April 16: Ildi has worms

Chad discovered this week that Ildi has Roundworm - gross! He saw the worm in her poop - looked like a rubber band - a few inches long! so we got her medication asap, but it will take a few weeks for it do it's job in killing everything. poor girl!

On other health news, the vet confirmed this week that all her puppy teeth have come out, so she now just needs to her adult teeth to all come in - she still has a few blank spots. And I have to say that she seems to be handling teething fairly well. From all the books we've read we were expecting a horrible time with her chewing everything in site, but I would say her chewing has decreased - as she gets older and older. You hear the odd moan from her when she's just sitting around (guessing her teeth are hurting) and that's the really the only indication that she's teething.

we've had an interesting week too - we've been walking another dog on both of our daily walks (as they're out of town) so Ildi has had a constant companion. Luckily they get along great and Gretta (a type of collie maybe?) loves to play and puts up with Ildi grabbing at her neck fur the whole time. It tires them both out though which is great! though last night we took Ildi on a short night time walk - thinking we would try to play some fetch with her and when we let her off in our usual field she wasn't coming back. Even running in the opposite direction as us and heading towards Sarcee Trail (a busy 4 lane road). Perhaps this misbehaving is a result of not having structured walks for a week? or maybe she's going through a rebellious phase (though I think she might be a little young for that phase). Needless to say she won't be getting any off leash time once Gretta's not on our walks with us.

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.

March 1: another photo comparison

here's another side by side picture of Ildi and how she's growing up so fast! plus I added a photo that shows how long she's is - and she's still a lap dog!

She's had a busy couple days of socialization and lots of off-leash time. Though with the weather warming so much all the snow is melting and there are tons of fresh scents suddenly available! She's not such a good listener when she's fully engaged in hounding scents. But she's finding lots of mice dens and even flushing grouse.

on a development point, she's lost a tooth! though I would have thought she might be a bit young to loose her puppy teeth, but she seems to also be shedding suddenly. Could be the warmer weather or it could be that she's maturing early. Our vet had warned us that when pups are born in winter and not spring, the onset of spring can cause a pup to mature faster and actually go into their first heat cycle early. I wonder if this is starting happen?

Feb. 17: Ildi at 15 weeks

yeah Chad's home! and as I expected Ildi was super excited to him. She got to wake up to having Chad take her for her 7am pee trip and you could hear her little tail just going crazy while she got picked up to be taken down the stairs :)

Her walks have been slightly better since Chad returned, but still not perfect. She still sits suddenly or pulls go back in the direction of home. - but I should say that when she's walking she's doing an amazing job at learning the 'heel' command. Sometimes I forget how young she is and have to temper my expectations and learn not to get too frustrated if she's not sitting or heeling. It often takes a stranger who makes a comment at how well behaved she is to remind me!

2nd vet appoint yesterday for her 3rd round of shots. She absolutely amazing with the vet and us when we're poking and prodding her - is that her breed or specific breeding of her parents?
and she's up slightly in her weight at 18lbs now.

And something I just started to notice (and mentioned to the vet) is that her stomach is starting to change colour. I'm pretty sure it seems like her skin is getting darker, but to be honest I'm not sure which direction is going, but as a result she has patchy skin colour on her belly. Is this normal?

Dare I jinx us - we haven't had an accident inside the house in weeks! and more and more she goes to the back door herself to tell us she wants to go out and pee.

Also with Chad home, she's already learned to 'give a paw' (and the 'other paw'), 'high five' and 'high ten'. I give full credit to the clicker in enabling her to pick up things so quickly; I had doubted how useful it would be, but I'm convert now!

Today's pictures are from her playing on the back patio wih her favourite game - tearing a cardboard box to pieces.

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)