Help, I no longer control my house

The demon twins are on a full blow effort to destroy the house and my sanity. They are succeeding....and I've loving every minute of it.

1. Crate training: Essential and I shall never have another dog that is NOT crate trained.

2. Respect of the food bowl: I am actually succeeding in this endeavor. They are learning to eat from their own bowls. We've only had two knock-down drag out fights with minimal blood so far.

Dominant doggie: Up for grabs, right now. What Caya lacks in size, she makes up for in tenacity.

I'm a gonna rip your face off grrrrr.

And I squishes her!

Welcome to the Pack!

Almost 7 weeks after Caya came home, I was sitting like usual eating my breakfast and keeping an eye on the pups as they ate. I had to leave soon for a week long trip and I was so worried about Caya. (Tika was so low maintenance besides the normal puppy things it was almost a relief). Earlier in the week I had a less than satisfying exchange of emails with Caya’s breeder because of the dissociativeness and also the fact that she was SO tiny. The vet was convinced she was probably a few weeks younger than we were told. I was less than pleased and pretty much decided that despite all the accolades, the breeder was essentially running a puppy mill.

So, right before I was to leave for the airport, I went to say good bye to my girls. Tika, as usual, was her sloppy, happy self. But, then out of nowhere came the little furball and she plopped on my lap and flipped over and held my hand with her little front paws. “What’s this, little one? Huh?” I started rubbing her belly and scratching her ears and she gave me puppy kisses and love bites. I held her up close under my chin and just hugged her little body. No screams just love, love, love. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.” I just cried for relief, while the two pups licked my face and looked at me like I was crazy. Welcome to the family little Cayudle Weasel, welcome to the family. 

What's up with Caya?

Something is wrong.  Caya is not behaving like a normal puppy a'tall.  

Puppies, so I thought, want to be around you, want to play, want to bond.

Not this one.  We have confirmed colitis and giardia which we are treating her for.

(Note: Since I am posting these after the fact, Caya has become the best damn pill taker I have EVER had, we just recently got hooked on the TV series House with Hugh Laurie, I think Caya is House)

However, for the next month, I started getting more and more worried. Caya seemed to not have a very good temperament. She was almost vicious with Tika and would scream if I tried to hold her. Not a “I wanna play, lemme go” whimper, but a scream that chilled me. She seemed very dissociative with us. I started talking to canine behavior specialists, our vet, people on the internet. The answer was from one extreme to another: Be patient to she might have to be put down!

I kept with the normal schedule, I would sit there while they ate because I wanted the dogs to be trained in respecting the territory of the food bowls. We played, we had crate time, all normal. Caya had developed a new annoying habit, it was called ‘flip the water bowl’ she’d place her little paw on her bowl, launch it and flood the kitchen or bedroom or crate. She would also find places to hide outside so that we couldn’t get to her. Caya the weasel was rapidly becoming Caya, you little shit. Still no indication of affection for her new pack.

Baby, what is going on with you?

Puppy #2 arrives

Well, it's been a hell of a day. We show up at airport to find no dog. After several calls to the breeder, the airlines, etc. We find out that she has been misplaced in Salt Lake City, however, she has been found again and some kind soul gave her water.

We drove the 1 hour home to wait for the next flight to arrive. Finally, it does. Puppy is here! Or was it? Out of a crate filled with ‘hamster’ shavings, tumbles this tiny black furball. My husband said, “Oh, my god, it’s a weasel.” To this day, Caya’s nickname is “Weasel”. We give her a chance to drink and stretch and we begin the hour drive home. She had a rough day, so she promptly fell asleep in my lap as I continued to pick cedar shavings out of her fur.

Who the hell ships a puppy in HAMSTER SHAVINGS?

We got home and introduced the girls to each other, Tika was utterly fascinated with this little mongrel. Caya…not so much. We got them settled down and gave them a chance to sleep. We planned on crate training them, a decision that I highly recommend to everybody. Getting your dog comfortable with their own special space is very valuable to have, especially when you have two large dogs.

Later, I took Caya out and noticed that she must have been eating the shavings in the crate, for she didn’t not have a healthy looking stool. (Note: Be prepared, you might find out more about doggie doodoo, than you planned for) The vet’s appointment was in the morning, so I took a sample and hunkered down for the night.

Party Animal

Pool party.

Tika isn't digging the pool at all, even sitting on momma's lap. But all these people to fawn over her, oh, yeah, that's TOTALLY cool.

Tika Arrives in Kansas

Tika arrived in a sunny September day on a flight from Canada.  After waiting for her to clear, we got to pick her up.

Oh, what a face. She just looked at us like. Hi Peoples!

We quickly got her out her crate to stretch her legs and go potty, I am totally in love. 

On our way home, she started squirming in my lap, we pull over to let her go potty again and she flips over on her back and promptly pees all over herself. All the time having the biggest goofiest puppy grin on her face.

Tim looks at me:  "Total rocket scientist this one...."

Pup #1 Incoming....

We got the news that I had been approved to receive a puppy from our breeder in Canada, I was so excited.  She came from a litter of nine, I was like an expectant mother.  Oh please, please, please.

We could expect her around September.  I chose the name Tikaani Spirit, partly to honor her mother (Kindred Spirit) and because Tikaani is a Athebascan word for 'wolf'.  She would be called Tika for short.

On the German Shepherd front, however, things are not going so smoothly.  In essentially what I am calling the 'bait and switch', we are told that the pup we were going to get is showing herself to be too domineering (as in schutzhund material, as in breeder can now get more money for her) and she won't let us have her.  We are now going to be getting one from the next litter.  She has a long haired (no undercoat) black and red.  We can get her by October.

Tim was a little disappointed and irritated. But we went with it, no matter what pup we get, it will be our baby.  We did originally want the long haired trait anyway. 

This will be the first of many irritations with the GSD breeder. (I'm not going to name names here)

The beginning of the madness

The date of this post is significant.  This was the day we lost our German Shepherd, Justice, to what we found out was cancer.  She showed now outward signs of problems until she fainted one day due to lack of oxygen.  She had lung mets, and 2 weeks after we found out, she passed away in her sleep.  She was 11 years old and Tim's best pal.

Tim missed Justice terribly and it didn't take long for him to decide that he couldn't live in such a quiet house. We started making plans to get another dog.  He wanted to get another German Shepherd, I said fine.

Then,  it a moment of insanity:  "Why don't we get two?"

Tim: "You sure?"

Kim: "Yes, same age, they can grow up together"

And so it began, I had been doing research of breeds and I just kept coming back to the Alaskan Malamute, such beauty, such intelligence....and as I was about to find out, a whole lotta independence!

As we excitedly shared our plans with people, everybody just looked at us as we were nuts.  Our vets and other animal handlers were saying, don't get two female dogs the same age, they'll kill each other.  You will have to take a lot of work with them.

I started getting a foreboding feeling that we just screwed up big time.

As it turns out, it wasn't always easy, it wasn't always fun, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

So here the adventure begins.......