Reprieve!

Well, this is my week of reprieve before I start getting ready for Trixie's pups. She's due to deliver @ April 11th - 14th.

It's not much of a break. This is my time to get accomplished everything that I've been neglecting to do. No, I haven't been procrastinating, I've been playing nursemaid to Abby. Her hip is doing much better and she's getting around pretty well. Every once in a while, I see her get up and it looks like she's trying to realign her hips before she gets going. I'll, most likely, take her back to the vet when I take Trixie to find out how many pups she'll be having. That will happen the end of next week.

I always get the vet to count the pups. One time I had a problem and after the first pup was born everything stopped and I had to take the mom and the newborn pup to the vet and have them 'induce labor'. That was a fun experience. NOT! I've had this running joke that if all the ones I'm expecting don't come out, I have to know at what point to 'pick the mom up and shake her, until they all do'. Yes, I'm kidding!

Anyway, I like to know how many to prepare for and I can also let future adoption families know, as well. I have a list of people wanting pups, so if you'd like to be considered and get on the list, let me know.

Trixie is still able to jump on the couch and the bed. She's even running around a bit. It's good that she's staying active. She's not playing with the others. During play time she sits next to me. I pet her, while the others are fetching toys, agility products, etc.

Holly is being a mess! She's very submissive but she's overly friendly to the older dogs. She wants to lick their faces and when they growl she lays down and rolls over, on their paws. That's upsetting them even more. Talk about invasion of personal space!

I've got to get Holly an agility trainer. I think that will help use up some of her energy and teach her some discipline. She's the sweetest dog but she doesn't like a harness at all and we're working on collars. I adopted her when she was 10 months old. I thought that was going to be easier for me. It was and wasn't. It depends on what you want or need her to do.

Speaking of collars...I'm still checking out bark control collars. I've purchased several different tools for inside and out. I've got a bark control product to put on the fence but I don't know if it's going to stop the barking at the 1st bark or if it's going to wait for what it considers 'excessive' barking. I need it to 'sound off' at the 1st bark.

I've found (2) different good indoor barking products. One of them you can manually push a button and it stops them. I can't wait for them to bark excessively. If I'm working and talking to a customer, it's got to stop my dogs immediately.

Stay tuned. I'm going to be an expert soon!

Never a Dull Moment

Well, Abby is being very obstinate. She's obviously feeling better. I'm still tying her leash to me when she's on the couch and at night, but she tricks me into putting her on the bed, at other times, and then jumps down. There's only a 30% chance of her hip staying in place. I just hope we haven't exceeded that 30%.

I'm definitely keeping her collar on her and leashes handy. She wants to jump ON the couch. Ha! I put a stop to that.

Trixie is getting bigger and bigger. In case you haven't been informed, she is pregnant. Her pups are due the 2nd week of April. I don't know how many she'll have and will be getting her an x-ray a week before she's due. This is her first litter. She's beautiful and so is the Sire.

I'd suggest putting in your request now, if anyone is interested in a pup. They'll be ready to go to their forever homes in June.

I start the pups with collars and/or harnesses, when they are about 10 weeks old, it depends on their size. I have had (1) tea-cup and I didn't put a collar on her. Abby was small and had to wear a harness/collar that was actually for a lizard and that tiny pup, well, I don't know if her owners have ever put a collar on her.

Well, between Abby's hip injury, Holly's need for some agility work and Trixie being pregnant, I've been rather busy. I figure I have another week of babying Abby and then about a week reprieve before I'll need to stock up on food and arrange the house for the new puppies. I'm just glad that I didn't breed Holly, last December!

Papillon Complications

Papillons are highly intelligent. They're rated 8th among all dogs. Their intelligence sometimes presents a challenge and I actually know breeders that stopped breeding Paps because they are so smart they can complicate things.

Some of the things that my Papillons like me to do is hide their food and toys. Of course they like me to play with them, as well. With Abby's condition, I'm at a great disadvantage and my Papillons are getting restless. I can't work on their agility runs or games, either.

I'm considering going to meet my new neighbors, yes the ones with the barking dog, and see if they have kids that would be willing to come and play the agility games and of course walk the dogs. Who knows, maybe we can make friends and they'll attempt to control their Mastiff and German Shepard's barking. Maybe they'll be willing to put the bark collars on their dogs?

Family Portrait

My (8) Papillons are very well behaved and they don't normally bark unless someone comes to the door and they stop as soon as the person gets inside. These bark collars don't hurt them, I just don't feel that it's right that my dogs are having to wear these collars because I'm concerned about disturbing the neighbors. I don't know what's happened to people and the consideration that I was brought up with. It doesn't make sense to me and frustrates me, to no end.

Still looking for a trainer AND a PROFESSIONAL pet sitter, that charge reasonably! It would be GREAT if I could find a Junior competitor. Someone that needs the showing experience.

I'll check with the local Kennel Clubs and see if they can point me in the right direction.

Stumbling Block, Agility On Hold, Trainer Needed

I'm having to put my agility wishes on hold. Abby, my deaf dog, dislocated her hip, had surgery and isn't allowed to walk. I'm having to cater to her. I don't crate any of my dogs and now I have to carry Abby around everywhere.

Every room in my house now has a dog bed so that I can put Abby down and try to get something accomplished. If she can't see me, she'll come find me. With her being deaf she obviously can't hear me or have a clue as to what I'm doing. She HAS to see me and has been that way for most of her life.

Abby's wearing a special collar and I'm having to sleep with a leash tied around my wrist, so that Abby doesn't jump off the bed. I have to do the same thing when I put her on the couch. She won't stay on the floor. If she does jump we'll be looking for an Orthopedist. (Can you say 'MAJOR' bucks?!)

My youngest needs to be learning and practicing agility but it's all I can do to keep her from jumping on Abby. Holly is only a year old but you'd think that she was 6 months old. She needs to be doing agility in order to get her better trained and use up some of her energy. She's an adorable little girl and has an incredible Championship background. I'm hoping to breed her at the end of the summer.  Until then, I'm hoping an exercise pen will interest her more than our backyard.  Perhaps she'd get a kick out of a treadmill or wheel!

I'm especially looking for an agility trainer, because I can't do ANYTHING due to Abby's condition. I already know of EVERY store and facility that will allow animals and which don't.

If there is a trainer in my area, please contact me!

Hey Papillon Lovers - What Collars Do You Use?

Papillons make wonderful pets but they're also very popular in the competitive agility world. I've been searching for an agility trainer that would come to my house. I've purchased some agility equipment but I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing and don't want to make matters worse, before I get the right instructor.

Holly

I've found that collars are one of the most important products to purchase. I'm fortunate in that I'm able to take all of my dogs to work with me. There are so many different collars out there it can be tricky to get the right one. Although Papillons aren't known to be yappy dogs, I have a couple that like to bark, so I've been experimenting with different bark collars, just for them. I've tried several ways to correct their behavior and a good bit of the time my tactics work but there are those times that nothing is going to stop them, such as when the neighbors cats torment my dogs by sitting on the top of the fence. The cats have learned not to come in the yard and I've warned the owner that I don't have leashes on them when they're in my own yard.

Abby, my deaf dog will wake me up in the middle of the night to go out and then I must have the bark collars on the (2) barkers. Inevitably something will be out there @ 4:00am, that they feel the need to bark at. I can't have barking when I'm on the phone with a clients or in the middle of the night. When I first got Abby, she was tiny and I started off with a harness and leash. Like I said, I've checked out a number of collars and there are always more, if these particular collars don't work, for my barkers. When I go to training classes, they insist on a collar and a leadtopdogpicks.com. I keep collars on all of my (8) paps, most of the time.

Abby

I never know when one will demand to go somewhere with me and I always want to have a collar on them. I keep leads and leashes in the car. Once I had several dogs in the car with me and the car broke down. It was much easier for me to get them all out of the car with their collars and leashes. I also have some customized and/or personalized collars and make sure that I keep ID tags on them, as well.

I was caught speeding on the way to work, last week, and had (5) dogs in the car with me. Typically, three of them will lay in my lap, one or two will look out the window and I have one that is always in the dog bed that I keep in the passenger seat. Once I had pulled over and they saw this stranger coming to the car it got chaotic. I was hoping he'd like them enough just to give me a warning, no such luck. Thank goodness I had collars on all of them because the officer could have had me get out of the car with my paps and want to see their rabies tags. It's imperative that I have my dog's collars on and their leashes ready for when we get to work.

Papillon Family

Now, before someone lectures me about letting my dogs loose in my car I know the potential risks. My office is only 3.5 miles away. I'm typically a very careful driver.