We had a new addition to our family today, 3 February 2010, Rosie, a six week old yorkie-cross puppy.

Rosie was a pot-bellied little puppy (runt of the litter), so a visit to the vet's nurse was arranged for this evening, we have worming paste; the start of treatment that will continue until Rosie is 3 months old.

Jena

Current family members are, 2 human adults, that's me and 'a visitor to planet earth', 2 cats, a normal moggy, Sophie, and one born on streets of London as feral, now tolerable of humans, Misty and Jena, who I've now decided to describe as a yorkie-cross. Jena was bought as a yorkie, and until her fur was fully grown she had the marking and colouring of a yorkie, but it's obvious that she's not a yorkie.

We used to have Elsa, a medium size long-haired mongrel, like a walking rug. Unforturnately, she had to be 'put to sleep' at the age of 15 and a half, due to ill-health on 14th September 2009. Elsa was a much loved and missed dog.

Progress Report

This is something I'll be able to look back at when Rosie is a basic trained adult dog, see how we got there.

Rosie appears to be settling in well. She was restless at first, understandable, she hadn't had a long sleep until we came back from the vets, around 5.00pm, then she slept for almost 2 hours, and peed in the crate before I had a chance to take her out. Rosie has had a short runaround and play with Jena, and is now in her crate

Crate Training

I was unsure about using a crate, which I got from charity shop several months ago for £3.00, it needed a clean up, but it's fine now. I'd recommend a crate to anyone getting a puppy.

Despite all advice, and my own entry on using a puppy crate (which with personal experience I can improve and finish) I'm using it my own way. It's quite a big crate for such a small puppy. One half is Rosie's bed, of the remaining half, one third contains the water and food bowls, on a small narrow tray, and the remaining two thirds is newspaper. Typical, Rosie doesn't want to use the nice soft blanket bed, she sleeps on the newspaper, maybe because that is nearest the door.

It was hard the first evening ignoring Rosie's whining, not even talking to her while she was whining; I don't think I could have achieved that if my partner hadn't been at work, he'd have kept saying "Sandra, see to her", but I was seeing to her, by ignoring her, the results have paid off, she's now much quieter when in her crate. Rosie was let out at intervals, when she was quiet; just to explore her surroundings, play with Jena, or to go in the garden.

This morning was the first morning Rosie wasn't whinning when I got up at 7.00am. A bit like the first time a baby sleeps all night, a bit worrying, until you discover that they are okay.

I leave the crate door open while Rosie is having her playtime, she has now started to go to her bed, in the crate, when she gets tired.

House Training

I believe 50% of house training is knowing your puppy's natural routine, once you've got that sussed, it's just a matter of fitting it in around your normal routine.

I thought very young puppies pooed about 20 minutes after eating, uh, uh, well not Rosie. Yesterday morning about 15 minutes after she'd had her morning meal, I took Rosie out to garden, the weather wasn't ideal, occasional drizzly rain. We stayed out there for 40 minutes, 40 'bleep' minutes, with Rosie keep running to back door, and me keep bring her back to the grass, repeating "Rosie garden" every time, eventually I gave up, it had started to rain proper, no sense in both of us getting soaked.

I now know that Rosie needs to poo approximately an hour after food - food, play, sleep and then poo. Weeing, hmm that's more difficult to predict. That's a bit hit and miss at the moment, but then it has only been one full day, but still I think we're making good progress. Rosie wee'd in garden more often than she wee'd indoors yesterday. One time, she was playing with Jena, then she went into her crate and wee'd on the newspaper, I'll have to try to catch her before she does that agin, and take her to garden.

Hmmm she's just done it again, while I was sat here typing. Rosie was playing with Jena, she stopped play, went into her crate and pee'd on the newspaper. I think it's terrific that after just one full day Rosie seems to recognise that she needs to go somewhere to pee, just the wrong place at the moment. Rosie pee'd in garden about 15 minutes ago, so I need to remember that after about 15 minutes of play she may need to pee again.

Still progressing. Rosie is going to toilet in garden more times than indoors, I'm getting her timings right most of the time.

Rosie is showing first signs of letting me know when she needs to go 'garden'. I'm getting used to getting up at 7.00am, the weather has not been ideal for either of us.

The snow messed up the routine I'm trying to establish with Rosie this evening. I let her 'go' indoors as it was snowing, but once the snow had stopped, and it wasn't too bad I took her to garden for late night toilet visits. She didn't seem to mind the snow.

The break in routine due to the snow hasn't done any harm at all. Rosie has just started going to the door when she wants to 'go garden', (not always, just sometimes) a couple of times I missed seeing her head for the door and she 'went' near the door, but she is getting the hang of what she's meant to do. Still a bit hit and miss, mostly because I don't notice her go to door, and she doesn't have the control to wait for me to notice where she is.

I have to keep reminding myself that we are still working on a routine. Rosie doesn't have the control needed yet, it's not unusual for her to spend 15 - 20 mins playing in the garden, then come in and pee or poo indoors.

Newspaper in crate dry for the first time this morning. Still 'going quite a lot indoors though. I know I've done everything right, so I guess it's just a matter of continuing what I've been doing, and waiting.

General

From early impressions, Rosie seems to be a happy, playful, friendly puppy; she and Jena play well, though at first Jena was nipping Rosie's ears, though that may have been Jena trying, and failing to pick Rosie up by the scruff, like a mother dog does, hmm possible, but Jena has stopped doing that now.

Time will tell, but Rosie appears to be an intelligent puppy. When we were in the garden yesterday morning, when she ran to back door, it has a cat flap, with the flap missing, she kept trying jump up and get through the hole.

Misty, one of our cats, took a swipe at Rosie this morning, sent her yelping into her crate; Rosie was okay, no harm done.

Had Rosie for a week now, my main concern is that she seems overly aggressive in play. I know it's normal for puppies to nip, only way they have of finding out about things is with their mouth. But they are suppose to stop if you say 'ouch' a bit like when interacting with siblings, they yelp if bitten hard, Rosie just bites harder. The woman we got her off of had both parents and kept them outside, saying that the mother didn't like strangers; I just hope she, Rosie's mother, doesn't have an aggressive streak that has been passed on to Rosie; nothing I can't deal with, it just complicates things a little.

Hmm probably me expecting too much too soon. Rosie doesn't appear to be responding to her name, or to praise, or to anything much, other than the word 'food' - maybe that's the first word she'll understand the meaning of, probably the most important thing to her.

Feel much better about both of the above. I should have remembered to watch all of Rosie's body language, not just her face (devil dog look), she's wagging her tail at the same time as what I misinterpreted as overly aggressive play, and I also have to remember that as the runt of the litter, Rosie probably had to fight her siblings for her needs. Rosie is now responding, and sometimes even coming to her name.

Rosie had her first injection today, oh, what a fuss she made, though the vet wasn't very gently with the needle, Rosie is not going to like going back there in a fortnight for her second injection.

Rosie had gained 1lb 14oz in the fortnight, which I think is pretty good. She's responding to her name, and call back is improving, she doesn't come everytime she's called, just sometimes.

Discovered Rosie is nervous of heavy traffic, ie thundering lorries passing by. I carried her to the hall, jsut a few mins walk, I'd done it with no problems a couple of times before, but this time she paniced when a large lorry passed us, ended up scratching my lip, so I arrived at the hall with blood dripping down to my chin onto my top, a lovely sight! That's something we'll have to work on as soon as she can go out.

Rosie also discovered there is an upstairs to the house today. I took her upstairs and let her have an explore up there, carried her down though, don't think she can manage walking down just yet, she can go up by herself.

Finally, a sunny day. Rosie enjoyed playing in the garden with Jena; problem was, Rosie found a hole in the fence and got into Trudy's garden, she came back while I went to Trudy's to get her. I found a hole and blocked it off, hopefully, there's no more holes in the fence.

Both cats reacted in the way I thought they would towards Rosie. Sophie, sticks her nose in the air and ignores her, or runs away. Misty has taken a few swipes at Rosie, not hurt her seriously yet. Jena has been protective quite a few times, either putting herself in between Misty and Rosie, or by chasing Misty away from Rosie.

Rosie had her second injection, didn't make as much fuss this time, same vet. Just one more week until she can go out on lead now.

Took Rosie out a couple of times, first time on her own, without Jena. We had been practicing in the garden with her harness, so the walking wasn't too bad. Rosie wasn't as nervous as I thought she would of heavy traffic. A bit nervous of strangers and other dogs, but then that's why puppies are socialised, to help them feel more confident with new people, dogs and situations.

Roise was allowed on sofa for the first time, she can't get up there on her own yet, she had to be lifted up. She enjoyed sleeping on sofa with Jena.

Feeding times

Rosie's food is Tesco dried complete puppy food. Mixed with warm water to soften, and a few slithers of canned dog food for extra flavour.

I'm now getting up at 7.00am to take care of Rosie, first thing in the morning I weigh 4 lots of food into plastic bags for the day's feeds. Yesterday, I tried 30grams for each feed; a little more was left after each feed, so today I'm trying 25grams for each feed, not much left after this morning's feed, so 25 grams might be about right for Rosie.

After problems with constipation I'm now adding a little milk to the warm water on the dry food, this seems to be working.

Started adding a sprinkle of All Bran to Rosie's food yesterday, as the milk didn't seem to solve the constipation, seems to be solved now.

For the first time Rosie licked her food bowl clean at all four feeds.

Up to 3 months

3 to 6 months

6 months to 12 months

Rosie as an adult dog

Just realised, I've missed Rosie's 2nd Birthday 'Happy Birthday' Rosie.

We call Rosie 'The Devil Dog' or 'The Terrible Terrier', she is a little cow, but still very affectionate with us.

She has issues. If we don't stop her in time, she'll chase after cyclists and joggers. She'll bark at poeple in floresent yellow/orange clothing. If someone is carrying something large, that distorts the shape of their body, she'll bark at them too. With other dogs, she is on-lead aggressive; off the lead, she is okay, but on the lead she goes nuts at other dogs. I've put this down to 'fight or flight' fear issue. When she's on the lead we have taken away her flight option, so she only has the fight option.

For some strange reason, Rosie has a serious issue with Alex, my grown up son. When she barks at him, she means it, her lips are curled back, she seriously wants to rip into him. Note to self - give Alex treats to give Rosie next time he calls round, which isn't very often.