Our First Week

Levi's first week home has been a fun but exhausting one.  He was really noisy in his crate the first night but since then he has settled down and now he goes to sleep with minimal whining.  He also sleeps through the night until about 6am which I have been thankful for.  He still isn't very good about being left alone in his x-pen and he will bark and whine a bit, but we're working on it so hopefully it will get better in the next week or so.  He is a really cute and funny puppy and I love running around the house or yard with him chasing after me.  He also loves to fetch so we've been doing a lot of that.  He is already so good about bringing the toys back to me rather than just running off with them.  His potty training is going better than at the beginning of the week.  He now seems to understand more that he is supposed to go to the bathroom when I take him to his potty spot outside.  Before he just wanted to play or eat all the leaves and bark on the ground.

It was kind of a stressful week for me because the first three days I had class/meetings in the evenings so I couldn't be there to take care of him.  Thankfully my roommate Alicia babysat him for me so I didn't have to worry.  Levi has had a few visitors now, all of whom he is very excited to play with and see what fun things they are wearing that he can grab a hold of.  His favorite thing right now is hair.

Last Sunday Levi went to puppy class where he got to see his brother Jamie who also now lives in Davis.  He was really excited to see the other puppies, and just wanted to play the whole time.  He didn't really have the patience or attention span for the obedience work though.

If he is good this week he might get to come to school one day to meet everyone.  I know there are several people that have been looking forward to seeing him but I haven't trusted him to be quiet in his crate at school yet so he has had to stay home.  Ok, back to studying.  Only a week and a half of school left until summer!

Welcome Home Levi

This morning Alicia came with me to pick up Levi.  He did great on the car ride home, he only whined a few times and the rest of the time he slept in Alicia's lap.  Once we got home I set up the little exercise pen for him with his toys and his blanket from Christine with all of the other puppies' scents on it.

I tried to figure out his lunch which is quite complicated because I am transitioning him from the raw food diet to a dry puppy food.  Christine gave me some of the mix that she used for the puppies food and then you just add meat to it.  It was pretty complicated because it is a dehydrated mix so you add water to it to make up the final weight.  It took me awhile to calculate how much of it I needed dry to equal the right amount once it was rehydrated, but I think I've got it now.  I tried putting some of his lunch into a Kong for him to eat while I made myself lunch but he didn't really understand it and he was pretty upset in the x-pen by himself so i just put it into a bowl for him to eat and he chowed down.

I left him in the x-pen while Alicia and I ate lunch and he wasn't very happy about it.  He whined and barked quite a bit which reminded me of how stressful and exhausting puppies are.  I hate seeing him upset but I know that I can't let him out every time he cries.  I played with him a little bit outside in our new grass after lunch and then I put him in his crate for nap time.  He was really noisy at first but after 5 minutes or so he calmed down and went to sleep.  He slept for almost two hours which was really nice!  I was able to do a little bit of homework and relax a little bit myself.  Once he woke up I took him outside and he went potty and then I took him back to my room and we played for awhile.  Now he is napping on his own, and then it will probably be dinnertime soon.

He really loves the blue hippo toy that Alicia got him, as well as his puppy nylabone.  The hippo seems to be his favorite so far.  I had some of his toys in his crate for him, and right when he first came into my room he saw the toys and wanted to play with them.  I opened the crate door and he went right in and started playing.  He seems to like going into his crate on his own when it's open, so maybe he will get better about enjoying it in there when he is confined.

That's been it so far for the day.  I'm taking advantage of the napping to get some studying (and blogging) done. :-)  I might take a nap too just so I don't get too worn out.  Hopefully he does better about being confined tonight.

Green Boy's the One!

I just found out that I'm getting Green Boy!  I'm really excited since he was one of my favorites and I was really hoping for him.

Some of the things Christine told me from his puppy testing:
Green boy is very structurally sound with good angles so he should hold up well with agility.  He showed confidence and he did really well with the retrieves, bringing the toy back to the evaluators' lap each time.  He even returned a bird wing to the evaluator rather than just taking it off on his own.

I'm really happy and think that he is a perfect match for me.  I get to pick him up at 10 am tomorrow.

Soon to Be Spoiled Puppy

This puppy is going to be very spoiled!  Today Alicia came home from the store with three new toys for the puppy!  They are all very cute and I'm sure the puppy (and we) will love playing with them.  I started getting little Levi's room ready for him today.  I set his crate up with the new custom made bed (thanks to Mom) and custom made divider (thanks to Dad).  I just got a soft crate today in the mail that will be his truck crate this summer since the metal folding crates that I have are almost impossible to fit in the back seat of my truck.  I think I'm just about ready!  I need to do some yard work tomorrow to clear the weeds out of what will be his potty area, and then I'll be done.  Only 5 more days!  I can't believe how fast the last couple months have gone by.  It seems like just yesterday that I was meeting Sport and Christine for the first time before the puppies were even born.

5th Puppy Visit

I went in the morning yesterday to visit the puppies rather than the afternoon like all of my previous visits.  The puppies were so full of energy and spunk.  It was really funny to watch them all running around and tackling each other.  They also were a lot more destructive, trying to rip out the grass everywhere.  I guess it's a good reminder of how much of a handful puppies are.  They aren't always just sweet sleeping babies.  Only one more week and I will be bringing one of them home with me, yay!  

Christine started doing puppy temperament testing, as well as testing for their interest in birds which all of the puppies showed interest in.   The final puppy test is on Friday and that will give a better idea of what types of activities (like agility, fieldwork, obedience, etc) the puppy would do well in.  After that she will be able to figure out which puppy is best suited for which owner.  It will be so hard to wait until Friday to figure out which puppy I am getting, but after yesterday's visit I am feeling very good about all of the puppies and I know that I would be happy with each one of them.  I know that Christine and Don have a lot better idea of each of the puppies' personalities since they are with them all the time and I trust them to place each of the puppies with the right people.

I think I've finalized a name.  I'm pretty set on Levi for the puppy's name and Tigana's Pure Hoppiness for the registered name.

(Photos courtesy of Dad)

Too Many Toys?...I don't think so!

Puppy Visit #4

Mom and Melisa came to see the puppies with me on Saturday for puppy visit #4.  The puppies are 6 weeks old now, and they are staying awake and playing longer than in my previous visits.  We put them out in their big pen on the grass when we got there and they were all so happy, running around and playing with each other.

They now have a red plastic Clifford slide that they all like to play on, and it was cute watching them climb the little stair and then stand at the top peering down before they decided to slide down it.  One puppy (I think it was green) kept trying to run up the slide part to get to the top but he only got about halfway before he would slide back down.  It was so cute watching him try over and over again and finally I just helped him up it (mostly because I was on the other side and I wanted to play with him).

They are playing with their toys a lot more and they really liked this cloth tug toy that they had.  We played tug with them and then two of the puppies played tug with each other with the toy.  Christine was telling us that Green boy was playing fetch a lot this morning with a baby tennis ball that they had, so I tossed the ball to see if he would go get it.  He got distracted the first time but the second time he chased after it.  He still needs to work on the bringing it back part though; he just wanted to lay down and chew on it.



It was really cute towards the end of our visit little green boy was running around the pen trying to follow Sport on the other side.  Then Sport came into the pen and the two of them played for a little bit.  She kind of scared him a little bit with all of her loud barking but then he would just run right back up to her to play more.  It was really cute to watch them together.

I've been doing a lot of shopping in preparation for the new puppy.  I just ordered a couple new toys and a collar and leash for it.  I already want to set up it's puppy area but Alicia tells me that it is a little too soon. :(  Ok, I'll try to wait one more week.

I just sent Kobe's bed home with Mom to make space for the puppy's crate in my bedroom.  It was hard to see it go, but Mom is going to make a small throw pillow out of it where it has his name embroidered on it, so I will get it back eventually.

(Photos professionally taken by Melissa Hampshire)

Puppy Visit #3

Today was puppy visit number 3 and the puppies are 5 weeks old.  My roommate Alicia got to come with me to see them which gave the puppies even more people to play with.  Plus it was helpful being able to study together in the car for our test on Monday.  The puppies were all sleeping in their inside pen when we got there so we moved them outside to the lawn so they would wake up and play.  They were very adventurous and liked to venture under the plants and chew on some other plants.  It was hard to keep track of them all because they were all over the place.  I don't know how Christine and Don do it on their own.  After a short time in the grass we moved them into their outdoor pen so they were more confined.  They were all very active at first and it was hard to watch them all.  I would be watching one puppy do something cute and then another puppy would be going on the teeter totter behind me.  By the time i turned around to see that puppy it was already done and there was another puppy somewhere else playing with another toy/etc.  Then a couple of them started going to sleep.  I picked up green boy because I didn't get to play with him as much last week.  I held him and played with him for awhile, and he really liked to chew on my pants.  Actually all of the puppies really enjoyed chewing on my jeans, it must be an interesting texture for them.  He was very cute and a lot of fun to play with.  He then went to sleep next to purple boy and for awhile I just watched them sleep.  As puppies they sleep A LOT!  They have fun little spurts of playfulness but then they all just go back to sleep.  Christine showed me how she uses a human nail clipper to trim their little bittie nails, and then she let me trim pink girls nails since hers were kind of long.  Then we kind of hung out and petted them while they slept and we talked to Christine and Don for a little bit.  I still hadn't gotten to see blue or blonde boy much so when one of the puppies woke up Blue boy by stepping on him I took the opportunity to pick him up and put him on my lap.  He was still very sleepy so he just fell asleep in my lap with his little head resting on my arm.  It was very sweet!  Then Purple boy woke up and wanted to play so i played with him for a little bit.  He has a very cute face and is a lot of fun to play with.  That was about it for the visit.  For the most part they were all sleeping, but it is still so fun just to watch them sleep.  Next week my sister and mom are coming up to visit for Mother's Day and I am going to take them to see the puppies.  I know that they will fall in love with them too. : )  Now some pictures from the day.

This is one of the girls that was playing on the teeter totter

Blonde boy sleeping on top of Blue boy

Blue boy sleeping in my lap

Purple boy sleeping

And lastly, a couple pictures of Green Boy