Smellyman Update - Puppy Earmuffs and More

It is Friday! It is our day off!  We are very busy!!

The boys say they're taking the day off, and they're graciously allowing me to blog in their place today.  An update on the boys' progress, in "human" language...

Other than the great Fireworks Fiasco of July 3rd, where fireworks really spooked them and they were cowering in the bushes in the yard, it's been slow and steady progress.  We're now almost 2 weeks in. The first few days, the boys showed curiosity in us, but it was mostly suspicion.  We'd let them out in the yard, and they'd occasionally come close to you, checking you out, but rarely coming close enough for a touch.  That certainly has continually improved.  Now when you're outside with them, they will come and "check in" with you very often.  Sometimes that means just running up, stopping a foot or so away, and then resuming their play, but sometimes it means coming up for finger licks, or more and more often, for full-blown ear rubs or other contact.  What's especially encouraging (and heart-melting!)...if you let them out for a bit and then go outside, many times when they see you come out onto the deck, they'll race in at full speed and come up onto the deck to greet you, in full-bore "wiggle-butt" mode that shows they're genuinely happy to see you.

Going in and out continues to improve.  We were really worried the July 3rd incident was going to be a big setback, but it was just a temporary blip.  It's now usually not difficult at all to get the boys to come in and out when we want. They often do pause on the deck, giving a suspicious look in for a little bit before coming in, but it's nothing like before where you always waited inside with baited breath, praying they'd come in.

They're eating and drinking well, with the one continued oddity of never using inside water, and always waiting to drink from the outside bird fountain.  I now make sure I clean and fill that every day! I'm wondering what the boys will do in winter, when that fountain is put in storage!  Eating has really progressed.  At first, we had one bowl out all the time.  They would eat, but always in "private" when we weren't around.  We just wanted to establish where food was.  For the last several days, we've done it differently, now that they're more used to us.  We have separate bowls for each of them, and we have set feeding times.  We also have the bowls closer to us and the kitchen table.  Now they know when it's "chow time", and that there will likely be SillyFamily sitting at the kitchen table when they eat.  We said we'd put bowls up on the counter if they didn't eat during this time, just to teach them 1) there's a set chow time, and 2) it's OK to trust us and eat while we're close by.  However, it hasn't been an issue at all. Given our schedules, one of us is always up before the others, and at breakfast, they will come and finish all their food with someone sitting right there at the table.  It's the same at supper...they'll come and eat all their food with us sitting close by.

Inside time, during the day, is still the time when they act quite shy. We have a 2-story house with basement, but no matter which floor we're hanging out on, we're now generally gating off the other floors during the day, so they have to be on the same floor as us.  That's typically not an issue anyway.  Even though they're in shy daytime mode, they still typically want to be near us.  For example, if I leave the main and 2nd floor open and am up working in my office, they'll usually come up and hang out in the office area with me.  If we're downstairs, they'll hang out down there.  Often though, it's still in a "safe" spot, behind a chair.  That too is changing though.  Particularly if we're in the main floor living room, they'll often come out to play toys.  "DwarfMan" (Alex) has a laptop and he's often sitting on the floor with the laptop on the coffee table.  The boys will often go right up to Alex and let him pet them.  Alex has been so good and patient with them!  When they come up, he'll stop what he's doing, and then very slowly move his hands out to touch and pet them.  The boys do the same for Lauri and I, but not as much yet, not during daytime inside.  However, if you're sitting on the couch, they will come up and give you a foot lick or a quick ear rub, and now Felix a few times will come up and jump up on the couch and want to sit next to you.

However, most of our "touching" time is at night (more on that in a second!) and when they're in a "safe" spot.  I had to go back to work this week, and one thing we wanted to do was establish their daytime safe spot.  That's a doggy bed in the corner of the laundry room, a quiet spot away from the front door and windows.  We put a gate up and they have access to the laundry and mudroom areas.  It's really worked wonderfully!  No problems at all while we resumed a "normal" schedule this week. And that "safe" spot on their doggy bed is also one area where we really establish physical contact between us and the boys.

My favorite...Doggie Earmuffs!!  When you get home they're always asleep on their doggy bed.  You come in, go to the laundry room, lay down to greet them...and it's doggie earmuff time!  I stick my head right between them and give them big hugs and greet them.  Man, NOTHING warms the heart more than doggie-earmuff time!! When they're in a safe spot, be it the doggie bed or behind a chair, they will always let you hug them, give ear rubs, belly rugs, etc. as much as you want. We make sure to do this a LOT, to get them used to our contact.  The boys are probably like WHOA!!! What are you doing!?!? This is our safe spot, SillyFamily!  Stay away!!  They're initially "on edge" when you come in for contact in a safe spot, but give them one ear rub and you get a happy groan while they "lean in" to the contact.

One time we have NO anxiety issues at all...nighttime.  Hence the previous blog post on "Skips-so-Frantic" (schizophrenic) pups!  After the first 3 nights where they slept on the floor in various spots (with me with them a couple nights), the 4th night I just went and picked Felix up and put him on the bed.  They now know bed is "OK", and they certainly adapted extremely quickly to sleeping!  When we go to bed, they'll initially lay on the floor, or in Oscar's case, they'll typically go under the bed.  But after a few minutes they'll come out.  Felix will put his paws up on the bed to check things out, then jump up and settle in.  Oscar will then follow.  Once lights are out and everybody is dozing off, it's a big puppy love fest!  They will let you do ANYTHING at night...pets, ear rubs, belly rubs, playing with their paws...anything. As Suzy said happened with her and Clay, Felix will nearly always sleep high, by your head.  He's usually either curled up in a ball, often in the arms of whoever happens to be there, or is splayed out on his back.  But his head is nearly always by one of our heads.  Oscar is also often high, particularly because he always wants to be by Felix, but sometimes he's down by your feet.  The one thing you MUST be prepared for at night...slobbery licks!! Felix particularly is QUITE fond of showing his affection with licks.  Given that he's always up by your face, your face and ears are his primary targets!  It's SO sweet sleeping with the pups, but you do have to sometimes put up a "lick barrier" blanket between your face and Felix, to get him to stop licking so everybody can go back to sleep!

We've not many real "negative" issues with the boys. Lauri leaves for work very early (usually around 6), and sometimes Alex and I aren't up when she leaves.  There was one day this week where Alex and I didn't get up until about 6:45, and at some point after Lauri left, there was some poop by the front door.  They probably just weren't out long enough that morning and didn't know what to do with nobody else up yet, because otherwise they've been perfect in their house training.  The only other issue has been chewing. It really has been very minor, but there was an incident yesterday.  I heard "chewing" behind a chair in our living room, one of their favorite "safe" spots, but I saw toys sticking out and thought they were chewing on a toy.   It started to sound weird though so I went and looked, and Felix was gnawing on the back leg of the chair!  Sigh.  He carved up one edge pretty good.  There have been a few other times where we've seen the boys (usually Oscar, not Felix), go up to like the edge of the coffee table and initially "mouth" it.  We say "Leave it", what Suzy would say, and it stops immediately.  They're by that one chair so often it really surprised me that after almost 2 weeks, Felix decided it looked tasty!   Given that they're always with us, the chewing isn't a big concern, but we did order both some "bitter apple" spray and the "EQYSS McNasty" spray that we'll put on potential "chew" spots to nip it in the bud.

That's it from SmellyMan!  We now resume you to your regularly scheduled programming.  Oscar and Felix will resume their blogging tomorrow!

SmellyMan (aka, Terry)