Dog Days Mean A/C

Thomas just tried to take Sonata outside to do her business.  Instead he had a puppy revolt on his hands, she laid down at the top of the porch steps, and refused to move off!  It is HOT outside.  Both of the dogs are in the mood to be thoroughly uncooperative when it means taking them out.  On the other hand, it also means that both of them have been very good with not messing inside (not that Sere would, she only does that if she gets overly anxious because we are gone for a long time).

Sleepy Sonata, 10wks

I didn't mention it in the other post, but if you look at the pictures I am sure that you have noticed that Sonata is now wearing her collar full time.  I am also using the leash on her half the time when I take her out as well, so that she learns how to walk on it.  She is still not to thrilled with the leash, but Bil-Jacs makes the world so much better!  To keep the cost down on the Bil-Jacs I get the largest bag that I can, once I get home I dump them all out on to the cutting board and half them.  That way the training treats last a lot longer!  The dogs still smell that I have good stuff in the hand, and are willing to do the same amount of work, even if the treat is that much smaller.

Fight of the Mosquito

Sonata with Grass Pollen, 10wks

The mosquitoes are out and biting ferociously this year.  I am now trying to wear a long sleeve shirt when I take any of the animals out, simply to ward off the nasty bites, but considering that it has been in the lower 90s all week, AND that the humidity has been so high that you get random rain without a cloud in the sky, that shirt makes me almost as miserable as the skeeters.

Sonata, Hiding Under the Futon (10 wks)

Sonata has learned a new trick, something that Sere never learned.  She has learned the belly slide!  She will run full out into the kitchen (the only wood flooring in the house), and throw herself down on her belly, and then precede to slide across the flooring until she hits the doorstop, then she jumps up and does it all over again.  It is actually quite amusing!

Sonata (10 wks) and Flip Flop (sz 9 1/2 us)

On the other hand, something that is NOT amusing is her love for shoes.  She has already managed to do fairly decent damage to my flip flops, and has decided to move onto my tennis shoes. I always know when she has it, because she curls up in her dog bed in a tight ball and is chewing something underneath herself. If she can't get either of those then she tends to try to grab Thomas' shoes.  Either way it is bad luck for all of us.  I have started to use a squirt bottle to try to discourage her, the results have been 50/50.  She really just wants something in her mouth at all times!

We can't walk the dogs on the street!  We took them for a walk on Wednesday night, the day after they put down tar and rocks on the road.  It turned into a disaster.  Sere's paws were full of rocks and tar, and we had to spend at least a half hour just clipping goop out of her toes, and even having to separate her two middle toes!  Our carpet now has tar stains.

I don't think we will be able to walk the dogs until the weather cools down a wee bit (preferably when the tar hardens).

Puppy Coats Itch!

The housebreaking is at a standstill at the moment.  I was watching a video on housebreaking on Hulu, where the gentleman explained that puppies and dogs can hold their bladders for their months age plus one.  For Sonata that would be three hours.  Yeah, right.  This dog has me running out every half hour.  If I am late, I am cleaning up puppy piddle.  On the other hand, she (knocking on wood) has yet to poop in the house.  I keep her kenneled until she has done that particular business.  Even when we had to rush the cat into the ER, and we thought we were going to come back to a huge mess, she managed to hold it and not mess her kennel.  I am very proud of her on that fact.  Hopefully she will keep up THAT good work!

Thomas Holding Sonata (10wks)

A quick update on the cat:  She is going to the vet this morning to get a check up.  She is looking better, and this morning tried to rush out the door.  We will see what the vet has to say after this morning.

The commands Sonata has been learning this week is to SIT and WAIT at the top of the front porch steps, the OKAY and DOWN, once she has followed through.  She has also been learning SIT and WAIT, then LOOK AT ME and finally OKAY for her food.  I am only going up to the count of three or four on the LOOK AT ME command.  She becomes extremely wriggly when it is given.  Sere just sits there and waits patiently with an, "I AM looking at you!" kind of look on her face.

Ten Weeks Old!

Sonata, 10wks

Sonata and Serenade, Playing

Well, our girl is now ten weeks old as of today.  If you look back on her eight week old pictures you can see that she has gotten a lot more leggy.  She has become more independent and stubborn, and lovable each day.  Of course, she sits curled up in Sere's paws every evening now, content that Sere is her pack.  It makes me happy to see that Sere has accepted her.  There are still a few times when Sona gets so wound up that Sere will snap at her and give her a  warning growl.  That stops her for all of, oh, one minute.

She still has springs in the bottoms of her feet, and she is an even more avid chewer then she was a week ago.  The trim is now in danger around the house, and the furniture is fair game to puppy teeth.  Sonata has fallen in love with my flipflops.  We will find her sometimes trying to hide a captive flipflop from us, by laying on it with a huge innocent puppy grin.

Sonata, Hiding (9wks)

I am beginning to think that all berners have a love of tissues.  Every time I turn around I swear I am looking Sere as a puppy.  Sonata is somehow finding tissues.  Soon we will start finding puppy sized spitballs, and as Thomas says about Sere, Sona will start wiping herself from the inside out.  Yek.

Sonata, 10wks

The rest of the news is actually kind of sad.  I think we may have lost a cat.  Grey didn't come in last night, nor did I see her at all yesterday.  We have not seen her today either.  We were actually wondering if she had become ill.  She has always basically been a loner cat that would come around every once in a while asking to be pet.  The last time I pet her, I picked her up and noticed that she had lost weight.  I asked Thomas if she was eating and he said that she was.  That evening she kept trying to vomit, but we were not sure it it was a hairball or not.  The next morning when I woke up to take the puppy out, she walked out the door, and that was the last time we have seen her.  I hope that she is all right, but sometimes you just know.  I woke up the second time that morning, and something clicked in my head.  I think Grey is gone.  She was four years old.  Really, that is a long life for a cat that goes in and out of the house, and was a rescue.  She loved being outside.  I just wished we had realized sooner that whatever was matter with her was much more serious then what we had assumed.

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Good news!  Grey came back home earlier this evening!  We had to rush her to the ER though, the entire lower jaw is swollen.  The doctor thinks that it is a developing abscess and the cat is now on some antibiotics.  If it does not clear up in a few days we will have to take her in for a 'minor' surgery.   I left all decisions up to Thomas on her.  I like the cat, but she is not mine.  So, the gray kitty gets to live...for now.

Quick Muse

Serenade and Sonata (8wks, First Rawhide Chew)

Why do berners sleep with their eyes open?  Sere does it, and now we are catching Sona doing the same thing.  Just plain odd!

Ankle Bitter

Sonata 9wks, Serenade 4.4yrs

So today was the first time that Sonata spent some real time on the leash.  She was not pleased, I was.  For the past few days she has decided that it is great fun to grab you pant leg and chomp down as hard as she can.  When she catches skin it is very painful.  I have been using the leash outside so that before she can grab the pant leg (you can usually tell by the look she gets in her eyes, and her body language), I hold the leash out from my body.  She twists around trying to fight to get to the pant leg, not happy with the collar.  When she gives up and sits down looking at me, I immediately praise her.  We will see how this works out.  I will ask Thomas to use the same method.  She doesn't do it inside the house, otherwise I would have her dragging a short leash around. 

Sonata 9wks, Exhausted!

In other news, I carried her up the street to go meet a neighbor (I don't want her paws to hit the ground that I am not certain of, until she has had her ten weeks shots on the 17th).  Their dog, Kaboda, likes to bark.  Every time Sonata would hear his howling bark she would tuck tail and run for the front door to get in.  Now that she has hung out with him for a while (and we are going to go back to get her used to him), I don't think she is as timid with the other dogs barking.  Mission hopefully accomplished!

I was happy to introduced her to the neighbors, it is so fun to introduce a new puppy to people, and just seeing them light up with joy.  Thanks to all the neighbors who are helping and going to be helping me with Sonata!

A Day of Rest

Arabica Breakfast

Yesterday I was so exhausted I ended up sleeping most of it away.  Thankfully Thomas was home, so he was able to watch the pup, and me (I think I may have picked up a slight bug), which included breakfast from Arabica.

Housebreaking is getting somewhat better, or perhaps it is the fact that we are starting to recognize the signs when she has to go out.  Well, I am, kind of.  There are still times when she will look me right in the eye and pee on the carpet in front of me.  That kind of brings me hope, due to I think she is starting to realize that she has to go potty (it also erks me, simply because I have to wonder if she is making a statement of some type).  Of course, when I took the bell out this morning (to show it to her) she jumped at the same time I rang it, and managed to smack her nose on it.  She is now scared of the bell.  Yet another thing we are going to have to work on.

We are going to have to watch her more closely today, not sure if she is limping on the back leg or not.  You can't tell with Berners, I think I spent half of Sere's puppyhood trying to figure out if she had a limp or not. I took her into the vet so many times and they just smiled at me like I was crazy and told me the dog was okay.  

Good news to report! Today Sonata walked down her first step!  For the past week the steps off the front porch have been the enemy, and she has faced them with great uncertainty.  Today she took the first step at going down, and is quickly becoming a pro.

Also some news to wonder at, Serenade apparently has decided that Sonata is hers.  Earlier when we were outside, I had Sere on her lead, and Sonata of course was trying to chew on it.  Two neighbor ladies came walking by, and wanted to be introduced to the newest baby in the neighborhood.  Sere went barking mad, so to speak.  She stood on her toes and barked the snarling bark that she does when she is seriously disturbed that anyone is around that she does not know.  When Sonata tried to go up to the ladies (after a few minutes of hiding next to the step, with her tail between her legs), Sere jumped in front of her, then stood over her and kept barking.  Good news and bad news there.  Sere has made up her mind to keep her apparently.  Now I just have to convince her that the world is not out to get her puppy!

Sonata in her Dog Bed, 9 wks

Finally onto some amusing news.  We have discovered that Sona likes soft things to lie on.  I know to most of you this may not seem a big deal, but for us it is something to laugh at.  For years we have bought Sere dog beds, trying to convince her that she would like to lie on something soft.  Sere has refused.  A part of me shudders at the amount of money we have spent on beds for her, all were rejected.  Eventually they were either thrown out due to the cats literally messing on them beyond usage, Ivan claimed one for his own, or they went to other folks (one went with my parents dog, when they visited here).  Suddenly we have a dog who likes soft things!  Just to see if it was true we bought a small dog bed.  We figure that the cats can use it once she out grows it (which will be in about a week), if she used it.  Surprisingly she used it.  She not only uses it, she comes running in from outside and leaps into it!

The difference in attitude between her and Sere is so surprising to see.  Guess we will see how her personality changes once she hits puberty.