Yesterday was a big day here. We had a puppy grooming part – well not just puppies, Indy and Bela got bathed as well. Poor dogs didn’t even get to go around the hill and get truly dirty to earn their showers. (It is rifle season for white tail deer here so better safe than sorry. If someone will hunt on our land without permission in spite of the posted signs, who knows what they’d do so I don’t take any chances.)
LeAnne brought my shared custody puppy back and Colleen brought Armada so we had 4 here for a while. SammieDoodlebug took the opportunity to open the bar for them, too. Last call puppies, I’m closing the bar after Pink! leaves so I can start treating her ears.
I gave the 4 puppies showers and then we did some grooming on big dogs. SammieDoodlebug needed her butt shaved fairly desperately so dog Cindi and Colleen took care of that. Then we did butts on Pink! and LemonyLimey Sprite and we Dremeled toenails on all 4 puppies. Armada got a little clean up shaving, too.
Tamara and Roger came to pick up the Curly girl (LemonyLimey Sprite until they rename her) and we let the puppies play a little with Fergie (the new big sister to the puppy.) Fergie may have wondered where the rest of them were (she really enjoyed playing with the puppies when we were there for evaluations and CERFs) but she was happy to play with the ones that were here. Since they came by here on their way home from PA (not exactly on the way but shorter than separate trips,) they didn’t get to visit as long as we’d like. Fortunately, for me anyway, we see each other a fair amount at shows, water practice, etc. I had to limit my Fudgesicle intake to one because the box was almost empty and Pink! was going today ;-(
Armada got to hang out with us for a while so I sort of had 3 puppies until into the evening. When it was bedtime, Calypso and Pink! were good girls and headed into their crates (for cookies) like little troupers. There was a minute or two of fussing and then they were quiet for the rest of the night. They were happy to see me this morning. I let the big dogs out first and I think that woke them up because they were awake when I got to them but they were obviously just waking up. We went right outside (part of the beauty of crating puppies by the door in the pool room) and they peed like they are supposed to do.
I didn’t steam the floor yesterday morning and with 5 full grown PWDs, a Boston Terrier (my sister’s dog who was visiting here with them for Thanksgiving) and some puppy playing, not to mention human traffic, it was ready. So I changed out the stuff in the puppy pen, vacuumed, and steamed the floor so we’d be ready for the new day. I hope I remember next time we have puppies how much easier it makes clean up when I put a sheet down. I can just steam the floor and not have to do any scrubbing to get off the little pieces of dried up oats or meat. Much easier on my fingernails, I must say.
The little girls enjoyed playing outside while I did the floors and cleaning and I called them back inside for naptime. They are very good at coming in when called (it doesn’t hurt that the cookie jar is on the way and they get a cookie for going in the pen.) A cookie to them is one (or a half) piece of Moist and Meaty (used to be Gainesburger’s) junky as food but makes a decent treat for most dogs. It’s small, stinky, and soft and easy to use. I usually give them one in the back of the crate (good things don’t happen near the door, move on back in there) and another on the opposite side of the pen for a sit. (It’s a good thing I have monkey arms because I had to change out the ex pen for the 42 inch one after Sprite mastered coming over the side of the 36 inch one. I waited as long as I could because I wanted people to be able to reach to pet sitting puppies over Thanksgiving. We made it through the holiday but not much longer.)
After getting good reports on Sprite’s first night in her new home (another good experience, yay for crating alone before they leave,) Pink!’s new people came to pick her up. Her new name is Duchess and she will be coming back here for Christmas. As I went to eat my last fudgesicle, I found another full box. I didn’t have to make do with that chocolate cake batter, chocolate syrup, chocolate chips and walnuts concoction.
Tomorrow, I will start putting all of the whelping and baby puppy stuff away, rearrange puppy area to be set up for just one puppy and eat a whole lot more Fudgesicles. I’ll also start working the Training Levels with Calypso. She’s already got a really good default sit, a pretty good down, and is great on nose touches (targeting your hand with her nose.) We were playing with rat on a stick this evening and she hopped right up on the couch with the ‘rat’ in her mouth. “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” I should probably start chanting that now ;-)
Nighty, nighty, nighty to all of our babies in their new homes. I may end up tracking Caly’s training on the blog but I don’t know yet.
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