Memorable last week of April

Last week was a great one. Our main highlight was our first Petcialize event. It is a meet of all dog lovers and their pets. It was held at someone's house this time, outdoor garden. We were a little nervous because till now Duke has only shown over enthusiasm when he meets other dogs during his walks.
Nevertheless, our puppy made us so proud. He was, as expected. very excited to see so many dogs around. But he was a good puppy considering he was the youngest there. He approached other older dogs well, walked away when they seemed hostile, made some friends. There was a cute 3 and half month old beagle who bonded so well with Duke. They found an ideal playmate in one another and were inseparable. We have a video that I will upload in a few days. And our 3 month old puppy did not pee or poop the whole time until we left and reached the main road near our car. Such proud parents we were on Sunday. He dozed off the whole drive back home, a happy puppy.
Moments like this make us feel relieved that we are treating him well. The both of us work so he is left alone for hours the whole day except for when our domestic help comes to feed him his lunch and let him relieve himself in the toilet. We have made sure we spend the most time with him when we are not at work and to mentally and physically stimulate him during that time which includes 2 walks a day, playing fetch, hugging time while he chews on his toys, training him and feeding him. We are glad we are on the right track in giving the best. This is the picture of him taken by a professional pet photographer who is really good by the way. Eshita Prasanna. Anyone interested may contact me and i will give you her details. She is based in Chennai.

Lesson for mummy today.

This morning, Duke kept me awake from 4am. This was the second day. In a row. As you can guess, my patience was wearing thin. I tried distracting him with his bone to catch another hour's sleep but he was more interested in our bathroom door and when I dozed off for half an hour, I found the broom in the balcony, well, de-feathered. I thought the morning walk would help him release whatever stress he was having or at least tire him out. No such thing happened.
We read about ways to stop him from pulling on the leash that included stopping everytime he pulled. The outcome? Our 15 minutes walk was dragged on to 1 hour. When we came home, he started getting really interested in our couch thinking it was the beach and started digging it. My patience was non-existent by then. The morning did not end well.

One important thing I have learnt the past one month is that dogs can sense your mood without you showing it so outwardly. Which means, I can't fake being nice to Duke. He can tell when i'm pissed at him. But what makes dogs such special creations of God is that, they always, even if it shows otherwise, want to please us. So, when we are angry at them, it upsets them but it is a vicious cycle. They become more stressed and tend to be more destructive then. And we misunderstand them as being naughty and disobedient.
I went to work feeling exhausted but I came home, having cooled down, a more stable person as Duke makes me a little bit better a person everyday.

Goodnight everyone from Duke. Mummy's hoping for a good night's sleep. 

Other than puppy training...

I sat for my MRCS exams this week. So that is one item on the list checked off. *pat on the back*
I have started a hobby. That is training, walking and spending time with Duke. *another pat on the back*
I shall continue updating this part of the year too.
For now, I will take my Duke for a walk.
Ah yes, that is our daily exercise too. :)

Duke, our lab puppy.

It has been a long time since I last blogged. Another milestone in our lives have begun.
We got our Labrador puppy on the 3rd of March. We named him Duke.
And so as all good stories go, our lives were never the same.
He is now 12 weeks old and so much has happened. I never knew how small things could make me happy, like his first steps down the stairs, or him holding his bladder so he doesn't mess up his crate, or the first time he did not nip my face but licked it instead. So, henceforth, I shall catch up with his last 1 month with us...

He was a mere 35 days old when we got him, which according to what we read online is way too young to be separated from his mother.

This is Duke having his first bowl of water in our home.

This is Duke's flu face, he was having a flu for the first few days here. Thankfully he got well fast after one trip to the vet. By the way, his trips to the vet for vaccinations went well. He did not make a fuss with the injections but he did pee on the chair while waiting to go home. Note to self : Empty bladder before going to the vet.

As we live in an apartment, we decided to make the guest toilet as his 'home' toilet and to slowly train him to hold it in till we take him for a walk which is at 6am before we go to work and at 6pm.

Duke toilet training. Surprisingly, he took on it pretty well. He automatically 'did his business' during his first walk

He needed a little (a lot!) of guidance to go to the toilet during the hours in between though. We read online that we should not scold him or punish him when he does it elsewhere in the house. We kept that in mind, and took turns with holding our temper and cleaning up the mess.

 When you see this face, all the sleepless nights, and cleaning up (3 rugs everyday for first 5 days!) was all worth it.