The Puppy Blues

So Koda didn't do too hot today being in her crate for 9 hours.... Adam came home at 3:30 and she had peed all in her crate...no poopy which was good.... but the pee smell was pretty gross....

I don't know what we were thinking that she'd be fine for that long.... obviously we weren't.... she still pee's all over the place... So Adam and I were talking and realized that we are just giving her too much free rein too quickly.....until she can control her little (or big) bladder we are going to have to just confined her in a smaller place and only let her roam the house for an hour or two when we are home at night.... So I came up with a couple new plans...

In my office I have two desk, yup two. One with my personal computer on it and the other for when I work from home. Which does take up majority of the office. So I emptied out half of my office up to my personal computer desk, laid towels down on the carpet and gated it in. Plus added a couple (not sure if that's too much or not enough?) wee-wee pads.



Option 1: During the day she can be out of her crate but still be confined to a small location. And if she has to pee then she can do it on the wee-wee pad or on the towel and not in her crate. She'll stay in the confined area until she's old enough to learn to hold it till we get home.

Option 2: Crate her during the day and then ask my neighbor (who is home during the day) to come check on her at 10:00am to let her out of the crate.

Option 3: Adam could drive home on his lunch (which it's a 35 min drive one-way to his work) to let her out.....but he'd have to make sure to leave at the same time and not get caught up in his work

We are so at a lost of what to do....I know she is still young but it's frustrating..... Can anyone enlighten me on how they have house-trained a puppy?

The next two days I will be working from home so I am going to test out some situations and see what works.... Think I might do some research online too... I have a book called The Everything Labrador Retriever Book so I am going to read again too...

She is asleep now, then at around 9:15/9:30 let her O-U-T for the final time and call it a night....

Sorry my posts aren't more interesting....

Koda Update

Things with Koda are going well! Adam has taught her how to go down our stairs which has been a great help! Makes it a lot easier to get her outside plus when I carried her I was afraid I was going to drop her.

Yesterday Adam took a "sick" day to work on an outside project he is doing so it made yesterday easier for me. He left in the crate from 7a-11a let her for about an hour while he had some lunch then put her in the crate from 1-3:30p. She has not been messing or anything in her crate which is a good thing. Plus she has been sleeping through the night (from about 9p to 5a)which is about a good 8hours.

Today is the true test, she'll be in the crate all day from 6:30p till 3:30p when Adam gets home which is about an hour longer than normal... I'm sure she'll be find but will definitely have to pee right away!

She is still having accidents in the house, but not as often and it's just pee which I'd rather have then #2...

I'll post more pictures later!

New Member of the Family

I'd like you to meet Koda - Adam and I have had her for not even 24 hours and are completely in love with her!!

She is a Chocolate Lab Retriever. Her mom is a chocolate and her dad is a black lab. She has the sweetest of personalities! She weighs 24.5 lbs and is 14 weeks old. Last night was a long one.... we have her "safe room" set-up in my office. This is were she sleeps and eats. Since Casey (our golden) has had the run of the house, we wanted to make sure Koda (new puppy) has a place of her own as well. We decided my office was the best place since that is where I spend most of my time when we are home.

We picked her up yesterday in Thornton, PA at a private breeders house. I found her using the akc.org website. We knew it was going to be a long drive (3+hrs) so we told the breeder we would arrive by 1pm. This gave us time to prep the house for her arrival plus we didn't have to wake up so early to get down there.

We arrived down there at actually 1pm. The breeder currently owns 7...yes that's right 7 labs (she has all 3 types - yellow, chocolate and black). We got to meet Koda's mom (2 yr old Josie) and her dad (4 yr old Nicky). We knew right away that Koda will have a great personality, and be very loving.

On the way home, she was great in the car - just sat in my lap and stared out the window. Her breathing was a little heavy only due to the fact that it was a new situation. We stopped off at PetSmart to pick up a crate, a few toys, and food.

Got her home, settled in. Adam and I had some friends come up to the house last night and we were up pretty late. Which was actually good for Koda. It had a been a stressful day for her to begin so she was extremely tired. Had a few accidents in the house, but she is quickly learning.... kind of... I know house-training doesn't happen over night but I sure wish it did!

Didn't have any problems with her when we went to bed, but at about 3:30am I heard her rustling in her cage, then she barked. So I got up took her outside quickly (along w/Casey) and she peeped and pooped! Was very proud. Came back in put her back in the crate.... she started barking.... a lot.... so after 10 mins of this I went in my office and played with her till about 4:45 and we both crashed on the floor in my office. (her in the crate....) So I shutted the gate and didn't lock it.... which was stupid. 7:00a rolls around and I go to check on her and she had peed. No wonder she didn't need to go out! So lesson learned.....

Today is going well - still some accidents, but she's till young. It'll take time....

Casey is not sure what to do with her but is tolerating her for now.....

I need a nap..... is this what it's like to have a baby too??

Amazing Friendship

Baking 101

Okay...so I am not a baker. At all, but I feel obligated to try it considering I married a man who's Grandmother is probably the best baker I have EVER met. So when I got this book from Katie's parents, it inspired me to try baking. And not from a box, but from scratch!! Adam and I had to go to the food store yesterday so I picked two things I wanted to try and picked up the necessary ingredients I didn't already have in the house (which surprisingly wasn't a lot!)

Baking adventure #1: Classic Peanut Butter Cookies.

I know these are simple, but since I have never done it before I wanted to start off easy! And if I do say so myself, they came out great!! and taste yummy!



Baking Adventure #2: Blueberry Cheesecake Bars.


A little bit more ambitious or so I thought! They were easy to make, have not tried them yet, still cooling then I have to refrigerate for a few hours to harden!


So baking went well, and I hope to do more of it! Thanks to Katie's parents for the book! OH I also got a brownie baking pan that makes all EDGES! Can't wait to use it!

In other news, congrats to Katie and Michael on their new addition to their family - their new puppy Harley! Adam and I have also been thinking about getting another dog, so today we did some serious looking for a new addition to our family - I have some email's out to a few people and will hopefully here something soon. We are looking to get a Yorkshire Terrier - nice small. We decided that two big dogs would not be a good idea in our house. It's not a small house, but don't think we can accommodate it!

Alright time to go watch some more football and eat some homemade chili!!

Picture(s) of the Day

I have been slacking in my new idea of Picture of the Day. So today I got this email with some pretty funny and amazing photos - Here are a few! Enjoy!

Happy New Years!

Well 2009 is here! What happen to last year?!? I can't believe how fast time flies....

Adam and I had a very good christmas this year. Presents included:

- Books
- CDs
- Clothes
- New Moccasins

And our favorite present:
Nintendo Wii

And we got Mario Kart, LEGO Star Wars: The complete Saga, The Simpson's (based on the movie), Celebrity Sports (lame-o, don't buy!)

We started christmas off at home, which was a first for us! It was really nice....then we headed over to Adam's parents and open gifts there, and stayed for dinner. The following day we headed to Eagle Rock to see my parents. My brother and his wife, and his in-laws came up there as well. So that was our third Christmas!!

Eagle Rock Resort has a golf course, spa, and skiing! It also has snow tubing, so us kids and mom's decided to go snow tubing! Granted it wasn't that cold (maybe 40 deg) so we were hoping it wouldn't be too bad.

Here are some highlights!

Here are us kids, all bundled up (thinking it was MUCH colder than it actually was!) heading off to go tubing!!




I gave my camera to my dad so he could take some shots of us going to the "mountain" (which was really a just a hill...)

Katie


Adam


MIchael


Me!


It was fun! Just wished there had been more snow. Very muddy trying to get to the top of the hill! Definitely will have to try again when the conditions are better!


This New Years was a busy one for us. We decided we'd head to Amy's (Adam's sister) to spend NYE with her. Well, since she just moved into her new place, she does not have TV yet. So what better way to bring in the new year then by playing Wii!!! All.Night.Long. It was a lot of fun! Then New years day we headed back up to Eagle Rock to see my parents, and they too do not have TV, so we played more Wii and watched Along Came Polly. Very cute movie!

Then we headed back home. I am exhausted with all the traveling we did! So back to finishing laundry, and cleaning up the house....

Hope everyone has a very happy and healthy 2009!!