Week 9, Life with Lady

Wow time sure does fly when you are having fun!

Lady is now about 6 months old, and has lost all of her baby teeth.  She lost the last two top canines on Saturday and the new ones are already about half grown in.  She has also put on a fair amount of weight, weighing at least 30 pounds now.  Her grip when playing tug is very strong, and is of course one of her favourite games.

She is so very smart too!  She loves to put balls into plastic tubs, carry the tub around (with the ball inside) and then tossing the ball still holding the tub in her mouth.  Lady also enjoys using blankets and such to bury her balls and then 'find' them again.

I have caught her picking up my husband's hockey stick and trying to hit her toys around using it. She will even pick up a glove or another toy and use that to whack her toy balls and then chase after them.

Lady is now for certain house trained.  She had to be left in the house for 3.5 hours last Thursday, and when my husband returned there were no 'treasures' left anywhere for him to find.  We are very proud of her :)

One day going down to the mill and checking out the river, my husband took along the camera.  Here are some shots of what he and Lady saw.  She soooo wanted to catch that goose!

Life with Lady, Week 7

Lady by now has lost about 8 teeth I think. She is definately happier now that things are proceeding nicely. I have found that most often, within a day of losing a tooth a new one is already showing in it's place. She still likes to have a frozen tomato and one of her berry ice cubes after the loss of the tooth. She is currently getting ready to lose the 4 canine teeth. Those are the ones causing her the most problems, as the roots are the longest and take quite awhile to reabsorb. We all are anticipating the relief she will be feeling once those are gone.




She has also had at least 4 molars grow in, and I will be checking regularly to see how many more are there.



She does not like it much when I am away from the house at work, and greets me most enthusiastically when she sees me again in the evening. It is all cuddles and groans for about half an hour then she settles. I think that will change slightly when spring gets here. She will have so many new things to sniff that she will be quite content.



My husband heard on a radio show on CBC regarding training dogs that two methods seem to stand out from the rest. One is called 'click' training. That is when you get a clicker, and whenever she displays appropriate behaviour, or even the beginning of it, you click. As time goes on she will automatically do that particular thing and be much easier to control when it comes to jumping on people, doing tricks, or even just letting people know when she needs to go outside.



The other thing of interest was training her to be where you want her when you are out on walks. I like having her right by my left side. So what a person does it take a spoon, put peanut butter on it, and freeze it. When taking her for a walk, hold the spoon exactly where you want her head to be, and after a few 'spoons' she will naturally walk there. She will 'remember' the good feelings/tastes associated with being in that spot that you will no longer need to use the spoon. I am thinking of trying this starting this week. I will let you all know how it turns out.

Life with Lady, Week 6

The teething process turns out to be over pretty quickly. She has lost about 4 of her incisors now. She still wimpers a bit and gets quite frustrated that she can not hold on to her tug toy as good as before, but is much happier now. I even managed to get a tooth! I have a tiny glass vial charm that I had saved from a few years ago, and put it in that. I know, a bit weird, but then again I still have some of my son's baby teeth and he turns 20 this year!


Lady is pretty much house trained now. She has only had a couple times where we did not get up early enough in the morning and I do not hold her to blame for that.

Over the next 4 weeks I am not going to be able to spend as much time with her as I would like, I am working 4 days a week. I am very happy for my sake about the extra day of work, but Lady is not going to be impressed with it. It is for the best in so many ways though. Plus, eventually when my husband goes back to work she will be alone for 9 hours until I return from work. By then she will be 7 - 8 months old though. So hoping things will go smoothly.

Lady and our cat Leo are getting along Very well now! I have found Leo purring and rubbing up against Lady quite often. No taking of naps together as of yet, but one never knows if they cuddle up at night. I hope to get a picture of them together someday soon.

Here are a few pictures of her playing with her 'jug' in the back yard.  As you can see, she loves it!

Life with Lady, Week 5

Things have settled down a wee bit, as Lady was teething pretty intensely. It is so sad, to see a puppy in distress and not be able to either explain it to her, or to help much.


Add this to the fact that she is growing very quickly, and the result is not much sleep for anyone involved.

We did find out a few very interesting things, however. Lady loves frozen raspberries, frozen blueberries and frozen cherry tomatos. Rather than going out and buying her a puppy teething ring (made from who knows where and who knows what), I started making her ice cubes with raspberries and blue berries in them. It helps take down the inflammation in her gums, sooths aches and she gets a 'treat' when the cube has melted.

I wonder how long it takes for the teething process to finish?