March 22: Ildi's a digger and answers from the vet

we sometimes let Ildi into the backyard unsupervised - but peak through the window every few minutes to ensure she's not wreaking havoc on the bushes. This time we couldn't see her from the kitchen window for some time, which means she's sitting behind the patio wall. The only thing behind the patio wall is grass so we just assumed she was chewing on a branch, as she usually does. Not this time, this time I discovered she had dug a little hole in the middle of the lawn! It was a few inches deep and absolutely no grass left - geez! that was the end of unsupervised play in the backyard :(

Since the last post, Ildi had her last set of shots at the vet - yay!! with parvo going around in the city right now we can finally rest easy that she has full immunity. and she now weighs 24.5lbs - a slow but steady increase.

She's pretty much gone off of breakfast - having just a few bites and then burying the rest in her kennel blankets. But she eats her dinner! the vet said some dogs are just not morning eaters, but give her whatever she didn't eat, plus her usual dinner portion for dinner. You should have seen how full her dinner bowl was last night - but she ate it all!

I also asked the vet about when we could start running with her and should we be worried that she runs at full speed when she's at the dog park (off-leash). Dr. Boone said she could start running (start with short distance) at 1yr. and that it's no problem if she runs at the dog park. It's the controlled running on a leash that is not good for her bone development.

Also, the vet said to not worry about the plants in the backyard (iris' and lilies) - she said that they are more toxic to cats - unless the dog starts eating the bulbs.

Ildi gains weight

well, something magically happened, as of yesterday Ildi now weighs 17.5lbs. That's the biggest weight gain since we've had her; though she still looks like skin and bones!
I'm noticing that she's not eating her lunch amount consistently, but usually eats her full amount at breakfast and dinner. I'll even give her more at dinner if she didn't eat all her lunch.

Her house training seems to be going really well - often she sits at the door when she wants to 'do her business' and a couple of times she's even figured out how to ring the bell!

Chad comes home tonight - I'm so curious as to how excited Ilid will be to see him. Chad thinks she might not remember as he's been gone for almost as long as he was home with her when we first got her.
and I can't wait to have the help again with Ildi all day :) and I'm hoping that with Chad back Ildi's walks will get better.

Day 5: she just gets cuter!

Quick update:
- we were up 3 times in the night; when can we sleep through the night?!
- still feeding her 60/40 of old food/ new food. But she hasn't been eating the full amount all week. We're worried she's not eating enough. Have you seen a Vizsla puppy, they're skin (lots of loose skin! :) and bones.
- no accidents in the house!
- took her for a walk done the front steps and drive way.
- have introduced her to a shovel and fresh snow.
- still relegated to the kitchen nook area; which can sometimes drive her nuts when she's loose in the nook and we're in the kitchen cooking. She definitely doesn't like it if she can't spend time with us. Have we created a suck already?!
- we still love our naps together. she's a great cuddler!

Day 4: meet the vet

up 3 times in the night, but we were faked out twice! and we're noticing that she's up for the day around 8am pretty consistently now.
We're still feeding her 60/40 of the old/ new food and she still has diarrhea most times. Troubling - should we do something different with the food? We also feed her 3 times/ day with a total of 3 cups of food/ day. Don't think I mentioned that before.

Today, Ildi met the vet for the first time, for her 2nd set of shots. Plus it was her first car ride in the kennel with us.
She did so well in the car, hardly a peep out of her and only at the beginning of the journey. We had her on the leash to walk into the vet's office (she's much better on the leash already!). The moment we walked through the door you could tell she nervous and excited. All the smells.... but the staff at the Westmount Animal Clinic are great! They were so excited to meet her (we're learning that everyone loves a Vizsla puppy!) so Ildi soon associated the vet's office with fun people and attention. Our Vet: Dr. Doone Watson was amazing - she spent 2 hours with us talking about all things puppy health. And in retrospect this was so helpful for Ildi to get used to her environment and the Dr. before getting her shots.
After the vet visit she fell asleep fast in her kennel for the car ride home!

Today, we were 18/18 - no indoor accidents and she learned to do her business somewhere other than the 'pee run' in our backyard (which is a bigger deal than you might think)

Day 2: potty training and cuddle time

After doing our homework through several puppy books, we knew our first goal would be to figure out Ilid's pee schedule. We started a log of every time she went so that we could start predicting and taking her outside before she had a chance to do anything inside.

On her first night (she went to sleep in her kennel after only 3 min of whining!) she woke us up a few times - and we were on high alert!she had gone to bed just after 11pm and woke us up to go pee at 12:20am, 4am, 5:45am and then we were up for the day at 8am. We were so relieved though that she didn't do anything in her kennel and knew to whine to be let out to relieve herself.
We spent the day on high alert - if she was outside of her crate for more than an hour then we usually took her outside; which didn't always result in her doing her business outside. We still had 4 accidents inside but we had 3 successful potty trips outside!
We also had decided ahead of time to train her on a command when going to the bathroom. We use phrase "do your business". So every time she was actually going to bathroom outside, we would say "do your business".
For food, we needed to switch food from what the breeder had been feeding her as we weren't able to buy it in Calgary. So we worked on switching her from Diamond to Solid Gold. The breeders had sent us 4 cups of the Diamond, so we mixed 60% Diamond and 40% Solid Gold to get her used to the new food. Taste wise, Ildi never seemed to mind the new food, but for a few weeks she did have some diaherria.

And she sleeps alot! We would put her back in her kennel (teaching her the command "kennel") for each of her naps (about 5 naps - each for 1-2 hours). Though I admit a few times we let her nap on her because it's the cutest thing to have her cuddled up with you. And she loves cuddling! true to her breed.