This week was lovely because we got to spend much of it together, as a family, for the Easter holidays. Both Thomas and I took off Monday as well as Friday so we had four days and it was awesome. Sleeping in, snuggling and spending time with everyone.
On Thursday last week we took Paddington and Corduroy to the vet for their check-up. While overall they are both doing very well (and aside from Cordy’s “porkyness”), they both have an eye condition that is common in small dogs. It’s called entropion and it’s when the eyelid turns in a bit at the end. It doesn’t hurt them, it’s just annoying and makes their eyes water and we got some eye wash solution to clean their eyes with. When we got home we noticed that Wellie probably has this condition as well. One thing that can happen is that it can block the tear ducts and that is where Paddy is at right now, so the vet told us to give her Oculoheel Eye Drops to help clear that up.
The ironic part about all of this is that I absolutely hate eyeballs – they totally gross me out. Doesn’t matter whose they are, if I can see past the regular eye, it turns my stomach. And now I have to see Paddy’s eyeballs every day to give her drops – the things we do for our beloved pups!
As I mentioned before, we had a lovely weekend of sleeping in and cuddles and Wellie really enjoyed having us home. On Friday, Thomas and I corralled all of the pups to re-take my about portrait for my photography website. I wanted it to be quite similar to the one we had taken in February, but with three dogs. It was quite difficult to get all three dogs together, sitting, looking forward with the leashes wrapped around my leg (this was very important to my photography vision you see). In the end, Thomas did a fantastic job of capturing the pups and they look awesome. I love this portrait so much I think I may blow it up onto a huge canvas. Next up in the photographic adventures is to try to get a shot of the three dogs and me with my face in it as well. I’ve got some ideas brewing.
We headed to my in-laws on Saturday for Easter dinner and Wellie was in heaven sniffing all over their back yard and stressing me out by withholding pooping the ENTIRE day. She also got a rebellious streak in her and was squeezing herself under the deck and generally not listening. She was being quite the cheeky monkey. Fortunately she had some MAJOR poo action the next morning and we were back to regularly scheduling programming.
Speaking of that, Wellie did a lot better with house training this week – not perfect, but a lot better. She doesn’t mind being on the leash at all and just curls up to sleep beside you. The few accidents she did have, we didn’t have her on the leash and she wandered away so that was our fault, not hers. Thomas caught her in action a few times last week and I think she is starting to get the peeing/pooping inside=bad+angry and peeing/pooping outside=YAY TREATS AMAZING AWESOMESAUCE. She is now continually asking to go out to pee and poo which is awesome, but she’s also just asking to go out sometimes (repeatedly) and since we want to make sure she knows it’s great to ask and do it outside, we don’t want to discourage it.
Wellie has been showing us her rebellious side a bit more recently and has decided that she’s not listening or sometimes when we try to say “no”, she’ll bark at us and it will do the opposite of what we are trying to accomplish – it’s difficult to stay calm. This week we found one thing that does make her listen and I am very happy about this. We bought a teensy tiny little water gun at Zellers and if she’s doing something inappropriate, we say “hey” assertively (what we usually do – but she wasn’t listening before) and squirt a bit of water. It doesn’t even need to touch her, and she listens! By last night she only needed 2-3 squirts and she actually began listening to the verbal cue instead, good Wellie!
On Easter Monday we headed out to Bruce Pit to enjoy the absolutely beautiful weather. We kept Wellie on leash as it was only her second time being there and I didn’t want her to get any ideas. Turns out she was very nervous so I am glad I didn’t let her off because she may have run out of fear. I am not sure why she was so afraid, but her tail was between her legs and she was skiddish the entire time. She loves other dogs but she was nervous there. Paddington and Corduroy were obvilous to it and were in their glory sniffing new smells and new dogs’ butts. We are going to take them more often to build up Wellie’s confidence so she can feel comfortable. At one point she was very nervous about a big Golden Doodle who came up for some loving from me. Wellie cowered a bit and backed up but as she realized I was ok and was petting the other dog, I could see her confidence growing so I know that she will eventually love going there, she just needs to feel secure.
A thought that I had was that maybe because there were SO many new dogs (it was busy) at once that she maybe thought she was going back to the rescue and that’s why she was nervous, but on the other hand I’m not sure if that is me putting too much human emotion onto her. I’m not sure. I mean it makes sense to me, but maybe that’s because I thought it? haha. I want her to know that she is home and will be with us forever. We are a family and we will always come home, together. I tell her this sometimes – I know she can’t understand me, but a part of me hopes that maybe she can…but then again I am the crazy dog lady!
Next week will be very interesting. She is going on her first longish car trip with us and she’ll get to see Sonnet again. I am very curious to see if they remember each other and to see how Sonnet has changed in the few weeks since we’ve last seen her.
Until next week!
Read Week 6 here | Read Week 5 here | Read Week 4 here |Read Week 3 here | Read Week 2 here | Read Week 1 here | Read Welcome to Wellie here.
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Liz Bradley is a dog lover who lives in Ottawa, Ontario with her husband,
9 Users Responded in " Week 7 with Wellie "
One of my friends suggested using a squirt bottle at the door when the dogs go crazy after the doorbell rings. Have yet to try it, but will definitely try it on my next foster (and my dog)!
Re: Bruce Pit – I don’t think Wellie would be scared, thinking that she had returned to rescue, because Animatch is all foster-based, as far as I know, so being around a bunch of dogs at Bruce Pitt would have nothing to do with that. It’s not as though she came from a pound with hundreds of dogs.
More than likely, she’s just never been around an abundance of dogs before all at once, so understandably she’s a little nervous. With a few more trips to Bruce Pitt, or any other place that has a high traffic of dogs, she should be fine.
P.S. Ignore my foster-based comment about Animatch, o’ wise one.
However, my comment still stands. I think you’re humanizing the little monkey just a little.
Heck, Bruce Pit overwhelms *me* sometimes.
re: Bruce Pit being busy on the weekends… go early if you can! I’m usually there before 8:00am and there are enough dogs for socializing, but not so many that it is overwhelming for a rookie puppy.
@Mel the little water gun works well. It was only 2.99 and in the outdoor toy section at Zellers in Bayshore Mall
@Chzplz – we usually go in the evenings and there are far less people. For some silly reason I assumed that since it was a holiday, there’d be less people during the day but I was wrong!
To give a little update: Wellie hates the rain and ipso facto won’t do her business outside when it’s raining. This is proving a problem. Last night we had major setbacks because she refused to go outsite, I therefore caught her pooping inside and thus began the 40 minute standoff until she peed outside in the wet. This morning was the same, she wouldn’t go outside – she usually pees AND poos in the morning and all I could get her to do was pee (I think – she was hovering all weird like). I remember going through this with Corduroy as a puppy so I know we can get through it, but it’s so frustrating!! Ack!
Water guns don’t work for me… Chichi loves water! I have to spray him anytime I have some bottle with water.
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