SNOW

So Kai has been in snow before this wonderful Spring surprise, but it was so much fun to watch her bounding about in the snow like a rabbit. Her favorite is to flip snow in the air and try to catch it but of course it melts. Yesterday while it was snowing I went to see my husband in the garage, not realizing that the main door to the garage was open, I let KAi follow me. She immediately was out the gate and down the alley way. I thought I had her corned in the neighbors yard but she managed to sneak through the fence on the other side and run. In the meantime my husband went inside to get his coat and a leash. I was coatless as I ran to the front walk and down the street thinking that she would run through a yard and into the street. I spied her as she spied me, and as luck would have it she actually came when I called her. Hopping like a rabbit and allowed me to pick her up and carry her wet self back home. Unfortunately, when my husband had come out with the leash he had failed to shut one of the gates. I did not realize this until I had put kai down on the ground and looked up. She made a mad dash and I was left running after a dog again. Jim cornered her, I shut all gates and we managed to successfully capture the ninja Kai.

Everytime she got a chance she went out to jump around in the snow. By 8 pm she was an exhausted puppy, falling asleep on her favorite chair, not even moving when her favorite person my daughter came to sit next to her. In her crate by 9:30, and she did not even get upset when I went out to check who was throwing snowballs at my house. So one tired pup. My favorite kind of pup at the end of the day.

Being sick

What do you do with a puppy when you are suffering from bronchitis and can barely get a no out of your mouth? What you do not do is let her have run of the house. I thought we were doing well with the outside being the bathroom, only to find that Kai has found the upstairs, my mistake of letting her go upstairs. I thought that if she saw it as a living space she would be less likely to use it as a bathroom. WRONG. She has decided that my daughter's room is a potty. First she pooped there last week, when I thought that she would not climb the stairs. Today I had to do two things at once, when I heard the pattering of feet upstairs. She decided to pee on my daughters rug. So she was instantly scolded sent outside and I spent the next few minutes bringing the rug downstairs to clean. When Kai came back in she knew I was still upset with her and she crated herself.

So I took the oppurtunity to shut the gate, take a much needed nap and I think that we are back to being friends.

New bad trick

SO I love my dog Kai and wanted to play with her on the floor, but I think this might not be such a good scenario. When I sit on the floor with her I have now become one of her chewies. SHe doesn't bite but nibbles, which I guess is better than biting, however, she now grabs my hair and starts pulling on it. I do not know where this behavior comes from, so if anyone would like to share I would appreciate it. Maybe this is how puppies play with their mothers but I am sure if this is the case that the mother would push the dog away and leave, so that is what I am doing.

She has also figured out that she can push the gate back far enough so she can squeeze through the opening. THis is usually to get to us while we are in the TV room. Sometimes we eat in the TV room so we are trying to make sure she is not in there when we are eating. We may have to crate her or put her outside while we eat. It does not matter that we give her food, as she will ignore it. She has finally gotten use to the smell of people food and would rather have that. She is getting bigger and stretching further, so I will need to figure out where to put her when I am cooking. THe other day she put her paws on the counter and I realized she is going to get burned if I do not do something about this now. THe same goes with the oven. Curious sometimes equals dangerous.

I am not feeling 100% today so I guess I will see if we can get our walk in and playtime maybe me sitting in a chair and throwing a ball. But I will keep her away from my hair.

Warmth

Yesterday was such a pleasant day, so pleasant in fact that my daughter and one of her best friends layed out in the backyard with blankets and books. This was great for Kai, who spent the entire time with them chillin on a blanket or getting tons of love from the girls. When I came home she came to see me briefly but went right back to loving the girls. Even when I sat outside, she came to see where I was and then back to the girls. We did play a little but she was content to just be the center of attention.

When she met my daughter's other best friend Kai had more loving happening. The girls love my little noodlebug. She worms her way right into their laps and hearts.

So I left her with my son and went out for the evening and she was happy to see me but was so tired from her eventful day that she slept on the couch in the tv room without running around and when I finally put her to bed in her crate, she turned herself around and went straight to sleep. No whimper or whining for 15 minutes. Tired puppy.

She is still tired today, it is almost 8 am and she got up, went to the bathroom and is content to lie at my feet while I type this. Key to a satisfied pup, playing and sunshine.

Kongs

I would like to thank the makers of Kong the chew toy, www.Kongcompany.com. Kai loves to lick the peanut butter out and then get the treats out. It is a great way to get her to get back into her crate. I rue the day when she decides that it is not something she wants. I need to look for other options in the Kong family. The rubber cones seem to be indestructable, so maybe their other toys might also do the trick for treats and chewing.  

Last night we went to a movie and left her in her crate a little too long. She did not pee or poo in the crate but would not sit still at all. Usually, by the time we finish playing for the day she loves to relax with us in the tv room, but all she wanted to do was wander around the house, which I have not allowed her to do yet, unless accompanied by me. The poor girls routine was totally disrupted which meant, no realxing in the evening.

 My Lady used to escape out the front door and that is where Kai gravitates to  when I let her go through the house with me. Lady pretty much felt she had dominion over the front yard. She was not afraid of anything, but my Kai is not like that, she gets spooked pretty fast. We live on a corner so there is no good scenario if she escapes and gets scared. I have been trying to make her see that the only way out of the gates or the front door is with a leash. She still has not loved the wonders of the leash. I should have done the leash training with the back door.

I think her Lab DNA comes out when she is on the leash. She does not mind following me but balks and sits down when on the leash. Though she has gotten better and we can make it around the block on less treats. I was told that Labs do not like to be on the leash, I ws hoping for her Boston DNA to kick in Lady loved the leash, but I think Lady was leashed trained before I ever got into the picture. I have seen a leash advertised that is supposed to be a no pull leash, wonder if it works on Labs.

Puppy love nips

Okay, so puppy love equals nips? I am trying very much to teach Kai that she does not need to playfully nip to have fun. She loves to climb on our laps and the minute we start rubbing her tummy or get her a little riled up she starts her love nibbles, unfortunately some of them land on skin so we get a little pinch. TO combat that we push her away, say no and stand up. When she settles down we start again with the cuddling. Sometimes she gets it, other times she loses lap rites.

We now have met several dogs in the neighborhood and she is on board with us passing their houses without pulling my arm out of my socket. I made the mistake of running past a house before I realized that Kai was hearing Joey bark on the inside of the house. Kai associated my running with being scared, so everytime we went past the house she would start running and no matter what I did she did not stop. Now that she has met Joey she is more interested in his smells around his house then running past it, so at least my arm is not pulled out of socket anymore, at least not at that house. She still is not interested in walking past tall men. I had to pick her up today to get her to continue our walk.

The best thing about having a dog is the exercise. I get to lift 18 pounds in a regular basis, run around a yard playing catch me if you can or playing fetch. This is not your usual game of fetch as Kai has trained me to throw the ball, which she does not return but zooms past me hoping for the chase. When I turn to chase her she drops on the ground and pretends to not see me coming up on her, then she jumps up grabs the ball and is on the run again. Every once and awhile she pushes the ball with her nose or paws when she wants me to throw it again, but not once has she dropped it into my open hands.

Here we have a tuckered Kai after playing with her "siblings".

Rainy day

Today is going to be interesting, I have a puppy who is very different from my Lady who would not go out in the rain if you promised her all the treats in the world. Kai went out this morning maybe because she is used to being out in the rain. I was under an umbrella or the eaves, thankfully I have wide eaves. Being out in the rain is much better than being out in 27 and below weather.

Kai loves the outdoors but also loves playing with her tennis ball in the kitchen. But just like a toddler, we think she is in her terrible twos, when she wants attention she does something she knows will get it; like putting her paws on the counter or trying to chew the undersides of my chair. That usually gets a no, but when she wants me to play you can almost see the spitefulness in her eyes as she does it again so I will get up and go to her.

When outside to get my attention she runs through my plants nipping the leaves off so I will chase her. She is a little brat when she gets outside. I have balls and chew toys, but she prefers to find sticks. I do have to say that I like the exercise and love the evenings when she finally calms down and sits with us in the tv room. Nothing like a little puppy love to make you happy.

Puppy Play

As I write this my pupy Kai is amusing herself with a tennis ball. She met my son today back from college and though he carried her on our walk, she is still not happy when he just suddenly appears. She tends to bark, but she also does that with his sister but later she feels remorse.  We left her alone for a bit and she seems okay. I hope she amused herself she was confined, so she would not get into anything.

She met our neighbors dog Parker and seemed quite pleased with the meeting, now she does not run with her tail tucked between her legs when he appears in his yard. That is progress. She does not start to bark when someone approaches the yard and she is always on alert. Took pictures of her relaxing in the yard with my son but then when he came in the house she barked at him. SO who knows how tomorrow with Parker will go.

I get up with her every morning at around 6 am and  take her out, feed her and try to get a walk in by 7 or 8. TOmorrow I think is daylight savings time so that means I will be losing an hour of sleep, yeah me. The dog will care less.  Made the mistake of opening the refrigerator and distracted pup from her tennis ball, now I have a shadow.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring better things in the walking department, still cannot walk down the street without her stopping or running away from dog noises or stopping and listening to kids. Or waiting for a car to pass or waiting for a person to pass, or waiting for the birds to stop singing, or waiting to smell a liriope, or finding a stick to stop and chew on, but never ever walking, no matter how many kibbles, or cheese(which I will not do again) or processed meat I have in my pocket. C'est la vie.

All I know is that she is excited to see me, that she is fun to play with and that I am glad we rescued her. Big Plus she is housetrained, bad she has started nipping. Maybe she is in her terrible twos at 5 months.

Maybe/maybe not

Apparently, I forgot about family members coming home after I put Kai to bed. My daughter came home and Kai went crazy, bouncing around and whining. Then she went downstairs were whe turned on tv and Kai continued. SO around 12 oclock I went out to settle her down, eventually thinking that I should drape my robe over her cage so she could smell me while I went back to bed. This semi worked, she still continued for quite some time before quieting down.

In the morning, I found that she had pulled my robe through the bars of her crate, and tore great big holes in it. I do not think I will be doing that anymore, should have used an old towel and rubbed on my head or something. I do not know who is teaching the lessons in this household, me or Kai.

I am working on new pet tricks, got her to sit, lay and semi roll over. Work in progress, this has to be done after my husband is at work and my daughter is not up or she gets distracted. She is doing pretty good, for a night time terrorist.

Another new adventure, I took her to the river and attempted to work with her near people. SO after my daughter went on her run, Kai and I started to walk in that direction, Kai got distracted by another dog, much older, coming toward us, I made her sit and she started to growl, I said no and then the lady came over to talk to her and Kai decided to give the other dog a try. But Kai is a puppy and this dog was an old dog so while Kai got excited and jumped up and down the other dog looked at her with disdain, I could almost her the old dog say "whippersnapper".

Anyway after that Kai had some new enthusiasm, which died as soon as she saw the fisherman. I mean she really got scared and when one of them approached her she backed way the way away. Now this is in juxtoposition to the two men who came to our house, who she let talk to her. But she was afraid of the UPS guy maybe because he stopped by her and left his truck running. So it was an adventure and maybe next time when she sees a small dog she will not run away, like last night when I thought she was going to pull my arm out of my shoulder socket, to get away from two barking dogs.

I am frustrated but my husband says at least she goes outside to the bathroom, but I told him to be quiet because I said she was not chewing stuff until I said at least she is not chewing things.
It is a work in progress.

Waiting to go to the vet.

Today Kai has her first vet appointment, well since she was spayed in West Virginia and had her first shots. I do not know how that went but we will see how today goes. I am pretty sure I will be carrying her into the vets office.

I have once again tuckered her out. She had a great time rolling around in the snow and trying to catch snow she tossed with her nose. Did not want to go for a walk at 7am but waited until 1130 to do a whole circle around the block. Got a little spooked by an ambulance full wail, but calmed down after it passed. We have been around the block several times and I may take her further down the street to see how she does. She has better hearing then I do and when she is scared sits right down and refuses to move. I was told to let her sit at this stage, reassure her and see if she will continue walking, if not to turn around and head in the other direction.

Yesterday, she met two new people and except when the one person scared her accidently, Kai did not bark, but greeted them. I am trying to work on her manners by not having her jump on people but Katy, my daughter loves when she jumps on top of her, so we are having some teaching problems. THe great thing is that she sits when I tell her to without having to press down on her but, she likes being called a good girl but more importantly she likes snacks. We are working on stay.

Bad though is that she has decided that everything is a chew toy. I had to remove the table cloth because everytime she went by it she jump and grab it, for the fun of it. I keep trying to get her interesting chew toys, but I think she likes it when I say no. We have also been playing fetch, but she still does not think I will give it back so she comes close but stops just short of me. Ah, well. It will get better. I am amazed at how much she has learned so far, with only being with us 4 days.

new dog no tricks

On Saturday, maybe against my better judgement, I went to look at a puppy. She was advertized as a Boston Terrier/ LAb mix but no one knows if that is true. It is just what the kill shelter in Princeton WV told our rescuer at PetHaven in Falls Mills. So I went to check it out, thinking that my Boston Lady was so special that I wanted another Boston, but thought A mix would be better. We drove hours two hours to the rescue place. It started to snow once we got there and our thoughts were we are going to get snowed into a place that has no hotels.

We found the kennel/ rescue place and found about 8 kennels with 2 dogs/kennel except for some really little puppies who were not spayed or neutered. We really wanted to take all the dogd home because though it was "heated" there was still only heavy plastic curtains keeping the chill out. Our rescuer was doing all that she could to save the dogs providing them with indoor/outdoor access on a limited budget. We were greeted by a cacphony of dogs barking. Which calmed down when they knew we were okay. I went to the kennel with Bella and Cricket, this was the two boston/lab mixes. They were mostly lab in looks, with some of the white markings of a boston. When they let them out all chaos broke loose. I wanted to rescue both of them but seeing by the way they were running around I knew that would be an impossibility. I hated to seperate them, they were both lovable dogs.

I was hestitant, I remember many stories about labs and wanting to please but hating being on a leash. This puppy was 5-6 months old and only knew about life in a kennel, no rules, just eat sleep and wrestle with her sister. My daughter was told that Bella was always being picked on since she was the runt of the litter. Needless to say we took Bella who would be renamed home with us.

Why not keep her name as Bella, though she was beautiful we did not think the name fit. And as she was not used to being called a name we went through many possibilities before we settled on a name. We had planty of time as I gave the wrong directions and we were headed  away from home about an hour before I realized this. So we finally settled on the name Kai. When my daughter looked it up we found that it had many meanings including Dog in Cornish. Plus it meant Ocean, Harbor and probability all things that seemed to fit, deep black for ocean, we were harboring her, and we are probably sure she is at least lab, not too sure about the boston.

I do have to say we made a quick trip to the store, Walmart was nearby and picked up a crate, food and treats. Katy sat with her in the backseat and Kai was really good, she just snuggled up to Katy and relaxed. When we got the crate she went into it without a problem and settled down for the long ride home. I think because she was really warm for the first time she slept most of the way.

She is getting settled but it was crazy the first night. I think she cried out every hour on the hour all night. I let her out at 2:30 so she could pee, very cold at 2:30 in the morning.

I am trying to teach her things like sit, to walk on a leash, I am trying to crate train her but she thinks I am punishing her. We did by a gate to put in the kitchen so that she has some room to roam when not in her crate but I think that  I am doing this wrong. I think she needs to be in the crate when I am not playing with her, because today she is becoming very independent. I actually found her starting to chew the furniture, so I had to reintroduce her to her chew toys. I thought we maybe out of that scenario since she was close to 6 months but not yet.

I will crate her everytime I leave the room. But she maybe a little more work then I originally thought, especially since I am sure that I do not have a clue on how to train a puppy. Tried to go for a walk in neighborhood, still too many new sounds for a country dog. She definitely does not know how to be a dog at least a domesticated dog. i have never had a dog that did not think going for a walk was fun, even if they were stubborn whenit came to smells.