8.5 Weeks!

Puppies finally made the 8 week mark last monday. They are getting a little easier to take care of and we've started feeding them by hand to teach them that we are the source for all things good. hah. Cormac is getting to be a bit of a puss though...he whines at almost anything, especially when Madison bites on his ears. Poor little guy, he can't help that he's got big ears! He shows so much more beagle in him than Maddy, she acts all pug. We really do need to get them on schedule - it's 3am and they are going to wake me up in a few hours. bleh.

Madison ^-^

Waiting..Waiting...Waiting..

Still no word from our landlord about the pups.  I've been spending hours on and off looking at craigslist for alternative living...just in case. :-( 

I think I took for granted what a great deal we are getting with this place. It's affordable and a great location. I don't want to move!

Welcome to the Family

Madison (above)

"I'z bites you" -Cormac (above)

Didn't See It Coming

So darling little Cormac fell asleep between dans legs...SO adorable, I even took a picture.  Then Dan proceeded to fart on him on and off for about 5 minutes! ...lol, then after I was like, "Dannnnn...stop, he doesn't deserve to smell that!" - he asked me to pull his finger, and he farted on him again! 

Poor lil pup couldn't have seen it coming.  hehe.

"PULL MY FINGER"

Establishing Dominance

So today Dan and I read a book that said one of the things to do to a new puppy to establish dominance (and also see how passive or dominant they are) is to hold it down on his side and see if he is passive or not.  It he struggles, then keep holding until he stops, then lavish with praise.  If he doesn't struggle from the start, then it probably means he is already passive and might even need some confidence training later on.  ANYWAYS, we both did this to Madison and Cormac at separate times.

At first they both struggled.  Madison especially.  But we both proved ourselves to be the dominant ones "in the pack". Good stuff.

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Leash training started tonight.  They aren't too bad. I have to keep reminding myself that they are only 6 and a half weeks old and most puppies don't even see a leash until their 8 - 12 weeks.   At this point we just keep trying to enjoy them for what they are: puppies.  Training will come.  As long as they realize us for that we are, the pack leaders and caregivers, we'll be great.

Right after we put the pups in their kennel for an evening nap, Dan grabbed me and pushed me to the ground laughing. I knew what he was doing.... pretending to establish dominance!! We laughed and I struggled to get up. I've never been even close to as strong as Dan, so eventually I gave up.  "Now the puppies will NEVER respect me!" I giggled. :-P  They watched from their bed as he fake praised me. hah...sure hope they aren't THAT good at observational learning!

Too Early

day one of my puppy blog.  So its past 4am and the pups wake me up again.  Last night dan got them early, so this time it’s my turn.  Except THIS time its 2 hours earlier. How did that happen?

They both pooped outside right away, so kudos to them.  But going to bed seems to not be an option.  At least they are entertained by each other and my pants to realize I’m not actually paying much attention to them. (please, please don’t go to the bathroom inside tho)

Poor guys, I noticed the last night (earlier) that they have flees, but noting I can do about that until 9am 

Our Greek landlord finally called us back for the first time in over a month. We’d been trying to contact him about all kinds of things.  Stove (that never worked) screens, wiring, a copy of our LEASE (that we never got) our tub and other misc drainage problems, the mysterious smell on our carpet…and the ultimate question of allowing puppies... Well I’m pretty sure he only go tback to us because he heard from our neighbor that we had gotten puppies.  So apparently puppies aren’t really his thing.

 I can respect that. Renting out property can suck sometimes.  People can really disrespect property that is not theirs.  Dan and I, however, have done nothing but make this property better.  We’ve increased the value for sure, despite the obvious landlord flaws in preparing the property.  

Anyways. Now I’m searching craigslist for a possible apartment to move into that’s super close to us now. JUST in case our landlord drops the bomb on me.  He said he’d talk to his mother – maybe it’s a Greek thing?

All I can do now is keep the pups quiet. The ideal thing would have been to put them back to bed after going to the bathroom, but now that I’m on guard about noise, it looks like I’ll be having a lot of these kind of mornings.

All I can do now is tire them out.