept Buttercup as a name, because we have lots of buttercups in our fields around here and whenever M-A would say, "What's up Buttercup?"  It always made us smile, because it was such a happy voice. 

Buttercup had quite the adventure on the way home!  I got a flat going 75 MPH on the highway in the mountains and had to limp the car to the Les Schwab in Kellogg, Idaho. Buttercup was a trooper, though (she slept through it all).  She made lots of friends, though, on her way home.  I'm sure that this guy, who gave her the paperwork for my new tire, will be a future Bernese Mountain Dog owner!

We're feeding Butttercup Orijen Large Breed kibble topped with Primal frozen raw food.  It comes in 1 oz. nuggets with a lot of different protein options. (It's so easy).  Buttercup eats like a crazed wolverine.  When she's done she carries her food bowl around (just in case you hadn't figured out that she LOVES her food).

I've dabbled in training her in Scent Work, Tracking, and Obedience.  Short sessions about 10- 15 minutes each.  She's a quick study and eager and attentive.

She seems like an 'Old Soul' to us (Wise and Sure), but she definitely has a wild streak.  Patty says: "We can only hope to contain her, not control her!"  HA!

We're really looking forward to having a play date with Zeus some time soon.

Cheers! from the 'Lucky Dog' gang.

LOVE!!!!

Thank you so much to Georgia and Patty for letting us all know what’s up with Buttercup.

More tomorrow :) In the meantime — Happy Wednesday.

Wildflower Updates!

We have our first updates from the scattered Wildflowers. This first one is blooming in North Carolina and our update comes from Eden:

Kadi formally known as Mariposa surprised me how well she handled her rather abrupt change from her first home to her new home in Raleigh.  Her first day from her morning stay in the hotel and then off to the airport, she was calm and didn’t fuss much. She was the hit of our fellow travel passengers and she met 9 new people that day.  Kadi has come to live with her Auntie Jannu and my husband, Chuck.  We got our first Berner over 33 years ago so we have a little experience with the breed and raising puppies.

KIM PERRY PHOTO

Kadi sleeps in a crate in the bedroom and is now making it 7-8 hours before asking to go out. During the day her favorite place to sleep is on the tile floor under the kitchen island.  When we cannot watch her, she stays in the “Office Suite” which is an x-pen in the office. Kadi is really good about settling down without much protest whether it is a crate in the car, bedroom, or x-pen. 

We have short play training sessions during the day. I am using clicker training for much of the sessions. We are working on foundation training such as come, sit, down, stand, watch, loose leash walking, and basic manners. She must sit before she is petted or fed. Since things have been going so well with the basics, I have added shake and crawl training the last couple of days as well as my indoor teeter trainer at the lowest level.  Kadi is wicked smart and it doesn’t take long for her to catch on. Our dogs have free access to a fenced back yard. We have been working on her learning how to come back into the house which is up a ramp and then 1 dog door into a screened in porch and a second heavier weather insulated dog door into the kitchen.  We thought with her small physical size it was going to take a few more weeks before she was strong enough to push the heavier dog door by herself. Much to my surprise Wednesday she had figured out how to jump on the heavy door and make her way into the kitchen.  Kadi is amazing.  Now we are working on reversing the process so she goes out to the yard by herself. 

KIM PERRY PHOTO

The puppy socialization period up to 12 weeks of age is very important so our goal is for Kadi to meet 100 different people by the end of that time. Our neighborhood makes it easy to meet a lot of people but I also have taken her to places like Home Depot and Farmers markets.  As of Sunday, she has met 77 people.

She weighed 15 lbs at her Veterinarian appointment on Wednesday. My Vet thought she had a nice temperament. She received her DAP shot and her first Heartguard plus treatment.

Although Kadi may sound perfect, she is a puppy.  She has her landshark moments and a couple of accidents when we were not watching close enough.  She has yet to learn to put her toys away.

Thank you, Eden, for giving Practically Perfect Kadi such a perfectly wonderful place to grow and blossom into all of her amazing potential. I am sure Kadi understands there is no sense putting toys away if one plans to use them again ;)

This next update comes from Colorado about the puppy formerly known as Paintbrush — Mariya shares:

There has been much deliberation on a name for this puppy.  While progressing in training, I found myself struggling with the names that I had tried on thus far.  I needed something that ended on a high note, positive, full of energy, fun to say, and very clearly a call name.  

I explained to Mary-Ann that my roots are Norwegian and Polish, however our family has taken on much of the Norse culture as my Grandfather was 100% and still spoke the original Norwegian dialect (which much to my grandmother's distaste, the elderly women in Norway adored when he visited).  We grew up very much in traditional Norwegian style with lefse, krumkaka, cold weather Nordic activities like ice fishing and nordic skiing, and yes, "Uff-da."  I spent many years in Fargo, ND, popular for the movie, and certainly after a drink or two (or with my sister/family), the Minnesooooda drawl comes back out.  I had looked into popular Norwegian names that start with a K, but struggled to find the right one.  I'm not entirely sure how I ran into this one, but I'm loving it, along with it's meaning - so I've decided on "Kjempe" for Paintbrush's name.  Pronounced "Shem-puh" he responds surprising well, as if it were his name all along.  Kjempe means "Giant" or "Titan" in Norwegian - certainly we will see him fit this name sooner than I think ha ha!  It also has an interesting slang - meaning to "super-size" which can be a prefix attached to anything:  kjempefint (super-good), kjempenysgjerrig (super-curious), and my personal favorite? "Kjempe Hund" (Super-Dog).  

Training and potty are going quite well (far better than I anticipated since getting home).  He is very content in his crate - I can tell it has become his special place.  His schedule is very routine at this point, which is helpful for me to plan my own activities around.  We are holding potty up to ~3-4 hours when sleeping, and so long as we take a #2 before bed (at 8:30-9), only get up once in the middle of the night to go potty.  It works out to be timed when I typically would get up anyways.  We wake up between 5:15-5:45.

Socializing, we are now comfortable with a collar and leash, so I am more confident to take him along with me to stores, breweries, parks, etc.  He still gets a little frighted by other dogs barking (though that has improved a lot these past few days thanks to Mary-Ann's advice on confidence and treats during barking events), and was a little nervous about a car driving nearby yesterday - more treats helped with that.  We had one outing to a pet store to buy a collar - because he was not yet collar/leash trained, I did not let him down.  He got a little squirmy, but did well.  

He has met all of the neighbors, a play date with another dog (Portuguese water dog named Howard), a number of visitors to the house, a few contractors, the vet, and a few people at the pet store.  He has met 24 people now (25 including myself) and I've had him for 2 weeks tomorrow.

His favorite toys are a small giraffe with a squeaker, a teddy bear that he sleeps with (and will literally drag to bed with him), a squeaky tennis ball, and his "girlfriend" a big Gnome that I call "Nomi" because I guess it's a girl gnome, if you catch my drift...!!

I'm finding that he does not like the homemade food as much, so I am still exploring recipes that Mary-Ann provided.  He does like Stella and Chewy's raw and likes Orijen kibble.  I would like to get him into homemade because I've found this makes for healthier #2's with a prior puppy.  Though, no issues on runny stool with Kjempe yet.  I do also incorporate the Fortiflora.  He also is not that into peanut butter, which surprised me.  Has a tendency to prefer dark/red meats (duck/beef) over the white meats (chicken/turkey), and definitely likes fish.   

The current challenge we are working on is not chasing/biting the cats.  We're working on being "nice" and approaching them slowly, but it is something that is taking some patience...any pointers on that would be great!

Growing fast - my scale was not tracking with the vet scale so I have a new one arriving today.  

Thank you, Mariya — love the name and all the meaning! As for cats and puppies — I trim the cats nails and then just let them all work it out. Cats are usually very good at training puppies ;)