Two Weeks With Us and Ten Weeks Old!

Really? Could she BE any cuter? (And she has her mama’s eyes!)

Nutmeg is now 4 lbs 1 oz. of wicked cuteness. Everyone had baths on Saturday, and she did not swear about hers QUITE as much as last time, and actually seemed to enjoy her blow dry! She was less impressed by her mani-pedi, though was eventually willing to trade for the bully stick.

One thing that she learned about this week was her first food toy! She was pretty quick to get the hang of the “rolling kibble robot”, and slapped that guy all over the kitchen! This type of toy can be a wonderful way to keep a puppy busy

Nutmeg also had her first class at MasterPeace. This is a Novice Competition Obedience class with Esther Zimmerman. Nutmeg is currently the youngest puppy in the class, but different puppies join the class at different times (with Esther’s approval) and Esther modifies the content for the puppy’s age and experience. Lili and Ducky both started in this class and Lili is still in the class. This week Nutmeg continued her loose leash walking work, (without the leash) did a couple of fronts between my feet, and then had her first experience on the table for conformation, with a “judge”.

While a Puppy Kindergarten class is probably more appropriate for most pet puppies and new owners, this class has benefits for me that a puppy K would not have. Nutmeg gets to be exposed to dogs of all sizes and breeds, and although they are not puppies, and she cannot play with them, they are well mannered, and well-controlled by their handlers. She learns to be crated when it is not her turn, which is something that is important to me in a class setting, and not something typically practiced in a Puppy K class. Because my dogs learn to work in the ring with me, I do not really want them to see this space as place to play on a regular basis. I have the experience to give Nutmeg the socialization she needs, as well as the curriculum that would be offered in a pet class. So this beginner Novice Competition class is a great fit for us.

That does NOT mean that I don’t think that Puppy K classes are a great starting point for most puppy owners! I do!

Potty training seemed to be stalling out, with me being very well trained to set the timer for 30 minutes to get her back to the potty tray. Things improved slightly when her hoodie arrived, and I was able to take her outdoors for potty breaks too. She definitely likes going outside with the “big dogs” to potty, both pee and poop, first thing in the morning.

She definitely was starting to understand what I meant when I told her to, “Go Potty, Go Pee”. However, she was showing absolutely NO understanding that she should find her way to the trays by herself (even in the ex-pen) to use the potty tray independently. So I was feeling like I was the one getting potty trained!

Then I set up a second tray in the kitchen in the vain hope that she might show some interest in it. Just to make it easier for me to move around, I put a pee pad in it rather than the pine pellets I usually use. Her breeder had also used pine pellets, but I knew she would use a pee pad, because she had done so in the car, on the ride home from New York. Wonder of wonders, she walked across the kitchen, sniffed the tray and peed on it! A little later, she returned to it and pooped on it! These were the first two times I had seen her make a decision to potty in the right place independently! This was HUGE!!!

After that, I replaced the big Rascal Dog litter box in her pen (you can see this in the previous blog) with a smaller tray with a pee pad, with the same result. She is using it almost all the time, independently, even with the ex-pen fully expanded. I don’t know why, and I don’t know why she rejected the pellets. But I am not going to argue. If this is what she wants, this is what she will get!!!

Sweet Success!!!

Since she is pottying outdoors on command, you might wonder why I am working so hard on potty tray training, rather than just skipping that and going right to outdoor training. The problem is, I have seen that it is just about impossible to go back. One a dog has become totally outdoor trained, you will never get them to accept an indoor potty. And I have become convinced of the utility of having little dogs that are potty tray trained.

ALL my adult dogs prefer to potty outdoor. But they will also, when push comes to shove, use the potty trays. That means that if the snow is too deep for them to get out the door and we have not yet been able to shovel, they have a place to go. More important, in an emergency, if they need to be left alone for 12 hours, and I can’t find someone to let them out, they don’t have to make a choice between having an accident or bursting a kidney. We rarely have had to leave them for long periods of time like that, but it gives me peace of mind that we CAN. So I will persevere, and indoor potty train Nutmeg too, knowing that she will have NO problem learning to go outdoors along with everyone else also. (since she is already happy to do that!)

The weather got REALLY cold this week, and Nutmeg’s coats arrived from Amazon just in time for the snow!!! For anyone who is looking for little coats to fit Havanese puppies, I’ll put links to the two I bought HERE and HERE. Both fit WAY better than the hoodie! (and are warmer too). Once she got her jackets she has had a wonderful time running around outside with the “big dogs”!

In the just plain cute department, here she is playing with the “puppy in the oven”!

And finally, I was asked for a video of starting her on table work for conformation. The basic program I use for starting my puppies on the table is Jane Lindquist’s “Killer Free Stacks”, available from Puppy Culture.<Click Here>

Here is a video of Nutmeg on the table this evening when I was working with her! <Click Here>