Baby Dogs and Baby Babies: A day in the life

 Found this draft post from almost two years ago....hard to believe how far we have come!!!!! this was from the first few days with Jaune....here is our journal after his first month I need to do a new one for now that we have William added in!

So now that Jaune has been with us for four days and he is pretty fully integrated into the family what do our days look like?

6am - Jaune wakes up and I take him and Reyna out for morning potty break. They are allowed about 15minutes to romp and explore the yard together provided both of them respect the other. The very gradual introductions means that they have slowly gotten used to each other's play style and each is learning to trust the other. Jaune is learning to trust that when Reyna moves quickly she is not going to stomp him, and Reyna is learning to trust that when she has had enough puppy bites Jaune will respect her body language and check himself. If either one looks like they will break that contract I am nearby with high value treats to call them for sits and downs.

6:15 - Breakfast on mats for both dogs, husband let's cat out of her crate for breakfast while dogs are occupied...Jaune and Feather are getting along great, but it is harder for him to disengage from her than from Reyna so we monitor their interactions even closer to pick him up if he gets locked in.

6:30 - The kids get up, Feather goes outside, Reyna goes into her crate or onto the porch so we can turn our attention to getting ready for the day and making breakfast etc without so many furry variables in the mix. Jaune gets lots of kibble bits for sitting calmly during human breakfast prep and kids running back and forth down the hall to get dressed

7am - Potty break for Jaune, I leave for work

7am-5:30pm - Norm goes about his daily life, if the kids are calm and listening well both the dogs get to roam the gated section of the house or be outside with the family, if the kids are a little wild Reyna is separated out on the screened porch or her crate in my room, and Feather stays outside, if the kids are insane both dogs are in their crates. The day consists of indoor chores/play, outdoor chores/play, errand running giving. Jaune a chance to practice being crated while we leave for short period, naps for everybody and all broken up by regular puppy potty trips. The kids have learned that if Jaune goes for their ankles they should stand still and cross their arms, if he doesn't let go they should call for help. They are always supervised 100% of the times with Jaune, but you never know and we don't want them to panic.

5:30pm - Reyna and Jaune eat dinner as part of calm mat training

5:30-7:30pm - Depending on the energy level of the house Reyna is out and everybody is randomly rewarded for calm behavior, but we always have crates to fall back on if we need some peace.

7:30 - One parent gets kids ready for bed, other parent takes both dogs out for some training and play

8:00 - Reyna gets to go for a walk without the puppy

8:30-10pm - Jaune gets lots of play and chew toys and potty breaks. Reyna is generally in her crate during this period.

10pm - Jaune in his crate for the night after a final potty break and. Reyna is out, she will usually sleep in her crate anyway, but she has earned the right be loose in the house

During this whole time Jaune is learning the rules of house, he is rewarded for sitting for petting, for not chasing children, sitting to go out, sitting to come in, laying down quietly in general, ignoring the cat, coming when called, staying out of the playroom, pottying outside, going in his crate on his own etc. qWe are not using any cues yet, just capturing offered behaviors so they become defaults, he has his whole life to learn shaped behaviors.

If you haven't noticed there is still a lot of management going on, this is having a puppy two kids (soon to be three and an older dog who can get grumpy...welcome to our new world :)

New K9 Nosework Kit!!!!

Hurray...Just finished building our new scent kit for Nosework! In case you are wondering....

I buy the oils straight off Amazon and have been very happy with them for the past 4 years. I use Nature's Kiss brand, but I think as long as you get the scientific name right off the NACSW website and it's 100% pure you should be fine. I liked that brand because when you take the top off the jar has a built in dropper on it. I have not had to replace vials of oils!

Tins and q-tips and containers were a different story, they were everywhere...it was time to take my pile of glass baby food jars, re-purposed mason jars,  and jam jars and revamp my whole collection.

I have a toddler so I got rid of the rare earth magnets and switched to quake hold putty (also from Amazon)...it's not as convenient on metal items as the magnets were, but I feel safer not having rare earth magnets in the tins, and now I can stick hides to just about anything!

I bought new jars...the baby food jars worked great, but I wanted a uniform look and plastic instead of glass. Glass holds odor better, but the plastic doesn't shatter when my toddler gets a hold of it and throws it (he's REALLY fast!!!).

Next came the hides themselves...I prefer the slide tins the best, the are slim and don't need holes punched in them, but sometimes a lip balm tube really is better so I bought 4 of each of these:

Slide Tins

Lip Balm Tubes

I just saw the lip balm tubes also come in oval....super cool! I probably would have gone with those if they had had them at the time....oh well, they're cheap if I decide to replace them :)

I love the Elements website because it's super cheap, shipping is very fast and reasonable priced, but mostly they have NO minimums of any order...I could literally order one slide tin if I wanted and it gets to the Atlanta area in 2 days! They are my only source for containers....can't say enough about how happy I am with their company!

Then lastly I bought waterproof labels...again Elements! No minimum I don't have to buy a whole pack of labels just one sheet. You probably already have these at home.

Now what to store it all in???

Enter the Pelican Case $29 on sale and absolutely awesome. I was able to customize the inserts however I wanted and it fits everything...three odor vials, three jars of q-tips and straws, 4 lip balm containers (1 for each odor and 1 for a combo) 4 slide tins (1 for each odor and 1 combo) and a slot for the quakehold (still wrapped in paper of course.

Here is the finished product...

I've been using it for a few weeks now and cannot tell you how much I am enjoying it. When William gets older I may switch back to glass jars and put magnets back in the tins, but I will still keep the quakehold regardless...awesome stuff and completely reusable. Now I just grab and go and I have set up to 5 search areas and never have to stop and sniff the tins to get them back in the correct jar anymore!!!!

Canicross with Reyna and Jaune

In case you ever wanted to know what it feels like to run canicross with a two dog team here ya go...it's actually a pretty realistic representation of what it looks like to watch the ground in front of you so you don't face plant while simultaneously trying to watch the trail ahead so you can predict the dogs movements and watch the dogs themselves for any sudden movements, it's a BLAST! This was taken about 1.5 miles into the run, a video would not have possible any earlier as they stay pretty amped for about the first mile.

Reyna has been running canicross for about 3.5years now and Jaune is just learning the ropes, he's only been out a handful of times but he's learning fast. Right now Reyna keeps tension on the line about 95-99% of the time, Jaune is at about 60-70% but getting better with each run!

Embedded videos aren't working right now so here is the link, watch at your own risk...

Canicross Fun

It's hard to believe our little puppy used to be THIS BIG