She’s a spicy girl!
(Photo of Nutmeg taken with her sisters at Sofila Havanese)
Nutmeg has spent the last two days settling in and taking over. The humans are all charmed by her, and the adult dogs think she is pretty cute. Lili is pretty happy with her new playmate!
The girls whispering about Ducky behind his back!
Havanese puppies grow hairy feet REALLY FAST, so it is important to trim them regularly. I like to work on “cooperative care”, by allowing puppies to chew on a bully stick (or something equally yummy) while I work on their feet. Here is a video of my first session doing this with Nutmeg. <CLICK HERE> I try to trim feet and nails weekly. If done in a gentle, kind way, the dogs get used to it, and it becomes an easy part of the routine.
I use a Dremel with my adult dogs, but Nutmeg still is too small for a Dremel. I do have a very quiet, baby nail grinder, and when she is a bit calmer about the clippers, I’ll start getting her used to that!
For Nutmeg’s first training session, I wanted to just introduce her to her name by playing the “name game”. <CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO> With an older puppy or dog, you would toss the cookies a longer distance and allow the puppy to chase the cookie. Then say the name just as the puppy puts her mouth on the cookie. You need to modify the game with a tiny baby puppy because their eyesight is still pretty poor. So for Nutmeg, I placed the cookies quite close, and making sure she could see where the cookies were. I still was trying to time saying her name when she put her mouth on the cookie, but the timing is harder when everything is so much closer together! Still, this is a wonderful, fun way to help a puppy learn her name. Keep training sessions very short. I think I divided 7 pieces of Fresh Pet in half, for this session, and that was enough! You can see how much fun she had!
Even though she had been introduced to potty trays by her breeder, dogs do not generalize well, and puppies less so. Nutmeg doesn’t seem to be putting two and two together yet! So we have had to resort to what I call “Puppy Jail”!
When I can’t be supervising her directly, EYES ON, Nutmeg is in a very small pen, with just enough room for her potty, a nice big fluffy bed and some toys, and a water dish. No room to have an accident! When she is out of the pen, I am either working with her, or watching her play. If I see her start to wander distractedly, or in her case, start to squeak (a sure sign!!!) I rush her back to her potty. Hopefully, before long, I’ll see signs that she is getting the message!
If the weather was nicer, we’d also be spending time outside, where she could naturally go potty out there as the need arose. But it has been too wet and nasty since we got home. I am hoping for some dry and not-too-cold weather so I can get her outside!
Our other adventure for the day was a short trip in the car to have a quick visit and cuddle with a friend. I put Nutmeg in a Sherpa bag and put that in one side of the VarioCage, and brought Lili along for moral support in the other side. She squeaked a bit for the first couple of minutes, but was fine after that. My dogs are in the car a lot, so it’s important to me that she get used to it. But I think it’s important for all dogs that they feel comfortable riding in the car. Too many people only put their dog in the car to take them to the groomer or the vet, with the result that the dog has no reason to like being in the car! Take your dog fun places! Often!
Ducky on one of his early car rides, a little older than Nutmeg!
