I might not have a baby bump or a kiddo young enough to justify a monthly update, but I do have the sweetest puppy in all the land. So, that counts, right? I want to be sure I’m taking plenty of photos of her as a puppy, especially photos with the girls. We have plenty of Beemer when she was older and when the girls were little bitty, but I’m sad when I think of all the years that went undocumented. I promise not to make this some ridiculous dog mom series that pops up every month like clockwork, but I thought it would be fun to share an occasional update on how she’s doing and how well we’re surviving!
The girls have had exactly zero experience with puppies. Aside from our own dog and one at their Nana’s, their exposure to dogs has been very minimal. Beemer was almost five when we brought Ella home and just shy of her eighth birthday when Sophie was born. As far as they were concerned, dogs slept at the foot of your bed and cleaned up your dinner messes. B never knocked them over, tried to take a shower with them, or made a mess of their toys. Puppy life is a far different thing.
We tried to prepare them the best way we knew, but — like having children — it’s kind of hard to explain if you’ve never done it. Pretty soon after Scoop came home, Ella said: “I want to have a dog, I just don’t want to take care of her.” Touché.
Scoop is sixteen weeks old today and, as of Tuesday, she weighs exactly 30 pounds. She’s tripled in size in the eight weeks we’ve had her and, honestly, so have our messes. Here’s a little breakdown on how she’s doing and what she’s learned.
Sleeping: When we first brought her home, she got up once in the middle of the night to potty. She’s since abandoned that adventure, for the most part, and rarely gets up before 5:30 or 6 o’clock in the morning. She sleeps in her crate almost every night, but if she’s being particularly snuggly and well behaved or had to spend the day in her crate if Josh has meetings, we’ll let her sleep with us. That only happens once every other week or so and it hasn’t seemed to disrupt her relationship to the crate. We crate her again from 8 to noon, so that Josh can work in peace and she loves her long morning naps. I usually put her back down for an hour or two, right after work, to get the dinner + bath + bedtime routine under control and then she stays up until the last person goes to bed.
Eating: She’s still eating three meals a day, but we’ll probably drop back to a morning and evening feed in a few more months. We’re giving her a grain-free fish formula and she’s seems to like it well enough. While we aren’t feeding her off of our plates (we learned that lesson with B), we are giving her some raw food snacks pretty regularly. She loves blueberries, but I prefer giving her carrots since they take longer for her to eat!
House Training: We had a rough few weeks where we felt like she was peeing in the house all the time, but I think it was just a hard transition from summer schedules to a more regular one. We actually made the joke on Monday night that she was completely house broken and then she peed at the foot of our bed. I’d say we’re about 90% there — that was her first accident in about ten days. She refuses to potty on a leash and instead prefers some privacy! She’ll also potty on command, which is the greatest thing ever. If we’ve been outside for awhile and we’re ready to go inside, I can ask her to potty and she goes almost immediately. I’m guessing that will come in handy at some point.
Obedience: We are planning to do some obedience training with a certified trainer in the next month or so, but we’ve been working with her at home, too. She’s already mastered sit and down and we’re working on come right now. She never comes when called, so this is pretty high on our priority list right now.
Milestones: Her four bottom teeth fell out on Tuesday afternoon and we’re all saying a collective hallelujah that the puppy teeth phase is coming to an end. I’m tired of applying bandages and my mom is certainly tired of mending the girls’ clothes!
Favorites: She loves my parents’ cat, even though he hates her. She regularly traps him under my dad’s truck or in the pump house out at the pool. Josh takes her out every afternoon to hit golf balls and she’s getting pretty good at finding and retrieving them. He’s hoping to teach her direction at some point, but for now, her powerful nose is a pretty big help. She tries really hard to get in the pool and we find her drinking from the top step pretty often. We bought her a baby pool, but it just isn’t the same! She and I spend every morning on the back porch together. I sip coffee and read in the dark, while she eats her breakfast and runs around in the yard. Eventually, she snags the other chair and will often go back to sleep before the girls ever get up. Her favorite toys are a giant stuffed snake that Ella gave her and a stuffed duck that has lost all of its stuffing. She likes to steal Sophie’s unicorns and hide under her bed and especially likes to scare you when you’re in the shower!
