Sunday June 1st
Angel’s White Heaven is the KC registered name for my little white GSD puppy born April 13th, who I shall be calling Lexy when she comes home in a couple of week’s time. I have just met Willow, her mother, and her siblings, and they are all gorgeous. Out of the litter of ten puppies, there were only two girls, and the owner is keeping one of them, so I was very lucky to get my little Lexy. The owner had turned down another applicant who had called the day before me, due to their inexperience with GSD’s, so she was very happy to have me adopt one of her precious pups.
http://www.pets4homes.co.uk/classifieds/625079-white-german-shepherd-puppies-rugby.html
Ballynabola Yogi is the dad:- http://ballynabolagsds.weebly.com/yogi.html
Thursday June 5th
I’ve bought all her paraphernalia – just need my puppy now
Saturday June 14th
Lexy and all her siblings had their vet check and first injections on Tuesday 10th June. I could have her any time after that. I had booked ten days off work to deal with her potty training and separation training. I don’t want my puppy to have separation anxiety problems when I return to work. I could have picked her up on Friday 13th, but I didn’t want to tempt providence, and in any case it would be better for her to have a whole day with me before being left alone for the night. So after I picked her up at noon on Saturday 14th, she attended a garden games party with my friends. We never got round to playing any games, but she was obviously the centre of attention, although after ten minutes strenuous exercise investigating everything there followed an hour of sleep because she was so exhausted.
After settling into her new abode, I gave Lexy a couple of 10 minute trial runs at being locked up in her crate. The first time she barked like mad and cried for a few minutes, then decided she was getting nowhere and she settled down. The second time she just gave three whimpers and settled down.
When I finally put her to bed in the crate she did the three whimpers bit again, but lay down and was very soon sparko. I switched out all the lights and left her at about 11.30pm. while I went to watch TV, falling asleep myself for a couple of hours. Then I went to bed, waking at 5.30am. There was no sound from Lexy, so I got up and went down to see if she was still alive. She was awake and waiting for me, having pooed her blanket! It’s like having a baby, I have nappy washing to do again. This is the third blanket so far, as she had been sick in the car on the way to Don’s, pooed when I left her in her crate at Don’s while we had lunch, and been sick again in the car on the way home from Don’s. Still, she had done well to go all night without shouting her head off.
Sunday 15th June
Lexy played with her toys in her run for two hours, from 5.30am until 7.30am. I was sitting with her most of the time, drinking my morning coffee, in the hope that she would have a tiddle. in the meantime she was gradually working her way through the dinner that she had left the evening before, and eventually had another poo. She was showing signs of tiredness so I directed her to her crate, where she happily went for a lie down. Three whimpers again after I locked her in. She crashed out more or less immediately, but having left the door open so I could watch what she did, I found that she keeps waking up and moving around. She doesn’t seem to worry that she is contained though. So far so good.
More play after she woke up, then a steady leaving her alone to get on with things. She howled at first when she couldn’t get out to me on the patio, but she’s gradually learning that I will come back soon.
Monday 16th June
I had decided to leave Lexy for the night with her crate door open, but with the utility room floor almost covered with newspapers. She has diarrhea, probably due to her injections, and the upheaval from former home, her siblings and Willow, her birth mother. I didn’t want her having it in her crate while she was locked in, so I decided that she could be trusted enough to poo on the paper outside her crate, if she needed to go. I hoped that she would use her litter tray full of newspapers as a toilet, but she seems to prefer to poo outside during the day.
I said goodnight to her at 11pm, leaving the dog gate between the kitchen and her room. She whimpered a bit but then settled down and I went to watch five minutes of footie on the sofa, before falling asleep. I woke to her yowls at 2.30am, and she had messed a fair bit of the paper in her room, but her litter tray was still clean, as was her crate paper. I managed to lock her in her crate while I cleared up and put fresh paper down. Then I took her outside for a while, in case she wanted to do another or a pee. After playing with her for a while with nothing else forthcoming, I said goodnight to her again and went to bed, leaving the kitchen lights on for her, not that she would need them for long as it gets light at about 3.30am.
I woke at 5.45am to her yowls again. I recognised the yowls and knew it would be too late for me to save her pooing more paper, and sure enough, she’d done more, again on the paper in the room not in her litter tray, nor in her crate. Still, at least she wasn’t covered in it like she was the night before when she was locked in the crate with it.
It looks like I will have to establish a morning routine starting at 6am when I return to work. Clear up after her, play with her a while, feed her and wait for the next lot. I can then safely go and get ready for work at about 7.30am before I play with her again after her sleep to tire her out before I leave her for the morning. If I come home at 1pm and repeat the process for half an hour, hopefully she will be okay until I get home at 5.45pm. I don’t think I will risk leaving her alone in the dog run just yet. There are still too many hazards to be dealt with for which I need a handyman.
Lexy likes her little pink bed, but I don’t suppose it will be long before I have to buy her a bigger basket. I doubt the cushion in it will last long, once she gets her teeth into it. She also likes sleeping in her crate on a blanket, and systematically brings her toys into the dog room when I am indoors opposite her in my chair in the lounge where she can see me. Then when I sit in the chair at the end of the run, she reverses the process and brings them out to her den on the gravel.
All in all, she seems to be coping with the separation okay, except for a few whimpers. Potty training is as good as can be expected from a pup her age. She’s had a few accidents, but mostly she tiddles and poos outside.
Next comes the behaviour training. She understands the word “No!” but continues again as soon as I stop wagging my finger. She also stops doing what she’s doing when I shout “Oy!” She will fetch her toys as I throw them, and usually bring them back to me, but I think that’s because she enjoys the game. I’m not having much luck getting her to sit for her dinner, but I suppose that will come in time.
But today we had some fun with a washing up bowl full of water and some of her toys. A kind of apple bobbing
game at first. She loved it, but wasn’t so keen on having her bum put in the bowl! Tomorrow looks like it will be a bit sunnier than today, so I’m going to see if I can find the old baby bath, and hopefully she will get into it herself. Otherwise, there’s always Jez’s old basket that I used to bath my dogs in. I thought she might enjoy the hosepipe as well, but I think I should have put it on a finer spray, as she kept running away as soon as she realised it was squirting her. She loved being wrapped in a towel and dried, of course.
After wearing herself out with games, she put herself to bed in her basket while I was vacuuming and floor washing. A bit of peace and quiet, time for an exhausted Mum to have her lunch. There’s so much to do with a new baby in the family!
While she was having her afternoon nap, having transferred herself into her crate, it started to rain. It should be interesting to see what she does when she wakes up. I’m hoping she will still go out for her pees and poos, but I might find that I have to have a good stock of puppy towels around if she likes it outside in the rain.
Lexy’s Pedigree
Lexy has an excellent pedigree, although there looks like there has been a bit of inter-breeding going on in the past.
Her dad, Yogi, has the grand official name of Mountsett Dare Devil at Ballynabola
Her mum, Willow, is Snowdrop White Cherry
Yogi’s dad is Dreamhunter White Comet at Mountsett
Yogi’s mum is Dreamhunter Dixie at Mountsett
Yogi’s paternal grandfather is Tiggys Shooting Star at Dreamhunter
Yogi’s paternal grandmother is White Chitsa at Dreamhunter
Yogi’s maternal grandfather is Shapiero Zakaray Zeb
Yogi’s maternal grandmother is Dreamhunter Snowberry
Willow’s dad is Henk Dyon of the Heart of Lothian at Debylyn (Imp Nld)
Willow’s mum is Snowdrop White Angel
Willow’s paternal grandfather is Lord Gryphon of the Heart of Lothian
Willow’s paternal grandmother is Judy Chula of the Heart of Lothian
Willow’s maternal grandfather is Bricketwood Spirit of Rajah at Debylyn
Willow’s maternal grandmother is Snowdrop Maide
Yogi’s Great Grandparents
Tiggys’ parents are Bridgeview White Tiger and Epona Goddess
Chitsa’s parents are Cearnac the Victorious of Ardtalamcu and Jet Black Gypsey Queen
Zakaray’s parents are Shandelburg Fanto and Alisa Ramadam
Snowberry’s parents are Rock’n’Roll Harry at Dreamhunter and White Chitsa at Dreamhunter (she got around a bit, didn’t she – the tart!) So she appears twice in Yogi’s line
Willow’s Great Grandparents
Gryphon’s parents are Iskandar Lothian vom Wertal and Tinka’s Frenja
Judy Chula’s parents are Chulo el Lobo Gracioso and Chelsea Basca of the Heart of Lothian
Spirit of Rajah’s parents are Bricketwood Waterdale White Rajah and Bricketwood White Moondust
Snowdrop Maiden’s parents are Kurtridge Martelli and Top Touch
Yogi’s Great, Great Grandparents in order are is:-
Clappham White Kane and Bridgeview Bubbly-on-Ice
Billalayn Strikes Again and Exotic Beauty
Syriacus Snowy and Sassie Dark Lucky
Syriacus Snowy and Tootsie Tiara (blimey – he’s put it about a bit!)
Shercoz Gundo and Auchtermill Jenni
Heldrews Bandelero and Heldrews Cherry (I hope they weren’t related!)
White Chisum Snow Boy and Promise of Glory
Cearnac the Victorious of Ardtalamcu and Jet Black Gypsey Queen (that faithful couple appear twice in Yogi’s line
Willow’s Great, Great Grandparents in order are:-
Buddy’s Lord Kevin and Farah of Majestics
Danish Aladdin and Nelly Mara von Schlob Rahe
Bacio and Cinta of the First Choice
Basko of the White Stars and Magic White’s Caltha
Zorro of Graston and Heidi’s White Cuddle’n Kiss
White Sparton Warrior and Heidi’s White Cuddle’n Kiss (the tart)
Chanask Jackson and Curtridge Mona
Sparkling Snowflake and Delightful Melody
What on earth was Jet-Black Gypsey Queen doing twice in a line of white GSD’s? (Why do they spell it like that? It looks silly.) And Sassy Dark Lucky sounds a bit suspect too!
To be continued after my friend has been for a puppy cuddle!
Monday 16th June continued
Well, my friend came and went and luckily Lexy, who had only just woken up from her late morning nap, didn’t blot her copy book. She greeted my friend nicely, as I expected, because she seems to love people. It was still raining when I put her outside after she woke up, but I couldn’t get her to do her business, and obviously, I didn’t actually know whether she had done a wee, as it was wet outside. Eventually I relented and let her come into the kitchen with us, but when she started sniffing around the floor, I decided to take her back out into her run in case she did one. By this time it had stopped raining and my friend was able to take some photos of Lexy playing.
After my friend left, I gave Lexy her lunch, but again she ate all the chicken but left about half of the dried food and then wanted to play. That caused her to have rapid hiccups. So funny!
She had just settled down at my feet when there was a yappy dog barking over the road at the back. She had not taken any notice of the constant yapping emanating from a small dog that lives further down the road, but this one she must have taken exception to as it was nearer her property and she gave a few almost grown up woofs, accompanied by some quite ferocious growling! Maybe she will make a guard dog, after all.
Lexy is getting more adventurous all the time, and is starting to show she will be a little madam! I’m amazed that her squeaky toy still squeaks, as she has been giving it a hard time. It keeps disappearing though, so maybe that has saved it from being chewed up already. Her pink had rubber clad tennis ball is slowly getting destroyed now she has discovered she can pull the tennis ball bit apart. She likes to nibble at my cardigan while I am petting her, but that is a big no no, and she knows it. She’s started to pull at her blankets. She keeps trying to gnaw the woody plant stumps in the flower pots, and when I tell her off for it she grabs a stalk of the loosestrife and tears it off the plant instead. I’ve deliberately left plants that don’t really matter in the run while I am around, because I want to teach her she’s not to destroy plants. She’s not spotted the tomatoes in my mini greenhouse yet, as they’ve been zipped up, but today she discovered the cover, so it won’t be long before the whole thing gets ripped apart. I would move it out of the run, but I need help to move the grow bag, so I’m hoping that my son will visit at the weekend and sort out some of the hazards in the run, and in the dog room with me before I return to work.
Tuesday 17th June
I decided to go to bed at 10.38pm, as soon as Lexy was asleep. I guessed it might be an early start today, and I wasn’t wrong. She started to yowl just after I woke up at 5.15am. As the previous night, I had left plenty of newspaper around the floor in her room, but had reduced the area as she seemed to like sleeping on the carpet by the dog gate to the kitchen. She had made two messes, both out of the way, and she had peed a few times, including one in the litter tray. That is a result! I let her out while she gave me the big hello for five minutes, then while she was distracted chasing one of her toys I managed to slip back into her room and close the door on her while I cleared up the papers. T
onight I will reduce the paper area further, until she just uses the litter tray.
She seems to have decided that her toilet area outside is the alley way, which makes my life easier, I have to admit, and she made her way there for her morning poo. Maybe there is still the smell from my two girls who used that area most of the time. Unfortunately she still has a dicky tummy, so I will ring the vet today, as it is now a week since she had her injections. I hope I won’t have to starve her for 24 hours, as that is what they usually say. However, if I have to do that, at least she had her breakfast today. I cooked some more chicken and rice for her, in case they say to drop the dry food for a while, which is what they also usually say.
The important thing now for me to do is to establish a routine for Lexy ready for when I go back to work next Wednesday. I have seven days to get her used to being put in her crate from 9am until 1.20pm, and again from 1.45pm until 5.25pm. As she is too young to be given independent access to the dog run and I want her to have fresh air, she will have the dog gate blocking the entrance to her run, instead of to the kitchen or lounge. I have tried locking her in her crate again this morning at 9am, after her having had my company on and off since I got up at 5.20am. I want to see how long it is before she gets fretful.
Lexy now has her own facebook page called Angels White Heaven, where she will be posting her better photos, and writing about her experiences.
She now also has her own blog, also called Angels White Heaven (surprise, surprise). Her story and photos will continue on there.
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