Friday, January 9, 2008
Just what do you do with puppies in the winter? We’re right in the midst of a January freeze and it’s pretty tough to stay outside very long with them. The first week at home was a little milder so it was easier to take them for a walk around our wooded acre property, but now the snow has frozen over with an icy layer on top that makes walking our hilly backyard quite hazardous, not just for us, but for the not-so-sure footed puppies. There’s no point injuring any of us to get some fresh air, so I stay on the flat portion of the property, mainly on the front and two sides of the house. This is still interesting for the pups, since all they want to do outside is snack on each and every stick that they come across, and with so many trees on our property there’s real smorgasbord of sticks!
I took this chewing fetish to heart and on Jim’s suggestion, bought some stick-like rawhide chews for them. I bought a peanut butter flavor basted type, since Tobie’s favorite was peanut butter. They both love them. The first one occupied Will for an hour, until he had chewed it to a mushy mess and then it disappeared! He is now working on another one this morning, and is having fun with it, but tosses it out of his playpen periodically, as does Emma. They let out a little yelp for me to retrieve it for them, and when I do, they continue to chew happily. I hope these are the kind of thing that will save our sofa, rug, curtains, wooden furniture, and anything else when they get a little bigger and into teething time.
I am also trying to give them some playtime together a couple of times a day. They just love this together time, rolling about and grabbing each other by the fur, ear or tail. As I said, I will break it up when it starts to sound a little too vicious. I notice now that Emma will run to hide behind me to get a break from big brother Will. They seem to go at it a little less wild, even a few days into this playtime.
Yesterday, I gave them a rubber pull toy to play with together. They were glad to have something else to play with other than themselves, I think. Each took one end and pulled like crazy. With Will’s weight behind him, he can just drag Emma across the floor, which is pretty funny. Emma never gives up, though. She still tugs and tugs. It’s a much better way for them to use their energy. I have tried to get them to play with a rope toy together, but this isn’t as interesting to them. I’ll have to keep trying things to keep them interested, at least while we’re housebound during these cold winter days. I’m glad that we’re well into January already.
We are also looking forward to starting the Puppy Kindergarten classes with them on Monday. They will be ready by then to get out and meet new puppies and people. And they are ready to learn some new things. Or should I say that I’m ready for some training on how to teach them some new things. We’ve been working on sit and down since day one and I do reinforce this every day for a few minutes. I’ve started to try ‘sit up’ and ‘shake a paw’ and stay, but am not really sure how to teach the stay. They are familiar with the leash, since we use it every time we go outside. I guess we need to know how to get them to walk on it nicely. Jim tried the Red light, Green light technique with Will since he was such a puller on the leash. He would take a step and when Will pulled, he would stop and wait until he settled down or sat down. Then he would take another step, stopping again each time Will pulled. It does seem to help. It would make for a very slow walk, but hopefully with repetition this will prevent that pulling behavior.
Just what do you do with puppies in the winter? We’re right in the midst of a January freeze and it’s pretty tough to stay outside very long with them. The first week at home was a little milder so it was easier to take them for a walk around our wooded acre property, but now the snow has frozen over with an icy layer on top that makes walking our hilly backyard quite hazardous, not just for us, but for the not-so-sure footed puppies. There’s no point injuring any of us to get some fresh air, so I stay on the flat portion of the property, mainly on the front and two sides of the house. This is still interesting for the pups, since all they want to do outside is snack on each and every stick that they come across, and with so many trees on our property there’s real smorgasbord of sticks!
I took this chewing fetish to heart and on Jim’s suggestion, bought some stick-like rawhide chews for them. I bought a peanut butter flavor basted type, since Tobie’s favorite was peanut butter. They both love them. The first one occupied Will for an hour, until he had chewed it to a mushy mess and then it disappeared! He is now working on another one this morning, and is having fun with it, but tosses it out of his playpen periodically, as does Emma. They let out a little yelp for me to retrieve it for them, and when I do, they continue to chew happily. I hope these are the kind of thing that will save our sofa, rug, curtains, wooden furniture, and anything else when they get a little bigger and into teething time.
I am also trying to give them some playtime together a couple of times a day. They just love this together time, rolling about and grabbing each other by the fur, ear or tail. As I said, I will break it up when it starts to sound a little too vicious. I notice now that Emma will run to hide behind me to get a break from big brother Will. They seem to go at it a little less wild, even a few days into this playtime.
Yesterday, I gave them a rubber pull toy to play with together. They were glad to have something else to play with other than themselves, I think. Each took one end and pulled like crazy. With Will’s weight behind him, he can just drag Emma across the floor, which is pretty funny. Emma never gives up, though. She still tugs and tugs. It’s a much better way for them to use their energy. I have tried to get them to play with a rope toy together, but this isn’t as interesting to them. I’ll have to keep trying things to keep them interested, at least while we’re housebound during these cold winter days. I’m glad that we’re well into January already.
We are also looking forward to starting the Puppy Kindergarten classes with them on Monday. They will be ready by then to get out and meet new puppies and people. And they are ready to learn some new things. Or should I say that I’m ready for some training on how to teach them some new things. We’ve been working on sit and down since day one and I do reinforce this every day for a few minutes. I’ve started to try ‘sit up’ and ‘shake a paw’ and stay, but am not really sure how to teach the stay. They are familiar with the leash, since we use it every time we go outside. I guess we need to know how to get them to walk on it nicely. Jim tried the Red light, Green light technique with Will since he was such a puller on the leash. He would take a step and when Will pulled, he would stop and wait until he settled down or sat down. Then he would take another step, stopping again each time Will pulled. It does seem to help. It would make for a very slow walk, but hopefully with repetition this will prevent that pulling behavior.
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