Tales of a Doodle Daddy
The story of Maisy and her family, the Kings. Maisy is an F1 Goldendoodle puppy of Gracie's born 1/2016.
The Kings
Tales of a Doodle Daddy
Week 1, March 2016 - Bringing Home Maisy
by Jake King
My wife and I are very detail-oriented people.
We plan everything. We have routines…if I were to ask you to imagine a couple that is “predictable,” you would see us.
So when Emily and I decided that, after years of waiting, we were finally in the right place and time in our lives to adopt a puppy, we did what only came naturally to us. We read books and articles. We watched videos. We even attended a webinar on training. We made bulleted lists and numbered procedures with backup options. I crawled around the house on my hands and knees, surveying it for “chew points” with the care of a general staging a battlefield. We thought we had covered everything…
And then we brought Maisy home.
By the end of day 2, we felt like failures. Our plans were in shambles. She would barely touch the Kong we had planned to feed her from. She cried during the night, even though we kept her in our bedroom. She absolutely refused to move if a leash was on her, digging her feet into the ground and biting it any chance she got. I have never felt so powerless as the way I felt the first time I took her out to eliminate, me fumbling for treats to serve as a reward while Maisy in her boundless energy had already moved on from that moment and ran circles around me with the leash and teetered dangerously close to falling in her own excrement.
At first read, this makes Maisy sound like a problematic puppy, but there’s a reason I’m writing in this way. The reality is, the dog I’m describing above is more perfect than I could have ever hoped for. She is instantly friendly with everyone she meets. She licks your face, and tries to crawl into any space she can even when she won’t quite fit. When I play with her in the mornings before I start work, she crawls onto my back and takes a quick nap for as long as I’ll let her. My wife and I spend hours each night just looking at her (I’m not exaggerating) and playing with her because we love her that much and we’re so happy we can finally do this.
But she is also a puppy – after a week she still nips and bites and cries in her crate and pees in the house and chews the carpet and dumps her water bowl on the floor and a million other things that she will do for a long time to come because she is a puppy. I am fortunate enough that I can work remotely, keep an eye on her, establish a fairly solid routine and play with her / let her out during the day, and to top it all off my company is dog-friendly – I can take her in on some days. My wife and I have this situation about as easy as easy can get, and it is still absolutely a challenge.
But it gets better – little by little it gets better. Those articles and books we read are paying off - she is learning to sleep through the night and she is beginning to accept the leash when we go for a walk. She is also getting crazy good with a Kong - she recently found out that if you just pick it up and throw it with your mouth you can spill it all out on the floor in one shot. The webinar was a huge help and we’re seeing some of our efforts finally paying off since we’ve stuck with it.
And whenever it seems like the training process is taking a while, I just stop and think what this must be like from her perspective. Bringing home a puppy is exciting for the new owners, but that puppy has only been alive for 8 weeks, and everything she knows just changed in the span of a day. Suddenly her siblings are gone. The old house is replaced by a new one and there are new rules and new things to learn, and God only knows why but people keep trying to put her in sweaters and dresses. For us, at least, it’s taking time and repetition to let all of this sink in.
For all the trials, though, it has been a great first week and I would not trade it for anything. My wife and I are absolutely in love with our little fluff-ball, we can’t imagine our lives without her in it, and we hope some of our stories will help others in raising their own furry family members.
Week 1, March 2016 - Bringing Home Maisy
by Jake King
My wife and I are very detail-oriented people.
We plan everything. We have routines…if I were to ask you to imagine a couple that is “predictable,” you would see us.
So when Emily and I decided that, after years of waiting, we were finally in the right place and time in our lives to adopt a puppy, we did what only came naturally to us. We read books and articles. We watched videos. We even attended a webinar on training. We made bulleted lists and numbered procedures with backup options. I crawled around the house on my hands and knees, surveying it for “chew points” with the care of a general staging a battlefield. We thought we had covered everything…
And then we brought Maisy home.
By the end of day 2, we felt like failures. Our plans were in shambles. She would barely touch the Kong we had planned to feed her from. She cried during the night, even though we kept her in our bedroom. She absolutely refused to move if a leash was on her, digging her feet into the ground and biting it any chance she got. I have never felt so powerless as the way I felt the first time I took her out to eliminate, me fumbling for treats to serve as a reward while Maisy in her boundless energy had already moved on from that moment and ran circles around me with the leash and teetered dangerously close to falling in her own excrement.
At first read, this makes Maisy sound like a problematic puppy, but there’s a reason I’m writing in this way. The reality is, the dog I’m describing above is more perfect than I could have ever hoped for. She is instantly friendly with everyone she meets. She licks your face, and tries to crawl into any space she can even when she won’t quite fit. When I play with her in the mornings before I start work, she crawls onto my back and takes a quick nap for as long as I’ll let her. My wife and I spend hours each night just looking at her (I’m not exaggerating) and playing with her because we love her that much and we’re so happy we can finally do this.
But she is also a puppy – after a week she still nips and bites and cries in her crate and pees in the house and chews the carpet and dumps her water bowl on the floor and a million other things that she will do for a long time to come because she is a puppy. I am fortunate enough that I can work remotely, keep an eye on her, establish a fairly solid routine and play with her / let her out during the day, and to top it all off my company is dog-friendly – I can take her in on some days. My wife and I have this situation about as easy as easy can get, and it is still absolutely a challenge.
But it gets better – little by little it gets better. Those articles and books we read are paying off - she is learning to sleep through the night and she is beginning to accept the leash when we go for a walk. She is also getting crazy good with a Kong - she recently found out that if you just pick it up and throw it with your mouth you can spill it all out on the floor in one shot. The webinar was a huge help and we’re seeing some of our efforts finally paying off since we’ve stuck with it.
And whenever it seems like the training process is taking a while, I just stop and think what this must be like from her perspective. Bringing home a puppy is exciting for the new owners, but that puppy has only been alive for 8 weeks, and everything she knows just changed in the span of a day. Suddenly her siblings are gone. The old house is replaced by a new one and there are new rules and new things to learn, and God only knows why but people keep trying to put her in sweaters and dresses. For us, at least, it’s taking time and repetition to let all of this sink in.
For all the trials, though, it has been a great first week and I would not trade it for anything. My wife and I are absolutely in love with our little fluff-ball, we can’t imagine our lives without her in it, and we hope some of our stories will help others in raising their own furry family members.
Tales of a Doodle Daddy
Week 2 – Self-Reliance
The first thing that became apparent to me in the brief time that my wife and I have had Maisy is that there is a direct correlation between the amount of time you can devote to your puppy and how many hours you sleep each night. But it’s not always possible to reach that ideal situation – jobs get in the way, and kids, and social lives…The list goes on.
I have the good fortune that I work remotely and that my wife and I don’t have children (yet), so I am in a great position to help our Goldendoodle puppy develop routines and habits that will keep her healthy and my marriage intact. However, I do go into the office once per week for meetings and even though I work remotely, I am working for a full day during that time so one of my top priorities from day 1 was to teach Maisy some self-reliance.
Crate training was central to this plan, and the first time I tried it she immediately started crying - I’m talking full-on, bitter puppy tears. But the articles and forums we had read said not to engage her until she was quiet so I waited.
If you want to get some idea of what that’s like, watch Rocky III, and when you get to the scene where Mickey dies and Sylvester Stallone starts sobbing, loop that part over and over for about an hour.
Eventually I consulted the welcome packet that River Valley provided when we took Maisy home, made a few modifications to my technique, and it worked flawlessly. For several evenings I gave her meals in the crate and left for gradually longer periods of time. At first it was just a few seconds. Eventually that became a few minutes, and within a week I could leave her in the crate for several hours. When she did cry out I waited for her to stop and gave her plenty of treats and praise when we let her out. In no time we turned the crate into a positive experience and now she loves it.
Outside the crate I keep her with me in my home office and here again we have managed to train her to be self-sufficient but it has been a process. I need her to stay occupied so I can focus and my biggest ally in that endeavor has been a large arsenal of toys. We’ve got elk antlers and crinkle-cows and squeaky hedgehogs and probably at least 10 other new things since I started writing this - things to divert her chewing and also give her the mental stimulation that I can’t provide at that moment. We also decided to try BarkBox for a few months to give her a variety of toys and treats to find what she likes.
So in the end one of our biggest training worries turned out to be very manageable, but there’s also a give and take. I play with her for a solid hour before work. My lunch breaks are usually spent with a sandwich in one hand and a chew toy in the other, and when work is done the first thing we do is take Maisy for a walk and give plenty of play time. I’m ready to pass out by 8:30PM but it’s worth it to know our pup isn’t going crazy if we have to step out for a second.
And nothing will make you smile like seeing her tail wag furiously after you’ve come back to her, from a whole 10 minutes away.
Week 2 – Self-Reliance
The first thing that became apparent to me in the brief time that my wife and I have had Maisy is that there is a direct correlation between the amount of time you can devote to your puppy and how many hours you sleep each night. But it’s not always possible to reach that ideal situation – jobs get in the way, and kids, and social lives…The list goes on.
I have the good fortune that I work remotely and that my wife and I don’t have children (yet), so I am in a great position to help our Goldendoodle puppy develop routines and habits that will keep her healthy and my marriage intact. However, I do go into the office once per week for meetings and even though I work remotely, I am working for a full day during that time so one of my top priorities from day 1 was to teach Maisy some self-reliance.
Crate training was central to this plan, and the first time I tried it she immediately started crying - I’m talking full-on, bitter puppy tears. But the articles and forums we had read said not to engage her until she was quiet so I waited.
If you want to get some idea of what that’s like, watch Rocky III, and when you get to the scene where Mickey dies and Sylvester Stallone starts sobbing, loop that part over and over for about an hour.
Eventually I consulted the welcome packet that River Valley provided when we took Maisy home, made a few modifications to my technique, and it worked flawlessly. For several evenings I gave her meals in the crate and left for gradually longer periods of time. At first it was just a few seconds. Eventually that became a few minutes, and within a week I could leave her in the crate for several hours. When she did cry out I waited for her to stop and gave her plenty of treats and praise when we let her out. In no time we turned the crate into a positive experience and now she loves it.
Outside the crate I keep her with me in my home office and here again we have managed to train her to be self-sufficient but it has been a process. I need her to stay occupied so I can focus and my biggest ally in that endeavor has been a large arsenal of toys. We’ve got elk antlers and crinkle-cows and squeaky hedgehogs and probably at least 10 other new things since I started writing this - things to divert her chewing and also give her the mental stimulation that I can’t provide at that moment. We also decided to try BarkBox for a few months to give her a variety of toys and treats to find what she likes.
So in the end one of our biggest training worries turned out to be very manageable, but there’s also a give and take. I play with her for a solid hour before work. My lunch breaks are usually spent with a sandwich in one hand and a chew toy in the other, and when work is done the first thing we do is take Maisy for a walk and give plenty of play time. I’m ready to pass out by 8:30PM but it’s worth it to know our pup isn’t going crazy if we have to step out for a second.
And nothing will make you smile like seeing her tail wag furiously after you’ve come back to her, from a whole 10 minutes away.
Maisy with a few of her toys
Tales of a Doodle Daddy
Week 3 - Housetraining
Emily and I both grew up with dogs but when we got Maisy, it had been years since either of us cared for a puppy. Thus, we had also forgotten some of the telltale signs that a disaster is about to happen on your carpet.
It didn’t take long to bring us up to speed though. Soon, any time she so much as thought about sitting down my wife and I were leaping up from the couch or the dinner table like a pair of gunslingers in an old western saloon fight, my wife with the leash at the ready and my finger on the trigger of the carpet cleaner bottle.
After three weeks, though, we have finally reached a point where we are virtually accident-free, and Maisy is beginning to give us visual and verbal cues when she needs to go outside. In the hope that our experience might help others, these are some of the tips and tricks we used to survive housetraining:
Week 3 - Housetraining
Emily and I both grew up with dogs but when we got Maisy, it had been years since either of us cared for a puppy. Thus, we had also forgotten some of the telltale signs that a disaster is about to happen on your carpet.
It didn’t take long to bring us up to speed though. Soon, any time she so much as thought about sitting down my wife and I were leaping up from the couch or the dinner table like a pair of gunslingers in an old western saloon fight, my wife with the leash at the ready and my finger on the trigger of the carpet cleaner bottle.
After three weeks, though, we have finally reached a point where we are virtually accident-free, and Maisy is beginning to give us visual and verbal cues when she needs to go outside. In the hope that our experience might help others, these are some of the tips and tricks we used to survive housetraining:
- Make a Pit Stop Pile – The first night we brought Maisy home, she had to go outside 3 times. And at 2AM, in sub-freezing temperatures wearing only gym shorts and a T-shirt, I would have given a kidney for her to finish so I could go back inside. Do yourself a favor and set out weather-appropriate clothes, poop bags, leash, treats, etc. in one place near the door so you can grab it all at once.
- Invest in Treats – Think about the potty training process from your puppy’s perspective. Every time she’s about to relieve herself, her humans swoop in, scoop her up, and rush her outside. Very weird… But if you get treats at the end? Not so bad…
- Take Notes – When Maisy has accidents in the house, we try to make a note of where it happens and also when (after playing, 10 min. after eating, waking up from a nap, etc.). I actually wrote this down for the first week so I could get an idea of when and where the “danger zones” were in our house. Then, we adjusted her routine so that we were going outside as a precaution during these times.
- Establish Containment Zones – This might be my obsessive personality more than a real tip, but I found it useful nonetheless. Until she gets the hang of potty training, consider using baby gates, play pens, and whatever tools you have at your disposal to establish permanent “containment zones” that afford an open view of her activity. In much the same way that foresters will dig ditches or fell trees to keep a wildfire from spreading, I partitioned sections of our house so that, if I need to do something that requires me to take my full attention from Maisy, she cannot go off to eliminate in a place where I can’t see her. This makes the house look a little bit like the obstacle course from American Ninja Warrior but makes it easier to catch and correct the behavior, and gives you a safe area to put her should you need to clean up an indoor accident.
- Be Positive – There are times you’ll want to cry or yell because you just can’t seem to drive home the point that your house is not a toilet. But no matter what you want to say, don’t take that frustration out on your puppy. Keep rewarding positive behavior – when she goes where she is supposed to, treat her as if she just solved world hunger (bolstered by point #2). It takes time but eventually it will pay off.
Potty Training Problems lol
Tales of a Doodle Daddy
Week 4 – Chewing and Biting
Before I get too far into this topic, I want to take a moment to clarify that my wife and I are absolutely in love with Maisy and that she is basically an angel for us.
That said, there have been some times in the past month where it has felt like I have a 4-legged wood chipper running around my house, making short work of anything that roams into her field of vision (me included).
Granted, I don’t think I know anyone who has owned a dog and doesn’t have at least one story of a couch cushion or a beloved heirloom that gets mauled to pieces. What has been surprising for me as a new dog owner, though, is how difficult it is to predict when she is about to enter “destroy” mode and to how find a strategy for coping with it.
When she goes for property it is a little easier, because we can just redirect her chewing to something acceptable. Maisy, for example, is a shoe fanatic. It doesn’t matter if they’re men’s shoes, women’s shoes, flats, heels, boots or Dutch clogs – if it is a shoe and there isn’t a foot attached to it she will take it, and sometimes a foot doesn’t even stop her. Any time she starts gnawing on footwear (or anything else she isn’t supposed to) we address by making a verbal correction and immediately give her a toy.
This has been mildly successful. Certain habits are almost gone, like pulling the carpet or gnawing on chair and table legs. We still can’t keep a shoe within a mile of her but I’ve been really surprised at how fast that part of her training has come along. I’ll also note that we tried some anti-chew spray and, at least in our case, she only seemed to take the gesture as a challenge though I’m sure this does work for other dogs in other circumstances. We have found the most success by using a few particular toys for “chew control” duty – an elk antler is usually a good way to get her to calm down and we also use a stuffer toy that we fill with treats, since she typically finds the prospect of food more appealing than whatever she was chewing on.
The more concerning habit she has picked up is nipping people. The good news is that it seems to only be limited to me and my wife – we have had friends over and I have taken her into my office where she of course becomes the perfect furry angel. Very occasionally she’ll mouth or nip but it’s nothing more than what you’d expect from a puppy.
But with us she lets the crazy out and gets more aggressive. For a while, a sharp “Ouch!” fixed this. But as time has gone on, it began to lose its effect and we’ve had to experiment with more drastic measures like a time-out area, in the hopes that we can correct the habit.
We are also taking her to puppy socialization and training classes starting next week, to get a little bit of expert help on this and other puppy problems.
And in the end, I’m not terribly worried because the few behavioral concerns we’ve had with Maisy are occurring because she is young and she learns with her mouth. They are things that need addressed, sometimes with saintly patience but ultimately they are puppy problems and nothing that time won’t fix. I hope.
Tales of a Doodle Daddy
Week 5 – How (Not) to Walk Your Puppy
When we brought Maisy home, my wife and I were prepared for difficulties in housetraining. We knew that a good portion of our clothes and furniture would probably sustain at least some damage within the first year. We knew that “Maisy” and “No!” would become two of the most commonly spoken words in our house. But for some reason, we just expected that we would hook Maisy up to a leash, take her outside, and that she would just magically walk alongside us as if it were as natural a thing as breathing.
We were quickly shown the error in our thinking - the first few times I took her for a walk, the event was very short and ended with me carrying her back to the house in my arms. In fact I use the term “walk” loosely; it was more like a rodeo because she would jump around like House of Pain circa 1992 and the goal wasn’t so much to get her walking as it was to just hold onto the leash for a few seconds and then run back to home base when neither of us could stand the other any longer.
This continued for some time, until we got the brilliant idea that one of us should just walk ahead of her with a treat while the other held onto the leash and tried to not let her get sidetracked. Low, petty trickery for certain, but it worked! You could see the conflict brewing in her eyes between running amok and getting a snack but the food won out every time and before long we were having nice, leisurely, awkward walks and we were even able to get rid of the constant treat incentive after a few days.
As a result, she has become a bit more difficult to manage again – she zooms to the end of her leash and jumps on our legs and if she gets distracted all bets are off and she either digs in and refuses to move, or she goes bananas and bolts for whatever has caught her eye. It’s hard to predict exactly when this will happen, too, because she isn’t always stirred by something you’d expect – sometimes she’ll display the same enthusiasm for a bush or the mulch around a tree that I might display for the new season of Game of Thrones.
And as usual I jest, but on a serious note I do worry because this behavior poses a threat to her safety at some level. The other people in our complex treat the parking lot like it’s a race track and I hate to think what might happen if she would pull hard enough to get away from us…I would never hit anyone but I’d be lying if I said I’ve never fantasized about slashing a few tires.
Plus it is aggravating when your dog refuses to move and your only options of moving forward are to pick her up and carry her or submit and let her write the terms of the walk. It’s also possible she just needs a break but I’m disinclined to believe this since she usually pulls to go another way as soon as I give her the benefit of the doubt and stop. Either way, I don’t have the expertise to assess the situation properly, so that is something I hope to get some advice on when we take her to puppy training courses over the next few weeks (more on that to come).
Week 4 – Chewing and Biting
Before I get too far into this topic, I want to take a moment to clarify that my wife and I are absolutely in love with Maisy and that she is basically an angel for us.
That said, there have been some times in the past month where it has felt like I have a 4-legged wood chipper running around my house, making short work of anything that roams into her field of vision (me included).
Granted, I don’t think I know anyone who has owned a dog and doesn’t have at least one story of a couch cushion or a beloved heirloom that gets mauled to pieces. What has been surprising for me as a new dog owner, though, is how difficult it is to predict when she is about to enter “destroy” mode and to how find a strategy for coping with it.
When she goes for property it is a little easier, because we can just redirect her chewing to something acceptable. Maisy, for example, is a shoe fanatic. It doesn’t matter if they’re men’s shoes, women’s shoes, flats, heels, boots or Dutch clogs – if it is a shoe and there isn’t a foot attached to it she will take it, and sometimes a foot doesn’t even stop her. Any time she starts gnawing on footwear (or anything else she isn’t supposed to) we address by making a verbal correction and immediately give her a toy.
This has been mildly successful. Certain habits are almost gone, like pulling the carpet or gnawing on chair and table legs. We still can’t keep a shoe within a mile of her but I’ve been really surprised at how fast that part of her training has come along. I’ll also note that we tried some anti-chew spray and, at least in our case, she only seemed to take the gesture as a challenge though I’m sure this does work for other dogs in other circumstances. We have found the most success by using a few particular toys for “chew control” duty – an elk antler is usually a good way to get her to calm down and we also use a stuffer toy that we fill with treats, since she typically finds the prospect of food more appealing than whatever she was chewing on.
The more concerning habit she has picked up is nipping people. The good news is that it seems to only be limited to me and my wife – we have had friends over and I have taken her into my office where she of course becomes the perfect furry angel. Very occasionally she’ll mouth or nip but it’s nothing more than what you’d expect from a puppy.
But with us she lets the crazy out and gets more aggressive. For a while, a sharp “Ouch!” fixed this. But as time has gone on, it began to lose its effect and we’ve had to experiment with more drastic measures like a time-out area, in the hopes that we can correct the habit.
We are also taking her to puppy socialization and training classes starting next week, to get a little bit of expert help on this and other puppy problems.
And in the end, I’m not terribly worried because the few behavioral concerns we’ve had with Maisy are occurring because she is young and she learns with her mouth. They are things that need addressed, sometimes with saintly patience but ultimately they are puppy problems and nothing that time won’t fix. I hope.
Tales of a Doodle Daddy
Week 5 – How (Not) to Walk Your Puppy
When we brought Maisy home, my wife and I were prepared for difficulties in housetraining. We knew that a good portion of our clothes and furniture would probably sustain at least some damage within the first year. We knew that “Maisy” and “No!” would become two of the most commonly spoken words in our house. But for some reason, we just expected that we would hook Maisy up to a leash, take her outside, and that she would just magically walk alongside us as if it were as natural a thing as breathing.
We were quickly shown the error in our thinking - the first few times I took her for a walk, the event was very short and ended with me carrying her back to the house in my arms. In fact I use the term “walk” loosely; it was more like a rodeo because she would jump around like House of Pain circa 1992 and the goal wasn’t so much to get her walking as it was to just hold onto the leash for a few seconds and then run back to home base when neither of us could stand the other any longer.
This continued for some time, until we got the brilliant idea that one of us should just walk ahead of her with a treat while the other held onto the leash and tried to not let her get sidetracked. Low, petty trickery for certain, but it worked! You could see the conflict brewing in her eyes between running amok and getting a snack but the food won out every time and before long we were having nice, leisurely, awkward walks and we were even able to get rid of the constant treat incentive after a few days.
As a result, she has become a bit more difficult to manage again – she zooms to the end of her leash and jumps on our legs and if she gets distracted all bets are off and she either digs in and refuses to move, or she goes bananas and bolts for whatever has caught her eye. It’s hard to predict exactly when this will happen, too, because she isn’t always stirred by something you’d expect – sometimes she’ll display the same enthusiasm for a bush or the mulch around a tree that I might display for the new season of Game of Thrones.
And as usual I jest, but on a serious note I do worry because this behavior poses a threat to her safety at some level. The other people in our complex treat the parking lot like it’s a race track and I hate to think what might happen if she would pull hard enough to get away from us…I would never hit anyone but I’d be lying if I said I’ve never fantasized about slashing a few tires.
Plus it is aggravating when your dog refuses to move and your only options of moving forward are to pick her up and carry her or submit and let her write the terms of the walk. It’s also possible she just needs a break but I’m disinclined to believe this since she usually pulls to go another way as soon as I give her the benefit of the doubt and stop. Either way, I don’t have the expertise to assess the situation properly, so that is something I hope to get some advice on when we take her to puppy training courses over the next few weeks (more on that to come).
Tales of a Doodle Daddy
Week 6 – Puppy socialization
One of the things that came up over and over again in the training materials Emily and I utilized is how important socialization is for a young puppy. New people and new dogs, Fire hydrants and vacuum cleaners, The Black Keys and Mozart - you’re supposed to expose a puppy to anything and everything you can in the first few months because they still see everything with innocent curiosity.
With that in mind, we enrolled Maisy in a 6-week puppy training program to get her some pup-to-pup socializing and to also to get some help in basic training. It’s at a really great business called Awesome Dawgs about five minutes from our house, housed in a converted barn with a massive indoor area for the training classes and an attached shop. Their trainers are certified, too, so we felt that this was a good investment. Plus, you also get to participate in a weekly 1-hour “puppy playtime” on a 1-acre play area.
I’ll talk about the training classes another week because I want to stress how valuable the puppy socialization time was for us - basically it’s a chance for the pups to run around off-leash and play as they would with their litter-mates. We went into the first session knowing that Maisy was great around other people so we weren’t worried on that point. We were, however, apprehensive that Maisy would become the playground bully as her enthusiasm is usually enough to drive away Teddy, my in-laws’ Bichon-poodle mix, and my parents’ 75 lb. chocolate lab is terrified of her.
As it turns out, our fears were completely unfounded and Maisy is actually adorably shy. We were dumbfounded. Every time another puppy came anywhere near her it usually ended with Maisy yipping and making a beeline for one of us. At one point she was running away, tail-between-legs, from a basset hound puppy named “Sweetie Pie,” which might have been the most ironic thing I’ve ever witnessed.
And while that was cute the first few times, our laughter quickly grew into worry as this happened again, and again…and again. The other puppies weren’t even being aggressive, just showing curiosity.
We were quickly reassured by the staff, though, that they see this a lot and that after a few sessions she should warm up. And sure enough, by the end of that hour she came around, watching the other pups from a safe distance rather than completely hiding, and accepting their curiosity rather than running away.
By the second session she was a completely different dog. The trainers kept some of the quieter and younger puppies in the indoor area and that was huge for Maisy. I think in the first session she got overwhelmed by the number and size of some of the puppies, and she warmed up considerably in the smaller group.
It was a learning experience for me, too, because I realized that I was being a helicopter parent. Any time Maisy played with another dog I was right there mediating, and any time she went to investigate something new - a straw bale, or a new plant, for example, I was trying to keep her away for fear that she would eat something she shouldn’t.
After a few kind, but very informative bits of advice from the staff, though, I loosened the reins and let her start figuring things out for herself. It was complete instinct on my part – I was just trying to keep her out of trouble but I was doing it at such a level that I was denying her some of that very vital experience.
And that’s the key, I think. Being new dog parents, my wife and I look at our experience through a very narrow lens. We are not certified dog trainers and while I like to think I have a very objective, scientific mind, I did not have the experience to know that we had a potential socialization issue brewing, or that I was part of the problem. So whether it’s a formal class or just taking your pup to a public place where she can meet other dogs, I’d say it’s worth it and I’m glad we did this.
Just know, though, that if you start classes the day after a rainstorm and there is a very friendly Bernese mountain dog in your group, it’s probably not a good idea to wear any clothes you want to keep clean…
Week 6 – Puppy socialization
One of the things that came up over and over again in the training materials Emily and I utilized is how important socialization is for a young puppy. New people and new dogs, Fire hydrants and vacuum cleaners, The Black Keys and Mozart - you’re supposed to expose a puppy to anything and everything you can in the first few months because they still see everything with innocent curiosity.
With that in mind, we enrolled Maisy in a 6-week puppy training program to get her some pup-to-pup socializing and to also to get some help in basic training. It’s at a really great business called Awesome Dawgs about five minutes from our house, housed in a converted barn with a massive indoor area for the training classes and an attached shop. Their trainers are certified, too, so we felt that this was a good investment. Plus, you also get to participate in a weekly 1-hour “puppy playtime” on a 1-acre play area.
I’ll talk about the training classes another week because I want to stress how valuable the puppy socialization time was for us - basically it’s a chance for the pups to run around off-leash and play as they would with their litter-mates. We went into the first session knowing that Maisy was great around other people so we weren’t worried on that point. We were, however, apprehensive that Maisy would become the playground bully as her enthusiasm is usually enough to drive away Teddy, my in-laws’ Bichon-poodle mix, and my parents’ 75 lb. chocolate lab is terrified of her.
As it turns out, our fears were completely unfounded and Maisy is actually adorably shy. We were dumbfounded. Every time another puppy came anywhere near her it usually ended with Maisy yipping and making a beeline for one of us. At one point she was running away, tail-between-legs, from a basset hound puppy named “Sweetie Pie,” which might have been the most ironic thing I’ve ever witnessed.
And while that was cute the first few times, our laughter quickly grew into worry as this happened again, and again…and again. The other puppies weren’t even being aggressive, just showing curiosity.
We were quickly reassured by the staff, though, that they see this a lot and that after a few sessions she should warm up. And sure enough, by the end of that hour she came around, watching the other pups from a safe distance rather than completely hiding, and accepting their curiosity rather than running away.
By the second session she was a completely different dog. The trainers kept some of the quieter and younger puppies in the indoor area and that was huge for Maisy. I think in the first session she got overwhelmed by the number and size of some of the puppies, and she warmed up considerably in the smaller group.
It was a learning experience for me, too, because I realized that I was being a helicopter parent. Any time Maisy played with another dog I was right there mediating, and any time she went to investigate something new - a straw bale, or a new plant, for example, I was trying to keep her away for fear that she would eat something she shouldn’t.
After a few kind, but very informative bits of advice from the staff, though, I loosened the reins and let her start figuring things out for herself. It was complete instinct on my part – I was just trying to keep her out of trouble but I was doing it at such a level that I was denying her some of that very vital experience.
And that’s the key, I think. Being new dog parents, my wife and I look at our experience through a very narrow lens. We are not certified dog trainers and while I like to think I have a very objective, scientific mind, I did not have the experience to know that we had a potential socialization issue brewing, or that I was part of the problem. So whether it’s a formal class or just taking your pup to a public place where she can meet other dogs, I’d say it’s worth it and I’m glad we did this.
Just know, though, that if you start classes the day after a rainstorm and there is a very friendly Bernese mountain dog in your group, it’s probably not a good idea to wear any clothes you want to keep clean…
Tales of a Doodle Daddy
Week 7 – Puppy Training Commands
When I was a kid, my family had a Weimaraner puppy named Hannah, and I have this distinct memory that, as “part of the deal” in getting her, it was my job to teach her commands like “sit” and “stay,” and that I did this pretty easily.
The trouble is, I didn’t actually teach Hannah those things. I was a kid – my parents might have begun the process with the hope that I would but they quickly realized that I had the same attention span as the dog. So I would put in my token 2 minutes of “sit” and “stay” each day and be amazed at how fast she learned, but she only did so because my parents were putting in training time while I was focused on other things. So when we got Maisy, I didn’t have a good reference point for how much work it would actually be.
I don’t want to overdramatize it. Maisy is a smart dog - she mastered “sit” and “shake” within a day and we felt pretty good about ourselves. But since then it has been a lot of hard work and the other staple commands have eluded us.
We did hit a breakthrough when we took her for her vaccinations this week and our vet asked how training was going.
“Oh, well ‘down’ is just this,” she said. She put a treat in her hand and formed a fist around it on the floor. Maisy looked to her, then to her hand, then to her again and with a big puppy grin she plopped on the floor. Instantly.
We looked at the vet as if we were cavemen and she had just discovered fire. For weeks we’d been pulling her legs out or doing ridiculous mimes of the action but apparently, we had just missed this chapter in the Big Book of Dog Commands.
Unfortunately we haven’t found that magic solution for the other commands. She will “come” if she feels like it but not reliably. We have found some success with a trick we learned in puppy training classes called the “name game” – the idea is to have your dog do something distracting, like playing with a toy, and then call her name. As soon as she stops and makes eye contact, she gets a treat.
As Maisy masters this, “come” has been easier too – probably because I use the two together so often. But there are still times where I have to carry her because she just doesn’t want to move. Or, I’ll get her to “come” in small distances using treats, but as soon as I try to take the exercise up the stairs to my office she decides I have given her a sufficient amount of food and leaves.
And I can’t even begin to wrap my head around “stay.” Any time we work on this one, she either just doesn’t want any part of it or, if she’s sincerely trying, she gets confused and starts doing all of the other commands hoping she can guess right, which is pretty adorable but in the end isn’t going to cut it.
Even though it has been slow going, I am seeing progress, and I am sure we will get there in time. It’s also interesting and rewarding to be working with a highly intelligent breed and see the little connections and moments of understanding as they happen. Maisy inherited a poodle brain for sure, and those times when you can see the proverbial lightbulb come on make all the hardships worth it.
Just make sure you invest in treats – lots and lots of treats.
Week 7 – Puppy Training Commands
When I was a kid, my family had a Weimaraner puppy named Hannah, and I have this distinct memory that, as “part of the deal” in getting her, it was my job to teach her commands like “sit” and “stay,” and that I did this pretty easily.
The trouble is, I didn’t actually teach Hannah those things. I was a kid – my parents might have begun the process with the hope that I would but they quickly realized that I had the same attention span as the dog. So I would put in my token 2 minutes of “sit” and “stay” each day and be amazed at how fast she learned, but she only did so because my parents were putting in training time while I was focused on other things. So when we got Maisy, I didn’t have a good reference point for how much work it would actually be.
I don’t want to overdramatize it. Maisy is a smart dog - she mastered “sit” and “shake” within a day and we felt pretty good about ourselves. But since then it has been a lot of hard work and the other staple commands have eluded us.
We did hit a breakthrough when we took her for her vaccinations this week and our vet asked how training was going.
“Oh, well ‘down’ is just this,” she said. She put a treat in her hand and formed a fist around it on the floor. Maisy looked to her, then to her hand, then to her again and with a big puppy grin she plopped on the floor. Instantly.
We looked at the vet as if we were cavemen and she had just discovered fire. For weeks we’d been pulling her legs out or doing ridiculous mimes of the action but apparently, we had just missed this chapter in the Big Book of Dog Commands.
Unfortunately we haven’t found that magic solution for the other commands. She will “come” if she feels like it but not reliably. We have found some success with a trick we learned in puppy training classes called the “name game” – the idea is to have your dog do something distracting, like playing with a toy, and then call her name. As soon as she stops and makes eye contact, she gets a treat.
As Maisy masters this, “come” has been easier too – probably because I use the two together so often. But there are still times where I have to carry her because she just doesn’t want to move. Or, I’ll get her to “come” in small distances using treats, but as soon as I try to take the exercise up the stairs to my office she decides I have given her a sufficient amount of food and leaves.
And I can’t even begin to wrap my head around “stay.” Any time we work on this one, she either just doesn’t want any part of it or, if she’s sincerely trying, she gets confused and starts doing all of the other commands hoping she can guess right, which is pretty adorable but in the end isn’t going to cut it.
Even though it has been slow going, I am seeing progress, and I am sure we will get there in time. It’s also interesting and rewarding to be working with a highly intelligent breed and see the little connections and moments of understanding as they happen. Maisy inherited a poodle brain for sure, and those times when you can see the proverbial lightbulb come on make all the hardships worth it.
Just make sure you invest in treats – lots and lots of treats.
Maisy learning
Tales of a Doodle Daddy
Week 8 – Treats and Toys to Train Your Dog
If you’ve adopted a puppy and did some research on the matter, you already know that there are a million different books and articles out there, each with its own recommendations on the right toys to give or treats to train with, or leash to use. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of it all and go a little crazy…within minutes of finding out we were getting a puppy, my wife was on Etsy, credit card in hand, looking for a “collection of beautiful collars.”
Since we’ve been at this for about 2 months now, I figured now would be a good time to go over some of the treats and toys that have worked well for us, and the ones that haven’t.
Bully Stick – These are…well…Google it if you’re curious. I’ll just say that as a man these things make me extremely uncomfortable and whoever decided to call them “odor free” is a filthy liar but I can’t argue with the results.
It’s our last-resort doomsday button. I’ve stopped Category 5 zoomies dead in their tracks by just lobbing one of these on the floor. The downside is that they are not very durable – the braided ones seem a little stronger (and creepier), but she can still devour the largest size in two hours.
Himalayan Dog Chew – It doesn’t keep Maisy occupied at the same level a bully stick will, but it’s much more durable and it doesn’t smell like a mouse died in your walls. I’ve found that if I reserve it for a special treat it can keep her occupied for a fairly long time.
GoDog Dragon Chew Toy – I bought this for no other reason than I am a huge Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings fan, so I can’t resist anything related to dragons and wizards and such but this one actually turned out to be a pretty good investment. It’s un-stuffed so we don’t have to worry about Maisy gutting it, it has stood up to a number of play sessions well, and it has a mercifully ineffective squeaker. It’s probably one of her favorite toys.
Kong Classic Feeder – Growing up, we always fed our dogs out of bowls and I never knew something like this existed. But it makes sense – Maisy doesn’t want to feed, Maisy wants to hunt, and an interactive feeder like a Kong lets her get a little closer to that natural process.
…And here are the duds. Again, this just reflects our experience with these products. I’m sure for some dogs they work great but we just didn’t see a lot of success with them.
Mod Collapsible Pet Bowl – I love this idea; they made a pet bowl designed to collapse into a nice, thin profile that doesn’t take up a lot of space when you are traveling. Unfortunately, its collapsible design means there is no base to keep something…let’s say a puppy’s nose…from wedging itself underneath the bowls and flipping the whole thing over so she can chew it. In fact, as I look over at her this very moment I see she has completely destroyed the bottom of one bowl and is about to do the same to the other.
Nylabone Flavor Frenzy Baby Back Ribs Toy – BBQ ribs are possibly the best thing ever created – I love them so much that I tried this one myself just to experience what a baby back rib flavored chew toy tastes like and I can’t blame Maisy for not liking it either – I tasted 0% ribs and 100% rubber. Maybe we got a dud but I’ll be sticking to the non-flavored Nylabones from now on (and by I, I mean Maisy).
Week 8 – Treats and Toys to Train Your Dog
If you’ve adopted a puppy and did some research on the matter, you already know that there are a million different books and articles out there, each with its own recommendations on the right toys to give or treats to train with, or leash to use. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of it all and go a little crazy…within minutes of finding out we were getting a puppy, my wife was on Etsy, credit card in hand, looking for a “collection of beautiful collars.”
Since we’ve been at this for about 2 months now, I figured now would be a good time to go over some of the treats and toys that have worked well for us, and the ones that haven’t.
Bully Stick – These are…well…Google it if you’re curious. I’ll just say that as a man these things make me extremely uncomfortable and whoever decided to call them “odor free” is a filthy liar but I can’t argue with the results.
It’s our last-resort doomsday button. I’ve stopped Category 5 zoomies dead in their tracks by just lobbing one of these on the floor. The downside is that they are not very durable – the braided ones seem a little stronger (and creepier), but she can still devour the largest size in two hours.
Himalayan Dog Chew – It doesn’t keep Maisy occupied at the same level a bully stick will, but it’s much more durable and it doesn’t smell like a mouse died in your walls. I’ve found that if I reserve it for a special treat it can keep her occupied for a fairly long time.
GoDog Dragon Chew Toy – I bought this for no other reason than I am a huge Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings fan, so I can’t resist anything related to dragons and wizards and such but this one actually turned out to be a pretty good investment. It’s un-stuffed so we don’t have to worry about Maisy gutting it, it has stood up to a number of play sessions well, and it has a mercifully ineffective squeaker. It’s probably one of her favorite toys.
Kong Classic Feeder – Growing up, we always fed our dogs out of bowls and I never knew something like this existed. But it makes sense – Maisy doesn’t want to feed, Maisy wants to hunt, and an interactive feeder like a Kong lets her get a little closer to that natural process.
…And here are the duds. Again, this just reflects our experience with these products. I’m sure for some dogs they work great but we just didn’t see a lot of success with them.
Mod Collapsible Pet Bowl – I love this idea; they made a pet bowl designed to collapse into a nice, thin profile that doesn’t take up a lot of space when you are traveling. Unfortunately, its collapsible design means there is no base to keep something…let’s say a puppy’s nose…from wedging itself underneath the bowls and flipping the whole thing over so she can chew it. In fact, as I look over at her this very moment I see she has completely destroyed the bottom of one bowl and is about to do the same to the other.
Nylabone Flavor Frenzy Baby Back Ribs Toy – BBQ ribs are possibly the best thing ever created – I love them so much that I tried this one myself just to experience what a baby back rib flavored chew toy tastes like and I can’t blame Maisy for not liking it either – I tasted 0% ribs and 100% rubber. Maybe we got a dud but I’ll be sticking to the non-flavored Nylabones from now on (and by I, I mean Maisy).
Maisy ;-)
Tales of a Doodle Daddy
Week 9 – Puppy Exercise and Stimulation
I think most people realize that puppies require a lot of exercise and attention – it’s something that’s just driven into us at various points in our lives, whether you raised a puppy as a kid, or had friends who did, or even if your parents disallowed one for that very reason. But what I’ve found, in my experience, is that statement is a bit of a misnomer – Maisy sleeps for a significant portion of the day when I really do the math and add it up. I think that we get this idea because we lead such hectic lives and in that small window where a dog is awake and we’re not working, she requires a lot from us in terms of time and intensity.
For me that has been the real challenge of puppy parenting – somehow finding the energy at the end of an 8-hour workday to engage a puppy at a level that provides her the stimulation she needs, and also learning to adjust my expectations and schedule to accommodate hers.
For instance, when I get done with my day job I usually want to relax, have dinner, and spend the evening working on writing projects or playing on the computer – it’s boring, predictable, and I need it or I go nuts. With a puppy in the mix, though, I need to build in some extra “crawl around on the floor while shaking a stuffed lobster” time to get Maisy up and moving…and time to go over training…and time for a nice long walk to tire her out. Between the hours of 4 and 10 pm, either my wife or I am actively interacting with Maisy roughly half of that time.
Building in that time isn’t the problem, for me – you have to want that if you want a dog. The problem is that just when I think I’m in the clear and I log onto the computer to do some work, Maisy comes into the office and stares at me with a toy in her mouth and a big grin on her Muppet-face, as if to say “Hey dad! Wanna play some more?!”
I have had days where I took the easy road and skipped out on exercise or cut it short because I just needed to get some extra stuff done or I needed a brain break and it always ended with Maisy transforming into a monster later that night. And we all have those moments – I don’t think that makes you a bad puppy parent but it's something to consider. If you can’t dedicate that time to a puppy on a daily basis, it might not be the right time in your life for a dog. And depending who you talk to, there’s evidence that if you don’t give a puppy the time and attention it needs, she can wind up with some unwanted behavioral issues and therefore end up being a bigger burden.
Interactive toys and feeders have helped for us. Maisy is very food-motivated so we’ve found that stuffer toys like the ones made by Kong and Bionic have been a Godsend, and that they can buy you some time if you just need a moment. But in the end, there is no substitute for actually giving your puppy that human interaction. It’s not always convenient, you won’t always be up for it, and you will have less free time, but in the end it’s worth it for a lot of reasons.
And one of the most important reasons is for awesome puppy photos to remind you why you wanted a dog in the first place.
WE WILL BE TAKING A TWO WEEK 'VACATION' FROM WRITING AND BE BACK WITH MORE SOON!
Week 9 – Puppy Exercise and Stimulation
I think most people realize that puppies require a lot of exercise and attention – it’s something that’s just driven into us at various points in our lives, whether you raised a puppy as a kid, or had friends who did, or even if your parents disallowed one for that very reason. But what I’ve found, in my experience, is that statement is a bit of a misnomer – Maisy sleeps for a significant portion of the day when I really do the math and add it up. I think that we get this idea because we lead such hectic lives and in that small window where a dog is awake and we’re not working, she requires a lot from us in terms of time and intensity.
For me that has been the real challenge of puppy parenting – somehow finding the energy at the end of an 8-hour workday to engage a puppy at a level that provides her the stimulation she needs, and also learning to adjust my expectations and schedule to accommodate hers.
For instance, when I get done with my day job I usually want to relax, have dinner, and spend the evening working on writing projects or playing on the computer – it’s boring, predictable, and I need it or I go nuts. With a puppy in the mix, though, I need to build in some extra “crawl around on the floor while shaking a stuffed lobster” time to get Maisy up and moving…and time to go over training…and time for a nice long walk to tire her out. Between the hours of 4 and 10 pm, either my wife or I am actively interacting with Maisy roughly half of that time.
Building in that time isn’t the problem, for me – you have to want that if you want a dog. The problem is that just when I think I’m in the clear and I log onto the computer to do some work, Maisy comes into the office and stares at me with a toy in her mouth and a big grin on her Muppet-face, as if to say “Hey dad! Wanna play some more?!”
I have had days where I took the easy road and skipped out on exercise or cut it short because I just needed to get some extra stuff done or I needed a brain break and it always ended with Maisy transforming into a monster later that night. And we all have those moments – I don’t think that makes you a bad puppy parent but it's something to consider. If you can’t dedicate that time to a puppy on a daily basis, it might not be the right time in your life for a dog. And depending who you talk to, there’s evidence that if you don’t give a puppy the time and attention it needs, she can wind up with some unwanted behavioral issues and therefore end up being a bigger burden.
Interactive toys and feeders have helped for us. Maisy is very food-motivated so we’ve found that stuffer toys like the ones made by Kong and Bionic have been a Godsend, and that they can buy you some time if you just need a moment. But in the end, there is no substitute for actually giving your puppy that human interaction. It’s not always convenient, you won’t always be up for it, and you will have less free time, but in the end it’s worth it for a lot of reasons.
And one of the most important reasons is for awesome puppy photos to remind you why you wanted a dog in the first place.
WE WILL BE TAKING A TWO WEEK 'VACATION' FROM WRITING AND BE BACK WITH MORE SOON!
