About Crates and Collars

I learned my lesson about crates and collars today. Never. And I mean NEVER leave a puppy untended in a crate wearing a collar. Yes, I knew that it wasn't advised. I knew that there was the possibility that the collar could get caught in the crate and maybe cause the pup to panic. Yes, I almost always took off his collar before crating him in order to avoid this. Unfortunately, I never took it too seriously.

This evening, Novel was playing (very nicely, I might add) in my bedroom while I cleaned up a bit and got things ready for work in the morning. Suddenly, I realized that I really needed to wash clothes before I left in the morning. Now, the laundry room is as far on the other side of our house from my bedroom as it could possibly be, and, although our house is by no means large, I figured that it would be easier to simply kennel Novel for a few minutes rather than to try to bring him with me through the whole house. After all, it would only be a few minutes.

I told him to "Kennel" and he happily trotted in, after which I latched the kennel door. To be honest, I didn't even think about removing his collar. After all, I would only step out of the room for a few minutes, and besides, my sister was upstairs. She could hear him if she needed to.

I had just started to load the washer when I heard high pitched yelping from upstairs. I called upstairs to find out if everything was ok, my sister spoke to Novel, and the crying stopped. I figured that he probably suddenly had to go to the bathroom, since he had just been playing and had drunk water recently. I hurried and finished the clothes and went upstairs to take Novel to the bathroom. As I mounted the stairs, I heard more yelping.

I got to Novel's kennel to find him sitting quietly, but hunched over and honestly looking quite miserable. Yep, I figured. He's gotta go bad.

Not so. When I opened the kennel door, I saw that one paw was picked up of the floor and his head was being pulled down by the collar. Poor Novel had somehow caught his front dewclaw on his bunch of tags and could not remove it. I immediately fixed it for him, and we had an apologetic snuggle session.

I am extremely grateful for several things because this situation could have turned out a lot worse. First of all, I am so very glad that this happened while I was in hearing distance and only a few seconds away, rather than at a time when I was gone. He would have been in big trouble if he had been stuck like that for more than a few seconds. Secondly, I am so proud of Novel for not totally freaking out! He calmed right down when told to and waited patiently for help. The way his dewclaw was caught, if he had panicked, I believe he would most likely have torn it off completely and we would be at the emergency vet right now. Thank goodness for calm puppies and lessons learned!

Memorial Day with a very grown up puppy

 First of all, Happy Memorial Day!! I am proud and thankful for our military, past and present, two legged and four legged. I would like to specifically thank my brother for his service in Iraq and here in the States. :)

Secondly, I realize that this post is long overdue. I will try to not neglect this blog for so long in the future, but don't ask for any promises ;) Novel and I have been quite busy for the past few weeks. I started working at as a veterinary assistant at an animal hospital, and Novel has started accompanying me some days. He does exceptionally well in his kennel at the vet, and totally chills out while I'm working, even when the other dogs are barking or whining. Of course, everyone there is very impressed with him.

During training, I started to raise the difficulty of distractions for Novel. Of course, he is doing well as usual, but there are some things he really needs to work on. For example, he gets WAY too excited when he meets new people or dogs. He bolts to the end of his leash if he thinks we are going over to see a person or dog, and is very bad at holding a sit for petting. I am happy that he is friendly, but he needs to learn to control himself! He used not to be so bad with this, so I am starting to drastically cut back on the amount of people who I let pet him. He needs to learn that not every person we see is going to play with him.

On another note, he did fantastic when we went kayaking last week! Yes, I take my dogs kayaking with me. It has helped Abbi to have fantastic balance and confidence on unstable surfaces, and I am hoping it will do the same for Novel. He loved it. Most of the time, he was curled up in my lap with one elbow hanging over the edge of the kayak, soaking up the sun. I got a bunch of killer pictures, but unfortunately I haven't been able to get them onto my computer...something wrong with the SD card adapter maybe?

Here are some pictures from today instead. I honestly can not believe how big he is getting...he doesn't look like a puppy any more! How can a four month old pup look so grown up?

 Ok, now I just had to make a few comments about the picture below. From the very first day, Novel has gotten along with the neighbor's horses like this. Today they nuzzled each other for probably close to five minutes before the horse finally walked away. Of course, he walked away right as I was starting a video :P However, I was very glad of the chance that I did get to finally get some good pictures of this adorable relationship. What amazes me is that Novel doesn't ever bite at the horses. He just kinda rubs his face on the side of their faces. And Riley (the horse in the picture below) literally pets Novel on the top of his head with his lips. Now is this picture not the cutest ever??

P.S. I just discovered that my sister made a blog post about our kayaking trip, pictures included! Check it out HERE

Ice Cubes and Tunnels

Novel loves Ice cubes. Especially on hot days like today.

In his mind, the cool kitchen floor with a nice cold ice cube to spread around and make it even colder is perfection.
He likes posing for pictures too. He'll lay there and look right at the camera, wait for me to take a picture, and the change his position and pause again for another picture. It's exactly like he is saying, "oh how about one of me like this?" :) Such a silly little man.

Of course, sometimes he just wiggles around with his ice cube...that's what burst mode on the camera is good for ;)

On another note, Novel learned about tunnels today. It's a little challenging for me to find enough stimulating and NEW experiences for Novel, and it has forced me to become more creative. Today his dog food bag subed for a short agility tunnel. Boy did he like that -- "Dog food flavored tunnel!" 

Puppy Teeth

Novel is losing his puppy teeth.

Either that, or he broke his tooth...but I think it is much more likely that he is simply losing his puppy teeth. Considering the fact that he is a puppy. And that he is about the age that most puppies lose their teeth.

I am bracing myself for the teething period that we are about to enter. Wooden furniture beware!

The Vacuum Cleaner

It strikes terror into the heart of lesser dogs.

When it emerges from it's den, Abbi flees.

When it roars, she curls into a ball and shivers, tail between her legs.

Not Novel.

He charges forth into battle, fearing nothing. Spinning, dancing, pouncing, weaving, bouncing, he attacks the noisy sucking metal monster.

It grabs him. It sucks at his ears, his tail, his tongue
.

Suddenly, Novel realizes....THIS IS FUN!!!

Can it suck other body parts as well? How about my paw?

Novel has found a new favorite toy.

Watch a video of him playing with the vacuum here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVOiooKMFx4

Meet The Star

 A little over a month ago, on April 6, 2012, I went to the airport to pick up a dear friend...although, I suppose "friend" may not be the best word to use, considering I had never met him before. I had heard a lot about him, however, and hopes were very high as I waited in the airport to get my first glimpse of him. I was not disappointed. In the few weeks since that day, we have already had many adventures, and I know we will have many more. Thus, I am starting this blog to chronicle them. But first, let me introduce you to Novel.

"Novel" is a nearly 4 month old, Black Lab/Golden Retriever puppy from Canine Companions for Independence. This wonderful organization trains four kinds of service dogs and provides them free of charge to people with disabilities. (visit their website here: Canine Companions for Independence) I am a first-time Volunteer puppy raiser for them, and Novel is my first puppy. I will care for him for approximately 18 months, during which time I must teach him impeccable manners and basic commands. At the end of this time, I have to give him back to CCI for advanced training where he will hopefully learn how to help someone with a disability. I say hopefully because, due to CCI's very high standards, only about 30% of dogs pass the rigorous health and temperament tests, graduate from advanced training and go on to be placed with a disabled person.

...But enough about CCI...I know you really want to hear about Novel :) As a Lab puppy, Novel is incredibly smart and curious, which means he is into EVERYTHING! His favorites are socks and underwear when he can get them, which he usually can't because we have learned to keep things out of his reach for the most part. Still, his brains are extremely helpful, and Novel is the uncontested star of his puppy class. He still has some accidents, and gets the "Zoomies" fairly often, but for such a young puppy, he is surprisingly calm, easy, and well behaved. Novel is an absolute sweetie and loves to cuddle. He has the most fun, bubbly, goofy personality and definitely keeps us on our toes.

That's just a little about Novel, but you will get to know him much better as I update this blog...which I hope to do regularly (...key word: "HOPE")