Wet Dreams

I just found this to be priceless!

Tiger Lily is going to her new home tomorrow and she was snoozing away with her foot in the water dish today. These pups do not seem to mind the wet weather and obviously may be swimmers too like their canine dad with their obvious - who cares if the feet are wet reaction.

I just adore these pups and their fun ways. Each has their own personality.

Tiger Lily will get a bath tonight so she can go home fresh and smelling beautiful tomorrow. She will have to have her last romp outside tonight unless I decide to wash her at 6am - and I might.

I have taken so many photos that I have had to buy a hard drive just to have more space - how silly is that? But how could you not want to keep such memories?

Mia came in from a romp outside and found one of her fave positions to snooze in. She's going to be with us the longest and will be sleeping in our bed till her humans come to get her.

You see this toy with all the ropes - well they love to gnaw on it as it's good for teething. The yellow toy is a giggle toy. It makes all sorts of sounds when they move it around. They absolutely think this toy is a riot.

Remember to rotate a few toys at a time to avoid boredom. They also need toys to chew on and even wet, frozen cloths tied in a knot will help them erupting teeth and all the feelings it brings. It's a cheap way to handle the teething pain. Sure there are commercial devices but they better be soft as this crew doesn't like the nubby teethers that are hard.

The pups rather enjoy the outside and we hope you continue to take them outside regularly even in the snow. It gives them new places to explore and new things to see and it's good to take your dawg out for their body and their mind.

Until their next set of shots, no parks but you can carry them around in a dog store and show them off making sure their feet doesn't hit the ground as you never know what dog has parvo early on that would cause harm with a puppy that is not fully inoculated yet. But show them off. Get people to pet your little one.

Visit Jazzy (Eye on Fashion) up the street from us in their clothes shop - cool clothes shopping too.

Expose - don't coddle and they will live up to your expectations. If they show fear at something new (that's quite natural) then say - silly dawg and plow on and make sure they are exposed in small doses. They fear only what they do not know.

Love them but don't coddle any fears. By doing so (saying poor x or snuggling them when showing fear), you will validate a fear vs. helping them to realize there is nothing to fear.

I tell you this as there are a couple of fear periods they go through but instead of keeping them away from exposure - you should be exposing them.

At dog shows, we often are in buildings with echos - lots of noises - so many dogs and many a dog shakes or gets nervous in a variety of ways when first exposed but if you keep doing it ignoring that they are nervous and play with them so they relate this place with something fun, then it will eventually go.

One year, Nathan was away on business and I had to take Kat to obedience class. Off and on we do classes to expose them - to get their recall yet a bit better - to just have fun. Well, I do not know what possessed me but I went out to check the pool heater and it was on fire. I was in total fear trying to figure out how to shut the gas heater off and would I be facing an explosion of sorts. Of course this only lasted a few minutes but it felt like an eternity. Well, Kat was with me. I did shut the heater off. We had to get a new one but I was shaking.

I never said anything to Kat but your Havanese tend to read your emotions. Each time I went into the pool house after that, Kat refused to come in. He certainly was hesitant.

So, how did I handle it? None of the other dogs had been out there so they didn't have that imprint so I would get the other dogs into the pool house and play up a storm with them. Curiosity got the better of him after weeks of this - yes that fear imprint I placed on him was strong and he peeked his head in. I kept it up and soon he was walking in and walking out fast. Then I started treating the others and he was coming in and relaxing. I replaced that fear imprint with something new and enjoyable. That is how you deal with hesitancy or fear.

The lesson to learn is your state of mind affects your dogs. There are times when you can't control your emotion as I couldn't in this given situation. But you can change their reaction by using your head and trading a concern for a positive. It may or may not take time. It depends on how deep the imprint is but you can change it. But why create a negative if you can help yourself. It is better to start off right.

What I did get from this experience was a strong bond based on trust with Kat. If they can truly trust you (trust is built up over time) then you will not only have this amazing relationship but they will be more apt to try new things as they have you to let them know that all is right.