Sunday, May 20, 2007

Loose Lead Walking

We are trying to teach Buddy how to walk on a loose lead, so that he doesn't pull at the lead as he walks. He is pretty good at it and a quick learner.

One of the best thing about walking the dog is that he gets to socialize with other dogs and people. He is a friendly puppy, especially with people. He is getting much more confident with other dogs too.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Grooming Butterscotch

Butterscotch is a pretty easy dog to care for. He doesn't shed at all but he does need grooming regularly. We have bathed him at home a couple of times and he seems to enjoy playing in the water. And we have also used a great mobile groomer called Your Critter Sitter.

Since grooming is something that we are not that good at keeping up with, we have decided to have Buddy's coat cropped short once the weather gets a bit warmer.

I have never owned a floppy eared dog before and I didn't realise that you need to clean inside their ears. Luckily Buddy is so placid he will let us do this without making a fuss.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Dog Toys

Making sure that Buddy had his own toys was a good idea. He has a little collection of about 6 things and we rotate which ones we leave out for him. Usually on any given day 5 toys will be lost under the couch. We also gave him a decoy shoe, an old sandal that belonged to the kids. But he prefers recently worn shoes, and can often be found asleep with his head inside an ugg boot.

We are encouraging the kids to play with toys with the dog, rather than play wrestling games, which can give dogs the wrong idea about acceptable ways of interacting with humans.

Buddy loves playing fetch, and will fetch a ball, his toy fire hydrant or his toy shoe. He is a very intelligent dog and learned to fetch and return in about 5 minutes! He also loves Mr Squeaky, and will sleep on his or play tug-of-war with him.

Chewing, Biting,Teething & Nibbling

We haven't really had any problems with Buddy chewing up things. He will rip up any paper that you leave on the ground though, but he has his own toys to play with, like Mr Squeaky here, which was a present from Cody.

When I was a kid we had a Labrador who chewed furniture, seriously chewed, turning chair legs in to match sticks. So I have been pleasantly surprised that Butterscotch has not been destructive at all. He will often drag our shoes around the house but he doesn't bite them, and we try to make sure that valuable things aren't left on the floor.

Is having a dog hard work?

Our kids have wanted a dog for years. We finally gave in, but only after extracting promises that they would all help us take care of the new puppy.

In our realistic moments we knew that it would be mainly the parents looking after the dog.

Two months later and it hasn't been so bad, the kids do help with some dog chores and Buddy is a pretty low maintenance dog. It hasn't been anywhere near as much work as we thought it would be.

There is a good article on the Pookinuk website about why pets are great for kids too.