Dog Names

I've always had a thing for interesting dog names, and if I had my way, would like a dog named Kafka and a cat named Easter (insider joke from a Tori Amos song).

It struck me as wildly appropriate for a dog to be named after a great academic, a famous writer, poet or philosopher. As such, dog names I love are:

• Tolstoy (Leo)
• Kafka
• Plato (joke on the famous dog belonging to Mickey Mouse - Pluto)
• Auden
• Kipling (see, you could go Kip for short)
• Tolkien
• Gandalf (already taken by a very cute guinea pig!)
• Orwell (four legs good, two legs bad)
• Chomsky
• Shakespeare

The only exceptions to these are Socrates and Aristotle, which for some reason must be reserved for cats.

Favourite Doggy Things to Buy from Human Stores

It's a sad reflection of the world that pet store merchandise have ended up outpricing human store merchandise, but without waxing lyrical about the good old days, why not make the best use of that fact? After all, your dog doesn't really care that he's sleeping on a paw-printed blanket, he can leave his own jolly paw-prints on it!

These are the favourite things to buy from human stores, without any negative effects.

1. 
   
   Irma Fleece Throw £1.69 from Ikea. Larger than the average dog fleece blanket, it's machine washable and would fit dogs up to large sizes. This is my favourite dog blanket, I hardly ever get anything else and for the price, would not want to! A side benefit of fleece is that it is a magnet for dog hairs, so casting a throw over where your dog likes to sit will reduce the number of stray hairs floating around the house.
2. 
   
   Hairdressing Scissors, £5-15 from most leading pharmacies or Boots. Because I like to groom my own dogs and only send them for a professional undo twice a year, I invested in a thinning scissors (the one that looks like it has a comb on one edge) and a regular hairdressing scissors (that cuts). I use these only for my dogs, and have another pair for real human use. These are exactly the same as grooming scissors for dogs, and for a fraction of the price.
3. 
   
   Meat tenderizer for coprophagic dogs. A classic favourite for dogs who eat their doody - you can buy a specialized bottle of powder to sprinkle on your dog's food to stop them from doing this, or you can try meat tenderizer (which pre-digests the meat proteins in the food so avoids remnant nutrients that the dog eats up), fresh pineapple, MSG or apparently, courgette. The benefit is the flavouring, dogs love it!
4. 
   
   Omega 3/6 vitamins, 1000mg from leading pharmacies. Buying this in bulk from the neighbourhood pharmacy allows me to get 1000 capsules (I give my dog one a day) for about £9.99 when it would cost upwards of 3 times that much from a company that makes them only for dogs.
5. 
   
   Manicare Nail File. This one is a controversial one, doggy nail files (in metal) don't cost that much, but they don't work as well. I've found that the Manicare Nail File, albeit initially more expensive, lasts much longer and works much faster on the nail in sanding down rough spots. My dog is happier, and I am happier.
6. 
   
   White Vinegar. Use for cleaning up instead of non-enzyme scent removers. I recommend having a bottle of enzyme scent removers as well, but if you'd need gallons of cleaners, then a bottle of white vinegar mixed 1:4 with distilled/filtered water works almost just as well.
7. 
   
   Popcorn. The non-buttered kind work a treat with my dogs, who chomp them down like there's no tomorrow. They're also relatively fat and calorie free, while keeping them satisfied with a good chew, so are great to treat when training. A trick I learnt from a magazine would be to keep a smelly beef/meat jerky in with the air tight container where you store the popcorn, so the smell of the jerky infuses with the popcorn and smells delicious to the dogs. Also works with plain Cheerios.
8. 
   
   Dog Soft Toys from Ikea.  Many small ones are under £2 with a wide range to choose from.  My puppy with softer teeth loves chewing soft toys instead of bones, and especially enjoys nibbling on soft toy paws and tails.  I used to get them from pet stores at over £5 each, until a recent visit to Ikea found excellent alternatives in durable, soft fabric for under £2 each from the baby and child toy sections.  Not only that, but if you're not keen on squeaky toys because of the awfully grating sound they make when they squeak, baby toy rattles (in a soft toy) provide an excellent sound that attracts dogs, with a lot less annoying sounds.  My two terriers love shaking them from side to side and hearing them rattle.
9. Baby Bottle Cleaners/Old Toothbrushes.  Even if you don't have a baby of your own, if furkids are as far as you go towards taking responsibility for another life, buy new or reuse from outgrown baby bottle cleaners or your old toothbrushes for cleaning out doggy Kongs at least once a week with a bit of dishwashing detergent.  Putting them in a dishwasher is also an option, but I find that tends to leave fur in my dishwasher which over time forms a gooey muck.

Ten Ways to Save Money (and still keep your dogs)

Because it is a truth universally acknowledged that the owner of a pet must spend a lot of money, pet stores frequently try to persuade pet owners into parting with their cash in the name of love. Since I have more principles than I have money, here are ten money-saving tips I use every day:

1. Use dog kibble as treats. Despite dog kibble being marketed in large quantities as food, they taste and look like small, bite sized treats to dogs. Some dogs are fussy about variety, namely they don't like eating something that tastes the same day in and day out. To these dogs, kibble aren't treats because they're boring. But other brands and flavours of kibble still are! If you have a dog like this at home, pick up tester packs from dog magazines, vets and pet stores and use them as treats. Buy a small pack of kibble (maybe the posher kind if you like) and use them only as treats to your dog. As an added benefit, they are one treat that can be eaten by puppies as soon as they are weaned, since many manufacturers tend to avoid making treats that are tolerated by very young puppies.
2. Find out your dog's toy texture preference so you can pick toys that he'll like. Different ages of puppies and dogs have different texture preferences. For example, Beanie likes hard, almost wood like, or plasticky textures that she can crunch into. She also prefers chicken flavoured toys to bacon flavoured ones. Bailey likes string, rope and cloth textures. Neither of them like soft rubber very much and both love shredding paper and cardboard. My winning combination of cheap toys are: a towel or rope soaked in gravy, braided then air dried; used water bottles, the harder the plastic the better. Boxes or toilet rolls (subject to supervision).
3. Use your old discarded pillows as dog beds. Obviously there's a size constraint to this one, but it should work up to a medium size dog. There are several benefits: 1) there isn't really a difference between an old pillow and a specially made, dog friendly, flat bed. Except the price. 2) Your scent on the pillow would make a world of difference to your dog. It would be reassuring and demonstrate your presence to a puppy, and even an adult dog will be able to sniff 'you' on it. 3) Because you were throwing it out anyway, the obvious damage your dog may do to it is limited to being suddenly far less naughty.
4. Newspapers can be pee'd on just fine. This is one of those things that I keep telling myself: what did people use to use before pee pads were invented? There are special solutions out there that attract your puppy to pee on newspapers, in case they aren't used to the texture or smell of it. These do work. If you're not parting with your penny buying eau de toilet, take a tissue sample of real puppy pee from one of the accident clean-up sessions and smear it on the newspapers. They trick the puppy into thinking they did it right in the first place, which sets off a positive spiral.
5. Buy life-time products only once... in a lifetime. There are some things you only need one of, regardless how many dogs you have. These are: nail clippers, slicker brush, a round ended pair of scissors, a doggy first aid kit (if you do get those). With these items, especially if you are planning to DIY for most of the grooming, it's worthwhile investing a fair bit of money and getting a good set, especially one that you protect from the kids and well meaning in-laws, so that you can learn to use them and use them well, for the rest of your or your dog's life.
6. Human things frequently cost much less than doggy things. Especially, grooming scissors, shampoo and conditioner, food/treats, vitamins, towels and fleeces. Increasingly, good and relatively inexpensive human stores have also cleverly branched out to selling doggy things. See my other post for Favourite Doggy Things to Buy from Human Stores.
7. Gain economies of scale with more than one dog. Buy certain non-perishables in bulk. Unless there are special medical reasons for doing so, my dogs are on the same shampoo and conditioner, the same brand of worming tablets, the same flea and tick treatment, the same food, obviously they use the same pooh bags, towels, cleaning up stuff and have different coloured leads. They also share the same treats and chews, in general. It's the stuff you end up buying and using infrequently that add to the cost of doggy ownership, not necessarily the things you think about - food and water and shelter - that a dog relies on every day.
8. The simple solutions are the best solutions. One of the things I've noticed with pretty much all pet stores is the increasing number of pet-keeping/managing/grooming/training gadgets there are out there in the market. No doubt the burgeoning dog owning population is one of the most untapped and profitable markets out there, but you gotta wonder how people had dogs that were well trained before all these inventions came about, and why homeless people have the best behaved dogs. Decide for yourself what the bare essentials are for you and your dog, and resist the urge to get another gadget that promises to save you xx minutes of your time. Dogs are creatures of habit, chances are all the time you'd save doing things a new and easier way would be outweighed by the learning curve you and your dog have to go through anyway.
9. Human food can cost significantly less than specialized dog food. It's a sad time of our lives when the food we eat cost significantly less than the food our dogs eat. Either our dogs are eating particularly well (which I doubt) or we are eating particularly poorly as a civilization. One dual-dog owning friend of mine switched recently to cooking simple recipes for her dogs with food and meat obtained from the supermarket. Not only are they far less processed and therefore healthier for the dog, they're also much more economical to run in bulk. Just remember that if you're taking on cooking all of your pet's food that you're consulting appropriate recipes to ensure a healthy and balanced diet (that's the one thing kibble takes care of!). More recipes can be found at My Dog Eats Better than my Husband.
10. Stop paying for the gym membership and use your best friend. Odd as I thought it would be, doggy owning friends of mine complain about needing to walk their dogs 3 times a day, and yet find the time to go to the gym to work out at least 3 times a week after work, not including those classes offered by the gym to help one stay healthy. Two most frequently quoted reasons were: 1) my gym instructor is a hard nut and would kill me if I quit, so I need the persuasion to work out. And 2) You get a balance of cardio and weights at the gym which you won't get at home. #1 makes me laugh - for one, there isn't a human I know that is more persuasive than my dog, and despite getting me to brave all sorts of weather to walk with him, I can still never get mad at my dog (or stay mad for long). And as for #2 - dog walking and spending time with your dog isn't only about a slow, long, leisurely walk, which is the frequent impression most people have. Build in sprints and games to vary the pace for a good cardio workout, play tug games with your dog, or practice lifting/carrying them around the house for endurance/weight training (overweight retrievers please apply!).

Introducing a puppy to an older dog

Well, I have Beanie, don't I? Beanie is an absolutely darling, and in hindsight, the vet who inspected Bailey was absolutely right when he said, "You were lucky with Beanie. Think your luck ran out with this one (Bailey)."

Beanie is sweet natured, submissive, loves humans and is playful. She's even taught herself to tolerate and play with kids on her own, despite having had very little exposure to children growing up. I'd wanted another puppy to keep her company, after falling in love with the sight of two Westies walking side by side on the street, tails wagging in unison. Selfishly, as Beanie got on in years, it would also take the edge off not having a dog at all should the untoward one day happen, as it inevitably would (so I thought).

Increasingly, more dog magazines dish out advice on how to introduce two dogs, or a puppy to an older, existing dog. The majority of them say:

• Introduce your pets on neutral territory like a park or public place. Easy to say when you've got two full-grown dogs, not so easy to do when you've got an unvaccinated puppy that should not be exposed to where other dogs might have been, so the park is out of the question. It's still a good idea though, premise being that dogs are territorial, and a direct introduction of newbie in oldie's territory would seem too much like an incursion. Friend's houses (who have no pets) or the car are appropriate alternative places.
• Keep the younger dog in a crate away from harm until you know your older dog is used to the puppy. Again, very wise, and would work if not for Beanie pawing through the crate trying to reach the puppy like a toy... and vice versa.
• Put something with the puppy's scent on it (eg. puppy's bed, pillow or towels) near the older dog, preferably days before you bring pup home, so older dog gets used to pup's scent. If older dog moves away or is otherwise averse, do it gradually to socialize the older dog. Hmm... wish I could do this. Beanie promptly went to Bailey's bed and fell asleep when I placed it on the ground. Without much ado, Bailey clambered all over Beanie's bed and used her indoor toilet tray without invitation or prior training.
• Keep loads of toys and beds and anything dogs may like all around, act like there is too much of goodness to go around to avoid jealousy and fighting over toys. Beanie doesn't like toys at all unless there are treats in them, so having Bailey snatch all toys for a quick nibble didn't seem to bother her that much.
• Give your older dog attention when your newcomer is around, to avoid your older dog feeling left out or replaced. This actually worked! I did also, schemingly, in the weeks leading up to Bailey's arrival, pay Beanie less attention and made less of a fuss, so the transition from all to nothing (just kidding) didn't seem quite as large. Works with frogs and boiling water, sure works with dogs.

What they don't tell you:

• It's incredibly difficult training a puppy with an older, incredibly treat motivated, dog around, as Beanie goes through everything she knows how to do for 4 years now, and expects a treat for examplary behaviour. It must be because she's such a show-off, but did work in my favour as Bailey figured out copying what Beanie was doing was the quickest way to get her a treat, resulting in the ability to teach complex behaviours in a shorter period of time. Note to Self: If you feel you are being far, don't worry about not giving your older dog a treat all the time they demonstrate what needs to be done. It's not like they will stop doing it with a failed attempt, it actually means they try harder next time.
• Puppy playing with older dog intensely tends to result in house-training accidents. Beanie has no concept that Bailey needed the loo and wasn't just trying to get away to incite a chase. This necessitated teaching them both that gravitation towards the toilet zone meant that the toilet zone was out of bounds. It also necessitated watching puppy like a hawk and limiting play zones to a smaller area that Bailey could manage and gradually increasing the area as her control got better.
• Your puppy becomes your dog's greatest fan and longs to be her sidekick. Sometimes annoyingly so. Beanie being rather submissive isn't inclined to tell Bailey off (by growling) unless she's really ticked off, but has a long fuse. It's normally a good thing in a dog, but does require some intervention, which is the hardest thing for new duo-dog owners to figure out.
• Dogs have to fight to get used to each other (OK they do tell you that part), but it's nearly impossible to know when the right time is to intervene, if there is such a time.

Potty Training: Crate vs. Paper

For Bailey I ended up with a hybrid of both the crate and the paper methods.  In the end, the clincher for me was that Bailey did not like at all being in the crate, and although she did not eliminate in the crate, she was so hugely unhappy being in the crate even for a few minutes, I had to put her in a larger place which had to be paper-protected.

It was helpful however leveraging the typical habits of puppies around this age to speed up the process:

• Not going where she slept/ate allowed me to rig the stakes towards her pottying where I wanted her to
• Needing to go upon waking, after a meal, after drinking water, after vigourous play.  Initially, this was once every hour or so, which meant that I interrupted play every 30-45 minutes to place her where she should go to "try my luck".  Performance meant treats and coming right out again for loads of play, non-performance meant back to play until she pottied where she shouldn't, which meant end of play and back to the crate (with the paper).  This gave her a huge incentive to save her potty for the right place, and taught (in a roundabout manner) bladder control.
• Coupled with the above, because she usually sleeps in her crate, I led her to paper before doing anything else eg. taking her out for play, attention, food etc.  This gave her a huge incentive to empty her bladder and bowels before coming out, as she learnt that "empty" = play and fun.

I've been lucky that Bailey since I got her had been waking up in the middle of the night to potty, instead of toileting in her bed.  This cannot be taught by the owner, and is a habit she was made accustomed to by her breeder, who assured us that she would be paper-trained by the time she was ready to go home.  Check the conditions of your breeder in order to tell if this would be the case with your puppy - if the conditions are clean, no poo/pee in sight even with many puppies around, then your puppy is likely to be habitually clean which is a good thing.

It's probably also worthwhile emulating the house training method that the breeder was using if this is possible for your own circumstances.  Your breeder should be more than happy to give you tips.

Potty Training 2 of 2: Paper Training

Paper training was the only way I potty trained Beanie as a puppy, and is generally the well accepted alternative to crate training.  There are variants to paper training so this doesn't always mean paper, but the method all essentially involves placing newspaper/pee absorbent material all over where puppy lives, and gradually conditioning the puppy to eliminate on the particular surface of the paper.
This is done by feeding the puppy strategically on one unpapered side of the room only, where the bed is also placed, to encourage the puppy to utilize their instinct to move away from their food/bed to eliminate on the other, papered end away from their bed and food.  The premise of this training is that dogs tend to pick the same spots for future elimination, so gradually develops a surface preferences towards paper/pee pads etc.

The main thing to remember is that transitioning from paper to outside is a secondary process once the puppy has learnt to use the paper.  This is usually done by taking a small piece of paper with you when you go outside, and making that association in the puppy's mind that outside is equivalent to the paper.  Some dogs never need this step and make that association quite readily (the process of moving away from "home ground" generally tends to do the trick) but I guess others do rely on this step especially if they have been home-dogs for some time.

Pros:

• Puppies use in their own time, so you're less on a fixed schedule in having to watch the puppy like a hawk to determine when they need to go.  I still recommend looking for tell-tale circling and sniffing movements to encourage the puppy to go on paper, especially if the area where the puppy lives in is big enough for the puppy to not make it back to the paper in time.
• This is the preferred method for owners who have to work or be away longer hours, as it offers more flexibility in making sure the puppy has means to relieve himself, instead of being forced to wait which is horribly cruel.
• As they become more reliable on the surface/paper, a change in the positioning of the toilet can be effected. If you'd like to progress your puppy to an indoor litter tray, grass in the yard etc. just move a soiled paper to where you want your puppy to go, and the puppy tends to follow. This method was used in Singapore to train their dogs to use an actual squatting loo that was set into the ground. All the owners needed to do was flush when their dogs were done.
• Smell attractant pads and puppy training solutions on newspapers do help in rigging the odds to your favour that puppies eliminate on paper to speed up the process.
• This method is not cruel to dogs, neither requiring them to perform on demand, nor requiring them to hold it until their owners come home. Many dogs end up eliminating more or less on a schedule anyway when they grow older as their digestive systems settle around their feeding times, so this method doesn't prevent you from eventually training your dog to do it outside.
• Allows dogs to be toilet trained indoors permanently, which is convenient for flat dwellers or people who don't have easy, quick access to the outdoors.

Cons:

• Training in this method takes longer, as it relies more on coincidence than sheer willpower. While there are ways to stack the odds in your favour, nothing works 100% all the time.
• The biggest drawback to this method is the fact that puppies tend to shred or play with the newspapers when they are bored (they learn all too quickly that it's fun!), ending up in one very dirty puppy and also a very dirty area.  While there are ways around this (eg. putting the papers in a little tray away from your puppy's reach, redirection etc.) no single method is foolproof and much relies on your puppy already knowing a specific area to use. I have found that puppies from ages 8-10 weeks tend not to know/learn how to play with papers yet. As they become older and more exploratory, they inevitably figure out that newspapers are incredibly fun to shred. So note to self that if this method is chosen, get the preferred zone figured out by the puppy within those 2 weeks!
• I did see one other drawback mentioned on a site that said if you had a habit of reading your newspapers on the floor, your dogs not knowing the difference between today's news and yesterday's news may end up doing their business on a section you haven't read yet. Never happened to me, but the simple solution is to lay your papers out on the coffee table, or read the news online.
• Some people genuinely prefer their dogs never to develop the habit of doing it indoors at all for hygiene purposes.  Developing the paper > outside process can therefore be a longer way to get to the same place.

Potty Training Puppy 1 of 2: Crate Training

Crate Training is a very popular method of house training a puppy or dog.  It comprises getting a small crate for the puppy, just large enough for the puppy to lie down, sit up, stand and turn around in.  The puppy is taken directly to the designated toilet zone when he is out of the crate at regular intervals to eliminate and praised heavily when he does the right job in the zone.  The premise of crate training is that dogs naturally do not choose to eliminate where they eat or sleep, and so would exercise bladder control until they are out of their crates.

Pros:

• Teaches your dog bladder control, which is useful if the final arrangement for the puppy is to end up doing all of their business outdoors on walks.
• Easier for most dogs (with exception of puppy mill dogs) to figure out, as it's apparently doggy instinct not to dirty where they sleep.
• Makes it easier to manage puppy's time, as a puppy in a crate without much space to do anything won't. If done right, your dog falls into a routine much faster than a puppy that isn't crate trained.
• Added advantage of teaching puppies to settle in a confined area, making travel and temporary confinement in the future acceptable to dogs.
• Faster to accomplish, dogs take within a week to get the hang of this if done right, although it needs to be continued.
• A schedule can be set up at timed and planned intervals, instead of just whenever puppy feels like it.
• Because of the predictability and bladder controls, eliminating on command is easier with crate training.

Cons:

• Built up reliance on the dog eliminating around the owner's schedule.  Note that the most important word in the first benefit is the word "all".  It would be cruel to provide your dog with insufficient opportunities to eliminate, especially when they are young puppies, which means 1-2 hours until they are 3 months old, then 2-3 hours until they are about 6 months old, gradually adding another hour for every month of life until they reach about 6 hours.  This represents a significant commitment to taking your dog to where you want them to do their jobs, come rain or shine or frost.  Because dogs develop a regular routine quickly, you should also be taking your dogs out around the same time every day that your dog is used to.  And no, dogs don't understand weekends too well.
• Puppies need a lot of trips outdoors on doggy duty.  For puppies under 3 months of age, this is once every hour at least. Again, puppies don't understand night/day very well either, so that means multiple midnight trips to the loo outdoors for at least the first 2-3 weeks.
• (You) Messing up (literally) with the crate can mean that the doggy instinct of not messing where they sleep is over-ridden.  This instinct is not set in stone, and depending on the puppy, could be either fragile (1 mistake does the trick) or tenacious (multiple messes and puppy is reliable).  Puppy mill dogs tend to come with this puppy instinct either broken or not developed because of how they are brought up, so bear this margin of error in mind if you feel that you may end up making mistakes or forgetting the time too often.

All of the above points basically point to crate training being nearly impossible for a dog owner working full time, unless you're working full time in the sort of company that gives you maternity cover when you get a new puppy.  I've read in a number of magazines that it's generally a very good idea to take vacation to spend the first 2 weeks with the puppy to settle the pup into the house.  I've found this generally makes house training go much smoother and quicker, and that the 2 week investment is well worth the time spent!

Housing Your Puppy for the First Year

While this sounds simple at first glance, thinking through this deeper, it's not as easy as it seems. For one, no site seems to tell you exactly how much space to give your dog so that you're neither being cruel to the pet, nor giving it the equivalent of a playboy mansion when you take it home. For another, a recent search showed that many sites favoured crate training, and demonstrated how to pick the right size for a crate, but not the puppy's play area/territory.

I came up with an easy rule of thumb that worked for me.

• Imagine a rectangle area, simple length (L) x width (W) on the ground.
• Find out the length of your puppy as an adult dog. Look up websites or ask the breeder if you're not sure how large typical dogs of the breed grow to.  For mixed breeds, assume the larger of the mix until you can be sure. (Editor's note that typically, websites tend to tell you the height of the dog, and not the length. I'm no da Vinci but I reckon that a dog can't be more than 3 times longer than it is tall, so went with the proportions of height multiplied by 3.)
• L = length of your adult dog multiplied by 3, and W = length of your adult dog multiplied by 2.
• For most people with a medium sized dog, this would be the space of a large bathroom or a small kitchen.

The first impression you may have is that this space isn't all that big. You're right, but this isn't going to be the place that your dog gets free run of in the house for the rest of it's life - that would be cruel. This is the place where your puppy will spend any unsupervised time, and should therefore (by calculations above) be large enough to hold a bed, water and food bowls, toilet facilities and toys.

Once the decision is made, ensure that you have easy access to it, and that it's puppy proof (nothing chewable, toxic, dangerous, sharp, swallowable and otherwise unsuitable for a young dog). Also, if possible, ensure that puppy is able to walk into it by himself, rather than you needing to carry him into it all the time (helps tons with training later on). Finally, make sure puppy doesn't get the ability to wander from this designated zone once he's in it. This is where puppy pens, baby gates and other makeshift fencing that makes your house look like a miniature version of the Israeli-Palestinian border come in. Stick with it though, this will be puppy's home for the next few months until he's old enough to be trusted on his own around the house (usually when he's 8 months to 1 year old).

One thing I didn't mention was physical height. Assume puppy's going to jump, at least at the onset, and have Height = Length of adult dog. This is to account for dogs leaning on gate while standing on hind legs, jumping dogs, dogs that take a flying leap etc etc. I'm fortunate for my Westies that a baby gate that came up to the height of my waist sufficed, but then again, Westies don't grow that tall. This is another reason why it makes sense to have an arrangement where the puppy can walk in by himself. Suddenly picking up 8 month old German Shepherd isn't quite so easy anymore...

Puppy's Feeding Schedule

This decision is by far the hardest one, and also the one most fraught with advice from all corners. Puppies from 8 - 12 weeks typically need 3 meals a day, progressing from 12 weeks to adulthood on 2 meals per day with bigger portions.

The most important consideration is that what goes in, must come out - and that said, would be preferred not to come out at the odd hours of the morning. What they don't tell you is that when your puppy eats, aside from the obvious, also determines your puppy's waking (playful) hours. In the first few weeks, I scheduled a 24 hours divided by 3 = once every 8 hour routine. Big, big mistake. Bailey ended up being bouncy and playful starting at 1am in the morning, resulting in a bedside siege every morning in the hours of 1am-3am by a 1.5kg white furball.

More research later, I decided on a 3 meal schedule as follows...

• 8am: Breakfast with the dogs, feed Bailey as Beanie got breakfast.
• 1pm: Lunch for Bailey while Beanie got a treat to avoid jealousy.
• 7pm: Dinner with the dogs, feed Bailey while Beanie got dinner.

The tip of removing water and treats 3-4 hours before bed time also worked wonders in ensuring that puppy didn't wake up in the middle of the night to do their jobs, hence allowing me to let the puppy sleep through the night without waking me up for a night time play time.

Puppy's First Night

I got Beanie, my first dog a lot older than Bailey, who was 7.5 weeks when I took her home, so I'd expected Bailey to adjust as well as Beanie could, not knowing better. I'd left Bailey on the first night downstairs with Beanie, in separate crates so Beanie didn't have to cuddle up next to some stranger.

Well, it was an hour in the car from Buckinghamshire in the middle of winter for Bailey, and must have felt like being abducted by well meaning aliens into outer space in a weird space ship, landing in what seemed like an eternity later on an alien home planet. Bailey slept all the way through, tired out by the experience, but the first night, realised the permanence of her alien abduction situation after seeing another fellow doggy in captivity from an earlier abduction, imagined the worst and whined and cried herself to sleep.

Points for making sure Beanie didn't get disturbed by a stranger: FAIL.Points for making sure Bailey had a good experience at home: FAIL.
Points for attempting not to create a clingy dog who clearly felt abandoned and didn't trust humans: FAIL.

Next night, upstairs next to my bed. The following week, I gradually increased the distance of her sleeping crate to my bed, and the following week, further away, until finally she was reassured that I was still going to be around the next morning and she'd get fed, same time, same channel. Some websites talk about ignoring your puppy when they whine and cry for attention, believing that if this attention was paid any mind, that this develops a clingy, attention seeking dog. Suspend that for the first few days I think now.

Contrary to paranoid behaviouralists, your puppy simply won't know enough about how you're going to behave in the first week to manipulate your behaviour by whining. As it is, you know little enough about your puppy to manipulate its behaviour, much less the other way around. After your puppy settles in (a week or two later, perhaps), continuing this treatment may give rise to attention seeking, which will quickly die down with ignorance.I'd thought to let my puppy learn that making a noise won't ever get me to turn up, by way of hoping that when the puppy is young without a developed bark, it is far preferable that the puppy never learnt to bark at all. Little did I know anyway that a puppy's bark, despite all best intentions, develop anyway, and sound very different from a whine and a cry!

Top 10 Money-Saving Tips for Dog Owners

Because it is a truth universally acknowledged that the owner of a pet must spend a lot of money, pet stores frequently try to persuade pet owners into parting with their cash in the name of love.  Since I have more principles than I have money, here are ten money-saving tips I use every day:

1. Use dog kibble as treats.  Despite dog kibble being marketed in large quantities as food, they taste and look like small, bite sized treats to dogs.  Some dogs are fussy about variety, namely they don't like eating something that tastes the same day in and day out.  To these dogs, kibble aren't treats because they're boring.  But other brands and flavours of kibble still are!  If you have a dog like this at home, pick up tester packs from dog magazines, vets and pet stores and use them as treats.  Buy a small pack of kibble (maybe the posher kind if you like) and use them only as treats to your dog.  As an added benefit, they are one treat that can be eaten by puppies as soon as they are weaned, since many manufacturers tend to avoid making treats that are tolerated by very young puppies.
2. Find out your dog's toy texture preference so you can pick toys that he'll like.  Different ages of puppies and dogs have different texture preferences.  For example, Beanie likes hard, almost wood like, or plasticky textures that she can crunch into.  She also prefers chicken flavoured toys to bacon flavoured ones.  Bailey likes string, rope and cloth textures.  Neither of them like soft rubber very much and both love shredding paper and cardboard.  My winning combination of cheap toys are: a towel or rope soaked in gravy, braided then air dried; used water bottles, the harder the plastic the better.  Boxes or toilet rolls (subject to supervision).
3. Use your old discarded pillows as dog beds.  Obviously there's a size constraint to this one, but it should work up to a medium size dog.  There are several benefits: 1) there isn't really a difference between an old pillow and a specially made, dog friendly, flat bed.  Except the price.  2) Your scent on the pillow would make a world of difference to your dog.  It would be reassuring and demonstrate your presence to a puppy, and even an adult dog will be able to sniff 'you' on it.  3) Because you were throwing it out anyway, the obvious damage your dog may do to it is limited to being suddenly far less naughty.
4. Newspapers can be pee'd on just fine.  This is one of those things that I keep telling myself: what did people use to use before pee pads were invented?  There are special solutions out there that attract your puppy to pee on newspapers, in case they aren't used to the texture or smell of it.  These do work.  If you're not parting with your penny buying eau de toilet, take a tissue sample of real puppy pee from one of the accident clean-up sessions and smear it on the newspapers.  They trick the puppy into thinking they did it right in the first place, which sets off a positive spiral.
5. Buy life-time products only once... in a lifetime.  There are some things you only need one of, regardless how many dogs you have.  These are: nail clippers, slicker brush, a round ended pair of scissors, a doggy first aid kit (if you do get those).  With these items, especially if you are planning to DIY for most of the grooming, it's worthwhile investing a fair bit of money and getting a good set, especially one that you protect from the kids and well meaning in-laws, so that you can learn to use them and use them well, for the rest of your or your dog's life.
6. Human things frequently cost much less than doggy things.  Especially, grooming scissors, shampoo and conditioner, food/treats, vitamins, towels and fleeces.  Increasingly, good and relatively inexpensive human stores have also cleverly branched out to selling doggy things.  See my other post for Favourite Doggy Things to Buy from Human Stores.
7. Gain economies of scale with more than one dog.  Buy certain non-perishables in bulk.  Unless there are special medical reasons for doing so, my dogs are on the same shampoo and conditioner, the same brand of worming tablets, the same flea and tick treatment, the same food, obviously they use the same pooh bags, towels, cleaning up stuff and have different coloured leads.  They also share the same treats and chews, in general.  It's the stuff you end up buying and using infrequently that add to the cost of doggy ownership, not necessarily the things you think about - food and water and shelter - that a dog relies on every day.
8. The simple solutions are the best solutions.  One of the things I've noticed with pretty much all pet stores is the increasing number of pet-keeping/managing/grooming/training gadgets there are out there in the market.  No doubt the burgeoning dog owning population is one of the most untapped and profitable markets out there, but you gotta wonder how people had dogs that were well trained before all these inventions came about, and why homeless people have the best behaved dogs.  Decide for yourself what the bare essentials are for you and your dog, and resist the urge to get another gadget that promises to save you xx minutes of your time.  Dogs are creatures of habit, chances are all the time you'd save doing things a new and easier way would be outweighed by the learning curve you and your dog have to go through anyway.
9. Human food can cost significantly less than specialized dog food.  It's a sad time of our lives when the food we eat cost significantly less than the food our dogs eat.  Either our dogs are eating particularly well (which I doubt) or we are eating particularly poorly as a civilization.  One dual-dog owning friend of mine switched recently to cooking simple recipes for her dogs with food and meat obtained from the supermarket.  Not only are they far less processed and therefore healthier for the dog, they're also much more economical to run in bulk.  Just remember that if you're taking on cooking all of your pet's food that you're consulting appropriate recipes to ensure a healthy and balanced diet (that's the one thing kibble takes care of!).  More recipes can be found at My Dog Eats Better than my Husband.
10. Stop paying for the gym membership and use your best friend.  Odd as I thought it would be, doggy owning friends of mine complain about needing to walk their dogs 3 times a day, and yet find the time to go to the gym to work out at least 3 times a week after work, not including those classes offered by the gym to help one stay healthy.  Two most frequently quoted reasons were: 1) my gym instructor is a hard nut and would kill me if I quit, so I need the persuasion to work out.  And 2) You get a balance of cardio and weights at the gym which you won't get at home. #1 makes me laugh - for one, there isn't a human I know that is more persuasive than my dog, and despite getting me to brave all sorts of weather to walk with him, I can still never get mad at my dog (or stay mad for long).  And as for #2 - dog walking and spending time with your dog isn't only about a slow, long, leisurely walk, which is the frequent impression most people have.  Build in sprints and games to vary the pace for a good cardio workout, play tug games with your dog, or practice lifting/carrying them around the house for endurance/weight training (overweight retrievers please apply!).

The Music Challenge: The Beautiful South

The Challenge: Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think.

Name of Artist: Beautiful South (who'd have thought!)

• Are you male or female: Girlfriend
• Describe yourself: You Keep It All In
• How do you feel about yourself: We Are Each Other
• Describe where you currently live: Alone
• If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Rotterdam (Or Anywhere)
• Your favorite form of transportation: I'll Sail this Ship Alone
• Your best friend is: From Under the Covers
  Your favorite color is: Little Blue
• What's the weather like: Bell Bottomed Tear
• Favorite time of day: Perfect 10
• If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: Don't Marry Her
• What is life to you: My Book
• What is the best advice you have to give: Let Go With the Flow
• If you could change your name, what would it be: Song for Whoever
• Your favorite food is: Good as Gold (Stupid as Mud)
• Thought for the Day: Baby Please Go
• How I would like to die: Straight in at 37

Language or the Kiss Reprise

As I navigate through the honey of her voice, I finally realise what she was talking about (doh!). And I don't know why but that dichotomy did not strike me until now. I've always seen language as expression, without thinking that the kiss expressed differently from language. But my mind was so blocked I never got it why there would be a choice between the two - my poetry being different from your dance.

Between the language or the kiss
I know I choose to think, to speak, to watch,
To learn, to philosophize, to dream, to envy.
And I'd wish, for you, if I could choose,
To do. To act, to move, to declare, to not
lose
The chances you would miss:
"Unforgiving the choice still is,
The language or the kiss".

Our choices make our choices. I know this now as well as I did then, and yet, knowing what I know, I would still end up gravitating towards making the choices I knew I would make. If we knew we wouldn't choose anything different, and our choices make our choices, do we really have a choice?

Pink and Glitter

Definitely my song for this winter... this must be the only song that Tori's ever done in jazzy, big band style which isn't really her, but I'm loving it! It's soft, it's feminine, it's pink, it's big band, it's jazzy, it's coy, it's cute, it's coquettish... what's there not to like?



Having a little girl really mellowed and added a new dimension to her views on being a woman. At the same time, I must be getting old.

Tori Amos - Pink and Glitter

"Darn Roses", that is what you call all the girls in the world, even the
thorns
You’re surrounded by an army of two who adore you

Our joy isn’t about a present or a grown up motor toy
And little boys all get an honorable mention from me
But this year I’m thinking
Shower the world
Shower the world
Shower the world with pink if you please
Shower the world
Shower the world
Shower the world... with pink.

Black satin, is what I wore
That, and our hearts left on the floor
How was I in that marshmallow snow, to know?
My life would change that night?

In pink, we will paint the town
Champagne never looked so divine
On his lips the sweetest words “Love, you’ve given me quite a ride.”

Welcoming Home New Puppy: Part Two - the other dog

Well, I have Beanie, don't I?  Beanie is an absolutely darling, and in hindsight, the vet who inspected Bailey was absolutely right when he said, "You were lucky with Beanie.  Think your luck ran out with this one (Bailey)."

Beanie is sweet natured, submissive, loves humans and is playful.  She's even taught herself to tolerate and play with kids on her own, despite having had very little exposure to children growing up.  I'd wanted another puppy to keep her company, after falling in love with the sight of two Westies walking side by side on the street, tails wagging in unison.  Selfishly, as Beanie got on in years, it would also take the edge off not having a dog at all should the untoward one day happen, as it inevitably would (so I thought).

Increasingly, more dog magazines dish out advice on how to introduce two dogs, or a puppy to an older, existing dog.  The majority of them say:

• Introduce your pets on neutral territory like a park or public place.  Easy to say when you've got two full-grown dogs, not so easy to do when you've got an unvaccinated puppy that should not be exposed to where other dogs might have been, so the park is out of the question.  It's still a good idea though, premise being that dogs are territorial, and a direct introduction of newbie in oldie's territory would seem too much like an incursion.  Friend's houses (who have no pets) or the car are appropriate alternative places.
• Keep the younger dog in a crate away from harm until you know your older dog is used to the puppy.  Again, very wise, and would work if not for Beanie pawing through the crate trying to reach the puppy like a toy... and vice versa.
• Put something with the puppy's scent on it (eg. puppy's bed, pillow or towels) near the older dog, preferably days before you bring pup home, so older dog gets used to pup's scent.  If older dog moves away or is otherwise averse, do it gradually to socialize the older dog.  Hmm... wish I could do this.  Beanie promptly went to Bailey's bed and fell asleep when I placed it on the ground.  Without much ado, Bailey clambered all over Beanie's bed and used her indoor toilet tray without invitation or prior training.
• Keep loads of toys and beds and anything dogs may like all around, act like there is too much of goodness to go around to avoid jealousy and fighting over toys.  Beanie doesn't like toys at all unless there are treats in them, so having Bailey snatch all toys for a quick nibble didn't seem to bother her that much.
• Give your older dog attention when your newcomer is around, to avoid your older dog feeling left out or replaced.  This actually worked!  I did also, schemingly, in the weeks leading up to Bailey's arrival, pay Beanie less attention and made less of a fuss, so the transition from all to nothing (just kidding) didn't seem quite as large.  Works with frogs and boiling water, sure works with dogs.

What they don't tell you:

• It's incredibly difficult training a puppy with an older, incredibly treat motivated, dog around, as Beanie goes through everything she knows how to do for 4 years now, and expects a treat for examplary behaviour.  It must be because she's such a show-off, but did work in my favour as Bailey figured out copying what Beanie was doing was the quickest way to get her a treat, resulting in the ability to teach complex behaviours in a shorter period of time.  Note to Self: If you feel you are being far, don't worry about not giving your older dog a treat all the time they demonstrate what needs to be done.  It's not like they will stop doing it with a failed attempt, it actually means they try harder next time.
• Puppy playing with older dog intensely tends to result in house-training accidents.  Beanie has no concept that Bailey needed the loo and wasn't just trying to get away to incite a chase.  This necessitated teaching them both that gravitation towards the toilet zone meant that the toilet zone was out of bounds.  It also necessitated watching puppy like a hawk and limiting play zones to a smaller area that Bailey could manage and gradually increasing the area as her control got better.
• Your puppy becomes your dog's greatest fan and longs to be her sidekick.  Sometimes annoyingly so.  Beanie being rather submissive isn't inclined to tell Bailey off (by growling) unless she's really ticked off, but has a long fuse.  It's normally a good thing in a dog, but does require some intervention, which is the hardest thing for new duo-dog owners to figure out.
• Dogs have to fight to get used to each other (OK they do tell you that part), but it's nearly impossible to know when the right time is to intervene, if there is such a time.