4 Months Old! Already!

Time has just flown by, I don't know how Sizzle can be 4 months old yet ... in fact, when I signed her up for puppy class I might have actually gotten her age wrong!

Since 4 of the 6 puppies in the litter live in Calgary, we got together last weekend for a play date. It was pretty adorable and very symmetrical. 2 boys, 2 girls. The 2 largest and the 2 smallest. 2 tri colors and 2 sables.

I like how Sizzle and Cedar both have one long sock on the front and then one short one, mirroring each other.

The puppies had a great time. Sizzle was a little unsure for a few minutes and then she was all for it. It's funny how she likes adult dogs but seems unsure of puppies. They loved racing around outside and then we went inside to measure puppies and play a bit more.

Ash is still looking like she might be oversize, I didn't catch her height. Sizzle is in the safe zone, so she isn't going to end up really tiny. She was at 11.5" (I think?) while McFly her little tri brother was looking just a little smaller than she is right now.

Sheltieing! aka someone has cookies and they need to share!

Mom, Syrah and brother Cedar

In the house the play styles in the puppies really came out. Cedar is a very laid back, serious fellow for a 4 month old baby. There was a lot of barking from Ash who doesn't have dogs in the home and he was pretty ticked at her for the constant barking. Sizzle and McFly love the toys and the tugging and the chasing.

Surprisingly, Sizzle was not barking the way she does at home, she was actually pretty quiet. Except for the growling like a demon with the tug toys. It was very cute. She played a lot with McFly since they both love toys and are similar sized. She also paired off a lot with Cedar to play when he was being kind of cranky with all the other puppies for too much barking and shenanigans. 

She definitely wasn't put off by the larger puppies anymore, since she wrestles with Nike all the time at home!

This week we came off of winter break and have started up the dog training routine again (with me teaching and barn time being rented) Sizzle also started a puppy class just for the socialization with people/ function with new distractions aspect.

She came out to the barn to do some baby recall work, work on impulse control and toy play in a new space with dogs running. I've also started to work more on some of the baby puppy behaviors/foundations I teach for agility.

Never before seen ...

I think it might be an ominous thing when the vet you are taking your baby to is just utterly baffled by a Sheltie's ears being glued.

Maybe it's because I'm in agility and have seen more than my fair share of baby Shelties?! But she didn't say this was the first Sheltie she's seen ... just the first one with ears glued. 

Also interesting is wanting me to spay my puppy before she is even 6 months old ... so I expect on our next visit when I decline the rabies vaccine and just finish the puppy DAPP series (I'll do rabies a month later on its own in case of vaccine reaction issues) that I'll be looked at oddly for that too. But in the almost 10 years since Baxter has come into my life, I've learned a couple of things and always advocate for my dogs.

It's really too bad that vets just push early spay and neuter though. At least with Nike they asked if I was doing health testing when I said we wouldn't be spaying before 2 year of age and that vet was pretty receptive when I explained I just wanted her to be mature before removing hormones/spaying and it didn't necessarily have anything to do with breeding. This one just listed all the things that could go wrong if you didn't spay before the first heat cycle.

I'm not a standard pet owner - not that there is anything wrong with being a standard pet owner. I know a little more than a lot of people about dogs and dog related things. My whole family has me clip their dog nails. Spencer brings his own muzzle to the clinic. My dogs aren't fat. But for the love of Dog - don't try to scare me into doing what YOU think is right- maybe explain signs to watch for IF those things are going wrong. Mammary tumors. What symptoms you'd see with pyometria. But don't tell me Pyo is life threatening (I know it is ...) when I'm here with a 12 week old baby - maybe save that conversation for my 2 year old dog who is still intact, hey?! 

On a happier note, this is 3 weeks since Sizzle came home on 26-Nov-2017. (Or at least it was 3 weeks when I originally wrote this!)

The first week we just settled in and figured stuff out - was a pretty big change coming into a house with 4 resident dogs, none of whom are Shelties. She came out to class with me and hung out in the building after classes. She also came to work with me and met about 20 strange men - working in Oil & Gas is fantastic for socialization with men!! Not really loving food as much as I'd expect, but oh my the play & tug drive!

The second week was mostly a repeat of the first week, except we started coming out to family gatherings and meeting my nieces/nephews and the various other "family" dogs. 5 kids under 8 is a lot of children in one house when you're the center of attention!

She is delightfully confident little ball of fluff. LOVES people. Confident with dogs - some we say hi to - some we just observe from a distance. MANY opinions on everything that she has zero problem voicing.

Loves to chase stuff. Bringing it back - well not so much. But play and tug?! Oh my, someone forgot to tell the Sheltie that she isn't a terrier! I love it! 

She also sleeps through the night. Her first night we got up in the middle of the night and then the second day we got up at 5 am - other than that she has zero problem sleeping through the night and not waking me up at an ungodly hour.