How are you????

[Holly Paterniti]

I wanted to see how all of you are doing these days :) We seem to be growing and I am LOVING it :) For our younger pups..........mom and dad how are they doing? Please keep us updated and keep posting the pics of our new family members :)

We really need to set a date in the summer to meet somewhere in the middle of where we all live to get the family together :)

[Ken]

So far so good. Took Grady for his first good walk in the back yard ......... went about 1 1/2 miles then the kids took him for about a mile. ....... funny he slept all night .......9 hours! Got up went out, then back to food and drink. He is back to playing. I think its time for some ice fishing for Grady...... dont worry we will have a shelter with floor and bed for him to stay warm.

[Ken]

Grady had his first all night sleep! 9 hours! I guess the 2 plus mile walk/run between me and the boys did him in :-) He's up and at it again this morning. We feel better having slept last nigh :-)

[Holly Paterniti]

That is GREAT!!! Sometimes the LONG walks help :) They just have so much energy :) Bear still does :)

[Tina Ricciardi]

I might have to try a 2 mile walk with Jack this week...I could really use a full night of sleep! I am thankful that he only got up once last night- wouldn't go back to bed though. He is growing sooo fast, he has basically doubled in size the week and a half I've had him!

[Jillian Petras]

I'm going to try the long walks too! Charlie is still getting up twice a night and we are exhausted! (I know, we've only have had him for 5 days!)

We absolutely love our little guy... he has the funniest personality! My husband and I laugh so hard at some of the things he does. He loves our TV. He will sit there and watch an entire program. He is very fond of Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, which makes my husband happy!

It does seem like he is still having a lot of accidents. He doesnt go potty in his crate unless we cant get home in time to let him out during the day, and I cant blame him for that at all. But when we are home he does pee on the carpet quite a bit. We are taking him outside almost every hour so I dont think he really HAS to go... he just is! Anyone else having this problem? I know he is still such a baby and they go a lot, but I didnt know they go this much!

[Ken]

Yup they go that much : - ) Every time Grady drinks or eats he goes. I will say what I did was buy a $5 boot tray and every time he had an accident I would wipe it up then put the paper towel in the tray. I figure I was giving him the hint that Pee belonged in the tray. My wife thinks I may have only been training my self to clean up after him. But she had no complaints. After a day or two he started to pull the paper towels out of the tray so I through them out. Plus no need to have the smell. During all this he was going everywhere living room kitchen dinning room. We blocked him in the kitchen with child gates and he was only out of the kitchen when with one of us or the kids. Still there was the accidents but that when we noticed him starting to us the boot tray. As long as the tray is available he is now doing fine. I cant say I know anything about this but with consistency he is doing pretty well.

Good luck with the sleep I think he will be up just once soon. Grady did a full night again last night. I am beginning to fee normal : - )

But we do have a lot of fun and laughing as well.

[Jillian Petras]

That is so good to hear! I was starting to fear Charlie had a peeing problem!

Now what about nipping/chewing? Is Grady a nipper?

[Kyoko]

I tethered Charlie when she was very young. This way, she was always very close to one of us, and we were able to monitor her much closer, and she had fewer accidents. I also remember being awaken, and cold in the middle of the night potty outing. :-( But it will soon end...Just like a human baby, soon, the puppy will be able to sleep until 5:30 am, 6 am, so on and so forth. Hang in there ~
Charlie nipped a lot, and snapped her teeth like a shark! She used to follow us and nipped at our feet with her sharp baby teeth!! This will eventually, end too. Seems like once she got adult teeth, it started to slow down.

All of the puppies are soooo cute!!! I miss her being a little baby.....

[Ken]

Update .....

Grady has made it to 4:45 this morning and them right back to sleep. I think he will stay on the once a night for a while until full nights are normal. He makes it to very close to 5 or 6 each night. Seems to depend on how late we can keep him up. He seems to want to nap from 7pm to 9pm.

Kyoko, good idea with the tether, I have heard this somewhere else as well. As you said it will end or should I say it did with the kids so I am sure it will with Grady.

On the nipping Grady is nipping a lot. But I have read in a book somewhere that grabbing the skin behind the neck (not hard just firm-no yelping - he will let go and turn his head) then ignoring them we say hey while doing this. It has really kept nipping to a minimum. At this point saying “hey” firmly stops his nipping. As well lots of biting toys Grady loves them.

As I said before I am no dog whisperer just letting you know what works for us.

Did I mention how big he is getting …….. Wow.

I’ll post updated pictures later.

[Tina Ricciardi]

Glad I'm not the only one dealing with a VERY nippy puppy...my poor hands, arms, and heals have never gone through this much pain. I am just trying a stern "No" consistently every time he starts getting to rough. I'll keep with that for the next couple weeks. We start puppy classes in the beginning of Feb. so maybe they will have some good suggestions. He also loves to get a hold of my hair- ouch! He also does the shark thing - which I think is hilarious!

Jack had a very rough evening though yesterday. I went out with one of my girlfriends so Jack Jack was home alone with his daddy and he was not happy at all that his momma wasn’t home. He had more “accidents” last night than he has the whole time we’ve had him despite being taken outside often. I guess he is just a momma’s boy!

[Jillian Petras]

We had a very rough night last evening, too! :-( We had our first vet appointment which went really, really well. Charlie was such a good boy and he seemed to be exhausted by the time we got home around 9pm. We all went to bed at 930pm (yes, even my husband and I go to bed that early now) and everything seemed to be fine. Charlie woke us up at 1am (as normal) to go potty outside. Either I didnt hear him soon enough or he couldnt hold it because when I went to get him out of his crate he had already peed. Still, I took him outside and he went again. When I went to put him back in his crate he was oddly very upset. He was whining, crying and yelping. Sometimes he does this for a few minutes before he settles down again and falls back asleep. Well not this time, the high pitched barking and yelping went on for FOUR hours!

We kept taking him out thinking he had to potty, but he would only go a little bit. We couldnt figure out what what going on with him. At one point, I went to check on him again and he was sitting in the corner of his crate shaking and shivering while barking and yelping. This really upset me because it looked like he was really scared or something like that? I didnt know what to do so I finally laid down next to the crate a little after 430am and after another 1/2 hour of barking and crying he went to sleep.

This was the first time we had any type of problem like this at night! I'm so afraid of it happening again tonight because I dont think I can function another work day without sleep! Does anyone have any advice?

[Ken]

Hey Jillian and Tina

This is very tough on everyone including the puppies . Our hearts just get ripped apart if we cant help and so far puppies cant speak as far as I know. As I said I am no specialist or even novice at this, I consider my self pre-novice. But I have kids and baby experience. My wife and I were saying, this is more work than our baby boys coming home.

I think the puppies are accustomed to having there mother and siblings around. This is there comfort zone. Now they are on there own with a new family, new rules, new surroundings and it takes some for them to know you are family and they can rely on you. These little guys want to please but they don’t know exactly how yet.

One advantage Grady has at the moment is I am a golf pro and do not work this time of year. I am going to post a video of Grady’s reaction to my wife and kids leaving in the morning and he still has me at home! Where do I rate? He does go most places with me at this point ….. UPS, gas station, oil change, Grandpa’s , etc. First few times back in the truck he was very concerned. I think he didn’t know what it meant, going home? to a new family? ect. Last time he just jumped in a truck he ended up 618 miles away :- ( He’s getting used to it. Now settling down in about 5 min. when we get in the truck.

I know they say to leave them in the crate/kennel and they will just get used to it but I think you did the right thing in laying down with him. I had Grady sleep with me on the couch the first night and we got up on the hour to go out and pee. The second night we were up every hour and it has continued to get better and better. He does not whine for more than a few minutes. It will get better for you guys as well. It will be time spent with Jack and Charlie, then it will get better. I think weekends are going to be the time that will help the most as puppies will get full days with you.

I read before we picked up Grady that if your puppy whines for more than 20 minutes then its time for action. What action? I have no idea they didn’t say as far as I remember……..but I gave it more than 30 minutes with Grady (I guess I’m tough on him) on the first night and then we were sleeping together.

As a dad I will say use your instincts they are usually right. An old dog can learn even if they are spoil with sleeping with you as a pup. I would try to not sleep in the bed room or bed, if they will not be in there in the future.

I hear there is a lot of good advice on this site as well.

Hoping you get sleep soon.
Hope some of this helps

Ken

Also known as the “Dog Hog” at our home