Adventures in Crate Training

As I believe I mentioned in my last post, and as the video below demonstrates, Zim hates his crate.

Well, today I think we've had our first real success with crate training him. We've found that he seems to not cry when we leave him alone in the crate during the day---where he will cry all night even though we're upstairs---literally all night---when we get home from being out, he's not. Now, he used to start as soon as we walked in the door, meaning we couldn't let him out because then he'd think that crying was the way to get out of his crate. Well, today when we got home, he stayed completely silent until he'd been let out. Both times! I think we're making progress. Hopefully he'll be quieter tonight and I'm going to try and video him while we're out tomorrow to see if he actually does stay silent the entire time we're away.

In other news, however, potty training is not going so well. It's damn near impossible to tell when he's peeing since he just stands to pee---no squatting or anything to indicate he's going. This makes it really tough to both stop him from having accidents (although Fathead has successfully done that twice) and to reward him for going outside. You can't reward him for what you don't see! It's no better with pooping either because his stool is loose right now and I think it's made it hard for him to control his bowels. Either way, he's had three poop accidents and all were in his crate. :( I feel really bad for the little guy. It can't be nice to be in a box with your poop. He stopped crying for a bit last night and then started back up again, we think because he'd had an accident, but he's been crying so constantly that we didn't know to take note of it---have I mentioned how sorry I feel for him? I do feel pretty bad that we left him like that, even if we had no way of knowing it was a potty accident.

Well, my little boy may have some crate and potty issues, but he's not the little shark I was expecting to bring home (he barely mouths at all) and he's super great about being handled. Moreover, he really seems to like us. Like, he basically wants to have at least one of us in sight whenever possible. I know some people have trouble bonding with their new Shiba puppies because all they want to do is bite you and they feel like the pup doesn't like them. Zim's just not like that and I have to say it's made bonding a lot easier. It's pretty easy to bond with a pup that's happy to let you man-handle him into a harness and is perfectly happy being petted while he naps in your lap.

More pictures!!!

He's Home!

So, Zim is finally home and so far he's been better than I could have expected. He hates his crate (screams whenever he's in it and the door shuts), but otherwise he's a dream. He's barely mouthed on us and it's never hurt when he does. He's also really great about being handled. He lets me put harnesses on and off just fine with no struggle at all (I need to start treating this because I want him to stay this way). I'm just waiting for him to turn into the terror everyone says he will be! So far, so good.

Anyway, here are some pictures and video of the little tyke now that he's home.

And a video of my baby from when he first got home.

Adventures in Puppy-Proofing.

So, Fathead and I lead a highly electronic life. We have a large LCD TV, an Xbox 360, a Playstation 3 and Surround Sound in addition to our computers, printers and Wi-Fi network. Well, this means that there are cords everywhere in our house. All over the living room.

Well, this was simply not going to do when Zim came home. Leaving the cord situation the way it was just begged for an extra crispy puppy, courtesy of electrocution. So we took today to get our cords in order. Fathead drilled holes in the shelf we put the TV and game systems on in order to put the cords through the back. Then I started stringing all the cords that needed to go to other parts of the house into cord protectors. It took hours. As in about 8 of them. But it's done now. There is significantly less chance of the puppy biting on cords. The living room also looks somewhat nicer (other than all of the crap sitting around in it that we still need to find places for, anyway).

Exactly one week from today is the day Zim comes home!

Zim's on Facebook!

I just put my baby on facebook. :D

http://www.facebook.com/OBEYZIM

Only 8 days until he comes home!

I AM ZIM!

So, since we now know which puppy is ours, I'm reposting a picture of him even though he is in one of the pictures below.

He comes home January 28th. We're naming him Zim, after Invader Zim of the Invader Zim Nickolodeon cartoon. We think that naming him after a narcissistic member of an advanced alien race trying to conquer Earth seems really appropriate. After all, our little boy is probably going to be trying to achieve Shiba world domination.

The Wait is Close to Over

So, Pam contacted me today asking if we wanted her to bring the two pups she thinks will stay small enough with her to Nova, MI, where she's headed this weekend, so we could come pick up our pup. Unfortunately, that would add 2 hours to our trip, though, so I declined. It's really probably best for the pup to have a shorter car trip. Possibly nicer to our ears, considering that I've heard stories of pups screaming the whole way home (hoping we'll avoid that one!). Anyway, she also told me which two she thinks will stay small enough. One of the red girls should stay small enough and . . . the black and tan boy with the green collar! As I noted in my last post, I was somewhat taken with that last pup when he crashed in my lap, so I'm thinking we have a winner. I'm so excited! We'll be going and picking him up the weekend after next (the weekend of the 28th and 29th).

Why oh why isn't that town in Michigan closer? I really want my puppy. :D

Back from Visiting the Pups!

So, today Fathead and I drove 4ish hours (I think it took us more like 4.5 but we hit traffic, ate a short lunch and made a wrong turn in Cincinnati, so I think it should be more like 4) to go visit the puppies. It was super fantastic. They're all fabulously cute and given the way they mobbed us, they all seem very friendly too. Pam has some seriously great dogs. Definitely feeling really good about getting one of her pups. The pups were all pretty charming (even the ones feeling slightly traumatized by worming, shots and microchipping) and all of the adults were simply fantastic. Really fantastic.

Anyway, so an update on the pup we will be getting. Firstly, after our visit today, Fathead basically said that if black and tans were still my favorite, as long as it looked like one would be small enough for us, we could get a black and tan. I was super thrilled about this, of course. Apparently he was really taken with Pam's adult black and tans, especially the father of the black and tan litters, Ike, and has decided that he really doesn't have a color preference. So we'll probably be getting a black and tan. :D

Nextly, we might actually end up getting a boy! It's too early to be really sure, but at least right now it's looking like a couple of the black and tan boys may stay small. Since we don't really care about sex, and just want a puppy that has a nice temperament and should stay small enough to be within our apartment's weight requirement, we'll be perfectly happy with a male if it looks like he'll be small enough. Indeed, I believe the one color-marked green is supposed to stay small enough and I have to admit, I found him pretty charming. He was very friendly and ended our visit by taking a nap in my lap. If it does seem like he'll stay small enough, then he may very well be the one we pick. :D

In other news, we rented a Chrysler 200 to drive out there (our car had developed an odd noise when idling and we didn't feel it was a good idea to drive it that far) and I have to say, I'm really glad we'll be going and getting the pup in our own car. I have two words for you, Chrysler: lumbar support. The Impreza is rally-bred and has noticeably stiffer suspension, but it gives my back no trouble, even over long distances. I came out of this trip with my lower back aching. The difference? The Impreza has very comfy seats with lumbar support. I never appreciated that before, but I do now.

Well, I would be posting pictures of the puppies, but I have a confession. I don't have any. We brought our camera with us, intending to take a ton of video and photos, but we left it in the car and once inside, we were just too enamoured with the puppies to leave them to go get a silly thing like a camera. I kind of regret it now, because it means that I have only my memories to over-analyze, trying to figure out which puppy may end up being mine, etc, but that's just how it is, I suppose.

That said, I will go ahead and post the pictures from the website of the black and tan boys, since we might actually end up getting one.

Unfortunately I have no idea which of these is color-coded as which.

Puppy Pictures!!!

Just got an E-mail this morning with pictures of the puppies available with our breeder. Posted here are the pictures of the females and therefore the puppies we might end up getting. They're all soooo cute!!!!

As you can see from the pictures, another black and tan female was born since I last spoke to Pam (she'd mentioned she had one last litter due when she e-mailed me), so our chances of getting either a black and tan or red and almost 50/50 now---which is great because I would really like a black and tan (although Fathead prefers reds).

Puppy should probably be home the last weekend in January. So excited!!