Take a look at the love of my life.
The other guy is my husband.
Just kidding, honey. 😉
I am not a dog person. Not that I don’t like dogs, especially small ones. But I never fancied myself the type that would treat a dog like it was a human member of the family. And then I met Chewii.
If you’re not one of those dog people, you probably want to stop now.
We picked her up last weekend. I agreed to get a dog when we moved, and we thought we wanted a slightly older dog and a small breed. And then I met Chewii. She’s a little less than 4 months old, and a Border Collie mix so while she won’t be huge, she won’t be tiny either (we’re thinking around 30 lbs., give or take, as an adult).
The girls named her. No, it has nothing to do with Star Wars. When we met her, she was fascinated with the leather strap of my purse and kept trying to gnaw on it as puppies do. I imagine Laini’s contribution to the name was the spelling, to throw in a reference to her favorite video game.
Against any measure of common sense, we took her home last weekend, knowing full well that Eric was leaving for a 5 day trip the following day. The good news is that Chewii and I have had a chance to really bond. She’s 11 lbs. of pure love. The bad news is that I already forgot what it was like to have a moment to myself. Thankfully, she has gotten into the habit of passing out for a few hours nap as soon as the girls leave for school in the morning. I get my time off when I go to San Francisco next week for Dreamforce.
Having experience both ways, puppies are harder than newborns. At least the human babies wear diapers and don’t require you to go outside in the middle of nor’easters.
Judi Sohn 
9 responses to “Love at first lick”
The good news is that while puppies are a lot of work, that period of time lasts a LOT less than for human babies. 🙂 She’ll be self-sufficient way sooner than you think. Glad you are enjoying her. Puppies are amazing!
Congratulations! We are dog people. Puppies are like 1 year olds – they need constant watching, consistent ‘discipline’ like taking them out every few hours and praising them when they do what they’re supposed to do outside, or whenever they do something you want to encourage. Not enough space for puppy info I’d like to pass on but finding some puppy training info online would be one suggestion and I have to strongly suggest basic obedience training. Not only does the puppy learn but more importantly, the owners learn! You’ll need consistency in the words or commands your whole family uses. You don’t want some family members saying “down” to mean get off the couch and others saying ‘off’ as one example. It will be worth it, believe me. Being part border collie she will learn quickly and will be herding the children in no time. 🙂 The chewing part could be a problem unless you keep her safe in an area when no one is at home. I’m sure you’ve seen shows of dogs who have chewed table legs, couches, shoes, anything they could reach.
Finally, I suggest looking into pet insurance. We have it on both our dogs and we usually get something back from most of our vet visits so it has been worth it.
Enjoy!
Thanks, Rick.
I’m already starting to see that herding instinct come out.
Training is going pretty well. Her outdoor successes are outnumbering her indoor accidents by a wide margin and it’s only been 5 days.
As for obedience training, we’re way ahead of you. We’re all already registered for “Puppy School” beginning November 16. I was laughing with the teacher when I registered her that Chewii already has my family completely figured out, we need the classes to teach my kids how to deal with HER.
We’ve found that she loves the Kong line of dog toys. They’re sturdy enough for her and when she chews on what she’s not supposed to, we say “no” firmly and replace whatever it is with her Kong wubby which is usually enough to distract her.
Where do you get your insurance? We’re still undecided. As it is, she had a yeast infection in her ears and has already cost us $90 in medications.
Judi, she is SO very adorable! I have two dogs of my own that yes, are totally treated like people. Maybe you should sneak her on the plane to Austin for Summit next month – I’ll puppy sit for you : )
Ha, Jordan! I guess I forgot to mention the fact that she gets carsick? I can barely get her to the vet without a mess in the kennel, I can only imagine her on an airplane!
P.S. Vet says that next time I should try keeping her occupied with a treat-filled Kong (rubber chew toy) and maybe she won’t puke as much.
Now you can watch the Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic channel for all the great tips. Cesar Milan has an amazing way of looking at dog/people behavior. check his website too.
Two dogs adopted us; Sage, a 70# collie/chou/created by committee, and Shadow 30# border collie/lab/?? mix. Sage went back to where she was a neighborhood stray mom and brought back her best buddie. She must have told him we fed her well for 3 days.
We were heartbroken when Sage was no where to be found until she turned up a day later with her surrogate son.
Hi Judy: we use Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) here’s the link. http://www.petinsurance.com/index.aspx It was offered through work, we’ve had it for many years now, we probably compared plans at the beginning but we’ve been happy with them so haven’t compared recently.
Hope she grows out of the car sickness.
Glad she’s doing well and you’re all ready to get trained on how to do what she wants!
We know all about ears – Have a German Shepherd that has the classic stand up ears and he has some allergies. You can actually smell when the ears need some cleaning. Floppy ears, straight up ears, you never know which ones are worse for ear problems!
Play with her feet so she’ll get used to you and let you clip her nails if you’re so inclined..
Hi mom!
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