So we announced the arrival of our new puppy. Since she’s a new piece of excitement and pride in our life, expect a lot of this journal to become full of cuteness and doggy poop reports that may just cause your stomach to churn!
Here’s the first one…
My Dad wrote:
One of the things you have to do now, if you haven’t done it already, is to get a crate for Karma.
The crate is the dog’s own private space, and since both of you are working, it’s important that she be crate-trained to be in her space when you’re not there.
This will forestall the temptation to trash the place.
And of course, dog school is another necessity.
Welcome to the world of parenting!
So I replied, in essence:
We took Karma to PetSmart (PetsMart?) yesterday morning and got her completely outfitted.
We have a crate, which doubles as a car carrier. She rode home in it, and again when we went to Yaacov’s for dinner. We’ll probably take her for another drive on Wednesday when we go out for ice cream with Ruth and Arnaud.
We also got a HUGE bag of puppy food (filled two plastic Bulk Barn buckets), a sample bag of puppy doggy biscuits, a dish for her food, a harness for walkies because she’s still too little for a collar, a Kong teething rubber chew toy, and a soft rubber grooming brush.
And when she’s big enough to wear a collar full time, I have a little ID tag with her name, phone and address. (What I didn’t tell my Dad was that it is similar to the ID tag I have on my collar for Fetish Nights! teeheehee)
She already takes to the crate and goes in without fuss, aside from a little whimpering this morning after walkies because she wanted to come out and play.
We just discovered she doesn’t like VINEGAR. We sprinkled some on the carpet she started chomping on (just on the corner where she was actually chomping), and she doesn’t go near it anymore. I checked some reference resources (bookstore, libarary, web) to make sure it won’t hurt her, and it confirms this as a training technique.
We’re quickly getting used to her and the sounds and indications she makes. Last night and this morning, for example, I successfully identified when she had to take care of business. I took her out of the crate and directly outside… “Good girl! Good Karma!”
The advantage of a puppy over a baby is that you can put the puppy in the crate and go out for the day. Of course, you could probably do that with a baby, too, but people might not like it!
Chocoholic‘s at home with Karma today. I think she’s planning to put Karma into her crate for a couple of hours while she’s working on some papers. That will help Karma get used to staying in the crate, too. I’ll take over duties when I get home and Chocoholic has to go play softball. Karma and I might go over and watch the game, or I might put her in the crate while I continue to prep the bedroom for closets being installed tomorrow.
She’s a good doggie, and we can’t wait until you meet her!
