46lbs and climbing!



from www.bathroomscales4less.com

 Zeus is growing and growing and growing. Not fat at all. He's just becoming a small horse! A cute, fuzzy, slurping, panting, barking, playful, horse... but horse none the less!

All baby canines are gone, and his paws are still enlarging!

Sitting Pretty

There is no denying it... we have a BEAUTIFUL poodle. He is truly growing up fast and becoming a stunningly striking dog. We have people calling from across the street with we're out with him to tell us we have a beautiful dog.

15 weeks old, just from the groomer

My vanity is a bit bruised by the fact that the dog is far more striking and beautiful to the general public than myself. Playing 2nd fiddle to a dog is not something I'm used to.

He is learning "the walk", though he can't seem to manage it more than 5 minutes at a time, and he is still a bit obtuse about acknowledging his name. Still, he's improving... and too damn smart... and completely convinced of his own right to be catered too (trying to break him of that).

All in all, I'm quite enamored with our little black sheep... and I know he won't be "little" that much longer!

Puppy in Snow!

But of course we'd have 5-6 inches of snow within the first week of our bringing Zeus... still not having "the walk" down, nor house training completed, we must suddenly face weather that confuses and beguiles the puppy. Yay, Universe! Thy sense of humor is most sadistic!

Actually, Zeus has done fairly well... the hardest part of the snow walking and pottying is that the kids playing outside are screaming and distracting and the people driving are scary as hell (very few people in South Carolina can manage intelligent driving on snow and ice). We cleared an area to the left of the driveway where he normally pees per the suggestion of our friend Lori, and Zeus has used that spot all day.

Walks are somewhat out of the question... it was never over 29 degrees F today, and the poor little guy ended up shivvering any time we went for a walk. (it is a very wet snow, and been sleeting all day)

Poodle Parent Paranoia Ping Pong

On Tuesday, Sherri had her poodle parent freakout -- fearing she won't love the puppy and she will not have the patience to deal with him. She moved past that. Wednesday I had my poodle parent freakout when the puppy decided to start doing dominance play with me.

Three days and he's decided I'm not Alpha?!? What have I done wrong? Why am I considered weak? Fret. Worry. Panick.

Naturally, I've also moved past that... and I've spent my day analyzing how I walk with the puppy, how I play with the puppy, etc. and have made adjustments to my behavior. It seems to be working.

To make certain nothing happens to the Zeus due to our fears and concerns and moments of frustration or fear, Sherri and I have agreed we will alternate whom is freaking out so that one of us is stable at all times :D
I am happy to report that he doesn't appear to have "separation anxiety". We seem to be doing all the right things to prevent that :)

Measure everything by success

photo from
http://thedogshamanblog.wordpress.com

I'm amazed at how "let down" I felt this evening when Zeus peed in the house this evening. I'm not sure whether I was more disappointed in us for breaking the "every 30 minute" routine because everything had gone so well today, or whether I was upset that Zeus didn't seem to give the "I must pee" signals.

I must remember that house training takes 2-3 weeks (on average) with diligent effort. We've only just finished 3 full days with Zeus in the household. As such, I try to look at the positive... we managed 40 hours without an accident! That's pretty good for a 10 week old puppy!

Evaluating Puppy Poo

graphic from http://www.bluebuffalo.com/

We love Blue Buffalo pet food, which we attribute to our eldest kitty's incredible decrease of dependence on insulin. She has, unfortunately, had very fluid bowel movements over the last couple months (nearly since we started using BB). We thought it was her change in insulin, as she swapped to the new brand about the same time, but Zeus started having identical liquid poo the day after he started on BB. Some quick research online, not certain if it was his food, stress, or change that caused this, we found that some dogs and cats have responded to the dry BB foods with very loose stools. Reading several reviews and hitting a few discussion groups, we found out that some people solved the issue by mixing the dry & wet BB foods at meals.

picture from http://www.pawshpal.com/

We tried, and his stools have progressively returned through each session to solid... not hard, but well formed. I NEVER thought I would be evaluating puppy and be happy to find soft-yet-solid feces. As this appears to have worked for the puppy, we are following up with Ophelia by feeding her more of the wet food through the day... the initial results seem positive.

Great Expectations

Poor Zeus. He has such demanding parents.

Actually, we are a bit over demanding in some areas for a 9 week old puppy. It has been so many years since we had a puppy to traing, we'd forgotten all the challenges of House Training.

Oh boy.

Also, we have very long flight of stairs between floors -- which an adult dog could be expected to climb regularly, but a nine week old of a breed with the danger of hip issues?!? Not so much. We've decided to have Zeus climb the stairs only 3 times per day for now -- for each meal. His potty runs (every 30 minutes... ugh) will be a carry fest *groan*. When get gets over 20 lbs that's going to be a challenge. Of course, when he gets to 25 lbs he should be big and old enough to do the stairs without concern.

Puppy Saves Neighborhood from Fire!

from http://www.electricianin.com/

Sunday evening, Zeus, our new puppy, prevented what might have been a disaster at our neighborhood. Apparently there was a short at the top of one of the power poles that was arcing into the wood and started a small fire at the top of the pole. It couldn't be seen easily as it was very small (but growing). Because I walked the puppy under the power pole, the puppy was immediately attracted to the interesting charred, glowing embers on the ground. At first I thought it was a lit cigarette someone had thrown out the car window, so I stamped it out before the little boy could get his mouth on it... but it didn't "feel" like a cigarette -- so I looked up and thought, "There shouldn't be a soft red, flickering glow at the top of that power pole."


I called the power company and they are out there now repairing the pole... had to shut off power to the neighborhood so they could safely work on the pole... and now the fire is much larger than it had been when I first walked the dog there.

So our puppy is a bonified hero (sorta)! :)

PS. if you're wondering how I can be posting this while the power is off in our neighborhood... we have a UPS on our router and cable modem... so we have about an hour of connectivity before we lose our "wired" connnection to the internet (the cell phones can still get one regardless)

PPS. discovered the fire was started by an unfortunate squirl who unwittingly became the "ground" for from the power wire to the pole -- poor squirl!

Welcome Zeus!

January 02, 2011, Zeus, our standard poodle puppy, came home with us. He was the result of a most unusual combination of nature and nurture. Our breeder, Bev, of Calisun Starndard Poodles, mated her dam Sunny with Aris sire London to produce a litter of 11 puppies. All black, all beautiful, and way too much for one dam to produce milk for. Bev's younger dam, Lilly, was mated at nearly the same time and had her litter the same weekend as Sunny, but had only four surviving puppies. Two of the puppies from Sunny's litter were transfered to Lilly for rearing. Our Zeus, known as "Big Green Boy" at the time, was one of the Sunny/London puppies raised by Lilly.

Bev has been a loving, dedicated, professional, (if possibly over cautious) breeder and I believe our puppy could not have been welped and reared by a better one. She worked hard to match the temperament of the puppy to our lifestyle.

We are determined to do our best to raise the perfect, balanced dog. As such, we have prepared his space near our bedroom, made sure the cats have their spaces preserved, and have plenty of time available to us for the next few weeks to make it through these beginning days of puppy needs.

Thus far we have learned that he does try to tell us he needs to go out... and if we don't listen we get a piddle. We only understand his warnings half the time. Still, for a 9 week old poodle puppy to already be working to tell us "I need potty now" is quite amazing to me.

In the past 24 hours he's had 4 accidents which we could have prevented had we paid attention. His first night was fairly successful... we tired him out with walks and play before going to bed, and took up his water about 2 hours before bed. This allowed him to make it through the night for 7 hours before needing to go potty.

His primary challenge is the stairs. Our staircase is very steep and long. I took him several trips partially carried up the stairs before he was confident enough to climb them himself. He is willing to go down short flights of stairs, but the full staircase is too intimidating at present.

All in all, he's been a calm, attentive, curious puppy with no inclination to chase the cats. This bodes well!