Penny

Fri Sept 19, 2003
On Saturday September 6th, 2003, Borderrose Daylily Dancing Penny came to live with us. Click HERE to view Penny's Pedigree. Spike and Kyra were in the house when we came home with her. I put Penny in the garden and called Spike and Kyra out. The meeting went well, they sniffed eachother and walked through the garden.
On Sunday you could 'feel' the cats and dogs thinking: shit, is she going to stay???

Penny felt quite at home right from the beginning. During the first night she slept in her crate in the livingroom with Spike and Kyra (I only use a crate when they are small, to pottytrain and to protect them from dangerous situations when I am out) without crying or howling. She slept soundly through the night and her crate was dry and clean in the morning!! I'm happy to say that up till now she has kept her crate clean!! Accidents during the day are already rare, often she warns me by squeaking in front of the closed door, wanting to go out for a pee or the other thing! She is a very cheeky puppy, constant keeping me on the alert. She understands the word "NO" except when it comes to the cats.....

The cats are not too glad with this new addition.. Luckily they are curious and not afraid of her. But Penny likes to chase them from time to time. She leaves them alone for ever longer periods but sometimes she just dares them to play , the cats will then start running and Penny will chase them. We are training to stop this behaviour. Every day we visit the cats in their cathouse in the garden. It's the cats territorium so she will have to behave herself!! Tomorrow it will be two weeks since she came to live with us and the dogs have already more or less accepted her. Penny keeps inviting them to play with her but they haven't accepted her enough to do this yet. But they do seem to miss her when she is gone with me for a short walk. She sees Spike as her very big 'example' around the house and copies his behaviour. During the walks in the woods Penny copies Kyra's behaviour.

Tue, Sept 23, 2003
Penny went to her puppy class for the first time today. Over here (the Netherlands) puppy class starts at the age of 8 weeks. I thought it best to wait for two more weeks so she would have had some more time to get used to us and her new home.. She now is ten and a half weeks old. When we arrived at the dogcentre, I got scared by the size of the other (Labrador) puppies. I was afraid the big puppies would hurt Penny by their wild play and their weight. The trainer assured me the big puppies would not be allowed to play with Penny so I decided to stay. Penny herself wasn't afraid of the other puppies. She was allowed to play with very a meek Golden Retriever puppy and was soon bossing him around....The lesson went well. In the beginning it was difficult to get Penny's attention, she was sniffing the floor, trying to eat little pebbles, pieces of wood, leaves, etc. For the first ten minutes I was quite busy removing these items from her mouth. Finally the 'Penny' dropped and she started to pay attention ;-)) We learned a lot!!

July 10, 2003-Sept 28, 2003
Last night Romke, Penny's litterbrother, had to be euthanized. He had been suffering from a neurological disorder since he was eight weeks old. His little sister Daisy is also affected.
Click HERE to view "Last goodbye to Romke".

Mon Oct 6, 2003
Until Tuesday last week I was quite desperate about Miss Penny. She had become a very naughty puppy. She demolished the electric wiring of the blender, demolished all the toys lying around, peeled the tennisballs and ate all kinds of no-no things from the ground. During the last training session she managed to do everything wrong ...... I discussed her behaviour with the trainer and she made several good suggestions. I took them to heart. First I filled a little tin with goodies. I shake it when I call her from the garden (she sometimes went into hiding not willing to come). Since I have been shaking the tin and calling her name she comes to me like lightning! No more hiding in the bushes ;-)). Because she is quite a handful I think I will have to use the crate for a longer period than with Kyra, that's why I bought her a larger crate so she has more room to move when I have to go out, or I want her out of the way for some time. We take longer walks so she can lose some extra energy.

The alterations really work! Since Wednesday Penny really belongs here. Until then Spike, Kyra and Penny all had the idea Penny was only staying here. On Wednesday, Penny's behaviour suddenly changed, it looked like she all at once realised that she really belongs here. She has started to carry her right ear in in the normal position and the dogs have started playing with her. Spike keeps inviting her to play with him whilst holding a toy in his mouth, Penny dancing and barking around him. During walks Kyra and Penny chase eachother.

Tue Oct 7, 2003
Miss Penny is really keeping me on my toes.... I was a little too optimistic yesterday.....Today Miss Penny 'developed' a new habit.....She started eating the cotton cover of the bedding in her crate...So the only safe place for her isn't safe anymore. After some thinking I went to the petshop. They advised another kind of bedding (it's called a Vet-Bed) safe for little sharp puppyteeth, so they assured me...To keep her occupied when she is in the crate they advised me to give her a marrowbone. The marrow is removed and the bone itself stuffed with peanutbutter or something else she likes. Then it is put in the freezer and given to her when I have to go out. It should keep her occupied for some time...I also bought a Kong for her. I hope we have another week of peace and quiet before she comes up with something new!!

Tue Nov 11, 2003
This afternoon Penny passed her puppy-exams with flying colours. We trained hard all of last week. All week we had to do those stupid puppy things, too, because Joke thought we (Spike and Kyra) could do with some training, too.....The endless waiting........Penny had to learn to sit and stay.......All for very, very small treats......Glad this is over and we can go back to our usual (sometimes bad) behaviour. His Royal Badness Spike and Mrs Kyra.

Wed Nov 12, 2003
This morning I took Penny with me to art class. I did so because I don't want to leave in her crate at home for three and a half hours on end. It was the third time I took her with me. I gave her a marrowbone (marrow removed) to chew on and she was quite busy for more than an hour. After that she started investigating her surroundings. It became very quiet and I went to look for Penny. She was in the kitchen looking very uncomfortable, her belly extremely bulging. I noticed a dog's feeding bowl on the floor filled with kibble. For some time Miss Penny must have thought she was in doggieheaven.....Unlimited eating.... I gave her a spoonful of a salt solution to make her vomit. She vomited, but no kibble came out.... she tried to keep it all down ...She was a very sick puppy, so I took her to the vet right away.

He gave her an injection to make her throw up the kibble. She brought up ten pieces, the rest she just kept down...I took her home and Spike and Kyra and the cats all stood around her, with worried faces. After an hour she stopped being sick . She still has a full belly (seven hours later) not wanting food but she clearly feels so much better!! My experience with feeding BT's is never to give them access to unlimited food, they will eat till they die...At least mine do. With Kyra I once had the same experience; she ate cats' kibble at a friend's house. She was terrible sick, not being able to sit or lie down...