Teenagers

Today Tessie is 8 months old.  Skippy will be 7 months old a week from Thursday.  They are both  officially in "puppy adolescence."  Puppy adolescence is a time where puppies act like adolescent kids.  They test their limits and try to get away with what they want to do.  This period usually falls between six and twelve months.  Our puppies have become well aware of their rules and their routine.  They know what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do.  However, in the past couple of weeks they have begun to take on the mindset of "if I want to do it, I'm going to do it."  While I was away the puppies did some chewing of household items such as the leg of the coffee table.  T

hey are both well aware that they chew on their toys only but apparently the combination of being seven-month old puppies and having their routine disrupted was enough to spur them on to that golden moment.  While reading about this phase I found that one of the common occurrences is mouthiness.  Tessie wakes up in the morning and is so happy, like she hasn't seen us in ages.  She crawls up to the top of the bed and kisses, kisses, kisses, then gets so excited that she sneaks in a little love bite.  It doesn't hurt but it's enough for us to tell her "no bite," to which she typically tries it again.

They are continuing to grow and get bigger.  When they play now they are like linebackers.  Even little Skippy will take a running charge at Tessie and knock her right off of her feet.  They will be going on their first Saco trip this weekend and sleeping in a tent with us for the first time.  They will also be meeting Glory, the lab of a friend of Paulie's and quite possibly the most well-behaved dog I have ever met.  I have been waiting for our puppies to get to meet Glory because I think they will love her and watching her will be a good experience for them.  Glory loves to swim and retrieve balls from the water.  I think this is going to have a huge impact on Tessie, who we can tell wants so badly to run right into the water and have fun but is still unsure about it.  

On a more serious note, my trip to Puerto Rico really opened my eyes to what our puppies endured prior to being brought to the States.  We stayed at a resort during our trip but left the grounds a few times to visit the capital, the rainforest, and do some shopping.  The section of the island we visited, the area Tessie was found in, is very poor and animals are treated very badly.  We did a kayak tour of the bioluminescent bay and while waiting for our tour we saw numerous stray dogs lying in the street and looking for food.  One was limping.  We saw four stray dogs repeatedly at the resort we staying at as well.  The southern half of the island, where Skippy was rescued from, is supposed to be even worse.  There are several unpatrolled beaches there where animals are taken to be abandoned or killed.  The Save-a-Sato program is such a worthwhile cause and seeing the situation first hand really opened my eyes to that.  In fact, I made a donation as soon as I returned.  And if I thought Paulie would have gone for it, I would have returned with 2 or 3 more dogs for us.  Please visit saveasato.org

They're Still Puppies!

I chose the title because Paul & I frequently forget that the puppies are still, in fact, puppies.  We have now had them for four months but it seems as though they have been with us for years.  When Skippy still has an occasional accident or Tessie doesn't come when called 100% of the time, we often forget that they are still only six and seven months old.  Another reason for this is that we are very lucky to have two very wonderful dogs.  They have learned commands remarkably quick, they are happy to do whatever we are doing at any given time, and they've graduated to having both the kitchen and living room open to them when they are left home alone. 

They went on their first camping trip over the weekend.  We spent the weekend in New Hampshire and they both did great.  They're very go-with-the-flow type of puppies, which is great.  We visited a place called Diana's Baths, where water comes down the side of a mountain over big rocks and creates waterfalls and tidal pools.  The picture above is of them at Diana's Baths.  There is a wooded path that runs up along the water.  The dogs had an awesome day there.  There were a ton of other dogs and they did a fabulous job meeting and greeting them....as well as their owners, which was huge for Tess.  There was a yellow lab that was running in and out of the water.  Tessie loved her and wanted so badly to follow her into the water and play.  Every time the dog would run in Tessie would follow about 3 or 4 steps in, then realize what she was doing and back up out of the water.  She's coming around with the water and did a great job walking through a shallow river at the campground with Paulie.  

This upcoming week I will be away in Puerto Rico.  The puppies will be home with Paul for the week and even though I know he will do an awesome job with them, as he always does, I can't help but worry about leaving my puppies!  It is funny how they become like children.  However, Puerto Rico is the puppies' homeland and it will be interesting to see where they came from.  I've never flown over the ocean before, which is another thing I'm a little anxious about...but I keep telling myself if Tessie and Skippy made it, I will too!

Four Months

Friday will be the four month anniversary of the day we brought home Tessie and Skippy.  They have had a busy four months and they both have learned a lot and grown a lot.  The picture this week is of the puppies in their new life jackets.  We decided to buy them to make them feel a little more buoyant in the water.  They both did great when they swam but I think they will like having these.  We will try them this weekend on the puppies' first camping trip in NH.

Tessie makes small improvements everyday.  She is now 7 months old.  Our trainer, who we have been attending class with since late March, tells us every class how impressed she is with how we've been able to help Tessie.  She continues to come out of her shell and show more and more people why we love her so much.  We plan to try agility training with her in the fall.  I brought it up to our trainer a few weeks ago because I thought it would be something she would enjoy.  Tessie has boatloads of energy and in my opinion she needs a more strenuous outlet than a walk or two each day.  Our trainer thinks it will help her gain a lot of confidence, as it helped her shelter dog immensely!  We plan to enroll her in an intro class to see if she liked it.  We also have a few things at home to use to get her started.  She knows sit, come, shake, wait, stay, with me, and down - which she does like there is a incoming missile (quite funny).  She also just mastered heel, which only took her about 40 minutes to get.  I just finished reading the book Marley and Me by John Grogan.  It was a great book that I would immediately recommend to any dog lover/owner.  There were so many little quirks that Grogan described in Marley that we also see in Tessie.  She is a big, goofy lab when she feels comfortable enough to be herself...hopefully as time goes on that will happen more and more (and not just at home).  

Skippy is Skippy.  We have yet to find another dog like him.  He was 6 months old this week.  He loves to kiss and cuddle.  He knows how to play fetch and when he wants to he's quite good at it.  He's still a little protective of Tess, something we don't want him to feel like he has to do.  When we enroll Tessie in agility class I think we will enroll him in the next level of training to give them a little away time from each other.  Skippy knows sit, down, shake, wait, stay, come, with me, and I'm working on sit up.  He does much better with the cutesy circus dog tricks (sit up, shake), while Tessie is better at the good old originals (come, stay, heel).  He loves being the center of attention (still) and continues to interrupt any attention that Tessie is given.  He loves to eat and contrary to what I believe, he has grown.  It is hard for me to notice day to day but looking back at his first pictures he looks so small and boney!  I love looking back at the one-a-week photo albums and I am so glad I did that.  The differences in them are hard to see day by day but looking at how they have changed in four months is incredible!