And now...a little bit of fun in our redneck tanning bed. I would lie and say that we enjoy frozen adult beverages in our redneck tanning bed, but really, I don't think we could go near the kiddie pool without having puppies jump in and knock us and our drinks over. So we leave the pool fun to the puppies. We shot this short video while trying to put water in the pool. After this we decided to fill the pool before bringing the dogs outside. Notice how Miss S takes off as soon as she notices that Mr. M and Miss M have discovered the water hose. Yesterday was the 4th of July, and the puppies did not appreciate it at all! We dropped by to visit some friends for a little while, and decided that we should leave the puppies at home. We were glad we did because some of their neighbors let off firecrackers early, and it would have really freaked the puppies out. It's one thing for them to be scared of fireworks while they are safe at home. It would be really bad to have them freak out and get loose in an area that they don't know. The friends have an Irish Wolfhound puppy named Miss K. Miss K is only 3 months old but is already taller than my knee. Once the firecracker fun started, Miss K decided she had had enough and that it would be way safer in her Mom's lap. When we got home, the puppies were totally freaked out. It's actually illegal to set off fireworks in our neighborhood, but I think some of the neighbors may have been setting off firecrackers while we were gone. The puppies were so nervous that they wouldn't leave our sides. They wouldn't even potty at first. Every little sound made them start barking again. Miss M was so nervous, she just stood by Mom shaking. It took a little while for them to calm down. Until about midnight, people would randomly set off a firecracker. The puppies would crowd around us again, Mr. C would start barking and Miss M would start looking worried again. I felt really sorry for her. We took then out for a potty break again a little after midnight, but they just did number 1 and ran right back inside. I suspected that they needed to do number 2 but were too scared to stay outside long and just held it. Miss M slept cuddled up next to Mom all night. This morning, they all went right out and did number 2. Today, we had fun with the kiddie pool in the backyard. We made the mistake of letting the puppies out before the pool was totally full. The little ones jumped right in. Then Miss M and Mr. M discovered that the hose was still on... This is why we can't have nice hoses. We let the puppies play for a few minutes and then took them inside so that we could put more water in the pool. Once the pool had more water and it was a little cooler outside, we took the puppies back outside. At first they were a little hesitant to jump in because the water was higher than they had seen before. Then Mr. M discovered that it was even more fun with deeper water. Miss S and Miss M were both a little nervous about getting in, but once we put them in, they kept going back for more pool time. We think they realized that getting in the pool cooled them down. They all took turns playing chase and then getting back into the pool. Miss B and Mr. C are a little less convinced. We put them both in and they enjoyed it while they were standing in the pool. Before taking them back inside, we put Mr. C back into the water to rinse off the dirt. I didn't have to fight him at all. We told him to get in the water and he gently stepped into the pool. I think we are making progress,
Summers here in Texas can be brutal. Even when it is only 90 outside, with the humidity, it usually still feels like the temperatures are in the triple digits. Sometimes when it is really hot and the puppies play, we pull out the water hose so that they can cool off a little before taking them inside. Water is water, right? So then why is it that when I pull out the water hose, the puppies go crazy, but when I run bath water, I get the reaction below? Miss B has loved the water hose since she was little and loves playing in the mud and getting dirty. Unfortunately for her, she hates taking a bath. She will tolerate it once she's in the tub, but getting her there is another story. Miss S is just the opposite. She doesn't really like the water hose, but will get in the bathtub all by herself if you don't lift her in fast enough. Miss M thinks we need to play with the water hose every time we go outside now. Even when it's raining. I don't really mind playing with them in the water because I get to cool off too. Normally, it is just plain steamy outside. On top of that, the mosquitoes are so bad, that we still have to wear long sleeves just to keep the mosquitoes at bay. The only tricky part about playing in the water is that once you start, the puppies don't want to stop and go inside. They really are like 2 year old children. If puppies could talk, I'm pretty sure they would be saying, "Again...Again...Again," every time we bring out the hose.
Our puppies are growing up. Last week, Miss S went into heat for the first time. Having a dog in heat is complicated enough as it is. There's the matter of keeping everything clean and then the matter of not letting her out and about where there might be unaltered males around. It gets even more complicated when you have an unaltered male in the same house who also happens to be her brother. We don't want to mate Miss S or Miss M right away. I read in several articles that you should wait at least until the third heat to breed them because they are not completely mature yet. We don't plan on breeding them very often, and we don't want to do anything that will compromise their health or growth. On top of that, we absolutely DO NOT want Miss S mating with Mr. M. So...we have been keeping a very close eye on the two of them. Last week, Miss M was bleeding, and Mr. M was interested in smelling and licking her, but he wasn't trying to mate at all. We would let them play a little together but didn't let them out of our sight, kept them separated part of the time and started having her sleep in a crate at night. Starting Thursday of this week, Mr. M seemed a lot more interested, and Miss S started acting a little more interested in him. From that moment on, we started keeping them separated- no more playing together for the next couple of weeks. We started setting a timer so that they would each have equal amounts of time in and out of the crates. When she first started bleeding, we went to Petsmart and got some of the disposable diapers. They didn't fit very well and were hard to get on. We went through the package in about 4 days. At $19 per package and given that heat can last 21 days or even slightly longer, we decided it would be cheaper to just go ahead and get the reusable one. It is so much better! It fits better, is easier to put on and can be used with regular feminine pads (which are way cheaper than the ones they sell at the pet store). Miss S has been handling it pretty well. She's been a little more lethargic than normal and slightly more irritable at times. She has always been protective and can't always tell the difference between when the other puppies are playing and when they are fighting. As soon as the others look like they are getting rough, she steps in and growls at them until they stop. That has gotten a little stronger since being in heat. If she is in her crate and the others are playing or trying to take each other's toys, she growls at them from her crate to get them to stop. We don't want her to feel like it's okay to be aggressive, so any time she starts getting pushy, we immediately put her in time out. Overall though, she hasn't really been much more aggressive than normal. She's even been snuggling with the cats. As I write this, she and Kitty S and Miss B are snuggling together on the bed- something I wasn't sure we would ever see! Earlier, Miss B and Kitty P were snuggling on the kitchen floor when Miss S joined in and tried to snuggle too. Mr. M is getting used to the new system of taking turns being out. We had gotten him a male diaper to wear to buy us a little bit of time in keeping them from mating, but he doesn't have to wear it when they are not out at the same time. This evening though, he kept looking at it on the arm of the couch and tried to jump up and get it. So we put it on, even though Miss S was in her crate, and he totally calmed back down and went about playing again. They are so funny sometimes.
Miss M has decided that we need to play with the water hose every time we go outside, and Mr. C is just enjoying getting to play by himself with Mr. M when Miss S is in her crate. The two boys actually play really good together when the girls aren't trying to break them up or take their toys. |
AuthorFirst time pitbull owners who found two pitbull puppies abandoned on the side of the road and decided to adopt them...And then loved them so much, they decided to get two wonderful mastiffs. Archives
February 2025
Categories
All
|