Day two of Betty!
June 5, 2010
The hardest part of having a new puppy is how full on life suddenly becomes, everything focussed around the new baby! At seven weeks she is sleeping a lot of the time, yet my day is planned around when Betty eats, sleeps and taking her out to the toilet!Pie who loves puppies is distinctly unimpressed, grumping if Betty gets too close, dear little Betty simply goes into a submissive posture, low on her belly or retreats from him rapidly! Watching them I can see Pie does like her but is playing the big guy, letting her know who’s the boss here!
Pie looking on!
What a difference 24 hours makes, as it came up to exactly 24 hours from her arrival her confidence kicks in! She turns into a whirling dervish of mischief, hanging off my jeans, chasing Pie, who continues to stay macho and has to make a louder noise to deter her from jumping on him! I have only closed the cage door so far when she has her food, but I can see we need to be progressing now her confidence has arrived!
I spent most of the evening being entertained by her and Pie, Betty running at him, Pie barking, Betty retreating before rushing at him again and the whole act repeats itself! She is eating every bit of rubbish on the floor, inside and out! I can easily distract her from anything worrisome and cross my fingers and hope her stomach doesn’t react too badly!
Time to get creative with her entertainment, I am delighted with myself for thinking of hanging the ball on a rope on her cage door, so is Betty for a few minutes, but every bit helps!
Home entertainment!
The ball on a rope off the cage door keeps Betty busy for a while!
I couldn’t help but let her stay on my lap later in the evening when she fell asleep, I do love a cuddle 🙂 ! I knew I had to get her ready to be alone at bedtime, so after her last feed at 9pm we spent some time out side and once back in the kitchen, I busied myself to help her prepare for me leaving her again. At around 10pm I left the kitchen and went in my office for a few minutes until she stopped the tiny bit of whining and settled down.
Through the night I came too occasionally but again all was quiet! I got up at 6am to just one puddle and a happy Betty! She had obviously been very settled or she would have been more active and gone to the toilet more, I was delighted to see her rapid adjustment to her new home!
With this much confidence her training could begin today!
A new arrival!
June 3, 2010
Well I have done it now there is no going back! When Pie mated Annie’s Gracie I knew I would find it hard to resist the puppies! But really I didn’t mean to have a new puppy this year, really! You will have seen the photo’s on the blog already of the litter, so I am sure you can sympathise with meJ
It is done so we might all make the best of it nowJ so I am going to do a puppy diary, I am hoping it may be useful to others with new puppies or thinking about getting one, I look forward to your comments!
Meet Betty
Day one:
Coming home in the car I had Betty on my lap, she wasn’t Betty at that point, as I drove I went through various names, none of which seemed to fit nor got Betty’s approval,  as we passed Braintree and came on the A120 i said “Betty” and she immediately laid down and went sound asleep! So Betty it is, as we neared home Betty woke up to be sick, I instinctively put my hand under her mouth and caught her last meal, she promptly ate it again! She obviously wasn’t too stressed then!
On arriving home I let The Pie out to meet her, he was not so impressed, he has always like puppies but seemed to guess that this was a permanent resident and needed to learn who was in charge here, giving a quiet grump if she went near him, Betty reacted by crouching low to show her submissiveness, isn’t it amazing how they know to do that!?
I put my cage up in the kitchen ready for her with the towel I had brought from Annie’s and some toys,( Annie had used a crate for all the puppies so this was familiar to her already) Pie removed them the moment my back was turnedJ. I spent the evening either in the garden with both dogs or sitting nursing Betty, when she fell asleep I put her in her crate, where she soon settled down and so started the task of her getting used to being without the litter. I was acutely aware that just hours ago she had the constant company of her litter mates and a source of constant entertainment and warm bodies to snuggle up to.
upside down swinging on the camera cord!
Forgive me I haven't learnt it is rude to yawn yet!
Annie had kept the puppies in her utility room with access to her patio to toilet, therefore I had only to put her on my patio and she was toileting already. Come 10pm she was fast asleep in her crate in the kitchen and not wanting to disturb her I went off to bed wondering how much sleep I would get, I had put a crate up in my bedroom also, so that when she awoke I could take her to the toilet and then up stairs by my bed. I woke twice in the night to silence so slept on until 6am when I could wait no longer and went to the kitchen, dear little Betty was very pleased to see me, trembling with excitement! She had been out into the kitchen to do two poohs and two little puddles, far too young to go through the night yet toilet wise, I thought she had done really well to settle herself down again and sleep until I got up!
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