Father Dougal (again)

For once I'm not going to dwell on the bowel shennanigans except to say that they are much better today.

Ruby has been very well behaved today with nothing of particular to report. We then took her to the Vet for her second injection. This time there were quite a few other animals around in the waiting area. A cat, a big white dalmatian and a pug. The lady with the pug seemed to be one of those dog owners who anthropomorphise their pet, treating it like an equal (or even superior) member of the family. It was a grumpy little thing that kept straining to come over to us and see Ruby, then snorting and making little barky growls. The lady kept telling it to stop and to come to her. Or rather she was 'asking' it in a sweet little 'please listen to me' voice. Ruby occasionally lifted her head, pricked up her ears and had a little sniff of the air. But that was it as far as her reaction went.

Suddenly one of the assistants went to the entrance and asked everyone to hold on to their pets, before a large bloke came through the door holding a big black pit-bull looking thing with enormous jaws. They bustled it straight through to the vet treatment room. 

Maybe it's just me but I can't understand why people are allowed to have animals like that. Or more specifically, I can't understand why "just anyone" is allowed to keep an animal like that. It was clearly volatile and capable of tearing up any of the other creatures (or humans for that matter) in the waiting area. I mean, it's not as if just anyone can legally own an alligator or a hyena or a leopard. And for good reason - BECAUSE THEY CAN HURT/KILL PEOPLE.

These huge headed, massive jawed slabs of muscle can wreak as much damage as some of the animals mentioned above. Yet they can be bought by any little chavvy scrote who wants to use one to intimidate and frighten others. 

Anyway - rant over. Ruby took her turn and was as calm as ever. She had her injection and also had the kennel cough vaccine as a solution down her nostril. We also got a worming tablet for her to take on Saturday. Finally, Father Dougal gave me the vaccination certificate so I can get Ruby booked in for puppy training classes.

Back home and Ruby got to chew on a Kong stuffed with banana. She likes banana.

Ruby likes banana

Nippy puppy

As a puppy, Ruby is prone to the odd bout of excitement where she loses the plot a little. She does sometimes jump up at me, snapping and grabbing my clothing but my reaction tends to work pretty well. I just stand up and slowly keep walking towards her, staring. She usually stops more or less straight away and then lies down at my feet. I then give her a toy to chew on and praise her for chewing it.

This doesn't seem to work as well for every member of the family though. We are all being consistent with her in making it clear that any kind of contact on our skin with her teeth is a bad thing. I regularly see advice that suggests 'yelping' in mock pain and then ignoring the dog. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. I get the yelping thing. It gives instant feedback that tells Ruby that she has caused pain. The idea being that she regulates the use of her mouth and if she DOES use her teeth, she uses less pressure so as not to invoke a yelp.

In some cases, especially when she has a hold of clothing, the 'yelp' response seems only to increase her excitement. I guess it's a puppy thing so I'm not particularly concerned. The main thing is not to encourage or reward her for such behaviour. I'm sure as she starts to get a bit older, she will learn that dog teeth and human skin are not a good mix.

Last night was much better - poop wise. Ruby had not soiled in her crate at all and when we got up at "zero crack sparrow fart", she went outside and did her business like a real pro. She did poop on the conservatory floor later in the day but it's vinyl so it cleans up nice and easy. Again, the consensus is to 'ignore' these little infractions and heartily praise her toileting in the right areas. 

That said, I did try 'hedging my bets' today, by putting the night time litter tray in the doorway in the hope that Ruby would feel able to use it rather than go on the floor if our excursions to the garden were not timed properly. Well...it worked....kind of......

She used the litter tray alright:

Hmm..this is interesting. I wonder if I can sleep
in it....or eat it.

But not in the way I intended. She grabbed the puppy training pad and started tearing it up, then sat in the tray and played in it for a while. Oh, and she tried to eat it as well.

Never a dull moment with the little darling.

Turning the corner

At last, the poop situation seems to be improving. At least in terms of the diarrhoea clearing up. The probiotic paste that the vet prescribed yesterday is having an immediate effect and feeding Ruby half as much, twice as often is also helping.

She did poop in her crate in the early hours but at least it wasn't too runny. Sadly, she decided to cake it over her fur so after cleaning and disinfecting everything, there was no option but to give the little girl a bath.

Why did you dip me in water?

No, really. WHY did you
dip me in water?

After tearing around the living room, shaking excess water from her fur, I managed to settle her down in a nice big towel where she dozed off. She was soon dry and I gave her a good brushing. She is now nice and clean and is full of beans.

We also took Ruby to the vet for her scheduled appointment, but as expected, the vet decided to delay the vaccination for a couple of days. Now that her stomach is settling down, it would be unwise to chuck more things into her system. So we are going back Wednesday and providing she is still ok, we will get her second jab.

Thinking ahead, my Volvo S40 saloon is not going to be the most practical car for taking Ruby on trips to cool places. We were thinking of changing cars anyway so it made sense to look for an estate. It gives us more options and means we can get a travel crate for the back. With that in mind, meet the new family transporter..

Passat 2.0 TD Highline. Just got to get the
travel crate now.

We're planning on picking it up on Saturday and by the time I'm used to it (it has an electric handbrake, operated with a button on the dash...it might take a while), Ruby will be big enough to take further afield. And by next summer we can be looking at getting away to the beach, hills and other fun places for the dog. We are also looking at visiting relatives in Ireland. They have a farm so Ruby will love it.

Furry Baby

It turns out that Ruby has a touch of Colitis. Her poop this morning was rather unhealthy looking and had spots of blood so we went to the 'out of hours' vet. They did a thorough check including blood tests. The results were good. No dehydration and all the readings were normal. Ruby was prescribed a medicine that helps settle the stomach (a probiotic). And since taking it this morning she has been much better. 

The vet recommended giving her the usual food but half the amount, twice as often. This will help her digestive system process the food without getting overloaded. 

Ruby - tired after a visit to the Vet

She has responded really well and has been a little bundle of energy all afternoon/evening. Boy, am I relieved.

I have also had some feedback from other BC owners today after putting my blog up on www.reddit.com 

It is great to be able to tap in to the experience out there as I am the first to admit I am not an expert. Having said that, I am under no illusions as to the commitment and energy needed to have one of these dogs in one's life. Ruby's breeder is an absolute gem and we will be visiting regularly so that Ruby can socialise with her pack as well as getting some herding practice in with the chickens, geese (and eventually sheep) on the farm.

I have received the odd comment around my lack of experience, and expressing the hope that there is a good 'BC rescue' centre nearby. As far as I am concerned, taking on Ruby is akin to bringing our children into the world. We didn't have the parenting experience with our first child but would never have thrown in the towel. In the (very) unlikely scenario that we felt we couldn't cope with Ruby, Gillian would take her back. In fact Gillian keeps in touch with the owners of all her puppies. She would be mortified if one of her dogs was sent to a rescue centre. She would take any of her dogs back in a heartbeat. 

But that won't happen. It's nice to have the security of Gillian being there and I might not have plunged in to BC ownership without finding her. But now Ruby is part of our family, that is how it will stay. She is a lovely dog and we have already bonded really well. I have established myself as the pack leader and consider her to be my very own furry baby.

Learning lessons the hard way

As much as I have read and researched and tried to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible with Ruby, there are always mistakes to be made. And as mistakes go, this is quite a messy one. 

So for all those people out there in bloggy-land who are thinking of becoming a puppy parent, I have a valuable lesson to share with you: 

Do NOT suddenly change the dog's brand of food

Gillian, the breeder, gave us a pack of puppy food that we were using up until last Monday. We had already bought a supply of another brand before picking the dog up (trying to be super prepared), so when the breeders food ran out, I just switched to the new stuff......BIG mistake!

Ruby's newly firmed up poop, suddenly loosened again and has not improved over the last 5 days or so. 

So today, I went back to http://www.petsathome.com/ and bought some more food; the same brand that we were using until the switch last week. She is now back on the Purina brand and we are just going to stick with it until her digestive system gets used to being back on it. 

Having read into this, I have discovered that puppies do not like sudden changes in their food. It definitely doesn't agree with them. Well, we've found that out to our cost (and to the benefit of kitchen towel manufacturers whos shares must have gone through the roof given the amount we have used).

For future information, if you need to change the puppy to a different brand of food.....do it          G....R....A....D....U....A....L....L....Y.

Start by introducing a bit of the new food, then each day, slightly increase the proportion over the course of a week or so, until they are weaned on to it. Trust me. If you don't do this, you will be swimming in a lake of runny dog poop.

Between the frequent visits to the doggy toilet, Ruby has been her usual boisterous, energetic self. She has had a particularly good time with her antler chew today.

Ruby loving her antler

We also bought an extendable lead today. It has already proved its worth by allowing Ruby to explore around the garden without the need to drag a human through the shrubbery. It's not something I intend using on normal walks when she is able to go out and about. But it is a very useful bit of kit to give Ruby (and us) a little bit of freedom in the garden. Silly me, didn't get a picture of it in action so I will try to put that right for tomorrow.

Not my finest hour

Ruby was a delight this morning. A nice relaxed play in the garden before work and off I went to my day job.

Ruby REALLY likes this spot

I can safely say however that this evening has been a bit of a challenge. Ruby was hyper and was determined to chew things she shouldn't. I ended up having to move a whole bunch of papers/magazines from their usual (accessible) spot so that she couldn't shred them. 

She also kept running to the back door, having a lie down and coming back. Not a problem in itself; except for the fact that it has been her way of telling us she needed to go do her business. Sadly, it was a case of "the boy who cried wolf" because the one time I didn't follow her to the back door, she decided to poop all over the floor. And right on cue because I was just about to serve up dinner for me and Ethan. I have to say, it was an experience having to slop up a load of diarrhoea just before having my dinner...bleugh!

By this time, half the Wigan v Leeds RL semi-final was done and I hadn't had a chance to see much of it. So we sat down to eat. Ruby decided she wanted people food and proceeded to do her best to get intimate with our dinner. I'm not blaming her as we were both sat in the living room trying to watch the Rugby. But I admit to starting to feel a little stressed out.

At about the point the rugby was coming to an end (Leeds having lost), Ruby settled down. 

Ruby in 'settled down' position

A little later she woke and made her way to the back door just as I was on my way to 'pay a visit'. Silly me. I should have held it in and taken her straight out, as when I got to the back door, another huge puddle of diarrhoea greeted me.

If only her stomach would settle down! She has finished her course of medicines and at the time they worked really well. The return of the runny poops coincided with the change of food type. These Iams really don't agree with her. Funny that, because our last pet, Clyde the cat also had issues with Iams. 

A trip to the pet shop is in order tomorrow. I'm going to try a different brand of puppy food to see if it makes any difference. If not, I'll contact Gillian (the breeder) to ask where she gets her puppy food from so I can get a supply.

If all else fails, Ruby is back at the vet on Monday to have her second injection. I can run it by them to see what they think. It is incredibly frustrating because in every way, she is doing great. The diarrhoea is the only thing causing a problem. But it really is messing up any routine we are trying to establish and making toilet training a proper pain in the arse.

Stir Crazy

It is still over two weeks before we can start to take Ruby out for proper walks. She has her second injection on Monday and the Vet has said we need to wait a further 2 weeks until she can socialise with other dogs. I feel a bit stir crazy as I would love to go for a proper walk instead of just wandering out into the back garden. If I feel like this, Ruby must be desperate to get properly out and about.

I KNOW it's dark but I don't want
to go inside yet

She is behaving really well though. She does have her moments when she goes all puppy crazy but if I'm honest I expected to have much more of the mad stuff than she has so far displayed. Generally, she will follow us about faithfully and appreciate being close to us. 

What a massively different experience from having a pet cat. We used to have a lovely cat (Clyde) who was a real personality. But even with all his charm and intelligence, he was still a cat. A cat who did things because it suited HIM. Ruby on the other hand is usually desperate to please US. 

Actually, the first thing I noticed that made me realise dog ownership was completely different to cat ownership was the eyes. Ruby's eyes are almost human. You can see the intelligence behind them. She looks at you and you can tell she is really thinking. Cats on the other hand have eyes more like reptiles. The look they give you gives the impression that they are thinking "If I suddenly grew to 10 times my current size, you would be my prey and I would toy with you before eating you".

So, for now, it is back to the regular trips into the garden to let Ruby have some fresh air and to do her 'business'. And of course continuing with the basic training; reinforcing 'sit', 'lie down' and soon to widen the training to include 'stay' and 'come'.

I suppose we will look back on these times with a certain nostalgia but I really do want to be able to get out and about. And I'm CERTAIN that Ruby does too.

More puppy poop

My fears over Ruby going back to pooping in her crate came true last night. The poor thing has diarrhoea back and once again struggles to hold it in. She was up at 12.30am and again at 5.30am having 'soiled' her crate. Sarah was very good and got up at 12.30am without waking me. When Ruby again woke us at 5.30 we both went downstairs and sorted her out. This time however, I stayed downstairs with the dog while Sarah went back to bed and got another hour of sleep. 

I dozed off on the sofa and came round at 6.30am with Ruby crawling up my chest and licking my ear. I suppose there are worse ways to be dragged out of the land of nod.

I was talking to some colleagues at work who have more experience in owning puppies and both told me that the change of food is almost certainly the culprit and her tummy should settle down relatively quickly. 

I hope so!

One of my colleagues (Sarah) had been having some issues with her dog jumping up and nipping/barking so I had told her about the success I had had with Ruby, by standing, staring at her and walking slowly at her to invade her space. It seems to have worked for Sarah as well, so that's good news. 

After leaving work a little early (feeling a bit under the weather), I got home at around 4pm and greeted Ruby. She seemed sleepy and laid on my feet, so I closed my eyes and nodded off. I came to around 30 minutes later to find Ruby sitting by the back door next to a pile (or should I say 'splat') of poop. The poor girl had gone and waited to be let out but I had not noticed. I take full responsibility although it was more than enough punishment to have to clean up the mess.

Just another day in puppy paradise...

My daughter Rhianna took a lovely picture of Ruby laid in our garden (as she often does), clearly not wanting to go back in the house.

PLEASE don't make me go back inside

According to a friend, this is the look you get when slippers have been chewed, the table has been damaged, or a bottle of red wine has been *cough* accidentally *cough* knocked over onto the lovely cream carpet.

She does look very very sorry though.

Back to square one

After five days of medication to clear up Ruby's diarrhoea, she reverted back to runny poop this morning. The only thing I can think it would be is the food we are giving her. She finished the last of the food from the breeder yesterday and we changed her on to Iams dry puppy food. So fingers crossed, it is only a blip and once she gets used to the different food, she will be fine again.

The upset tummy is not affecting her behaviour. She has been lively and pretty well behaved all day. I have done some training with her, mainly the 'heel' command. She did quite well and managed to stick close to my leg (usually with the promise of a treat). I'll keep working on it and I'm sure she will get good at it before long.

She seems to be getting better at responding to 'lie down' and mostly does it for me without any bribery. So things are progressing quite well overall.

We had a big play session this evening and I discovered she particularly liked chasing a plastic coca cola bottle with the cap screwed on and a couple of treats rattling inside. She tired herself out chasing it and had some great fun. She also likes ragging around her teddy toy (growling at it as she does so).

I think I've killed it

Ruby is also responding really well to crate training and will go behind her door without any protest. We vary the length of time she's in there and sometimes leave the room, sometimes stay. This means she is getting settled as she realises we will come back to her, even if it may be a while. We still have to physically put her in the crate as she doesn't go in on command yet, but I'm sure that will come with time. She appears happy to sleep in there and is generally sleeping right through the night without waking up (although that may change given her diarrhoea has come back).

After a hectic day for Ruby, she is one tired dog.

Zzzzzzz

The great crate saga

Today was the day that we started testing out Ruby in her crate during the day. It started out of necessity as there was a gap of around 90 minutes from me leaving for work and Rhianna arriving back home. I put Ruby into her crate at 8.00am and by the time I left the house at 8.10am she was perfectly settled. 

Rhianna arrived home at around 10am and found Ruby awake but not fussing. So she seems to have made a good start. Later in the day, when Ruby got tired, Rhianna put her back in the crate and closed the door before going off and doing stuff. Ruby didn't make a fuss at all. Again, this evening, she went to sleep in her crate and I closed the door. No problem. 

Since getting home from work, I haven't tried any training with Ruby as she goes from excited to tired and back again. She seems to be quite warm as the weather is quite muggy for the time of year. She is drinking plenty of water so there doesn't seem to be a problem.

I would be failing in my duty if I didn't report on the poop situation. So to illustrate my point (literally), I decided to take a snap of Ruby doing the business.......hey, it's nature. 

Oi! Give a lady some privacy

She has almost come to the end of the course of medication and it appears to have done the trick. I hope that's the last of the tummy upsets but we'll keep an eye on her to see how she settles once the medicine is out of her system.

Of course, it's not all bodily functions. We did have a play in the garden as well. 

She likes the green stuff

So a good day for all concerned. Ruby got to play in the garden and got lots of attention. The crating is going well, and her poop remains solid. I hope this is not just a honeymoon period.