The Boys got their first harnesses today. The harnesses are not perfect and are still a little bit big on them, but for the next week we are just going to put them on them with their little collars and get them used to walking on a lead in the house.
We had a look online and this corresponds with some advice we were given because its very overwhelming for a puppy on their first trip outside!
The pups have both wanted to chew on the harnesses, they did the same thing the first time we but their (kitten) collars on. but thy soon got bored and we are hoping they will have the same reaction with the harnesses.
They don’t seem keen on the leads at the moment, but that’s okay. They are not running away on the leads and they aren’t pulling on them either… more just staying underneath our legs in a I’m not sure about this Daddy/Mummy please take it off. We are pretty sure this is fine though, after just 10 minutes of having the harnesses and leads on they couldn’t resist having a play and at that point we felt it was a good time to take it off and try again tomorrow. We just want them to feel comfortable with these on and don’t want to pressurize them.
We left the harnesses on and these got chewed on whilst resulted in a few cute and more natural pictures 🙂
Magic found the television last night, he had been rushing around like mad for the last hour or so with Socks when suddenly he just stopped, sat down and watched the TV for the next 10 minutes whilst i desperately tried to quietly get my camera out without them noticing (the camera has a tassle on it they love to try and chew/catch) I failed in this task but did manage to get a picture of both of them in the act! Magic watching TV and Socks trying to catch the tassle!
Well this week I have been very busy with work and training the puppies.
They now know the command “Down” “No” and “Oi”.
Oi was a bit of an accident, but sometimes when you catch them doing something and you just can’t get your words out quick enough we say “oi!” haha, they are very cheeky and have been told oi a few times especially when they start trying to pull clothing off the clothing rail, chewing the carpet and (their favorite) chewing the door stop… They have toys everywhere yet they still love the chew on those things they aren’t allowed…
No is very easily ignored by both Magic and Socks at the moment, we are fairly sure they know what it means but will put off doing as they are told until the very last moment when we either start to move to make them stop or raise our voice so tat they can’t misunderstand it lol.
Down is a bit like the no command, they know what it means but will ignore you some of the time. We are trying to be quite strict with the down command because whilst we don’t mind them coming up on the sofa and jumping up at us, we do want to be able to have friends over and the sofa needs to remain human territory, not adorable whippet territory! The same applies to them jumping up as they need to get use to not jumping up at people as they need to get used to this strange small human that comes around, Our 2 year old Nephew Caleb.
Caleb is very good with Magic and Socks and they are very good with Caleb. There have been a few tears then Caleb has tripped over them or accidentally been scratched, but the puppies are very very good with him. Its very exciting stuff when Caleb comes to visit because everybody wants to play and its FUN! but they have learnt very quickly that they can not groom him like they do us and that is absolutely great for puppies which are only 10 and a half weeks old!
Here is a picture of Caleb and the puppies having fun!
Magic was dreaming and looking cute so I started filming him – but them daddy starting clapping the tennis on TV and the dosey waking up shock made me laugh x
After we got Magic and Socks home we had them on the same food as their previous owner had them on (adult Pets@Home food) We also kept them on the same water was they were on before them came home with us, we did this by filling up 2 litre bottles of water with the water from the taps where they came from (a few hours drive away) to prevent upset stomachs. Unfortunately within 48 hours both puppies had the runs 😦
We had them booked into the vets and the vet recommended we feed them freshly boiled chicken and rice (cooled). After less than 6 hours of them wolfing this new type of food down their stools had improved massively and they were feeling a lot more satisfied with their food – the energy increase was huge! Our puppies were much more playful and full of themselves which was great to see.
After a week of them eating this food (they ate better than us!) we decided the time was right to start swapping them onto puppy food, they had had their vaccinations a few days previously so we waited till they had recovered from that ordeal. we started by adding puppy food into their chicken and rice to see how they coped. merging the food worked very well, They enjoyed the food and their faeces stayed a good consistency so we added 20% each day and by the end of the week we had to puppies on 100% puppy food – Perfect!!
The puppy food we decided to feed them was the Wellbeloved Turkey and Rice puppy food. I would highly recommend this food to anyone who has had puppies with tummy issues. Its cheapest from http://www.Amazon.com too 🙂
For training treats we are using a piece of their daily kibble food and that is working great! We don’t want to risk giving them treats so soon after getting their stomachs back on track.
So Magic and Socks have grown loads since coming into our care and over the last week they have been able to climb up onto the sofa and onto boxes etc.
On a night we lock them in the kitchen with plenty of toys, beds and full tummy’s but the other day we were woken up in the night by whining. They are very good and don’t whine except for 1 minute when they go in and then on a night if they hear us make a bump in the night such as when I trip over the step before the bathroom door whilst half asleep
So we were woken up by Magic whining really loudly and upset so we went down to see what the matter was expecting them to have knocked over their water bowl as has happened before but instead we discovered this cheeky little face:
Magic had managed to climb on top of two tubs of paint (that we had put up as a barricade to stop them from getting to the wires behind the washing machine) and was stuck!!!
Moving into a new home can be a scary experience for dog and especially a puppy so now that they have settled in we have started getting them used to the hussle and bussle of daily life in a home. We have put on the washing machine on a high spin (which they were fine with) and got the hoover out which they were unsure about until they discovered thy could make it play time and chase after the extendable part of the hoover. I also accidentally set off the fire alarm when cooking and they looked quite confused but not scared or upset just lots of cute head cocking (tilting their heads from side to side)
We have also tried them with collars (little cat collars) and they didn’t like that at all and just tried to chew them, so we took them off and have been trying them for an hour a night just to try and get them used to them without stressing them out for long periods of time.
We have had more luck with the little jackets we bought them – I put them on on an evening whilst they are tired and they settle down with them on 🙂 before I go up to bed.
Here are a couple of uber cute photos of them with their jacket on and settling down to sleep 🙂
So Magic and Socks are settling in nicely and the training has begun 🙂
Firstly – Puppy Pad Training When we got the boys we were told that they were trained to do their business on newspaper, so when they arrived home we made sure their was newspaper located in a few different places to encourage them to do their business where they should – but unfortunately Magic and Socks didn’t have the foggiest idea what do do with it bless them. and when we did managed to encourage them to go on newspaper we discovered it was very messy and not the cleanest it could be so we decided to start over with puppy pads.
We bought some puppy pads and also bought some spray stuff which is meant to encourage them to go to the toilet in the right place (aka: where you spray it), Unfortunately the spray was a waste of money – the pups just think its a great play toy and they completely forget that they need to wee or poo because this spray bottle is FUN FUN FUN! So now we spray the pads before we put them down but it doesn’t seem to make much difference.
They didn’t seem to understand for the first couple of days but after lots of encouragement and placing them on the mats when ‘circling’ to go to do their business it finally seemed to work. When one of the pups does their business on the mat we are praising them with lots of effections and repeating praises including the key word ‘clean’ and ‘good’ and this seemed to work most of the time. We now have 70% of wees and poos on the mats, but they seem to want to avoid us at times when doing their business – We think this might be because they want to eat their poo and we don’t let them. So over the last 24 hours we have started praising them with their key words but also giving them a couple of pieces of kibble (treats are upsetting their stomachs) as a reward for doing it good. They don’t seem to understand yet that they are getting the treat for their business but i’m sure they will realize after a few more examples 🙂
I will keep you up to date with their progress 🙂
We have also been teaching them words such as ‘No’ & ‘Down’ we are pretty sure they are just reading the tone & raised voice that we use at this stage, but the ‘down’ command seems to be working very well. They want to come up on the sofa or just up when we are eating and so down is a vital command. Magic particularly wants to come up on the sofa, which we won’t mind when they are older but we want to enforce their training as much as possible now whilst thy are soaking it all up like sponges 🙂
For the down command Magic will usually jump up at the sofa and we say “Magic DOWN” we don’t shout but we raise our voice on the command word (down) and change the tone slightly to make it clear. This didn’t work at all for the first few days but now he listens 50% of the time… and when he does we give him praise “good boy” etc and lots of fuss whilst repeating the words. – it seems to be working so far 🙂
Heres a cute photo of them to keep you all smiling 🙂
Now the puppies are home we have started to get to know them and their personalities. They were both very very shy at first and did an awful lot of sleeping (photos will follow soon of them being adorable and asleep), but now they have grown into their own little personalities 🙂
Socks is fairly independent and not as needy as Magic. He loves his tummy being rubbed but does not like being cuddled. He likes to sit on our lap and go to sleep, but will not tolerate cuddles and baby cradling. He is very licky and we think he is teething, he loves chewing on a frozen toy though or an ice cube (we were told this would help sooth his gums). Socks took to the puppy pad training very very quickly and the praise and fuss worked very well for him. We are very proud of this little boy and looking forward to how his personality grows as he gets older 🙂
Magic is like a little teddy bear, he loves his cuddles and will be cradled like a baby (as seen below). He is a lot more whiney than Socks and wants to be played with and cuddled all the time. We have had to stop holding him all the time though because he was getting into the routine of sleeping on us and then playing when not. and then refusing to sleep when not on us… so we had to encourage him to sleep in their beds. Bless him.
They really do have beautiful personalities which I hope you will get to know them too through reading this blog. They really are special little boys xxx
Our Whippet Diaries 
Recent Comments