I bought Coley a portable crate for travel so he can sleep in my room but can't roam around the house to mess up my floor like Caitey did when she first joined us. I left him outside the crate waiting for him to nap before putting him in, but I was so tired last night that I fell asleep before he did. This morning I woke up and found both dogs sleep like angels on their doggie beds, and there was no sign of peeing or pooing after 7 straight hours. Needless to say that I am a VERY happy mom.
I soon found out that both dogs have two layers of skin and shed heavily, sometimes they will leave a trail of hair behind when they chase each other in the hallway. I have been vacuuming around the clock and the "labor of love" is getting very tiring after a while. Thank goodness we have hardwood floor throughout!
Is there a way to let the dogs "walk" by floating in the air?
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Easter Sunday -- Coley's 2nd day at home
The BBW bit the boy this morning and got yelled at, by Mommy of course. Now for once the bad girl realized that her bully behavior will not be tolerated in this house.
I have to say that I was completely shocked to see Caitey's 180-degree change of attitude soon, more like in a blink, but then it gets annoying the other way round.
Like, she HAS to be around him at ALL times and she won't leave him alone even for one second. Just now she woke up first from her nap, and had to poke Coley with her paw, sort of "wake up and play with me".
We assigned each dog to his/her kibble bowl, but they will have to eat out of the other's bowl - it must tastes better that way.
It is a lot of fun observing how the two pups interact with each other and how they react to commands differently. I was pleasantly surprised that Coley acts cool, calm and collected when meeting strangers. Being a typical hyper Golden Caitey still jumps on people even after puppy training, but Coley is more reserved when meeting new people - he would just sit aside and observe calmly.
I also noticed that the boy isn't really food motivated as in the case of Caitey, but more toy activated during training.
It is SO heartening for me to see my two little K9 angels finally start to warm up to each other and get along well. They now can roam around the house together without leash or being closely supervised.
I am very relieved... looks like we did not do a terrible thing for our doggie kids after all.
I have to say that I was completely shocked to see Caitey's 180-degree change of attitude soon, more like in a blink, but then it gets annoying the other way round.
Like, she HAS to be around him at ALL times and she won't leave him alone even for one second. Just now she woke up first from her nap, and had to poke Coley with her paw, sort of "wake up and play with me".
We assigned each dog to his/her kibble bowl, but they will have to eat out of the other's bowl - it must tastes better that way.
It is a lot of fun observing how the two pups interact with each other and how they react to commands differently. I was pleasantly surprised that Coley acts cool, calm and collected when meeting strangers. Being a typical hyper Golden Caitey still jumps on people even after puppy training, but Coley is more reserved when meeting new people - he would just sit aside and observe calmly.
I also noticed that the boy isn't really food motivated as in the case of Caitey, but more toy activated during training.
It is SO heartening for me to see my two little K9 angels finally start to warm up to each other and get along well. They now can roam around the house together without leash or being closely supervised.
I am very relieved... looks like we did not do a terrible thing for our doggie kids after all.
Sat April 3d -- Picking up Coley
I hope I am not confusing you here, but this post is long overdue and should have been posted much earlier. I just have to squeeze this piece in to make the whole story complete.
Before we adopted Coley to be Caitey's lifetime companion, my biggest concern was that perhaps the new male dog would bully my poor girl. Who would have thought that things actually turned out to be the other way round, at least for now - Coley is the sweet agreeable angel while Caitey had turned into a mad jealous BBW (big blonde woman).
I was shocked to see Caitey's dark nasty side today.
She grabbed everything that Coley played with, but she had so many that she never played with for over 5 minutes;
she hates kibble but today she just HAD to eat Coley's food so the little boy had nothing left. At one point she hovered herself over Coley's water bowl so the younger one could not even drink water;
When I got mad at her for being so possessive, she blew her anger over Coley's ball, chewed it up and ripped it apart into pieces;
When she saw Coley get in her crate, she barked at Coley so ferociously that the little dog was frightened to death and shivering all over;
The worst moment however, was when I first brought Coley up to my bedroom - at that point Caitey had that killer looks in her eyes. I know what she was thinking - it is the room for Mommy and me, you stinky boy butt out!
I think Caitey is going thru very traumatic times. At 1st she was afraid that her family had abandoned her, now she is afraid that she is going to lose our attention to the younger one.
Coley actually has been super agreeable and sucking up to Caitey, literally by licking her all the time. The poor boy is doing everything he can trying to be accepted by his new family, especially his own kind.
Right now we just have to keep them separate when we can't watch them, with Caitey upstairs and the little one downstairs. It is a frustrating situation but I guess we will have to find ways to get them socialize with each other.
I can't help thinking - did we exactly do a good thing for Caitey by bringing in a companion for her so objectively? Maybe we should have "asked" her, somehow?
Before we adopted Coley to be Caitey's lifetime companion, my biggest concern was that perhaps the new male dog would bully my poor girl. Who would have thought that things actually turned out to be the other way round, at least for now - Coley is the sweet agreeable angel while Caitey had turned into a mad jealous BBW (big blonde woman).
I was shocked to see Caitey's dark nasty side today.
She grabbed everything that Coley played with, but she had so many that she never played with for over 5 minutes;
she hates kibble but today she just HAD to eat Coley's food so the little boy had nothing left. At one point she hovered herself over Coley's water bowl so the younger one could not even drink water;
When I got mad at her for being so possessive, she blew her anger over Coley's ball, chewed it up and ripped it apart into pieces;
When she saw Coley get in her crate, she barked at Coley so ferociously that the little dog was frightened to death and shivering all over;
The worst moment however, was when I first brought Coley up to my bedroom - at that point Caitey had that killer looks in her eyes. I know what she was thinking - it is the room for Mommy and me, you stinky boy butt out!
I think Caitey is going thru very traumatic times. At 1st she was afraid that her family had abandoned her, now she is afraid that she is going to lose our attention to the younger one.
Coley actually has been super agreeable and sucking up to Caitey, literally by licking her all the time. The poor boy is doing everything he can trying to be accepted by his new family, especially his own kind.
Right now we just have to keep them separate when we can't watch them, with Caitey upstairs and the little one downstairs. It is a frustrating situation but I guess we will have to find ways to get them socialize with each other.
I can't help thinking - did we exactly do a good thing for Caitey by bringing in a companion for her so objectively? Maybe we should have "asked" her, somehow?
Marking territory or something wrong with Caitey?
We promptly returned home from Disney - my husband and I drove 20 hours non-stop because we were all very concerned about Caitey's situation at our friend's house.
The first day we were back, she peed altogether almost 40 times all over the yard (26 times during the 1st hour). At first I thought perhaps she was just reinforcing her territory in fear of losing her home front because she had been "abandoned" for a week?
Caitey's strange situation continued till a friend who was more experienced with dogs told me that she could be having bladder infection, which is quite common among female dogs. Her dry warm nose also confirmed such a possibility - she was having fever and constantly thirsty for water.
Since it was weekend and the vet office was closed, I started digging on the web for hours trying to get more information. Luckily I came across a tip that colloidal silver could cure Caitey's infection. Since I had used it topically in the past for things like a skin infection or sinus during the allergy season myself, I dug my old colloidal silver bottle out of the medical cabinet and gave her two table spoons a day - low and behold, she only peed a few times the next day and like a miracle she was fully back to her bad self on the 3rd day!
I was supposed to bring her to the vet's office on Monday but I guess being open-minded saved me the trip, not to mention the $$$!
Good tough girl!
The first day we were back, she peed altogether almost 40 times all over the yard (26 times during the 1st hour). At first I thought perhaps she was just reinforcing her territory in fear of losing her home front because she had been "abandoned" for a week?
Caitey's strange situation continued till a friend who was more experienced with dogs told me that she could be having bladder infection, which is quite common among female dogs. Her dry warm nose also confirmed such a possibility - she was having fever and constantly thirsty for water.
Since it was weekend and the vet office was closed, I started digging on the web for hours trying to get more information. Luckily I came across a tip that colloidal silver could cure Caitey's infection. Since I had used it topically in the past for things like a skin infection or sinus during the allergy season myself, I dug my old colloidal silver bottle out of the medical cabinet and gave her two table spoons a day - low and behold, she only peed a few times the next day and like a miracle she was fully back to her bad self on the 3rd day!
I was supposed to bring her to the vet's office on Monday but I guess being open-minded saved me the trip, not to mention the $$$!
Good tough girl!
Our family's 2nd trip to Disney
Our first trip to the World Disney World was Thanksgiving, 2007. This is the 2nd time that we are here so we are just concentrating on what we liked last time. I used to love hopping on the roller coasters but now my old heart simply can't handle that kind of thrills the way it used to. The girls are a lot braver than I am, so I have been the object of constant teasing and mocking. I am just so happy that I get to live at the end of each baby ride... like the choo choo train.
Speaking of getting scared on the rides, I found out today that while I was "made" to stay on the "Rock N Roll" ride at MGM I simply could not scream like most people do when they are scared. It usually makes a person feel better when he/she releases some of the fear out by screaming, but for some reason I just could not do it and felt the ride was a near death experience. I actually was going to send the girls up there 1st and then take the "chicken" elevator down, but then a handicapped man rolled up in wheelchair so Claire mocked me in her usual sarcastic tone: "Mommy you can go down in THAT one".... well, let us just say that I endured a horribly sickening ride just for the sake of pride (or how can I preach "values" to these two little rascals later?).
Any way, I was surprised to see so many people at MGM today - the longest wait was 140 minutes! Last time we were here was Thanksgiving and we rarely waited more 20 minutes for the rides. I have learned two things today: 1) someone has been lying about the poor state of the economy & 2) I now know when NOT to visit Disney.
We had to cut our trip short because Caitey isn't feeling too well, or she is just acting up because she is mad at us leaving her behind. She got really sad the day I was packing (she does this whenever she sees me putting things in the suitcases), went upstairs and whimpered the whole morning, and refused to come down even for treats.
My friend who is babysitting Caitey said that she would not eat and threw up twice early this morning. She even pooed 3 times in their house - she hasn't done that since last Oct in our house. Last time Caitey was at their house was last Dec and there was no accident at all.
I have read it before that some dogs would fake being sick so their human family can't leave on trips, now I start to think perhaps the same thing is happening :-(.
Speaking of getting scared on the rides, I found out today that while I was "made" to stay on the "Rock N Roll" ride at MGM I simply could not scream like most people do when they are scared. It usually makes a person feel better when he/she releases some of the fear out by screaming, but for some reason I just could not do it and felt the ride was a near death experience. I actually was going to send the girls up there 1st and then take the "chicken" elevator down, but then a handicapped man rolled up in wheelchair so Claire mocked me in her usual sarcastic tone: "Mommy you can go down in THAT one".... well, let us just say that I endured a horribly sickening ride just for the sake of pride (or how can I preach "values" to these two little rascals later?).
Any way, I was surprised to see so many people at MGM today - the longest wait was 140 minutes! Last time we were here was Thanksgiving and we rarely waited more 20 minutes for the rides. I have learned two things today: 1) someone has been lying about the poor state of the economy & 2) I now know when NOT to visit Disney.
We had to cut our trip short because Caitey isn't feeling too well, or she is just acting up because she is mad at us leaving her behind. She got really sad the day I was packing (she does this whenever she sees me putting things in the suitcases), went upstairs and whimpered the whole morning, and refused to come down even for treats.
My friend who is babysitting Caitey said that she would not eat and threw up twice early this morning. She even pooed 3 times in their house - she hasn't done that since last Oct in our house. Last time Caitey was at their house was last Dec and there was no accident at all.
I have read it before that some dogs would fake being sick so their human family can't leave on trips, now I start to think perhaps the same thing is happening :-(.
Coley's 3d day and night
Thought I could be in bed earlier but what else is new? Coley has been yelping from midnight till 1:30am in his crate, which he hates his guts. We had to train him to stay there by himself or we can forget about going out. When we did this to Caitey she only whimpered for the first 2 or 3 nights (I did "nap" next to her crate till she fell asleep just to make her feel better). Just now I tried the same strategy with Coley, but whenever I thought he was fast asleep and tried to sneak out of the kitchen where his crate is, the boy would wake up on cue -- guess I have underestimated the ears of a shepherd :-(.
Right now I am sitting in the kitchen poking on my netbook, the boy won't yelp so long as he can see me.... poor mommy!
As for other amusing stories, well I got two rubber chewing toys today: a smaller one for Coley and a big one for Caitey, and of course each wanted the one that was not in his/her possession - Caitey even tried to grab the one out of Coley's mouth!
The good news is, Coley started to react to commands like "come" and "sit". The boy actually is pretty smart, he is catching on fast by just observing what Caitey does. He still has accidents from time to time though, like today he peed in the girls' study room again -- bad boy!
It is going to be a looooog night, you owe Mommy a lot Coley boy.
Right now I am sitting in the kitchen poking on my netbook, the boy won't yelp so long as he can see me.... poor mommy!
As for other amusing stories, well I got two rubber chewing toys today: a smaller one for Coley and a big one for Caitey, and of course each wanted the one that was not in his/her possession - Caitey even tried to grab the one out of Coley's mouth!
The good news is, Coley started to react to commands like "come" and "sit". The boy actually is pretty smart, he is catching on fast by just observing what Caitey does. He still has accidents from time to time though, like today he peed in the girls' study room again -- bad boy!
It is going to be a looooog night, you owe Mommy a lot Coley boy.
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