Puppy's First "Real" Snow

Well winter has finally shown its big ugly head here in Waterloo.  I know myself and many others were enjoying the mild weather this far into December, we all knew it couldn't last forever.  This morning Ilse and I went for our walk in the -8°C (-18°C with wind) weather.   She didn't seem to mind, but I didn't particularly enjoy it.
Later on I decided that we should play in the back yard.  Here are some photos from that:

She was having a really good time playing with her kong so I decided to take a video of her.  Of course I had to add corny music to it.  Otherwise it wouldn't be nearly as adorable.

Overall, Ilse and I are doing well and are making progress in a lot of areas.  I will have more pictures from over the holidays and stories up soon.

First Trip Out

First off, it has been too long since my last post.  With it being the Christmas season, I'm sure you all know how busy things get.  

Anyways, last-last Friday (Dec. 16th) Ilse and I travelled to the wondrous Staples in Waterloo.  Two co-workers and I had to pick up some office supplies for the end of the work year, so we figured it would be a good opportunity to try our hand (and paws) at going out in public.  

I was pretty anxious about the outing and thought that it would be a disaster.  But, once again Ilse surprised me for the better.  She was very well behaved after the initial excitement wore down.  I was able to get her to settle down and listen and we worked on sitting/laying down and she did quite well.  

These were taken at Staples by my co-worker/friend EW.

Since then, we have been to several other places.  Mini-marts, the bank and Sobeys.  Each time she has performed well and draws a crowd.   It's definitely tough having people want to see her and play with her and having to let them know "yes you can, but you need to wait til she is ready".  Many people just want to pet her right away.  But with each outing she is getting better.

On one outing at Sobeys with my brother and Ilse, we both came to the realization that in public she likes to "show off"  meaning that she will behave better out then at home.  (this is not to say she is bad at home, she's good there too, just better when out with her jacket)

Happy 10th Week!

Well yesterday Ilse hit the 10 week old mark and well, looking back at how she used to be, she has improved heaps!

She is now consistently sitting on command, and we are working on down still.  As well she is walking very well with me, but still gets excited when seeing new people or other animals.  What I am really happy with, is that she will now sit and wait until I say 'ok' before getting her food.   We are also working on sitting at the door and only leaving when I say "forward"  and she is starting to get the concept.

I think she is more/less house broken now, I can't remember when her last accident was, so that's always a good thing.

However, I did see that she has started being more "whiny"  when it comes to be bedtime.  I know she's not hungry or thirsty.  I let her out before bed and she is getting walked 3 times a day, plus playtime, so I know she is tired.   The only thing I can think that might be disturbing her, is people coming in/out of the front door.   Either that or she is just getting very attached to being with me, in which case I will need to work on spending time apart from her.

All in all though, despite being very frustrated at times, and exhausted from getting up in the middle of the night to let her out.   She is coming along nicely and I am very proud of her progress.  

Making Friends

Well it's been a busy week with work, the house, and uh... what was that other thing?  OH RIGHT.  Ilse.   I guess I should start this post of with a moderately embarrassing correction.  Before I mentioned Ilse's name was pronounced "Ill-see", well in reality it is pronounced "Ill-sah".  My apologies to the sponsor of the puppy, we have made the switch and she is getting used to it now.  So, without further ado.... everyone meet, Ilse ("Ill-sah").  Haha.

"What do you mean, we can't play right now?"

This is what kills me about Ilse, her eyes always look like she is sad, despite being a pretty happy puppy.   It's hard to not give in to whatever she wants.  But I must stay strong! 

She is making excellent progress (in my opinion) in terms of training.   She will sit on command 100% of the time when focussed and slightly less so when moderately focussed.  However, we do still need to get her working on the focussing part.  But... we'll get there in time.   My goal is to have her responding to the 'down' command by Monday, so that is on tonight's agenda and this weekend.

Aside from training, she is just being the usual puppy and wants to make friends with anyone and everyone.  One of the good friends that she has made is my friend EW's 3.5 year old beagle named Boomer.   The two have played together a few times now, and they get along really well.  Boomer is very patient with Ilse and will play along, but keep her in check.  They are a lot of fun to watch when they are playing and here are some photos of it, courtesy of EW.

First Puppy Class and Puppy Sitting

Well this last weekend was quite hectic.  Working a part-time job on weekends to make some extra cash before the holidays left Ilse in the capable hands of some people.  On Friday night, Ilse was watched by my roommate KL, who left and then had her happily in her crate for when I arrived home later that night.  Of course, once I got home I wanted to see the little ball of fur, and she was pretty sleepy and I didn't get much out of her.  So, she went outside, then came and sleep at my feet as I watched TV.

On Saturday evening, my full time employer was hosting out annual Christmas party at the luxurious Langdon Hall in Cambridge, and event I did not want to miss.   So, my sister JK and her fiancée JB, took her in for the evening and she behaved pretty well.  (for a puppy).   I was really worried about handing her off for the night, its one thing for me to suffer through the whining and getting up at 4am, after all, I was the one that signed up for it, but to have someone else do it just seems unfair.   But as I was saying she was relatively well behaved, which was a relief, now the potential for my sister to watch her again still exists.  But then again who wouldn't want to spend time with this face? Here are some photos of their time together.  

Then tonight I had my first puppy class.   Unfortunately Ilse and I have not worked on "focus" enough yet, so she was a bit distracted by the other dogs in the class.  However, I did pick up some good info and will work with her on this and "down" over the week to come.  Oh, and on Friday night Ilse started to grasp the concept of "sit"  she still needs work on focusing on commands, however, when she is focussed she nails it!  I'm pretty proud of her, she learning quickly and putting pressure on me to keep up with her.

Good Day, Tough Night

Well yesterday was overall a pretty good day for Ilse and me.  We limited her accidents to one and it only happened as we were heading to the door.  She was so close to a perfect day, but couldn't hold it!  That's ok, we're trying again today, I know she'll get there eventually, just need to be patient.

I was able to get her to sleep in her crate for most of the day while I was working, (mentioned that a bit yesterday).   However, what I realized is that she likes to sleep in very odd ways while she is in there, but if it makes her happy.

Essentially, she co-operated with me great yesterday during the day, but once it was about 5:30pm, she decided I'm going to see how much I can frustrate you Peter.  We played a bunch and worked on her sitting, then we were going to go for a walk.  Nope, not interested.  Ok, fine we'll play in backyard.  Awesome.  Time to go inside.  Nope, not interested.  Finally, we get back inside and she is still all excited, ok we'll play with your toys again. Nope, not interested. Ok, lets try going for a walk again. Nope, not interested. Alright, you can run around on the front lawn.  Awesome. Time to go inside.  Nope, not interested. We went then went downstairs and tried to play a bit more, to take away some of her energy, she was interested in playing with ANYTHING other than her toys.   My frustration at this point is getting high, thankfully my roommate JY started playing with her, and gave me a break.   Shortly after that she peaced out for the night, which I was quite thankful for. I soon fell asleep on the couch with her lying on the floor beside me, waking up periodically to make sure she was still there and sure enough, she was.

Another Day Down

I've now spent two complete days with Ilse and we are both starting to get more comfortable around each other.  I starting to develop a sense for when she has to go outside, and she is getting better at informing me when she needs to go.  I'm writing this just after she went to my office door, pawed at it and let out a small whine.   We quickly headed outside where she found a spot on the lawn.  So far no accidents in the house today (hopefully I didn't jinx it).

Well last night, as I mentioned before, my friend RB came over to visit and she brought her 2 year old Shih-poo "Maeby" over.  The two got along reasonable well, and the four of us went for a walk around the block.  It still amazes me how well Ilse is walking at her age.  She follows right behind me, sometime right beside me, and generally pays no attention to anything else.   Although this morning she wanted to go play with some kids who were walking to school.

After the walk we came inside and Maeby & Ilse played together for quite some time.   It was quite funny because originally Maeby was not interested in playing with Ilse and let that be known through some growling.  Ilse just looked at her, didn't make a sound back, and kept trying to play.   After several unsuccessful attempts of initiating play, Ilse gave up, and came to lie down beside and go to sleep.   This was when Maeby decides "Oh, well she's sleeping now, so.... let's play!"  and would run over to Ilse and wind her up to play. Here's a video of them playing nice.

Also, in between writing this today. I was able to get Ilse to sleep in her crate. As I think I mentioned before, she has taken to sleeping at my feet. So, I moved the crate to my feet, got her to go into the crate, then stuffed a foot in there with her til she fell asleep. Hopefully this will help her to associate the crate as her "den".

Oh and for the record... there are 2 red tone blankets in there, its not darker due to wetness.  (I thought it kinda looked like that at first).

Balance of Work & Play

Well, my first full day with Ilse is done and all I have to say is. WOW. I mean that in both the good and the "not-so-good" sense of the word. Don't get me wrong, I can already say I love this dog! I just wish she would stop trying to eat the carpet... For the most part I think she learned this by accident. See, she hasn't really figured out where her paws are relative to her body, or her mouth for that fact. So, when she was playing with her bone, she began biting the carpet and developed a taste for it. Needless to say, when I see her doing this, I put the bone in her mouth and coerce her to chew that instead.

Also, working from home and having the puppy has proven a bit difficult, in the fact that I want to spend all my time with Ilse. It has proven (in 1 day) that it is a difficult balance, which will likely have me working a longer day to make up for lost time. In order to help me combat this. I created a flow chart last night.

Feel free to use this chart free-of-charge. For a more 'customized' chart simply, replace "puppy" with your dogs name. Note: this also applies to free-range children, although is not fully endorsed.

But despite her carpet fetish, I think she made a lot of progress yesterday. She is now pretty confident going up stairs, and significantly less anxious about going down them. She will still whine and complain while going down, but she gets there!

Tonight my friend RB will be coming for a visit with her pup Maeby (she's named after an Arrested Development character). Hopefully, Maeby and Ilse get along well, and then they both will have a new playmate! Pictures will follow.

Lastly, since I am new to this whole 'blogging' thing, if you have any feedback/comments for me, please let me know.

-PK & I

The First Night and Morning

Well it was definitely a good night, but crate training was challenging. Unfortunately, once she realized that she wasn't getting out, she whined for a good chunk of the night. It was so hard not to coddle her, but I knew if I gave in to her whines, she would forever use it against me.

Thankfully, when I woke up this morning, she wasn't whining, so I it appeared like a reward for remaining quiet. I took her for a quick walk after she ate to get some of her energy out (I do have to work at some point today), then we played for a bit. However, coming back into the house, she effortlessly, bounded up the front steps! Which was great because she was having trouble last night. Now, she just has to figure out getting down them.

She is currently, sounds asleep.... where?? In her crate.... Why couldn't you do that last night Ilse??? I swear, it's a good thing you're cute!!

She's Here!!!! She's Finally Here!!

Well, after a nice car ride home and a quick visit at my sisters. Puppy and I are home. However, while she was sitting in the seat next to me, she decided that it would be better for her to sit on my lap and proceeded to crawl over the centre console, slip into a cup holder, then pull herself onto me. What's a guy to do?

So, without any further dealy, everyone meet Isle. Pronounced "ill-see"





She is... well AWESOME!!!! We played a bunch when we got home, went out in the backyard and she chased me around. Now she is pretty much pooped. Which is good. This way she will be plenty rested when she meets her puppy godmother, EW (initials of a close friend) later on tonight.

It all begins today.

Well to start, I will tell you about what is happening.

I have decided to get involved with an organization called "National Service Dogs" or "NSD". What they do is breed, raise and train dogs to go into homes with autistic children. The website for the site is here: www.nsd.on.ca If you are in KW, I highly recommend, at least, looking into how to get involved.

I started getting involved by walking some of the dogs that were going through their advanced training, and then decided that I would like to raise a puppy. After going through some orientation processes, and letting NSD get to know me. I was informed that I was being allowed the privilege of raising a puppy.

What I have determined so far;
1) I am super excited for this to start! (later today)
2) The puppy is a girl
3) The puppy is a Golden Labrador
4) The puppy's name begins with an "I"

NSD groups their litters based on letters, so every litter will have names that all start with the same letter. Hence why I know she will have an "I".

Here are some of my guesses as to what her name might be:
1) Iggy
2) Isabel
3) Igor
4) Ingrid
5) Ice
6) Ichabod
7) Igloo

What I realized from this, is that "I" names (especially for dogs) are really tough to come up with.

Anyways, this will be the precursor to adventure with this incredible dog. So, sit down, grab a drink and enjoy the ride! I know I will.

CLEARLY, Pictures to follow ASAP.