Sophie's first grooming!

Sophie has growing very well, the Veterinarian says that she's one of the cutest puppies he's ever seen, although he probably says that to everyone (but didn't say that about Harley!?) She has been doing very very well with the p.t. (don't jinx it Lisa), she sleeps all night, and is a very good puppy. She is a little shit though... ornery big time!!! She gets into everything, loves to shred paper, and steal Harley's treats.

I talked to the groomers that are next door to the Veterinarian and asked them when we could start grooming her. I figured the sooner she gets used to being handled by someone else, the less traumatic it will be for her later. The groomer said that she could give her a bath, blow her dry, clip her nails, and trim up her eye area, feet and privates to get her used to it all. She said if we do that a few times she would get used to it so that when she does an all over trim she won't be so scared by it all.

I dropped her off at 8:00am, worked out till 9:30, got MY hair cut then picked her up at 11:00. She was soooo cute! Little red bow in her hair, and a valentines day scarf. Adorable. The best part of all is that she can SEE!

Introducing Sophie

I wanted to show everyone the new Shichon (Teddy bear) puppy Jeff and I got for Christmas... Sophie! She really was the cutest thing I'd ever seen. She was so small and timid the first day or two, but my how things have changed! She's still small (about 3 lbs) but she is a little terror! Harley is dealing with it pretty well, but often looks at me with disgust, like... "Mom, why did you bring this home with us? Mom, shut her up! Mom, make her leave me alone! Mom, she keeps touching me!" They are starting to play with each other, its a little scary looking... watch the video. One good bite and my precious puppy is gone! I think Harley knows this, so he's careful, but still... makes me nervous sometimes. She's doing pretty good with the potty training, and is almost making it throughout the night without waking me up to go out. The secret is to wear her out!

She has already lifted Harley's spirits and mine as well. I didn't want to get out of bed at all, and Harley didn't want to get off the couch, but now we are getting up at 7 am to care for and amuse the puppy, and she keeps us going all day long. She was a needed and welcomed addition to our family. Jeff loves her too, and plays with her all weekend.

Harley

This is my dog Harley. He's an almost 9 year old English Mastiff. He was quite a handful when he was younger, but now he is very well trained. I hope that he is able to help me train the new puppy I'm getting Christmas day. He still acts like a puppy when we go on walks, but most of the time he's just a big couch potato. He's been even more sedentary since my Saint Bernard Bubba died back in March this year. I hope that the new puppy will lift his spirits. He's lost quite a bit of weight since Bubba past, but the Veterinarian thought he was perfectly healthy, and couldn't believe he was almost 9! Most Mastiff's don't live that long (6-7 years), so I guess I'm doing something right. Bubba, my Saint, made it to 13. I was blessed with having such a long friendship with him, and hopefully Harley can make it that long too. He does seem more depressed lately. Maybe more trips to the Dog Park, Petco, and the new puppy will cheer him up.

Dang those are big dogs!

Harley loves horses, but I'm sure he thinks they are big dogs! This group loved him too, very interested. My blackberry doesn't take the best video, and I'm not very steady when I'm walking, but here's the video nonetheless. I think they startled him!

And that's that

Harley and I walk our country roads often, and one of his favorite past times is barking at the neighboring horses. This one lives right across the road from our house. He was extremely interested in Harley and came running to the fence to meet him. He wasn't impressed I guess, and showed us exactly what he thought of the whole experience! I thought it was hilarious!

New puppy preparations

I'm getting a new “Shichon” puppy Christmas day, and I have been making a puppy crate for her for the last week or so. She’s a Bichon Frise- Shih Tzu hybrid that I also like referring to as a “Frise Shit”.

The first picture of the crate is the rough version. I found 8 foot 1x2’s and 2x4’s for $1 each, and 4x8 sheet of plywood on craigslist.com for super cheap. The smaller side of the crate is her bedding area, the larger is for her "potty oops's". Since she is 8 weeks old, she won’t have much bladder control, so I wanted to give her the option of pottying somewhere other than in her bed. The traditional crate method has never really worked for me since I cannot be home all day long. It seems that when a puppy is very young they cannot help but relieve themselves throughout the night, and if you give them an alternative to pottying inside their bed they usually take it. All dogs want to be clean so if you can help them stay that way; this is a good crating technique. It worked really well with my Mastiff Harley. This rough crate isn't very cute, or waterproof.

To make it so I caulked the seams and painted Kilz primer over and over and over. I then used high gloss latex paint, at least 2 coats. I made 2 different size slats to separate her bedding area from her potty oops area. Once she is able to hold it for longer I will install the taller slat so that she will eventually only use the bedding area for bed time and won’t need the potty area. I did mess up a bit when I painted the slats... latex paint adds considerably to the thickness, and then the slats didn't fit! I had to sand them down to make them fit again, and it's still really tight! Oh well, design flaw. Live and learn!

I am soooo happy with my color choices! How $#@& cute! I know dogs are color blind, but I don't care, it is adorable. I painted all of it. Blue latex first, then the dark pink, then used a sponge for the light pink. It looks fabulous. I also installed rollers underneath for easy moving. The high gloss paint I used is very easy to keep clean, spray and wipe! That's it! Now all I need is the puppy!