Pup-date Part II

Happy Wednesday, friends! I shared a pup-date almost two months ago and thought I'd take today to give a few updates and answer some of your questions!

Not consistently.... the other day the cat crept up on her and literally scared the pee out of her but that was really her first accident in several weeks.  KNOCK ON WOOD she's never had a number two accident in our house and once we got the hanging bells, providing her a way of letting us know she needed to go out, everything clicked.  We also used her crate to reinforce pottying outside.  We would take her out of her crate and immediately take her to the door, ringing the bell as we went outside.  We'd stay outside until she pottied, giving her TONS of praise when she did and then bring her inside to play and hang out for about 45 minutes to an hour.  Then we'd put her in her crate for an hour or so and repeat.   It eliminated her opportunities for accidents, gave us a chance to reinforce pottying outside and worked like a charm.  As time went on we would go longer stretched outside of her crate and now we can trust her to hang out and take naps wherever and use the bell to let us know when she needs to go outside.

You can read more about that  HERE but our main focus was disposition and she has definitely lived up to the "gentle giant" reputation.

She's so sweet, has spurts of energy but is generally VERY low key and is WONDERFUL with kids.  She doesn't jump up and we swear it's like she "knows" when she's with kids.  

She doesn't!  She loves having her face wet... getting splashed and sprayed but has no desire (so far) to get her paws in the water.   The kids REALLY want her two swim but I just don't know if we need a 150+ pound dog jumping in the water every chance she gets ;)  Once our pool project is done we've talked about getting a kiddie pool for her and Jack to splash around and cool off in.

 

We're feeding her Purina Pro Plan large breed puppy as recommended by our vet and will continue on the puppy food for a couple more months and then switch her over to an adult food that our vet recommends.  We currently give her glucosamine supplements for joint health and am looking at foods that include that as part of the food.  She eats 3 times a day and eats between 8 and 9 cups total a day.  It's about 80 lbs a month.  Once she switches over to adult food she should start eating less quantity but still... it's a lot of food.  Jack Bauer gets 1/2 cup a day - so between the two of them it balances out :)

The harness makes walking her SO MUCH EASIER!  She's really not a puller, but sometimes we need to get her up and moving when we're trying to make it home and this way we're not tugging on her neck.  She weighs more than Mason and Griffin and it helps them be able to comfortably control her on the leash as well.  It stays on in the house because as soon as she rings the bell we take her out and the kids can just clip the leash onto the harness and go.  It also makes redirecting naughty behavior (like getting up on a chair she's not supposed to be on) much easier.  We're also working on "stay" (especially when the front door is open) and since she's so large the harness makes working on that so much easier than holding onto her collar.

At the advice of our vet and a trainer we've been letting them spend time together in what we call "neutral spaces"... areas that Jack doesn't deem as "his".  Jack can be possessive and aggressive when he feels like his area is being infringed upon (he's fine in the kids rooms or in the kitchen or living room... but if us or Rosie is in "his space" around his dog bed, food bowls, etc. he is really unpredictable) and so they've been spending lots of time outside together.  We've been walking them together which has also helped.  Rosie is learning her boundaries when it comes to Jack and we're hopeful they'll be friends sooner rather than later.  

We've made a point to make sure Jack gets lots of love and attention as he adjusts and couch snuggles are still his favorite time of the day :)

As far as Jelly Bean goes JELLY IS THE BOSS! hahaha  She gave Rosie a WIDE berth when we first brought her home but now allows her to get close enough to swat her in the face and Jelly has been known to rub up against Rosie on her way to eat her daily bite of her dog food :)

Sure! If you'll send me an email I'll give you their contact information.  They're expecting a litter of puppies (different mom, same dad) I believe in July and we LOVED that they owned both of the parents as pets and could give us insight into their temperaments since that was the top priority to us.  The puppies were handled by their kids and grandkids from as early as possible and they were WONDERFUL about sending tons of photos and videos while we waited to get Rosie.  We still keep in touch via text and it's so sweet because they love keeping up with their puppies and checking in on them and seeing how they're growing.  We couldn't be happier with the experience!  They're located about an hour north of Dallas (15 minutes south of OK if you're coming from that direction) and we met about half way to pick Rosie up.

Yes, ma'am!!!  Rosie's FAVORITES are apples, strawberries, watermelon and raspberries.  She will eat blueberries if I put them in her bowl and cold carrots have been great chew toys for her although she for sure makes a huge mess and doesn't eat a ton of the carrot itself. 

 

Y'all. She weighed 59 lbs a week ago.  FIFTY NINE!  

She was 14 lbs when we got her April 25th, 38 lbs on June 9th and 59 on July 7th.  

She put on 21 lbs in 4 weeks.  INSANITY!!!

We're assuming that she'll be at least 150 lbs.  Only time will tell!

Thankfully she's pretty much out of this phase - we redirected her biting/nipping to toys and tried not to pet her and give attention when she was biting.  She quickly learned that if she wanted the rubs she couldn't bite.  Since she was teething we offered lots of toys, cold carrots, etc.

Cold carrots and she LOVES the Kong brand rope plush toys.  They have knotted ropes inside of them and squeakers and they've been her favorites.

It's from Amor Handmade and she's in the largest size.  The quality is AWESOME!

Yep!  They all love to take her on walks and that's typically a group effort.  Dave or I usually feed her breakfast since the kids are typically asleep and whoever is in the kitchen when it's lunch and dinner time will feed her then. 

She's great! Hanging out under her heat lamp, taking regular baths and eating her fair share of super worms ;)

She's 4-months old now and we take her out around 11 p.m. and she typically wakes up around 7:30 a.m.

Not yet!  She gets a little bit "foamy" at the end of our walks because it's ONE MILLION DEGREES outside, but no drool yet!

The longest we've left her so far has been about 4 hours.

That's the plan! She's getting a new crate with tons of space and have already talked to the kids about walking her before school in the morning so she'll end up being crated from about 9 a.m until 4 p.m.  We were talking to our neighbor who's a vet and she reiterated that it's the safest place for her to be until we can totally trust her to not get into something that could hurt her like eating a couch cushion.  Hopefully, when she's a bit older and used to us being gone during the day she and Jack Bauer can have a good ol' time together ;)

Everything is picked up in "real time" as we call it to avoid flies and then double bagged and put into our big trash cans outside.

The hardest part FOR SURE is that your time isn't your own anymore :)  Having to constantly watch a puppy during a time that would normally be "downtime" is an adjustment!  The easiest/best part has been seeing how much the kids have enjoyed her and how much JOY she's brought to our family during this crazy time!

To make all the food we buy her worth it :) hahaha

I can't believe I've never shared this!  In case you missed it - we'd been talking about getting a puppy with the kids and Dave and I had picked Rosie out but the kids had no idea.  I told Luke that we were going to get out of the house for a bit and go grab beaver nuggets for my dad from Buccee's (if you're not from TX Buccees is an EXPERIENCE - hahaha) and what he didn't know is that the breeder was meeting us there to deliver the puppy.  I had my big camera on my console recording and it's hilarious because I have about 5 minutes of our conversation recorded beforehand and it's SO LUKE! Discussing unit prices, a good deal on gas, etc.  

When we got home Dave told Mason and G that Luke and I had spotted a big bunny in the backyard and then they saw her.  

That whole morning was hands down one of my favorite moments as a parent!