Hanging out

I'm starting to look like a 'Big Kid'...

Maybe it's just the growing ears...

Thankful for Thanksgiving

After one of the busiest weeks we've had (yet mastered successfully), we loaded up the car and took off on an 11 hour car ride to upstate, NY. The trip usually takes about 10 hours, but with Ramsey some of our bathroom breaks took a little bit longer. He was amazing! We put his wire crate in the back seat, put a few blankets and some chewies in there and he napped, and napped, and chewed, and napped. He got a little restless and barked a few times around 7pm, which was after 10.5 hours in the car.

Ramsey spent the first few days at my house, with my parents sheltie, Sunny. Sunny wasn't too sure what to think! Ramsey was a bit too rambunctious for her liking. She seemd to serve as the most entertaining toy that never got boring to Rams. He enjoyed nipping her fur, her tail, and her feet. Sunny was less than impressed. She learned how to growl for the first time, but even her snaps didn't do enough damage to get the message across that she was NOT playing. After a day or so, the non stop chasing of Sunny turned into the occasional chase, much more manageable. hey even were caught napping together on the chair... My father and I participated in a Thanksgiving morning Turkey Trot (Dad ran the 5k in 5 minutes faster than last year! and I ran the 10k 5 minutes slower...oh well) and left the dogs to my mom for the morning. She was busy preparing Thanksgiving dinner but figured they had calmed down enough to handle. Apparently we were wrong, when we got home Sunny was shut in a bedroom by herself. Ramsey had difficulty settling down and dinner was NOT going to be finished. I had left her Ramseys Kong with a few bones in it to occupy him if necessary, but he manages to get them out in 2 minutes down from the original 10 it used to take him, figures!

Luckily, by the time our company came, Ramsey put on his charm. He decided to snuggle between my 80 year old grandparents on the couch, trading off to nap on my aunts lap after a few hours. I accused my mom of drugging the dog, maybe an Ambien? but she denied all charges! We were definitely Thankful for him being on his best behavior!

Ramsey also had the opportunity to meet Pokey! Pokey, is Greg's uncle's Springer Spaniel. She's about 2 years old and a tall 60 pounds. Ramsey was at first, very very timid. He hid under the car. He piddled himself. Pokey sprinter over the top of him leaving him flattened on the driveway. We decided to take the two inside where Pokey couldn't get as much speed on him. When we got inside, Ramsey barked and growled at her, enticing her to play. It didn't work, she was almost fearful of him. He then started lunging at her and nipping, which he does at Sunny that triggers a game of chase. However, this time it triggered Pokey to lunge back, and pin Ramsey by the throat to the ground. She didn't bite down, just told him the rules! After a few pins, he got the hang of it. They played for several hours, rolling around on the kitchen floor. It was great for Ramsey to learn how to play like a dog instead of obnoxiously barking at others!!

The last few days of our trip were spent at Greg's parents house, partially to give Sunny a break and partially a change for his parents to bond with their grand-doggie. Maybe I can get him to guest blog in some of their experiences?!

The ride home, Ramsey was equally, if not better, behaved. He napped and chewed without any barking incidents. Unfortunately.. he seemed to have quite the gas problem! He's normally able to clear a room, but the car is worse than imaginable. We stopped several times thinking it was a sign he had to poop but he preferred to wait until we got home with a potent toot approximately once every 5 minutes. Oi. We really need to figure out his digestive system. I have never smelled anything so horrid!

Upon return, Ramsey played with each toy we had left behind individually. We took a bit of a walk and he went to bed without struggle. He even slept until 7:30 this morning! All in all, the trip home was a success.

Thanks to everyone who tolerated (Sunny), and helped out with the Rams this week! And also thanks Sunny for the new Duck toy! (Hopefully more pictures to come!)

Improvements...

Successfully completed work. Got to class on time. Stopped 25 minutes out of my way home to pick up the wonder pill - Comfortis. Dog is 'drugged' or 'de-bugged'. No sign of worms. No sign of fleas. House is cleaned. Things are good!

Just have to figure out how to dry his enormous soaking wet bed.... hmmm.

Diarrhea, Tapeworms, and fleas OH MY!

Apparently it was NOT the neighbors cats who "fed" Ramsey his tapeworm infected flea. It was HIM! I still blame the cats for giving him fleas though. We hadn't noticed anything, not a single flea prior to yesterday, and of course not until I was home from the vet. I was giving him a thorough check over for worm segments (so gross) when I came across a flea. Devastated! He had been treated with Frontline at the breeder and although she suggested Comfortis for us to put him on, we went Frontline again because it covers ticks too. Ticks apparently aren't a huge threat down in Kentucky but we frequently visit Central NY where they are everywhere! We felt good about having him protected against both, but didn't realize that apparently some fleas are immune to Frontline now! I immediately grabbed all of his blankets, towels, toys and threw them in the washing machine. I found two more fleas on him, one in his crate upstairs (ugh, right by our bed!), and one on his tennis ball. His bed went into the tub to soak as well. All while waiting for the roof contractor to come by and plan for a first day meeting my new team! (I took a new coaching job for the spring).

I was quite a mess most of the day! Thankfully Greg keeps a cooler head than me. He brought home an enormous amount of flea control products. We divided it up. I took the dog to the tub (I wish we got a picture of his first bath, but we were not it a leisurely photo opt mood). I scrubbed him while Greg scrubbed down the kitchen where Ramsey is usually confined. We covered the carpets and furniture with flea powder, scrubbed crates, washed all toys, nothing was safe. Even after his bath I found 3 more fleas on him... I emailed the breeder again. She is probably incredibly sick of us new parents questioning her about everything we do. She said to switch to the Comfortis, We can put him on both and it won't harm him (good to know we won't have to wait a month risking a new flea infestation!) and we will be flea free in less than 4 days. Apparently fleas need a meal every 3 days. So.. within 4 they will either bite him and die, or die of starvation.

If evils come in threes, are diarrhea, tapeworm, and fleas the three? Hopefully all can return to normal...

I now have about 2 hours to do the work that usually takes me about 8. :Sigh: At least Ramsey is silky soft sleeping on my feet and I haven't been able to track down a flea yet today. Maybe we got them all! I will still be calling the vet today (they must be sick of us also) and let them know we need Comfortis!

VERY Sick Puppy

UGH! Tape worms! Poor bugger, seemed to be feeling well this morning. He pooped an almost normal poop, in terms of not having diarrhea however… WORMS! Disgusting. I thought at first it looked like he shredded and ate something white until I looked closer and they moved.. uuuuuugh. I immediately called the vet who said I could come in and pick up a pill. I was informed that they are NOT contagious to dogs or humans (Thank God, if I got a tape worm from this puppy I don't know what I would do! Cry probably..) Apparently they are gotten only through ingesting fleas. Where the heck did Ramsey eat fleas!? Dog class? Probably not since all the dogs there are extremely well taken care of. The vet on Saturday? Most likely not but possible I suppose? Or... the stray cats! It has to be the cats. Ramsey is friends with them, they even let him lick their heads, so we're going to have to put an end to this. Not sure how to either kill the fleas on the cats or keep the cats away. Anyways, the vet didn’t need to see Ramsey so I tossed him in his crate and hopped in the car. It only cost 10$ thankfully.

When I got back, I decided to check out the back yard poops to see if I had missed them before. I couldn’t tell… but Ramsey was HOWLing from his crate inside without having seen me. Apparently thinking he was ok in his crate when we weren’t home was wrong. Now what to do about this separation anxiety? Maybe it was just worse because he isn’t feeling so well? Always something...

Sick Puppy

Yesterday started as a typical Monday… at first. We had a nice calm day. I did notice however, that both today and last night Ramsey seemed a bit nervous. His breathing has been more of a pant, there have been a few occasional foot chews (usually a nervous behavior in dogs unless they are licking something that got on them!), and he was a little less snuggley than usual. He seemed to enjoy the floor or the opposite end of the couch more so than our arms, which for him is odd. We summed it up to the possible storm coming (Severe thunder warnings all day and night), or maybe his vaccinations from Saturday are making him feel funny, maybe he is bored? Or… maybe he has a nasty nasty tummy bug indicated by the bout of intense diarrhea on our walk. (Excuse the graphics but grossed out reading about it can’t compare to our feelings dealing with it!). He seemed otherwise fine and after his bout we continues his walk. We had pretty much forgotten about the episode by dinnertime, but his tummy didn’t! Immediately from his dish he sat whimpering at the door so we rushed outside… man oh man did we have one sick puppy on our hands! (again excuse the graphics) but there was no solid substance to his poop at all, not even a hint. He continued to ‘go’ about 3-4 times, all the same complete liquid. I quickly did some research, when is puppy diarrhea serious enough to call a vet? The majority of sources say when it becomes liquid.

Luckily, we still have very close contact with the breeder and I emailed her immediately. (I would have called but I know she checks her email often and he didn’t seem too effected other than just a little more calm and laid back). She recommended we come out to her house immediately and get some medication that she keeps on hand. So.. off we went. It was about to storm with strong winds about 20-30 mph. She lives about 40 minutes out from our house in a countrish area. I’m a nervous driver, especially in severe weather. Greg has never been to the breeder’s house. Ramsey can’t stay home alone, especially if he is sick. So, we loaded up the car and off we went. Blowing around the highway, stopping at a whimper ‘just in case.’ (False alarm).

We made it. She met us outside and gave me the pills with instructions to give him half of one tonight and half in the morning. If it doesn’t clear up by afternoon (24 hours after it began) we’d have to take him into the vet. We made a pit stop at a gas station to find him something to take his pill with… gross string cheese, I felt bad feeding him such ‘junk’ (It wasn’t you’re usual string cheese, very very processed, almost like the whip cream bottled kind of cheese). He chomped it down despite the grossness of the cheese and seemed to enjoy it. Typical dog. Hopefully tomorrow his tummy will feel better!

Only a puppy could drag us out of the house in the middle of an oncoming Kentucky storm to drive almost an hour and a half at 10pm. :Sigh: Gotta love him.

Briefly bringing up to date!

I had wanted to give you a chronological experience. Having started the blog after having Rams for over a week, makes it a little tougher. So here is a brief bringing you up to speed. I want to get this current since so many exciting things are happening, as you will see in the very next blog.... The rest of week one went semi smoothly. We've been trying to get him as many experiences as possible before the 12 week mark. So:

Ramsey visited the park with me and the XC team for practice one day. He piddled himself in fear as soon as the kids came over. Apparently he needs tons of socializing and is extremely timid around other people and dogs! He came around though and had lots of fun romping around with us.

He attended him first confirmation class, he audited. It was more for him to get used to being around other dogs and people. He watched intently, hopefully some of their good behaviors will soak into his brain!

We've been working on sit, and it appears he has it mastered. Woohoo! We've been working on some others as well but I don't want to jinx us if he doesn't perform them on command just yet... :-)

Still no accidents... fingers crossed!

Day 3,4,5

Howled. Howled. Howled. All night. 10:30pm, 2am, and 4am. We tried to stand tough for a little while but each time I got up, he had spilled his water and was so frantic I was afraid he would hurt himself. So, crankily, I got up and slept on the couch with him for the remaining 2 hours of the night. Something needed to be done about this sleeping, or lack there of. We were all exhausted, irritable, moody, etc.. Well, maybe I was. I had been adhering to the sleep schedule Ramsey preferred and Greg seemed to fall back asleep quite easily while I was outside with the dog! Sensing my mood, Greg volunteered to take the puppy out the next night because he had Friday off of work. :Phew:

The next night, we decided to try to wire crate (instead of plastic) and put it in our bedroom. I had hesitated to put him in our room, even though they recommend it... because I don't want to have him get in the habit of sleeping with us. But, I can see why the recommend it. It's about staying with the "pack." Dogs are pack animals and crying and whining lets the pack know that the pup has been separated! So, we couldn't be mad for him letting us know we 'lost' him. So we changed up our nighttime routine. I usually go to bed around 10 and Greg stays up til about 11. Now, we decided it was best to go to bed at the same time, keep the pack together right? Could we watch tv? Or would it keep the dog up? We decided to leave it off and try to get some rest. He slept extremely well! Not to jinx ourself we didn't get too excited, he had slept well night one down stairs also... (Figures he would sleep through the whole night on the night Greg volunteers to take him out!) Oh well, still satisfied with the 7 hours of sleep we got instead of the 5-6.

Friday is my busy day and Greg's day off. Daddy-Puppy bonding! From what I can tell, it went well. I came home to a wagging tail and the two of them lounging on the couch together. I also arrived to the good news, there were absolutely NO accidents in the house, not even a little piddle. Yay!

Day 2

Our Tuesday morning wake up call came at 5:30am. We were pretty impressed with the solid 7 hours of sleep! The morning routine changed from me waking up and putting on a pot of coffee while Greg gets up and showered for work to... grab the puppy, hustle to try to put the collar on his squiggling, excited body, carrying him while running out the back door to keep him from going to the bathroom in the house. (Puppies avoid going to the bathroom where they sleep, so if their crate is big enough to stand, turn around, and lay comfortably without extra bathroom space, they will hold it as long as they can! But... sometimes as soon as you let them out, whoopsies!) After letting him go, I start the coffee pot and mix his puppy food/water mixture. As I walk to set his dish down he jumps wildly knocking some of the water out of his dish onto my sweat pants, he then leaps and lands in his water bowl spilling it allllll over the kitchen floor. It gets wiped up and I make Greg's morning iced coffee (aren't I nice?), I put my toast in the toaster but the puppy starts to poop on the floor.... so I snatch mid-poo and hustle out the backdoor again. We come in to the aroma of poo and burnt toast. :sigh:

After the morning rush, we settled on the routine of go outside, play, sleep, go outside, play, sleep, repeat. The cycle begins about every hour and a half. I got no work done but anticipated getting it done when Greg got home from work. I got him settled with the hour and a half repeated schedule and all went well. Until... bed time. HOOOOWLed for 10 minutes before falling asleep. HOWLed at 4:30am to go out, and again at 6 to get up. We knew night one had been too good to be true!

Day two was definitely exhausting! It could only get better right?

Day One

I drove 40 minutes to pick up Ramsey. I met with the breeder for almost two hours talking about his history, how to care for him, food types and eating schedules, grooming, training, the possibility of showing him, etc. He would need to be fed 3 times a day and was currently on top of the line food. He had his first two vaccinations but needed the third in a week and the fourth a month after that. Grooming would need to be professionally done or taught to me by the breeder. (I asked because I would prefer to learn and save the additional cost!) All while we chatted, the little fluff ball of a puppy was sprinting around the house. He resembled a tiny dinosaur due to a funny (tad short for my taste) hair cut around his neck! Finally when it was time to leave, my car wasn't prepped for a crate. I drive a small 2 door car. We had to borrow a crate that would fit when the front seat was reclined as far as it would go. He fell asleep immediately in the car and I drove back going over all of the new information I needed to take in. I drove cautiously, barely tipping the speed limit on the highway. I don't think I realized he was real and that we actually took on this new addition!

The first night: We had baby gated the kitchen to keep him off of the carpet, which was a good thing since there were continual piddles on the kitchen floor. Anytime we left the kitchen area, he would whine and cry. We ended up taking turns showering and even going to the bathroom to not leave the puppy alone! At this point I think we both realized the time commitment we had made to this lil guy! Not only could we not leave the house together for a long time, we couldn't leave the kitchen! Surprisingly, Ramsey slept the whole first night in his crate, in the kitchen no problems! We awoke so howling at 5:30 but didn't consider that too badly for his first night alone. The kisses and excitement upon letting him out of his crate made up for the early time.

Decisions, decisions...

Decisions, decisions. After deciding that we (my boyfriend, Greg, and I, Caitlin) wanted to get a dog, and actually had the resources to take care of it (yes, Greg made finance excel charts to verify we could handle the costs), the real decisions had to be made!

Where should we get a dog from?

We started out searching through petfinder, the humane societies, even craigslist, why not adopt or take a dog who needs a good home? It would sure save money over getting a puppy from a breeder! We saw a few dogs that seemed to fit what we were both looking for, but when we emailed, they were unavailable, or something about the situation wasn't 'quite right.' I didn't like the idea of letting the organization email me when they found a dog who 'fit what we were looking for.' What if we didn't 'click' with the dog they chose? Would we be able to turn it down? or would be cave and take a dog only out of guilt? So we axed the petfinder/humane society idea. Why is a 'breeder' selling the dogs she bred on Craigslist? We also questioned why some people were getting rid of the dogs they had, were they temperamental or difficult dogs? Did they have health problems? So many questions came up that we decided to check out some breeders.

What breed of dog is best for us?

Well, when you decide to go through a breeder you need to choose a breed first! We hadn't done this because we had been looking for a personality rather than a specific breed. I had always had Shelties, Greg's family had a Springer Spaniel. We checked out some other breeds really looking for something big enough to run with, small enough to control, trainable... Really I think we made the decision based on the fact that we were familiar with Springers and had some other contacts who knew about the breed as well. I highly recommend doing A LOT of research about breeds prior to choosing! Talk to people who own different breeds, meet and interact with their dogs. We also had played on a few different "breed picker" websites that directed us to different breeds every time. I really don't think they're accurate at all..

How do we find a breeder?

Ok. So we want a Springer Spaniel, and we want to go through a breeder so we know where this dog is coming from, that it's healthy, etc. We started out by looking up breeders online in the area. We found a few, but some red flags went up. I had always heard that you should avoid getting a puppy for Christmas, it's not a good idea to bring one into the chaos of the holidays! Yet, one breeders website specifically advertised "Christmas litter" ready to take home for the holidays. This sparker some more research on both our parts. We visited the American Kennel Club website which has a red flag list when looking for breeders. Link to AKC puppy buyer beware: http://www.akc.org/future_dog_owner/puppy_buyers_beware.cfm We realized that anyone can call themselves a breeder, but that doesn't mean they know what they are doing, or have the best interest for the dogs in mind! So we followed the AKC's recommendations for finding a dog: http://www.akc.org/future_dog_owner/find_breeder.cfm . We emailed the area Kennel Club who referred us to a breeder believed to have a puppy available. We admit to doing a little google-stalk on her and found numerous show dog champions whom she had bred. For us, the show quality of our future dog wasn't the top priority, however, health and temperament were. After talking with the breeder we knew she had the best interest of her dogs in mine. Rather than us interviewing the breeder, she was interviewing us to make sure we were the perfect fit for this pup. She had his pedigree available to us, all of his health information as well as his parents, etc. She had mapped out all of his vet schedule for us, recommended high quality food for best health, and set us up with an obedience trainer immediately. We knew she was the breeder to go through and that we were in good hands as first time parents! Although we spent a little more than we originally expected, we knew we were getting a healthy pup with a wonderful support system in place.

On October 31, 2011, Ramsey came home.