Happy Hump Day!
I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep, so here I am at 120 am.
Puppies have been named. The apricot is Misiu, and the fawn is Rayleigh
in keeping with the Ripple (water), Echo (sound), Rayleigh (earth) wave theme.
My son chose that name, would not be my choice, but it’s growing on me.
My friend who went with me to get the puppies said she would buy Rayleigh if keeping two puppies is too hard. It’s hard, but not hard enough that we want to get rid of one. I think she is disappointed. She has two dogs already though and her husband would probably kill her.
The nanny took the pups out of the carrier and Rayleigh christened my friend, had her shirt soaked. Maybe he was staking a claim?
So far, they are good, just take a lot of time and attention.
You can’t put puppies out; you have to take them out. Housebreaking has been a bit challenging with two of them, because we can’t get both of them out of the house fast enough.
Shar Pei usually housebreak themselves, so I wasn’t expecting this much trouble. Yesterday was our first nobody peed in the house day.
I’m spending a lot of time outside now, so not as much computer time.
It’s fun to watch them play, and they are still clumsy.
They will sleep through the night IF I don’t get up. If I get up, they wake up. Then my son will grab one and run them downstairs to go out and run back up to get the other one and take him out.
When my son is irking, like now, I’ll sleep downstairs because there is no way I am rushing down the stairs while carrying a puppy.
Not with my knees.
Both are good at bedtime. They will jump on me a little and then when I say bedtime, they go to their side of the bed and sleep.
These are big pups too. Ripple and Echo weighed about 8 pounds at 8 weeks. Misiu was almost 14.85 pounds at his vet check on Friday, and Rayleigh was 12.75. According to a puppy growth chart, Misiu will be 90 pounds as an adult. Shar Pei aren’t supposed to get that big.
Echo is coming around.
At first if they came anywhere near her, she growled at them.
She tries to play with them from time to time, but their play levels don’t match yet.
The breeder sent 3 cow? hooves, one for each. Echo gathered up all three and claimed them as hers.
She has a very annoying habit of dropping her treat in front of the puppies and standing over it so she can growl at the boys if they get too close.
I’m sure she does it on purpose.
The breeder says as long as she isn’t physically hurting the puppies, let her be. She is establishing dominance, and let her do it.
However, she and the pups have started kissy face with each other.
The boys are crazy. They will eat out of the same bowl, even though there is an identical bowl right next to it. They push each other out of the way, and if you put one in front of the other bowl, it doesn’t matter. They want the same bowl at the same time.
Their little personalities are coming out. Rayleigh is bolder, pushier, and hates to be picked up. He usually wants to go out and come right back in after he’s done his thing. Misiu loves to be held, and likes to be outside.
No damage to anything, YET.
My son complains about the puppies, but I remind of how Ripple was a Very Bad Puppy. He was so bad that several times I thought about sending him back. He grew up and became a Very Good Dog. Echo was never really bad because Ripple was a good big brother who kept her busy and out of trouble.
I’m working on getting pics. They don’t stay still long enough to get some good ones.
Now I have to get ready to pick up my son. He’s supposed to get off around 3.
The puppies are sleeping and I hate to wake them, but they will get up with me anyway. They need to go into the puppy playpen while I am gone. I can’t handle taking all three with me yet.
Still, good sleep - I made it till almost 6 with only one middle-of-the-night stroll to the facilities.
These days our most-used quotes are “Always double tap” and “Pick up the gun!”
).