Happy Birthday!

Today was Coco's first birthday. She received a Gut-gut as a birthday present and has already managed to chew a hole in its chest. If you look closely at the photo you can see the Gut-gut in the background. This is what she looked like today and on the very first day that we met her (April 2007).

Happy birthday, Coco!

Homemade Ear Cleaner

Coco had what smelled like an infection in her ear. Normally we are very good about cleaning her ears but this time around her ear smelled funny. It started to smell like there was some kind of bacteria growing in there (kind of like cheese.) I did some research online and there is a homemade ear cleaner solution that many people love and swear by. I figure that I'd give it a try and if it didn't immediately start showing positive signs, I'd go to the vet.

It turns out the ear cleaner worked! The next day Coco's ears started to smell better. In fact a few days of using it and the weird cheese smell went away. I love this ear cleaner and am a true believer in it.

Ear Cleaner
3 oz isopropyl alcohol
1/4 T boric acid powder
1 oz white vinegar
1/4 t generic Betadine antiseptic

In a bottle mix the isopropyl alcohol and the boric acid powder together. Shake it well. Add the white vinegar and Betadine antiseptic. Shake well to combine.

Pour this solution in each ear and let rest there for 1 min per ear. Let your dog shake it out aftewards.

Continue daily treatment with the ear cleaning solution until the problem has gone away. If it doesn't seem to make the infection go away, contact your vet immediately.

I had to buy all the ingredients at Rite Aid. I found that neither Walgreens nor Longs carried the boric acid powder in stock and it had to be special ordered. Another place you can buy the boric acid is from any hardware store (Ace, OSH, etc.)

A Battle of Wills

Throughout the time we've had Sadie we've found she can be very stubborn. We've had her for about two weeks now and she's only eaten dry food. The other day she decided to try to test us, again, to see if we'd give her wet food. She refused to eat the entire day, only drinking water at meal times. She quickly learned that we would not give in and she had to eat dry food or no food at all. Sadie tested us to see if we'd feel sorry that she wasn't eating dry food and would, instead, give in and give her some wet food. We ultimately won the "battle" and she caved in on the second day and ate dry food.

Sadie likes to test us but we've found if we stand firm that she'll be the one who caves in, which is the way it should be. Our motto is "it is a privilege, not a right." If either of the pup wants play time, it is a privilege. They need to be on good behavior in order to earn extra long play time, treats, etc. If they misbehave then they will learn they don't get these extra perks and will instead spend more time in the crate.

Sadie went in for a bath today and when she was done we saw she had very cute bows in her hair.

Coco and Sadie Weigh In

Yesterday I weighed both Coco and Sadie.

Coco - 5 lb 7 oz
Sadie - 12.6 lb

Is No Place Sacred?

The day started off so well ...

Sadie started the day off by actually finishing her breakfast (she only manages to eat her entire portion 50% of the time) so we were really happy. Getting her to eat is sometimes a challenge and it is always a relief when she eats all of the meal (rather than only eating a few pieces.)

I took Sadie to the vet in the morning so she could get her shots. She seemed ok going to the vet. Coco, on the other hand, was shaking like crazy. I had Coco in a bag and the entire bag trembled the entire time we were at the vet. I wonder how dogs know that they are at the vet even though they've never been to that particular facility before. Sadie was exploring the area and didn't make a fuss when I left her in the hands of the technicians.

After work I picked Sadie up from the vet and she was extremely excited to see me. Her tail was wagging at a 100 mph and she was genuinely happy and excited. Again, Coco was trembling the entire time we were at the vet.

I took the two pups home and they simultaneously went poop outside. I was so happy since it is usually a chore to get Sadie to poop and she takes a long time before she's ready to poop. Perhaps a trip to the vet changed Sadie completely and made her bowel movements happen more quickly? ...

I then waited an hour before feeding both Coco and Sadie. Afterwards Sadie was left in the pen. The pen is where Sadie plays and enjoys freedom. In dog-speak it should be a safe haven. Similar to a den, the pen is where Sadie should consider her home. As such, Sadie should not defile it. Dogs have a strong understanding of dens and home and know not to poop or pee in it (which is the whole idea behind crate training.) Well apparently no place is sacred. An hour after Sadie pooped outside she proceeded to poop in the pen. O.o It's difficult to get Sadie to poop at all; pooping twice is unheard of. It puts me at a total loss since dogs aren't supposed to poop or pee in their home, yet Sadie has defied the odds. This is poop #3 for Sadie on our carpet (twice in the living room and once in the pen.) *sigh* I hope we come up with some fool proof method to ensure Sadie really has emptied herself and we find some place where Sadie is considered safe.

Coco and Sadie - Weekend Recap

The past few days has been fairly uninteresting from a blogger's point of view. Ming and I didn't do anything terribly exciting with the dogs since we had to do a lot of work. Sadie and Coco seemed happy to have us in the house even though we couldn't actively play with them the entire time. They continued to enjoy one anothers company and do their wrestling/playing in the pen.

Sadie did very well on Sunday night. We had to leave her home alone since we were going to have dinner with my parents. My parents are definitely not dog people. They very much dislike dogs and had a very tough time accepting Coco. My parents still do not want Coco to sit in their laps; petting is about as much affection as they are willing to show Coco. We took Coco to my parents house for dinner but had to leave Sadie at home since two dogs would have overwhelmed my parents. Sadie did well and didn't utter a peep when we (including Coco) left her in the house. When we got home Sadie was, of course, very happy to see us and her tail was wagging like crazy. (A wagging tail signals a dog is happy.) Due to Sadie's good behavior while home alone, she got a treat. We gave her a doggy cupcake and she ate it in the strangest fashion. She ate everything except the frosting. Winnie was most definitely right in that Sadie doesn't like sweets but is very willing to eat around the sweet part.

Tomorrow will be a big day for Sadie and Coco. I'm going to take Sadie to the vet so she can get some shots. Sadie's vet is on the way to the city, which is where I'm working tomorrow. Since I'm driving up to the city tomorrow, I've also decided to take Coco to work with me. Coco doesn't get to come to work that often with me since I don't want her to overextend her welcome. It's a win-win situation. Sadie gets her shots so that she can then go to dog parks and other fun outdoor activities and Coco gets to share the day with me at work.

Seeing is believing... and disgusting!

Dogs have these nasty things called anal glands on the side of their rear end which apparently secretes their "scent." A few months ago, we accidentally "expressed" one of these while giving Coco a bath and then learned that expressing the sacs is a very common practice with pets.

Anyway, a number of blogs talk about their dogs scootching their butts on the carpet when the sacs get too full and need to be expressed. You might have even seen a commercial on TV for carpet cleaner that featured a dog sitting down and sliding across the carpet.

Today, we got a firsthand experience from Sadie. We had never seen Coco do it before, but Sadie was sitting on the carpet and then suddenly scootched herself forward about 3 feet!!! Our poor carpet!! Hopefully nothing came out, but I hope that whatever is in there didn't / doesn't come out on our carpet. O.o. I hope we can get her to a groomer this week so that they can take care of it for us :)

Dog Door and Voyeurism

We bought a dog door for Coco to use. The hope is that eventually she'll be able to go to do her potty on her own without us needing to supervise her. Once she can be trusted to pee and potty on her own, then we'll start giving her more freedom around the house when we're gone during the day. Currently we have to be there to help her go potty since we need to open the patio door to the outside (where she goes potty.)

I'm not sure how long it will take her to learn how to use the dog door and eventually go on her own accord but hopefully it isn't that long.

On another note, both Sadie and Coco got very lucky since Ming worked from home part of the day today. They played and played all afternoon, as the photo below depicts (yes, I'm a voyeur ^_~)

Coco and Sadie Day 7

Sadie continues to be a challenge. She has now proven she can walk and pee simultaneously while in the house. Yesterday she pee'ed on the floor on the way to the designated pee area! O.o You can see the dribble marks from where the largest puddle is to where the designated pee area is. *sigh* Apparently she decided that walking and peeing isn't so hard after all.

Sadie is quite the contradiction. Sometimes she is very well behaved and other times she is positively obstinate. Sometimes she does her pee and poop exactly as we intend her to do and eats without much prompting. Other times she'll positively refuse to pee or poop and won't touch her food and/or tries to stare you down into cowering and giving her some wet food. She obviously has not learned yet that she isn't the "king" in this household and that she can't get her way; she needs to live by the rules we set. Sometimes Sadie will refuse to eat her kibble except for a little nibble and looks up at us expecting us to give in and shower her with wet food. We won't give in though and she's going to learn that if she doesn't want dry food, then she won't get anything. I find it very interesting that sometimes she can be an angel and be well-behaved and other times she's very ... trying.

The best we can do is continue to be firm and hope she starts learning that you catch more flies with honey than you do with .... well however the saying goes. :) If she behaves then she gets more play time with Coco and more attention from us. If she doesn't behave she gets more crate training time and doesn't get showered with any affection.

When Coco and Sadie play they play very rough. I think it's good exercise for the two of them; it works out the extra energy they have as well as keeps their spirits up. We have now only let the two of them play together in the pen. Confining their play area keeps them safe and keeps them from running into cords or furniture. We've also found that their rough play has led to our rug getting a few battle scars. :( They've played so roughly that a few woven strands of the rug have started to come undone. Yes, best to put the two in a pen and away from carpet so that we can preserve our carpet but still let them have fun together.

New day, new routine

After yesterday's "nugget" incident, we decided to try and switch up Sadie's routine a bit. I built the pen so that we have a more controlled space for the pups to play in, but when Sadie went in there, she didn't want to play with Coco and just moaned for a while. Eventually, she fell asleep, which was good.

Last night was the first night Sadie ate all of her food too. We've realized that it's very easy to distract her so even when we want to praise her when she eats, it sets her off and she gets confused and forgets about eating. Lesson learned: Once she starts eating, shut yer trap and let her eat in peace! The other good news is that she ate an entire serving of only dry food.

This morning, Sadie seemed to get into more of a routine. She finally heard nature call and relieved herself on both fronts. This was a bit of a relief because it's the first sign that she may be settling back into a routine. Immediately after, I took her to eat and with just a little bit of coaxing, she started to eat and finished off another bowl of dry kibble along with some water.

Today, I'm going to do a bit of crate training, to make sure that Sadie knows that she uses the bathroom outside and gets comfortable with the routine. It won't be so different from her normal day, except that she will have to stay in her crate for the day. I hope that by the end of the week, she knows to always do her "business" outside and then we can start emphasizing her the commands for #1 and #2 :)

Coco seems to be doing okay. She definitely holds her head up high like she's the queen of the house. She likes to nip at Sadie to try and entice her to play, and sometimes gets more than she bargains for. It feels like Coco is fighting for a bit more attention now that there are two dogs in the house and she's starting to be a bit more aggressive in her attempts. We give both of them a lot of love and attention, and Coco will need to learn that she can't beg her way into every situation.

Coco and Sadie Photos (Days 1-5)

Here are some photos taken of Coco and Sadie during Sadie's stay with us.












Sadie goes on her back while playing


Coco likes to practice standing against Sadie when they play

Coco and Sadie Day 5

Today was the first day we've had Sadie and had to get ready to go to work. Sadie is proving to be quite the handful. She pooped on the carpet again! While Sadie was walking in the living room she pooped! This is going to be much tougher to deal with Sadie's pee/poop habits if she poops while walking if we can't anticipate it. O.o

Coco and Sadie Day 4

Sadie has started to get over her separation anxiety . She and Coco have started playing pretty roughly together, enjoying themselves the entire time. It was such a nice day outside that we decided to let the two of them run around outside. They had a good workout running around outside and I washed all 8 paws once they were done (black paws on white dogs are just no fun to have on the inside of a house.)

Sadie has started to realize the benefits of tummy rubs. Ming and I have started to give her tummy rubs and she has enjoyed them, sometimes even getting down on her back to try to get us to give her the tummy rub.

While the two pups were playing outside Sadie must have eaten something that she shouldn't have. She ended up feeling ill all day and finally throwing up mid-day. She threw up while in her crate, thereby making a mess of herself, her crate, and her blankie. Needless to say she had to get a bath and get cleaned up all over again. We washed the crate pad and her blankie since they also got dirty. The good news is that Sadie appears to be back to normal.

She ate her dinner more quickly tonight than she has the previous meals. She still needed to be hand fed part of her meal but at least time time we didn't have to hand feed her the entire meal and she actually finished off her dinner portion (Coco always wants to finish off Sadie's leftovers but this time around she didn't get to have any scraps.)

Day 3... Continued

Can an old dog be taught new tricks? The answer appears to be yes.

Over the past few days, we started to get Sadie to respond to commands. She now does "sit" and "down" on command nearly every time. Every so often, she tries to resist the down command and sits instead but we don't praise her until she gets all the way to the ground. It is taking her less time to sit and go down now, although it looks like she's a bit stiff getting into position.

On our walk, we also decided to do some role playing. Earlier in the day, Coco and Sadie were playing a bit on the side yard and Sadie is clearly the "dominant" one. Coco would nip at Sadie for a while until Sadie finnaly got Coco to roll over showing her dominance. During our walk, Cindy and I intentionally made Sadie walk behind Coco and I kept Sadie firmly by my side with her new training collar which. We didn't realize how much the pack mentality had changed until tonight when Sadie would roll over onto her back repeatedly while playing with Coco.

Sadie has graciously stepped down from her position as pack leader for the day, but will this trend continue?

We'll keep track of some of Sadie's commands and how she's doing:

Sit - does this very well!
Down - does this most of the time. She forgets every so often, or tries to resist. She gets into position more quickly on Day 3
Paw - she normally responds to this
Other paw - I think this is a new trick for her, but she picked it up pretty quickly. I still have to pick up her paw every once in a while.
Stand - She seems to like this one, but we're just trying it out. We say "stand" and pat our thighs and she normally hops up on her hind legs.
Come - She's starting to do this on our terms. Before, she would stare at us, or ignore us. Every so often, she would seek shelter under a table or chair...

Coco and Sadie, Days 2 and 3

Sadie has finally started to realize that her mommy and daddy are gone. She's going through a bit of withdrawal and has started to miss them. It was to be expected that she'd get a little down once she realized she wouldn't see them again soon.

Sadie hasn't wanted to play with Coco at all and hasn't really wanted to eat unless fed by hand. She wouldn't touch her own food at all but would at least eat Coco's food if hand fed. She's been getting her past couple of meals fed by hand so she's at least eating. She seems to really enjoy Coco's food and has started to get used to chewing it (since it's looks like it is harder kibble than she is used to eating.)

On Day 2 we gave Sadie a Greenie treat, which is basically a hard bone which helps promote teeth cleaning and is edible. Sadie took a long time to finish eating it but she really seemed to enjoy it. We gave her the same treat on day 3 and she ate it faster but still couldn't compete with the speed Coco ate hers. Sadie may eventually out eat Coco in speed but so far Coco has the upper hand. We're trying to promote more eating of harder foods for Sadie since she looks like she has difficulties eating hard foods (even going so far as to not want to eat a raw carrot.)

Ming and I really need to work with Sadie in order to keep her spirits up. We've given her lots of extra attention (hopefully not making Coco jealous) in order to give Sadie as much normality as possible. We have even started to teach Sadie some new tricks (I'll elaborate more about it once Sadie has the tricks down pat.)

Ming and I have established ourselves as leaders of the house. Initially Sadie tried to test how far she could push us (by ignoring commands, etc.) and we didn't let her get away with it. She's now accepted that when we say she can't do something or go somewhere, that she needs to live by those rules.

Sadly Sadie had an accident on Day 2. She decided that the carpet was a perfect place for her to do a poopie. O.o I hope this will be her only accident the entire time we've got her but we're going to take extra precautions now so that she knows where is an acceptable place for her to do her pee and poop.

Coco and Sadie, Day 1

Last night was the first night Sadie spent the night with Coco. Coco and Sadie hit it off immediately. They ran around and played together as though they were litter mates. When Sadie's mommy and daddy left the house, Sadie didn't really seem to notice; she was still having too much fun with Coco.

Sadie and Coco slept next to one another and it was pretty uneventful. In the beginning Sadie made little whining noises but it subsided pretty quickly. She seemed to accept her new temporary living/sleeping conditions pretty readily.

Stay tuned for more chronicles of Sadie and Coco

Public Enemy Number One: The Vet

Coco was so happy this morning, full of energy and affection as she always is. She is excited when she gets to go out of the house with us. This morning she happily jumped into her travel carrier so she could go in a car ride with me to wherever I was going. Once she realized that my destination was the vet she immediately started shaking and shivering. She has now realized that the vet is not a place of fun. The malls are fun; the vet is nothing but unhappy thoughts. She shook the entire time we were there and I felt bad that I had to leave her there.

Coco is now under anesthesia getting some baby teeth pulled. Yes, baby teeth. I spoke with the vet and there's a chance she has to get doggy ortho work done. O.o Holy smokes! No one ever told me there is a such thing as doggy braces. Lordies, now I understand why people spend, on average, $700 annually on their pets. I dread braces for my own kids and now I find out that dogs can get them too? O.o I need to start a doggy donation fund so that my puppy can have braces -- now how crazy does that sound?

Friends Forever

In order of preference, these are Coco's favorite things:

food (treats, meal time, etc)
playing with Sadie
sitting in mommy or daddy's lap

Coco has been pretty well behaved this season. Overall I'm very proud of her and she's done well as a 9 month year old. Coco lives for food. Anytime she suspects a treat is imminent she goes absolutely nuts and will do anything we want her to do, as long as we feed her.

Her second favorite past time is playing with Sadie. Some photos of their December play date:




Wouldn't it be so cool if we had two Malteses? They'd get along fabulously

Holiday Re-cap and the New Year

Coco had a very happy holiday season. She met Ming's parents and they eventually came to love her. At first they were a bit hesitant around her (having never really liked dogs) but by the end of Christmas she loved her and Dad kept wanting to sneak little treats to her and take her on long walks.

Coco has been introduced to more sweets this season than she's had in her entire life. Everyone gave her a Christmas gift and she has eaten a total of 3 cupcakes, 1 snowman cookie, and a Greenie chew bone. I think she's been very spoiled this season.

January 2008 has already been booked for Coco. She has an appointment at the vet to pull some stubborn baby teeth and an extended play date with Sadie. I know Coco won't mind the slight inconvenience of a tooth pool if it means she gets to play with Sadie. Sadie is Coco's favorite playmate and the two completely forget we're around since they're so busy having fun together.