# Puppy says I did good



## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

*Puppy says I did good UPDATE*

All her littermates have left for their new homes. The puppy/TV room is under construction in between litters and is incomplete with ceiling and walls finished but flooring and trim not done. The puppies have been staying in an 8x10 expen in there for weeks during the day, but Nina is there by herself for a few days before she leaves.

There is a stack of flooring under the windows on the South wall and curtains on a curtain rod temporarily on nails until I get the trim done. The puppies slept in crates in our room and wake up about 7 a.m. when they get up and go out in the expen. We are not exactly early risers so we go back to bed for an hour or so. After we get up, I go in and pull the curtains back to let in the sunlight. I have to get up on the stack of flooring to reach the curtains high enough to pull them open on the rod.

All has gone well until the first day that Nina is there by herself. I get up on the stack of flooring to open the curtains and they come crashing down making all sorts of ruckus with the various building materials that they fall on.

I look around quickly and Nina has bolted behind the litterbox on the other end of the expen. In a split second I have to make the choice of saying, "It's all right", laughing, or pretending that nothing happened and deciding which is better for Nina. I chose the last choice. She came out but her tail was still down and I felt so bad that I had startled her so.

The next morning, I got up to open the curtains and she ran to the other end of the expen and got down behind the same litterbox, but was peeping out around one side. When I opened the curtains without them crashing down, she came gleefully trotting over to my side of the pen wagging her tail as if telling me I was a good boy for doing such a good job and not making them come crashing down.

The third day she did the same thing behind the litterbox again, but this time her tail was wagging above the edge of the box. When I was successful again she came trotting over again to congratulate me.

The fourth day, and the last day she was to be here, we were even later getting up and when I went out to open the curtains, Nina was laying in her bed sleeping. She didn't even pick up her head or wag her tail, but she kind of half opened the one eye that I could see to check on me. When I was successful again, she gave about three wags of her tail without even lifting her head, closed her eyes, and went back to sleep.

We have puppies so we can have puppies.

*UPDATE page 3*


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## lcy_pt (Aug 17, 2007)

Tom...this is so funny and so true! Puppies pick up on our cues so quickly and we often forget this when something unexpected happens. Thanks for the story and the reminder of how smart these guys are.

Now of course...you know you can't talk about puppies without providing at least one picture :biggrin1:


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## trueblue (Jan 22, 2008)

I, also, cannot believe that this cute story was not accompanied by pictures! Thanks for sharing


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Good boy, Tom!!! I hope Pam gave you a nice treat for breakfast!<g>


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## lcy_pt (Aug 17, 2007)

krandall said:


> Good boy, Tom!!! I hope Pam gave you a nice treat for breakfast!<g>


:amen:


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

trueblue said:


> I, also, cannot believe that this cute story was not accompanied by pictures! Thanks for sharing


I agree 100%.


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## Pixiesmom (Jul 31, 2008)

She is beautiful!! It must be a bit sad to have all of the babies leave you. I would die!


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## Poornima (Jun 29, 2007)

Tom King said:


> Nina has a page on our website. It says "available puppy" but she is no longer available. I just haven't gotten around to taking the page down yet.


She is adorable, Tom. I bet the her new family can't wait to have her in their laps.


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## marjrc (Jan 13, 2007)

Cute story and cute girl ! It really is all about how we react to situations that can determine how a puppy will behave. Nina is a smart cookie.


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

Okay, I downsized a couple of pictures. One is Nina with her Mom Roxie with Pam and Belle is poking her nose up under Pam's arm to get into the action. 

Also, I included one of the ceiling in the puppy room. I had the telephoto lens on and didn't take time to change it, so it's just one corner of the ceiling. The room is 16'x18' and there are 12 of those coffers. It's raised panel, coffered 10' ceiling-the kind of thing I do for fun in my spare time.


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## lcy_pt (Aug 17, 2007)

Tom King said:


> Okay, I downsized a couple of pictures. One is Nina with her Mom Roxie with Pam and Belle is poking her nose up under Pam's arm to get into the action.
> 
> Also, I included one of the ceiling in the puppy room. I had the telephoto lens on and didn't take time to change it, so it's just one corner of the ceiling. The room is 16'x18' and there are 12 of those coffers. It's raised panel, coffered 10' ceiling-the kind of thing I do for fun in my spare time.


I always love seeing pictures of your dogs, Tom.

BTW...love the puppy room ceiling....just gorgeous...Did you install it for acoustic purposes?


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

It's all hard surface so it's not acoustic. We had talked about doing fabric in frames on the face of the panels to dampen sound, but Pam decided it would be too hard to keep clean long term. I just hate sheetrock.


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## lcy_pt (Aug 17, 2007)

I'm with you on the sheetrock...right up there with the stucco popcorn ceilings from the 80's. Bleh!
Nice job...lucky dogs!


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## SMARTY (Apr 19, 2007)

Great story Tom, thanks for sharing. I love the dog photos. Your ceiling is stunning.


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## irnfit (Nov 21, 2006)

Tom, that is such a great story. The puppies are adorable.


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## pjewel (Apr 11, 2007)

Tom, she's adorable and obviously very smart as well. 

Love your ceiling. I'm impressed with your work. Now if only I had someone like you at my house.


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## Missy (Nov 6, 2006)

Tom, I didn't need pictures at all! your story telling said it all. But happy to have a picture of that sweet little girl. (I actually envisioned a sable puppy while I was reading)


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## Amy R. (Jul 1, 2007)

Cute story. Nina Pequena is beautiful. And sweet and smart. And I love the name because it's my daughter's name. We call her "La Nina". My only question is, how can you let those puppies go? ;-)


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## Sheri (Oct 11, 2008)

Tom, Nina is a little doll. 

And I want to live in your dog room! If that is what the CEILING looks like... wow!


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## trueblue (Jan 22, 2008)

That ceiling is tres cool. And I checked out the puppies on your website...that Pepe stole my heart!


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## Kathie (Jul 31, 2008)

Sheri said:


> Tom, Nina is a little doll.
> 
> And I want to live in your dog room! If that is what the CEILING looks like... wow!


I agree!!


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## Jammies (Apr 4, 2009)

*You deserve an atta boy Tom and a pat on the head! I think it is very unfair for you to post pictures of all of those cute puppies on the forum!!!! And, they are cute! Just remember to keep quiet when the next litter is born!:biggrin1:*


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

Thanks for all the compliments. That's not the dogroom, it's the "puppy/TV" room which is beside the dog room and our bedroom. The dog room ceiling is not quite as fancy. It has beaded board framed in a plain 1x6 grid with recessed flourescent ceiling lights and track lights for various purposes like grooming, over the sink, and taking pictures.

That litter was planned as a preservation litter for the Y Chromosome from one of the original dogs, Jefe Pequeno. We bought Finn back from a friend of ours who went through a terrible divorce and had to get rid of most of her dogs. We bred two girls to Finn-Belle and Roxie. Finn is a littermate brother to our girl Frolic. Finn has found a great retirement home and will be neutered soon, so we planned these two litters to try to find a nice male to keep before we had Finn neutered.

We ended up keeping a boy from the Belle litter, which was here before Roxie's, so we didn't need to keep one from this litter. His name is Starborn Jefe Juan Pequeno in honor of his Y Chromosome going back to Juan Pequeno through Jefe Pequeno. I haven't gotten around to making a webpage for Jefe yet. He's a little over 6 months and is a pretty cool guy. He has a real Crozier tail.


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## Jammies (Apr 4, 2009)

*Tom..I may have asked this before, if so, please forgive me. Are your own dogs litter box trained? Jammies is not, but I am thinking if we ever get another Hav, and I hope it is years down the road, it sounds like a good idea. I think it is great that you litter box train them before they go to their forever homes. I wonder what % of those people continue to let their puppies use the litter box or some prefer to start to let them using the outdoors instead. I can see that they could both work.*


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

Yes, we train all our puppies to litter starting at 3 1/2 weeks old. With our system, they never know anything different and they develop the habit that they have to get to the litterbox. We started training to newspaper, then piddle pads, and when Purina came out with the dog litter we started using that. Now we use hardwood pellets for pellet heaters since it's about 1/4th the cost, does better in our horse manure compost pile, and is easier to find in quantity.

There is no problem with transition to the outside. Almost all of our owners keep with it, but a few go to outside only, or some other method. Most accidents occur when someone wants to go with outside only. For Nina's litter we cleaned a total of two puddles off the floor the whole time and that was when we first switched them to a larger expen.

We have two litter boxes next to each other in the dog room for when it's blowing rain outside and the dogs don't want to go out. The dogroom is 16x24 and Nina had no trouble finding the box when she was back there playing with the pack. I don't think she has ever had an accident. 

Her sister's owners changed to piddle pads with little trouble by putting some of the litter she was used to on the pads to start with.

It's most important to start training as early as possible, like when the mother can no longer keep up with cleanup duty. It's all about establishing a habit. There is no reasoning on their part at an early age. They must NEVER learn that stepping in it is okay or to let it fly any kind of way.


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## murphymoesmamma (Apr 1, 2009)

Oh my goodness Tom. Be still my heart. Your little Nina is just gorgeous. I so want one of your puppies some day!


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## LochTess (Aug 22, 2009)

Nina is too ADORABLE for words!!!

PLEASE hold me back...


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## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

Update: When I posted this to start with, Nina had found what we thought was a good home and Pam went for a visit. Long story short, it didn't turn out quite as good as it sounded so Pam brought her back home. But now she has found an absolutely fabulous home.

Some good friends of ours here on the lake have been looking for their first dog for a couple of years. They are a very active, recently retired couple who have worked with us on several fund raising arts and house tours over the past few years. They had the very idealistic view that it was more noble to adopt a rescue dog but they had to learn the hard way about how that actually works out.

They had been for several visits to see our dogs over the past couple of years but had that belief that it was better to not buy a dog from a breeder. We never held this against them. They are very intelligent and successful, but I guess all the advertising against breeders does have an effect. Finally, after the last dog didn't work out, they came to see us again and we gave them Nina for a trial. They had a long list of what they wanted in an ideal dog and Nina fit every item to a tee. Long story short again, they absolutely fell in love with her and even decided to keep her temporary name as her permanent name.

Nina now has the run of an unbelieveable house and yard right on the water on a point with no traffic anywhere near them. The new owners have done everything we told them how to do as far as training goes and Nina is just thriving.


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## Kathie (Jul 31, 2008)

Puppy was right - you did do good! Glad to hear that Nina has found her forever home and such a nice one to boot!


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## marjrc (Jan 13, 2007)

Great news, Tom!


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## galaxie (Dec 1, 2009)

:clap2: yaay! Nina sounds like she has a great new home!


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## irnfit (Nov 21, 2006)

Great news, Tom. Hope we can get an update picture of her now and then.


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