13 Weeks Old - Bath Time Charlie

While we might have a bath or a shower everyday, dogs don't. Well at least not anywhere as often as we do. So for Charlie having a bath dose not come along very often, but week 12 was one of those weeks!

So armed with a rubber bath mat, lots of towels and a confused puppy we heading into the bath room. We decided to take the no fuss get on with it approach and just popped him in the bath and turned on the shower head. Charlie did not look to impressed as first and once he was getting wet he turned on the puppy dog eyes and started to whimper softly.

He was however very well behaved and let us wash him, even is we were holding him in place. He continued to wimpier while covered in soap (doggy shampoo) and while we washed him off, but was happy once we scooped him up in a towel.

Once downstairs and in the garden we rubbed him down to dry him off. We where surprised actually how quick it was to dry his thick coat.

So that's our first bath done and he is all back to being supper fluffy and cute again... Well until the next roll in the wet grass or mud!

12 Weeks Old - Walkies-!

On the 19th of September Charlie went out for his first walkies!

So we buckled him up and started off down the drive. When we reached the end of the drive Charlie made an abrupt stop and sat down. This is new territory and he was not quite so certain about it all. So with a little encouragement he moved of the driveway & discovered a world of new smells. With his head down and tail up we stopped at every stone, bush, tree and blade of grass to check it out. But once we got going a bit, with the help of the odd treat, he started to trot along quite well.

We finally made it to the small field near our house where he was greeted by his first new doggy encounter. They exchanged sniffs and wagged tails before the other dog moved on. But is was not long before the new boy on the block drew attention from the other dogs at the park, who seemed to be having their daily meeting! He was soon surrounded by them all taking a poke and a sniff along with their owners asking questions about his name, age etc. Charlie took it all in his stride and even when a little Cocker Spaniel gave a playful bark he just circled around the back of us before coming back to see what was going on.

So with our first nights walk over we decided to take him for a quieter walk around Pets At Home for a little late night shopping. This time Charlie was much better and was trotting along at a good pace. He meet a few people in-store and lots more when we walked across to Cineworld. To the point that Charlie now feels that everyone is going to stop and say hello. So each time someone walks towards us he stops, sits and wags his tail waiting for a fuss - 9 times out of ten his efforts pay off.

Saturday morning however was a whole other story as we took him into town. He was however good and trotted along until it was getting busy. Then he stopped and just looked at me, so I had to carry him a little way but he was soon trotting along again, stopping for a fuss from anyone and everyone. As a new owner of a puppy I feel I need a card that says "My name is Charlie and I'm an 11 weeks old little boy" because I was getting tired of saying it!

Around the town he meet lots of people, other dogs and really enjoyed it. We can tell cos once home he and after a quick pee he slept for hours!
 

11 Weeks Old - Puppy Classes and Worming Tablets

Yet another week has flown by with Charlies family and its been a active one too! Its also been a little more stressful as Charlie is finding his feet and testing his limits. Its also hard to keep a puppy occupied when it pouring with rain outside.

But possibly the big event over the last few weeks has been Puppy Playschool. This is two evenings that are run by our Vets. They are arranged for puppies who are not yet allowed out onto the pavements and in the parks. This allowed them to meet and great other puppies and take part in early socialising.

Charlie,who is from a litter of nine playful puppies, took an interest from the start. Sizing up the other puppies while a 12 week old German Shephard twice his size hid under a seat. It was not long before he was trying to play and join in. Unfortunately Charlie had other ideas than playing with a little collie girl - a little rude for a first date!

Over both the nights, a week apart, Charlie and his fellow puppies all got more confident and played nice. However I personally feel that the evening were more for the owners than the puppies. This was because there was lots of talk about what to do and what tips & tricks to use. I don't honestly think he got as much out of it as he could have but its a good introduction!

So the other fun event was giving him his worming tablet. Now the packet says 'treat flavoured bone shaped worming tablet'. OK so we decided we would slip in the tablet as part of his treat training. So a few 'sits' and 'downs' on normal treats and then we handed him the worming tablet. Well lets say we did not fool Charlie! He spat it straight out and looked at it in horror! We did try to encourage him and he did try a few more times to get him to eat it, but it was no good. I ended up having to do the famous 'pop it in the back of the mouth and hold his head up' trick till he crunched it down.

Anyway, I should also say sorry for not posting this sooner, I promise to get the next one ready for Wednesday when its 'Walkies' time!

PS: One short note on his feeding. I said a week or so ago that we were adding other food to his main feed to keep him interested in eating. Well we have now stopped that and he is eating fine on his main food!

PPS: We got a much larger crate now for him which he can stretch out in. Sleeping wise he has been very good from day one, sleeping through with no mess or noise! :o)

10 Weeks Old - Kongs

We have found at times that Charlie gets over excited or bored or, well anything that ends up with him getting annoying. Its not that he is annoying us on purpose it's just he gets tired/bored and needs something to help with a time out.

Often this is fixed with a bone to chew on or putting him in his create to have a sleep. Sometimes a bit of treat training can also help keep him occupied. But its not always practical and you need something a little different to use. This is where Kongs come in.

We have two Kongs now - a regular size red Kong that you can put Kong treats into. These biscuits fit tightly in one end and means that Charlie has to work at getting it out. However Cathy this week introduced Peanut Butter!

Charlie finds peanut butter very yum and will sit very focused on licking it off your fingers. So in a small puppy (blue) Kong we put a dollop of peanut butter and then placed it in the freezer for a few hours. This when given to Charlie is a great toy to jump & attack before sitting down and getting himself covered in peanut butter.

Regarding house training, we are still doing well even if it means still keeping a visual on him. We also went to Puppy Play School this past week and have another visit this week. More on that in the next blog post!

9 Weeks Old - Nibbles

So our little bundle of joy Charlie has been with us a whole week now! Its has flown by and also been a long week. Puppy's are very full on!

So apart from house / toilet training the main topic this week has been food and mouthing. Food wise he has been a little off the basic dry stuff, only eating about half of the 70 grams we put down. So having had a chat with Julia (our breeder at Jupavia) we have tried some tricks to get him eating. The idea is to just add a little of something else to make it more interesting to eat, while making the bulk of the food his regular puppy food.

First up we have goats milk, it didn't seem to mix in that well and to be honest Charlie did not find it any more exciting to eat. Then came some paste stuff, Chicken flavour. Well this was a real winner as Charlie ate every scrap, licking the bowl clean. However, the result was it made him go hyper afterwards, actually a lot afterwards and No.2's were far from normal. So we guessed that was not so good and moved onto our current trick, a spoonful of 'Butchers Tripe'. Seems to be going well and we, well Charlie, is eating the full amount he should.

The other little issue is whats called mouthing. Basically Charlie using his teeth on us. While this is fine with other puppies its not so great for us! So we are trying to slowly show that mouthing is no longer allowed. To be honest he has been very good and not drawn blood like puppies I've been with before, its more of a 'hug' type hold on your fingers.

So back to house / toilet training, going well. OK we miss the odd time he needs to go out. After all we should be able to sprint the length of the house and scoop him up. But to be honest it's going well and Charlie heads for the grass nearly all the time now!

Playing with tuggy-!

8 Weeks Old - New Family

After 8 weeks with his breeder (Jupavia) and eight brothers and sisters, oh and not to forget uncles, aunties and grandma, leaving home can be quite a big thing. Sadly our little Charlie is not a great fan of being in a car at the moment, and, well, lets say he had a upset tummy most of the way home.

However once home we were quick to explore the new garden, leaving his mark ;o) and getting to know the new people he was with. When I arrived home from work (having had lots of text updates from the kids) I was met by Charlie who was not put off by my motorbike or my strange looking outfit.

As the evening moved on Charlie found new toys and had a light supper. He is definitely one for the outside, playing with a empty plastic bottle on the grass. He has also been getting his teeth into a bone that he came home with and generally having fun.

Late evening Charlie started to get more sleepy and a little restless and after a short toilet break we settled him down in his create. He was very good, few whimpers but basically I think was too tired to complain and dozed straight off.

It was around 4:20am I heard a noise and pottered downstairs. There was Charlie looking a little excited and so I popped him straight out on the grass. Relieved Charlie then set about whimpering and climbing all over me. I can only assume that he was not only pleased to see me but also seemed at a loss to still being in a new house. As I set off to work he was a little calmer but still a little clingy, poor boy, must still be wondering what's happened to all his friends.

(Paul)