Three Months of Poppy

adorable

Poppy is 38 pounds now and my finger is black and blue from a popped blood vessels. She loves to pull.

Last month I realized that everyone else was taking their puppy to class even though they hadn't received their shots and also using treats for training purposes!!! Let me tell you, when training a tiny puppy to understand english treats are a BIG help. They already get so much adoration and approval.

Poppy, Buddy, Sally

Poppy is making great strides.
We started class with Jessica K who used to be a guide dog trainer for GDA and she gave me useful tips. My favorite was "get a leather leash" it doesn't cut into your hand so much.

Dean and Haley training Poppy at Jessica's

Before we could take our second class I took Poppy for an overnight stay at GDA and she got spayed.
She was beside herself with excitement when I dropped her off and she saw her friends Carter and Lorri. Compared to the other puppy, who was there helping her puppy raiser give tours to girl scouts, Poppy was shamefully ferrel.

Too cool for school

I came home feeling sick to my stomach. Was I doing Poppy a disservice? I'm not a dog trainer. Buddy and Sally are only trained to get along with me and my family.

Noelle Nasca, dog trainer

My sister Noelle, on the other hand, is an amazing dog trainer. Everywhere she goes dogs are transformed by her presence. Do you understand what I am saying? Not that she is a good dog trainer, but when untrained dogs come near her they magically act exactly like fully trained dogs.
She just knows how to speak "Dog". They understand her gestures, her tone, her words, and the look in her eyes.

Unfortunately she lives in New York State. Here's a video of her well trained dog, Uta, attacking MY big padded arm.

I put feelers out to a few other puppy raisers and I got a call from a woman named Ronni who cheerfully assured me that I could do this.

Stay.

Down Poppy

She hooked me up with a dog trainer near my house named Sha Newman. Sha used to be a GDA trainer and now she works for Guide Dogs of the Desert. Every Sunday morning Sha has a free class for any dog associated with GDA or GDD and she so very kindly allowed me to come with Poppy.
Sha's class was inspiring for me and Poppy was thoroughly fascinated.

Spotted

Sha was funny and frank and totally accepting and supportive. She loved Poppy. The class was filled with nice people and cute dogs. I am looking forward to rapid growth in understanding for Poppy and her raisers.

The Final Frontier

 Poppy seems to have decided that her favorite place to pee AND POOP is the mall! Yuk. No matter how long I walk her back and forth in the grass outside the mall, as soon as we step inside, the first thing she wants to do is poop. A little later... pee.
Why Poppy, why?

Your welcome, Nortdstroms

Irritated = Irritating

Poor Poppy, I think her incision must be itchy today. She is supper whiny and irritated.

Yuk

I've given her pain killers and extra food and love. But somedays only a nasty, stinky, gross pig ear will do...

makes her happy

Poppy Got Spayed

Awww, my sweet Poppy girl having one new experience after the other. Just spent three days in the hospital kennel and is coming home with stitches.

Poppy got spayed! They don't wait around at GDA. The lady who grooms my other dog told me that when you spay a dog this young their head doesn't grow anymore so they end up having a small head and fat body. The girls at GDA laughed out loud when I told them that. I really hope that's not true. The dogs I saw at graduation looked like they had normal heads.

Poppy is accepting of the cone. She has no expectations that life is supposed to be cone free so she has no resentment about wearing it. But she doesn't like it. She won't go on the grass with the cone on so she is pooping and peeing in all the wrong spots, like the living room, the flower beds, or right in the middle of the walkway.

She's on drugs too, Rimadyl, which is an anti-inflamatory. I think it makes her loopy.

The cone has turned her into Puppy-non-grata. It hurts like hell when she runs into your shins! I saw Buddy finally growl menacingly at her. He has to let her know that she is hurting him. She followed me around the backyard where I was gardening and each time she sniffed a newly planted flower the cone dug it right back up. Sigh.

Is this what recovery is going to be like?

Ahhhh, much better!

Bad Girl Bad Girl, Whatcha Gonna Do?

I knew I put three blueberry muffins on that countertop. So when I came back and there were only two I figured that Dean ate one. Then I realized that Poppy was no where to be found. She had scurried upstairs and was busy wolfing down that muffin, paper and all.

"NO POPPY!"

likely to re-offend

Poppy Goes To The Store

We took Poppy to Target. She found a toy dog that barks and moves.

Why is she so obsessed with corners?

 

Poppy Sitters

Babysitter needed

Dean and I attended a heating and air conditioning convention in Las Vegas for Kilowatt. (I bet you didn't even know there were such things ;)

Thankfully GDA gave me a phone list of people willing to puppysit and Debi and her husband Ken were available. Debi and Ken had raised Jazzy for GDA so they knew all the Do's and Don'ts of puppy raising.

Debi with Poppy and Jazzy

Poppy became fast friends with Jazzy and got to meet all the the people at the Harley Davidson store where Debi works.

Home again with Haley

Poppy reunited with Buddy and Sally. There were lots of kisses, jumping and chasing.

Home again home again...

Thanks Debi & Ken for taking care of Poppy!

Two Months of Poppy

Lindsey and Haley adore Poppy

Poppy + Buddy = LOVE

Poppy is huge. I weighed her when she got her final round of puppy shots at GDA and she was 31 pounds! For the past two months she has brought so much joy to our family. She is curious and confident and sweet. I'm proud of the way she lays down under a table when we are eating or meeting. 

Hours meeting with people at Kilowatt were spent by Poppy sleeping on her blanket

She rides curled up on the floor in the car very nicely now that I have learned to put a bag on the passenger seat to deter her from squiggling up. 

Poppy prefers the seat but she knows it's not her place.

Poppy is very polite about sitting for food but other opportunities for sitting are lost on her. She jumps up to greet new friends with great enthusiasm.

Poppy and Jason Alexander at his annual poker tournament for weSpark

Poppy loves the gardener Ernesto and his loud lawn mower

Poppy wakes up with sharp piercing barks sometime between 4:30 and 5:30am. She has tons of energy which she expends running like a demon from one end of our house to the other.

For some reason when I put her in the yard she calms right down and becomes focused in getting back inside.

Where's that bunny?

Unless she spots the bunny. Run Cuddles, RUN! Buddy and Sally know not to actually catch the bunny but Poppy is so eager. So far the bunny is still alive though she spends way more time in her pen than she used to.

Walking with Poppy has become an arm workout. She pulls hard on the leash and I was out of my league trying to discipline a puppy with her energy level. GDA very kindly sent Yvonne, a trainer to our home to help me nip the problem in the bud.

GDA puppy trainer, Yvonne Martin, is AMAZING!

Within minutes she had Poppy behaving like an angel. You know what that means, right? It means that I am the problem. Yvonne assessed the situation and showed me a few training moves. She was encouraging and direct about what was needed.  One of the things she taught me was to keep Poppies leash on in the house during sketchy times, like early morning when she is possessed with all that manic energy or when someone comes to the door.

 

When I'm standing and talking to someone I give Poppy a job to do, in this case "Sit."

Sleepy Poppy