I know its been a while since I've posted anything so I'll try to get a little caught up about the last four months.
Through the summer we worked on training as we were able to and I feel like we're making some progress through probably 6-7 small group training sessions and 2 training days with the Pinelands retriever club.
However as of the last session we had a relapse in obedience and I have to take steps back to get to where we need to be. She's picking it up quick though and I guess I just need to work harder on finishing each step as I go, although I don't exactly know when I'm finished since this is the first time I'm doing all this. I did collar condition her but from what I understand this is an aspect of re-working obedience that I'll have to work on as she will blow through commands when she gets focused on something.
Right before the relapse I was working on force fetch and finishing her with birds. I had gone through buck, bumper, and stick force fetch and she had done pretty well, but she has a horrible hold and I'm finding correcting that very frustrating. She'll hold, but she'll continually play with whatever is in her mouth while she's sitting next to me. I guess that its just a matter of time and work.
The other big ticket issue that will likely take time to correct is her vocalization. Its going to be hard to correct because I don't have a lot of opportunity to work with her on it. The good part is she doesn't do it all the time. The bad part is the more dogs or people that are present (like at the Pinelands training session or a future hunt test) she gets amped up and when she hears the duck call or hears the shot she often starts whining and crying. The good part of her not doing it in other situations is that it will likely not affect our hunting together. She learns well enough so I'll just have to take advantage of opportunities in group training to work on this when other dogs are running, which I think will also improve her honor.
Sophie is now weighing in at 64 pounds and I'm wondering how big she'll get. She has a lanky appearance to her and I'm guessing that over the next 6 months she'll finish filling in. But likely she won't become much taller at 11 1/2 months now.
I've had her out a few times now for hunting. Once for ducks and twice for pheasants. I'll post some pictures after this entry and do my best to stay a little more up to date.
A question for anyone who is reading. At what age did you switch your dog from puppy to adult food. We're about to do it now, but I've read that many people switch much earlier. What do you do?
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The second group lesson
I took Sophie out for a second group lesson this weekend to get more input from the group and get help moving her along in training. Overall the review was good. Joe felt like I was being appropriate in moving her along slowly in terms of yardwork and she's all about retrieving in terms of fieldwork. We gave her 6 marks over the course of the few hours that I was there in between her and the other dogs working. There were a couple other labs as well as a couple goldens working on Saturday. He felt like we can give her a little pressure in terms of using the pinch collar, but we have to be careful not to over-correct. Today we did some yardwork in the field behind the house and then gave her a few marks with Dawn being my gunner.
I love the fact that she's only four months old and she gets locked in when we're throwing marks. When she hears the training pistol she's looking for something in the air and when somethings is in the air she's off like a shot. It took no time at all for her to get excited about "the game". She loves retrieving the bumpers, not so much giving them up.
Saturday afternoon she helped me clean up the closet and bag my duck decoys in the more protective bags I recently got after they were backordered for what seemed like eternity.
The problems we've dealt with so far
I thought I'd do a quick post on some of the issues we've dealt with so far. While I've had dogs in the past,
Zach- The black lab that my family had when I was very young. Unfortunately ran away when I mistakenly let him out of the house at our brand new home when I was 2 years old.
Tramp- The cocker spaniel that we had from when I was +/- 2 to 12. Great family dog. I still have a thing for spaniels and we considered an english springer before choosing a lab.
Jake- The started GSP we got at 1 1/2 years old when I was in 10th grade. Awesome dog. Big, friendly with an great nose. Some of my greatest memories of my high school years are hunting north-central PA stockies with that dog and Jim Slusarick.
...this is the first time that I've had a dog from puppyhood on where I'm the primary owner doing most of the training.
The biggest issues in raising her so far have been potty training, keeping her off the furniture, jumping up, and play biting.
1. Keeping her off the furniture was one of the problems we've essentially solved. She doesn't do it anymore, or at least hasn't for 2 1/2-3 weeks. As soon as she was big enough to jump up a little she was putting her front legs on the chairs and sofa. With a leather sofa that was a big no-no. Our first tactic was simple correction with a loud no. That worked for about an hour before she wasn't listening to that. Then we started pushing her off the furniture and while it got her off the furniture it seemed like she started to challenge us and would bark a little and jump back up. This ongoing issue is how we ended up with the earlier detailed injury, which thank goodness ended up ok, but could've been catastrophic. Finally we took a tin can and put 8-10 pennies in it and now shake it when she jumps up on the furniture. That worked like a charm. Problem solved. At first I was reluctant to do it because I thought she might associate the loud noise in general with bad things (not good for a gun dog). However, we're just using the can in the house and it hasn't crossed over at all. She's still looking great at the crack of the training pistol.
2. Jumping up. Still an issue, but I think its getting better. Again, starting with "no" I'm now bumping into her more when she jumps up. Not kneeing her, but just stepping forward so she gets a little off balance. A little scary after the injury, but its the best I can think of at this point. When the green can is around we're using that, but its hard to keep that on you at all times.
3. Play biting. I think its largely our fault for how we were playing with her from the time we got her, but we're now trying to correct this issue and I think its getting solved fairly quickly. Its really only an issue when we're on the ground playing with her, never when we're standing. When we play with her she thinks our hands are her toys and nibbles a little. I'm sure its not helped by the fact that she's teething. To prevent this I'm now pushing her lip into and under her teeth when she's doing this nibbling so that whenever she's biting me she's biting herself at the same time. Its taking time through multiple sessions, but with each session she only has to do it one or two times before she goes to do it, but hesitates and licks or moves to the other hand. She's got a bit of an attitude and doesn't like that she doesn't get her way, but we're working on it.
4. Potty training. The big one. Still working on it, but day by day things are getting better. We've never had much of an issue with #2 in the house. There've been a couple episodes mostly when we had her in the first couple weeks, but she does the potty dance well enough that we figured out when she had to go out for the deuce. The worst episode was when she had a bit of diarrhea adjusting to a different food. Now #1... thats a different story. It seems like she has psychogenic polydipsia sometimes (look it up). Its so hard because sometimes it seems like she has to go every 45 minutes and we're thinking you can't have to go because you just went. I don't know how many of these types of accidents there have been, don't think I (or Dawn) want to know. I think that its hard because it at the same time we're trying to teach her to signal us, its a matter of us learning what her signals are, and the worst part on our end is our sometimes rotating schedule. It makes it very difficult to have her on a regular schedule. Now at 4 months old I think we have it nailed down. I say that now after 2 months hoping there's no more surprises. The most frustrating part is that she can't seem to hold her bladder for any amount of time outside of the kennel, but has no issue holding it inside of the kennel for reasonable amounts of time. It was easy enough to make her learn that going outside is good and she totally understands that. Now she knows that going inside the house is bad, but she still has to go allll the time.
Zach- The black lab that my family had when I was very young. Unfortunately ran away when I mistakenly let him out of the house at our brand new home when I was 2 years old.
Tramp- The cocker spaniel that we had from when I was +/- 2 to 12. Great family dog. I still have a thing for spaniels and we considered an english springer before choosing a lab.
Jake- The started GSP we got at 1 1/2 years old when I was in 10th grade. Awesome dog. Big, friendly with an great nose. Some of my greatest memories of my high school years are hunting north-central PA stockies with that dog and Jim Slusarick.
...this is the first time that I've had a dog from puppyhood on where I'm the primary owner doing most of the training.
The biggest issues in raising her so far have been potty training, keeping her off the furniture, jumping up, and play biting.
1. Keeping her off the furniture was one of the problems we've essentially solved. She doesn't do it anymore, or at least hasn't for 2 1/2-3 weeks. As soon as she was big enough to jump up a little she was putting her front legs on the chairs and sofa. With a leather sofa that was a big no-no. Our first tactic was simple correction with a loud no. That worked for about an hour before she wasn't listening to that. Then we started pushing her off the furniture and while it got her off the furniture it seemed like she started to challenge us and would bark a little and jump back up. This ongoing issue is how we ended up with the earlier detailed injury, which thank goodness ended up ok, but could've been catastrophic. Finally we took a tin can and put 8-10 pennies in it and now shake it when she jumps up on the furniture. That worked like a charm. Problem solved. At first I was reluctant to do it because I thought she might associate the loud noise in general with bad things (not good for a gun dog). However, we're just using the can in the house and it hasn't crossed over at all. She's still looking great at the crack of the training pistol.
2. Jumping up. Still an issue, but I think its getting better. Again, starting with "no" I'm now bumping into her more when she jumps up. Not kneeing her, but just stepping forward so she gets a little off balance. A little scary after the injury, but its the best I can think of at this point. When the green can is around we're using that, but its hard to keep that on you at all times.
3. Play biting. I think its largely our fault for how we were playing with her from the time we got her, but we're now trying to correct this issue and I think its getting solved fairly quickly. Its really only an issue when we're on the ground playing with her, never when we're standing. When we play with her she thinks our hands are her toys and nibbles a little. I'm sure its not helped by the fact that she's teething. To prevent this I'm now pushing her lip into and under her teeth when she's doing this nibbling so that whenever she's biting me she's biting herself at the same time. Its taking time through multiple sessions, but with each session she only has to do it one or two times before she goes to do it, but hesitates and licks or moves to the other hand. She's got a bit of an attitude and doesn't like that she doesn't get her way, but we're working on it.
4. Potty training. The big one. Still working on it, but day by day things are getting better. We've never had much of an issue with #2 in the house. There've been a couple episodes mostly when we had her in the first couple weeks, but she does the potty dance well enough that we figured out when she had to go out for the deuce. The worst episode was when she had a bit of diarrhea adjusting to a different food. Now #1... thats a different story. It seems like she has psychogenic polydipsia sometimes (look it up). Its so hard because sometimes it seems like she has to go every 45 minutes and we're thinking you can't have to go because you just went. I don't know how many of these types of accidents there have been, don't think I (or Dawn) want to know. I think that its hard because it at the same time we're trying to teach her to signal us, its a matter of us learning what her signals are, and the worst part on our end is our sometimes rotating schedule. It makes it very difficult to have her on a regular schedule. Now at 4 months old I think we have it nailed down. I say that now after 2 months hoping there's no more surprises. The most frustrating part is that she can't seem to hold her bladder for any amount of time outside of the kennel, but has no issue holding it inside of the kennel for reasonable amounts of time. It was easy enough to make her learn that going outside is good and she totally understands that. Now she knows that going inside the house is bad, but she still has to go allll the time.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
First training lesson
Sophie's been gaining weight and growing at a rapid pace. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but, last week at her vet visit she checked in at 30 pounds and 3 weeks before that I believe she checked in at 25.
With her healed and having energy to burn I took her out to Joe Eschert's place in Franklinville for a first lesson 1 1/2 weeks ago. Joe is the owner of 4 chocolate lab master hunters and is also the president of Pinelands Retriever Club, which I joined this year. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make the years first meeting due to working overnights, but several members of the club were at his place for the lesson. He runs training clinics 4-5 days a week for several hours working with dogs of all ages.
The first time out went well and I fully realize that I need to be trained as much as she does. The lesson was good for socialization and a bit of beginning homework that is actually yardwork for the dog and I. She did get a couple throws in and fetched great. It seems like force fetch is going to be some work with the way she holds onto the bumpers once she gets back to me, but she is all about whatever is thrown for her and has no fear of the gun at this point. I think that her yardwork will be harder than the fieldwork.
We're working on good citizenship and mixing in a few throws here and there. We're making headway with some simple important things like keeping her off the cough, decreasing the amount of jumping and play biting. There is still an occasional accident in the house, which is frustrating, but we're sticking with it and tackling the problems one at a time.
I also registered her with the AKC and she's officially titled "Dillon's Dark and Stormy by Lamborn's". Not bad, I like the ring it has.
After the injury we also got insurance with PetPlan. I looked at a couple other places and what they provided, but with the care plan that we already have with Banfield the best option was PetPlan because of the price and what they covered.
This weekend coming up is another lesson. I got some training supplies from Gun Dog Supply online. I liked their selection and pricing a lot. For anyone shopping around I reccomend it. The website is good and my order came with a handwritten "Thanks for the order" from someone at the company.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
The weeks after the injury
So the two weeks after the injury on the 31st were difficulty.
On the first 2 days she was lame and refused to use the left rear leg for that limited time we had her out of the kennel to go to the bathroom. The first thing to return on the 3rd day was her spirit and it made it hard to keep her in the kennel all the time because she wanted to be outside. Over the next 4-5 days when she was out to go to the bathroom she was just put down the leg so that the toes touched and wouldn't walk on it. The 2nd week she would walk gingerly and by the end of the second week the only noticeable difference was that when she was eat or drink she would kind of hold that leg up a little.
Over the course of the 3rd week maybe just a little fatigue with very short walks and after that and into now she's been fine.
On the next vet visit, which I believe was at the end of the second week he couldn't notice anything and gave her a clean bill of health. In terms of differential diagnosis with the recovery she's had and the exam from the vet CCL tear (partial or full) or strain was pretty much ruled out. The vet said it could've been a simple strain or that maybe she twisted her kneecap a bit.
Good stuff for as bad as it could've been and if you saw her now you'd never guess she'd had any injury.
On the first 2 days she was lame and refused to use the left rear leg for that limited time we had her out of the kennel to go to the bathroom. The first thing to return on the 3rd day was her spirit and it made it hard to keep her in the kennel all the time because she wanted to be outside. Over the next 4-5 days when she was out to go to the bathroom she was just put down the leg so that the toes touched and wouldn't walk on it. The 2nd week she would walk gingerly and by the end of the second week the only noticeable difference was that when she was eat or drink she would kind of hold that leg up a little.
Over the course of the 3rd week maybe just a little fatigue with very short walks and after that and into now she's been fine.
On the next vet visit, which I believe was at the end of the second week he couldn't notice anything and gave her a clean bill of health. In terms of differential diagnosis with the recovery she's had and the exam from the vet CCL tear (partial or full) or strain was pretty much ruled out. The vet said it could've been a simple strain or that maybe she twisted her kneecap a bit.
Good stuff for as bad as it could've been and if you saw her now you'd never guess she'd had any injury.
I'm starting the catch up process...
I know I know. I'm way behind. I'll make several entries over the next few days to get caught up to where we are now with Sophie. Until I sat down to catch up I didn't realize how long it had been since I blogged. At the end of this one I'll include some photos that were taken at the end of January. I haven't taken many recent photos and videos so I'll have to catch up.
First for the bad news. On 1/31/11 we were at home an in that previous week she had been jumping up and putting her front legs on the couch. To correct her we were saying "Off" and then pulling her off the couch by her collar.
Unfortunately on the 31st she jumped up onto the Ottoman and when we went to correct her she yelped out and came up lame with her left rear leg. She refused to use it and was crying.
First for the bad news. On 1/31/11 we were at home an in that previous week she had been jumping up and putting her front legs on the couch. To correct her we were saying "Off" and then pulling her off the couch by her collar.
Unfortunately on the 31st she jumped up onto the Ottoman and when we went to correct her she yelped out and came up lame with her left rear leg. She refused to use it and was crying.
I ended up taking her to the Swedesboro veterinary ED. They did rear leg x-rays which were negative except for what appeared to be some inflammatory signs at the left knee. The good and the bad of that was that while there was no evidence of fracture or dislocation it didn't make a diagnosis. Still on the table were anything from a simple muscle strain all the way to a catastrophic craniate crucial liagment full tear (ACL tear). It would just be a matter of time until we knew what the significance of the injury was. In the end I was given 3 days of Meloxicam and 5-6 of Tramadol for pain relief and told to follow her closely and restrict all activities for the next two weeks with only time out for potty.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
1 week and going strong
Its now been one week since we've had Sophie and things are going pretty well. The first two nights were definitely an adjustment for her. Lots of crying and whining, but I'd say the adjustment went well because it was only the first two nights. She does still whine sometimes when we crate her during the day, but its light years better than the initial start.
She adjusted to the week schedule well after the first couple days, but I feel like the weekend (and the dose of snow and cold we got Saturday) really threw her off. I felt pretty good that we'd dropped no deuces in the house all week long, but then with the amount of time she was out of the kennel on Saturday and probably with a lack of close supervision that streak was broken. The snow didn't help any because she does not want to be outside. Other than this Saturday potty training is going really well. However, while she's getting the gist of things, she'll go right away and want to go back in even though I'm looking for the second act, which is kind of what happened with the afore mentioned incident.
I feel like she's really beginning to bond with me and I feel like she's looking at me as the owner. Treat training has begun and she sits and comes like a champ when she wants to. We're starting to work on down, and I'll update everyone on how thats going on my next post. She's definitely got a puppy attention span so I'm taking it easy and doing 3-4 reps 2x a day or so. Along with this I'm starting to work in the whistle for sit and here. With dinner time and the treat training I've also slowly introduced the cap gun (which gets a little loud in the apartment) and there's been little/no signs of trepidation from her at all.
I'm also throwing 3-4 bumpers a day in the hall and she's doing these single marks with ease and is pretty hard charging with them. I've included a video of this below. I have a couple goose wings that I'll let her have every now and then and before the snow we had a day with a temp of about 50 where we went out behind the house and she was doing 15 yard retrieves with the wing with ease. Again, however, I'm cutting it at 3-4 retrieves and keeping the enthusiasm high when I take it away.
One thing I can't get over is how big how quick she's getting. In the couple days before we picked her up she clocked in at 9.5 lbs and on friday we had our first vet visit where she clocked in at 12. I literally feel like I sometimes crate her and then come back in the morning and she's physically larger. The vet visit went well and I got her first round of heartworm and flea and tick medications which I'll give to her next week. I also got another deworming medication that I gave to her this past friday and will again give to her in 2 weeks.
For veterinary services we chose to go to the Banfield clinic. It may seem like a chain and big shop going to the clinic in PetSmart, but its nice to know its an independent clinic and not PetSmart owned. The vet was a nice lady about my age and helped with a couple questions I had (one was why do they do an ovario-hysterectomy when they spay, rather than just oopherectomy or hysterectomy, and the answer is because it reduces cancer risk overall). Banfield offers a primary care plan at an introductory rate with a monthly payment, which is nice because we'll avoid large bills. This includes the spaying, but not any other surgeries or medications.
The next thing I'll do is shop for medication costs for online meds vs. the discount rate they (Banfield) gives me as a primary care plan enrollee. The other item is to find a pet insurance that we like. I feel like this is almost an indespensable cost due to the chances that she may need some sort of surgery. My cousin has a lab thats torn 2 ACLs ($4000 per repair, and thats after shopping around) and with us likely doing a lot of training, hunt trialing, and hunting the chances of injury are higher. The vet also mentioned labs are at an increased risk of foreign body ingestion. The quote I have as of now is for PetPlan: $240 per year premium with a $200 deductible and 10% co-insurance that covers up to $8000 in surgery. If anyone has some suggestions please comment and let me know.
Lastly I called Joe Eschert the president of Pinelands Retriever Club to get more information about the club and what they're about. I learned a little, namely that the club is what I'm looking for. From his description he said the club is a group of friendly people who love retrievers and work on training and hunt trialing for their dogs. Along with that he does do some pay for training and offered to have me come out for a gratis lesson before Sophie and I embark on formal obedience. He relayed that he owns 4 master hunter labs and one master hunter to be. Sounds accomplished enough to me.
She adjusted to the week schedule well after the first couple days, but I feel like the weekend (and the dose of snow and cold we got Saturday) really threw her off. I felt pretty good that we'd dropped no deuces in the house all week long, but then with the amount of time she was out of the kennel on Saturday and probably with a lack of close supervision that streak was broken. The snow didn't help any because she does not want to be outside. Other than this Saturday potty training is going really well. However, while she's getting the gist of things, she'll go right away and want to go back in even though I'm looking for the second act, which is kind of what happened with the afore mentioned incident.
I feel like she's really beginning to bond with me and I feel like she's looking at me as the owner. Treat training has begun and she sits and comes like a champ when she wants to. We're starting to work on down, and I'll update everyone on how thats going on my next post. She's definitely got a puppy attention span so I'm taking it easy and doing 3-4 reps 2x a day or so. Along with this I'm starting to work in the whistle for sit and here. With dinner time and the treat training I've also slowly introduced the cap gun (which gets a little loud in the apartment) and there's been little/no signs of trepidation from her at all.
I'm also throwing 3-4 bumpers a day in the hall and she's doing these single marks with ease and is pretty hard charging with them. I've included a video of this below. I have a couple goose wings that I'll let her have every now and then and before the snow we had a day with a temp of about 50 where we went out behind the house and she was doing 15 yard retrieves with the wing with ease. Again, however, I'm cutting it at 3-4 retrieves and keeping the enthusiasm high when I take it away.
One thing I can't get over is how big how quick she's getting. In the couple days before we picked her up she clocked in at 9.5 lbs and on friday we had our first vet visit where she clocked in at 12. I literally feel like I sometimes crate her and then come back in the morning and she's physically larger. The vet visit went well and I got her first round of heartworm and flea and tick medications which I'll give to her next week. I also got another deworming medication that I gave to her this past friday and will again give to her in 2 weeks.
For veterinary services we chose to go to the Banfield clinic. It may seem like a chain and big shop going to the clinic in PetSmart, but its nice to know its an independent clinic and not PetSmart owned. The vet was a nice lady about my age and helped with a couple questions I had (one was why do they do an ovario-hysterectomy when they spay, rather than just oopherectomy or hysterectomy, and the answer is because it reduces cancer risk overall). Banfield offers a primary care plan at an introductory rate with a monthly payment, which is nice because we'll avoid large bills. This includes the spaying, but not any other surgeries or medications.
The next thing I'll do is shop for medication costs for online meds vs. the discount rate they (Banfield) gives me as a primary care plan enrollee. The other item is to find a pet insurance that we like. I feel like this is almost an indespensable cost due to the chances that she may need some sort of surgery. My cousin has a lab thats torn 2 ACLs ($4000 per repair, and thats after shopping around) and with us likely doing a lot of training, hunt trialing, and hunting the chances of injury are higher. The vet also mentioned labs are at an increased risk of foreign body ingestion. The quote I have as of now is for PetPlan: $240 per year premium with a $200 deductible and 10% co-insurance that covers up to $8000 in surgery. If anyone has some suggestions please comment and let me know.
Lastly I called Joe Eschert the president of Pinelands Retriever Club to get more information about the club and what they're about. I learned a little, namely that the club is what I'm looking for. From his description he said the club is a group of friendly people who love retrievers and work on training and hunt trialing for their dogs. Along with that he does do some pay for training and offered to have me come out for a gratis lesson before Sophie and I embark on formal obedience. He relayed that he owns 4 master hunter labs and one master hunter to be. Sounds accomplished enough to me.
Monday, January 3, 2011
D-Day
Finally time for pick-up. I was definitely excited, but probably more nervous. I just want to be sure I'm doing the best I can for the dog. I think we're prepared, I feel like we're prepared, but you just have to take it as it comes.
The drive out was documented by my buddy Brad, and he also took a few videos while we were at Karen Shoemaker's. The pick-up went well and soon we were on the way with my wife's and my new dog! I received my papers for registration and copies of both the parents OFA and CERF certification. I also got both of their lineages, which I'll include photos of.
The puppy did cry for the first 10 minutes of the ride and it was tough to see her going through such a shock, which continued for the rest of the night. Potty training commenced immediately and we're already trying our best to limit the number of in house accidents. She started to explore the boundaries we set for her which include the kitchen, living room, and hallway (bedrooms are off limits). Crate training is I guess what I expected, but she does have a set of lungs. We put her in the crate about 10:30, which she's not a fan of at all. The crying and whining continued from then until 1:30 when she and I finally went to sleep. I did walk her about 1 am and I think after than she was finally pooped out enough to take a break until 7 am then next day.
The drive out was documented by my buddy Brad, and he also took a few videos while we were at Karen Shoemaker's. The pick-up went well and soon we were on the way with my wife's and my new dog! I received my papers for registration and copies of both the parents OFA and CERF certification. I also got both of their lineages, which I'll include photos of.
The puppy did cry for the first 10 minutes of the ride and it was tough to see her going through such a shock, which continued for the rest of the night. Potty training commenced immediately and we're already trying our best to limit the number of in house accidents. She started to explore the boundaries we set for her which include the kitchen, living room, and hallway (bedrooms are off limits). Crate training is I guess what I expected, but she does have a set of lungs. We put her in the crate about 10:30, which she's not a fan of at all. The crying and whining continued from then until 1:30 when she and I finally went to sleep. I did walk her about 1 am and I think after than she was finally pooped out enough to take a break until 7 am then next day.
Friday, December 24, 2010
The pick!
The time has come and we got the call saying that our number had come and we were able to come out to pick out our young lady. My wife and I coordinated our schedules to pick out our pup on the way to Pittsburgh, where we're visiting family for the holidays.
I'm so happy that we took our time in choosing a breeder and a litter before we had to pick out our pup because it was very difficult. While talking to the breeder helped to identify some personal characteristics at this age its just so hard to know. Yes, there are differences in physical traits, but a lot of the pups just fall into that middle range. I'm really hoping that it's the litter more than the puppy picking that will help us to have the best dog possible (besides the obvious required time and training).
There were a couple pups that stood out. The green collar was the smallest and the feistiest (I think it should be named nibbler. The plum collar was the largest female. The purple female was already picked by the family with the first black female pick, but I have to admit she was quite the cutie and very friendly. It was difficult to choose and we compared the lavender, fuchsia, plum, and the light blue collared pups.
One of the harder parts about choosing is that in the first 5 minutes you're there and assessing them is you want to form an opinion about the personalities of the puppies. So I'm thinking well the purple and light blue are playful, while the plum is playful, but more cautious and the breeder says the lavender likes to be held. But then you're there for 10 more minutes and the plum and the lavender are the most playful and the purple and light blue are taking it easy.
By assessing them two by two and essentially considering their physical characteristics more so than trying to assess their personalities we did make a decision. The Plum collared puppy. My wife wanted a larger pup (and potentially dog) and the Plum is the largest female and 3rd largest pup in the litter. I included a few pictures and some videos as well (courtesy of my early Christmas present - A FlipHD).
D-day is 1/1/11 in the early afternoon. Definitely excited, definitely nervous. Pretty sure I'm going to something wrong, but hopefully we'll figure it out.
I'm so happy that we took our time in choosing a breeder and a litter before we had to pick out our pup because it was very difficult. While talking to the breeder helped to identify some personal characteristics at this age its just so hard to know. Yes, there are differences in physical traits, but a lot of the pups just fall into that middle range. I'm really hoping that it's the litter more than the puppy picking that will help us to have the best dog possible (besides the obvious required time and training).
There were a couple pups that stood out. The green collar was the smallest and the feistiest (I think it should be named nibbler. The plum collar was the largest female. The purple female was already picked by the family with the first black female pick, but I have to admit she was quite the cutie and very friendly. It was difficult to choose and we compared the lavender, fuchsia, plum, and the light blue collared pups.
One of the harder parts about choosing is that in the first 5 minutes you're there and assessing them is you want to form an opinion about the personalities of the puppies. So I'm thinking well the purple and light blue are playful, while the plum is playful, but more cautious and the breeder says the lavender likes to be held. But then you're there for 10 more minutes and the plum and the lavender are the most playful and the purple and light blue are taking it easy.
By assessing them two by two and essentially considering their physical characteristics more so than trying to assess their personalities we did make a decision. The Plum collared puppy. My wife wanted a larger pup (and potentially dog) and the Plum is the largest female and 3rd largest pup in the litter. I included a few pictures and some videos as well (courtesy of my early Christmas present - A FlipHD).
D-day is 1/1/11 in the early afternoon. Definitely excited, definitely nervous. Pretty sure I'm going to something wrong, but hopefully we'll figure it out.
Birthday
The puppies were born on 11/13/10 through the course of the day. 9 total with the largest portion being black females. We chose the color black primarily and were fine with either sex, and because of us being a mid pick we will have a black female. There was also 1 black male and 2 yellow males with 0 yellow females. Everything is going well and the next post will be our puppy pick.
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