Our New Puppy Room

I love decorating. I love taking a mess and bringing it together with a theme. The thought of decorating a new puppy room in our house was exciting. The only must haves for the room were a larger whelping box for our Moms and puppies and a bed right next to it for me. With a small amount of effort this all came together.

I searched the internet for the perfect whelping box and found one that would be easy to make. I love making things, so it was a lot of fun to work with wood. The natural food grade oil that I rubbed into the wood really brought it alive. It was lovely to see Tina feeling right at home.

It is just over a week now and the puppies will arrive. There is a feeling of excitement in our house. Tina is being very spoiled, but then she deserves it. She is finding it harder to move around now that she is so big. She isn’t running up the stairs at the moment!

Puppy Training

With our new arrivals on the way, I have been trying to put some extra time into training Becky, Lilly and Gilbert. They won’t be getting as much attention as they normally do once the new puppies arrive, so I must fill their love cups to overflowing now.

Becky made so much progress this week. If I put her leash on as shown in the picture below, she can walk right beside me and checks in with me all the time. This makes her feel more secure next to me and also helps her feel the movement of the leash. We made it down to the end of the road on a loose leash. Her reward was to watch the pigs. Becky’s next goal is to walk along side me with another one of our dogs. Gilbert started this step this week. We have a long way to go there with him, but Parker was very patient during Gilbert’s lesson. I worked with Lilly to feel more comfortable moving along side me with the leash. I must be ever so soft and gentle with it or else she digs her heals in and will not move. Just the opposite to Becky.

I know that if I had just 1 dog to work with we would be a lot further along with the training progress, but we get there eventually! Just this past week I took Parker and Meribell for their Cardiology health check and received such wonderful compliments on their calm behavior. Instances like that make all the training I do so worthwhile.

Becky and the pigs

Lilly

Parker and Gilbert

Kennel Progress

This week we signed our final invoice on the kennel, and we signed with a concrete contractor for the foundation. With these 2 major steps approved, I am now moving on to the grey water drainage, electrical and plumbing hookup. It looks like our foundation will be built towards the end of October (weather permitting). Not sure when the kennel can arrive after that yet, but it will be at least a month later. It is a becoming more of a reality than just a dream.