Poochy's Update

Hi, 

It is the middle of the week today! I know work is so tiring and mind-numbing sometimes I just dazed in the bus and almost didn't wake up from my daze in time to get down (that's 30 minutes of work transit, mind you!). Sometimes, I really love to wind down with my doggy and videos of random silly pets. And that's why I decided to do this post. I love to see how much my little puppy has grown and boy, did she grow up fast!! 

This was taken like almost 5 months ago! Note: her fur was slightly scruffy and she had a pathetic tail (I always thought it looks ugly like a rat's! I may love her but I am not blind.) Her ears were starting to grow and her fur is dark brown with light undertone. (she blends into the carpet, which I had to remove during her toilet training!!)

She loves rubbing against people's leg and somehow looks like a furball when she does that (More like a cat than a dog) *heart melts like butter* 

Doesn't she look like a giant rat from a certain angle? :P

I briefly regretted her because she was shedding her cute puppy fur and I contemplated whether she would grow up more uglier than cute... but now.... ta da~! Her puppy fur is all gone now and her once downcast ears are now all perky and high. Her coat of fur has also changed color from dark brown to light cream colour. A lot of friends would compliment her and then say,'I prefer golden retriever' or 'When I get a pet, I would get a golden retriever instead.' I'm way past being offended by now because when you love someone, you just love them for what and who they are, I don't see why only golden retriever deserves to be love.

Poochy may not be pure breed but her difference makes her special and one of a kind. She has this funny two strand of hair at each end of her ears. So cute~! The cutest thing (can't quite capture on camera) is her slightly crinkled fur near the edge of her ears!! I didn't know this kind of hair/fur grows naturally!! 

You might actually notice the crinkled fur by her ears in this picture! (she accompanies me during my weekly fiction read, warms my heart and my bum)

But, doggies comes with a lot of responsibilities. It should not be taken lightly. For example, Poochy gets so destructive when I couldn't walk her during the week. *Sigh* It can't be help, thanks to winter with the shorter days and long transit time between work and *insert more excuses*, it takes a lot of patience and understanding to accommodate her needs as well as my own.

In order to curb her boredom and frustration, I bought her a bone to chew instead of letting her destroy her own bed and her toys. Quite effective. 

If you'd like to see more of Poochy's video, follow me on Instagram (@jellzter)~! Videos of my pet brings a smile to my face, and I hope it can bring one to yours too. :)

Happy mid of the week~! 

My Pomeranian Adventure

Do you remember my previous blog bomb? All about my pomeranian puppy called Poochy? I posted her pics on Instagram and garnered more comments and like compared to my own camho shots. But that's ok cause she can be so cute sometimes. Ya, sometimes!!

When I bought her back for the first time, she was a tiny fur ball weighting at just 1kg and in a short 2 months time, she had grown to double that weight. During that short period of time, she had gone through a week of tummy upset, diarrhea and vomiting. Then she had rebounded full of energy and curiosity.

It was week 2-3 when I started potty training her and it was such a long process. Puppies have small bladder and it is estimated that they can only hold their pee 1 hour for each month. So, if she is 2 months old, she could probably hold her pee for 2 hours and so forth. And they might need to pee every time after a meal and upon waking up. So, I had to set a stopwatch for every hour. If she peed before the time is up, then I need to wait for the next. If she haven't, then I would have to bring her outside and wait till she pees. Since she also doesn't know she has to poo outside, I have to wake up early morning to make sure she was brought outside to perform her pooping ceremony ( which includes bounding up and down, biting random sticks and stones she found in the garden, chewing on my shoes, and eventually poop). As per the instructions online and guidance by the instructors during puppy school, I bring her in immediately after she pee/poo. Maybe that was the reason why she decided to hold 'em in till the very last minute (sometimes for an hour!!) before doing her business because that way she can play outside longer!

Then the next step was house breaking her... before she break my house!! Before this, my friend did warned me to be careful with my furniture so I took an inventory and thought 'hmm... nothing to bite here' but boy was I wrong! She bite my wall cabinets, the edges of my sofa bed and even the floor skirting  I am just grateful that it all were old and probably time for a change soon anyway.

As if not bad enough, she also took to biting me. At first it was the toe, she seemed to have a love/hate relationship with it, poking small holes around my pinky toe. Then when I sat on the sofa bed and she'd learnt to climbed on top of the sofa bed, she took to biting my hair! ('So you think your hair is better than mine, bitch! Take that! and that and that!') She was crazy! So each time she began her erratic behavior, off to the dungeon room she goes. But she wasn't repentant. No... She was a quick learner so when I say 'no' and bent down to pick her up, she scuttled under the sofa bed way beyond my reach. Her look was all 'Can't touch me! Nyeh Nyeh~!'. I did a lot of tactic like saying 'no' with a growl or spraying water to flicking her nose, lightly hitting her snout and feeding her ice (to soothe teething) but it all seems very temporal solution.

My worst wound so far: A deep gash along the length of my thumb's nail

My feet was born not pretty, now it only gets hideous

I bite everything I see

 I asked some fellow pet owners I met during puppy class whether they had the same experience, most told me that their puppy would bite stuff but seldom bite people. And she was lovely in front of everyone she met outside but a devil at home so I got worried that somehow some time I must have trained her wrongly that my puppy hates me.

Not only is she biting, but she is also barking at full force too. One of my earliest memory of our family dog was that we got worried that our puppy would not know how to bark as it is removed from its mother at a young age so we always bark at the puppy so it will learn? Thinking back, it sounds ridiculous. But I have no problem with this one. She was quick to bark and whenever she got surprised or frightened, she barked. Which turns out to be quite often. She also knows how to howl and emit a low growl (especially when she saw her own reflection, talk about self image issues!). I remember one early morning (around 2-3am), I awoke to her barking and I got worried because my neighbors are seniors and it would probably affect their sleep. So I force myself out of my cozy bed to appease her. But she kept barking even when I was in her room, so I found some soothing music for dogs (yes, they are available. Especially for dogs. Amazing) on youtube to try and relax her but she still continued barking. Then I tried coodling her, still she barked. In the end, I got impatient and I threw her a pork bone which she chowed down so happily and remained silent till sunrise. So, I guess she was hungry after all? lol...

And speaking of eating, this one is one picky eater! During her tummy upset period, the vet recommended a canned food that contained rice and chicken meat and she liked it so much. Soon after she got well, I stopped feeding that canned food and continued with eukanuba's dried food for puppies but she didn't want it at all. She would pick a few and choose to go hungry. Hungry means cranky and cranky means she could be such a bitch at times (pun intended). So I had to resort to canned food but this time I chose a cheaper version but she likes it, good enough. So, I consulted the vet and he said small breed dogs can be very picky eater sometimes (as compared to my old mutts, they eat everything except their shit). So I told him it is not like she has impeccable taste or something, she doesn't want eukanuba's dried food but she sometimes eat her own dried shit (which also explains why I DO NOT kiss her). He assured me that it is alright, as long as she is regularly dewormed and vaccinated, she can stomach it. 

All in all, I was a nervous pet owner. Partly because there are strict regulations for dog owners in Australia and also she was the first puppy I ever bought. I never met a pomeranian pup owner in the puppy classes so far, so I was comparing my puppy with other breeds (german shepherd, staffy, jack russell, poodles, etc). I got worried when she can't control her bladder when she gets excited; I got worried when she doesn't finish her food; I got worried when she plays with her own shit; I got worried when she forget everything I trained her when she sees other strangers/dogs. I also got worried that cross breeding of a pomeranian and a papillon has resulted in a much unpredictable temperamental puppy. So worrying~!

But after reading Bubz's take on her own pomeranian, I have to accept that different breeds have different characteristic and we have to work around it. This is the first pup that I spent so much money and effort in understanding and providing for her, like how she communicates and how to train her. And most importantly, I did it alone so it gets quite overwhelming especially since puppy have a short attention span anyway. I can play fetch with her one moment and then she will be alright and then after the fourth or fifth throw, she would scuttle somewhere else, distracted by some foreign sound or object. Or she would be alright playing with her own toys by herself one moment and the next moment biting my exposed toe under my study table. 

In the middle of a game of fetch, she went to investigate something else 

But I guess there are times when I would feel like all the effort and time are worth it; those rare moments when she does something so endearing that you forgave all the wrong she had done and just enjoy her company. Like when I sat in front of my tv and she climbed up the couch with her toy and proceeded to push herself real close to me while chewing her toy. Or the time when I go outside to potty train her but she runs around to look for new stuff and when she found it she bought it back and then sat on my toes while chewing her new found toy. Or the countless time she just rubs herself against me like a cat! wtf! 

It is sometimes hard to accept who they are in exchange for who you expect them to be and equally or even harder to be patient. Sometimes, I have to remind myself that she is only 16 weeks old and had just finish her  vac shot and that she already knows how to come, sit, down, stay (a bit) and still learning. I have to remind myself that although she bites my furniture, she did not bite my shoes even though I just simply placed them on the floor. Although she bites me, she doesn't seem to bite anyone else which makes me look good on the outside. People are sure to say ... 

'Aw... your pet is so adorable! So sweet!'

But most importantly, I love her and sometimes that is all that matters. Take one small step one day at a time. 

Poochy lessons

Hi all!

I have been pretty preoccupied since Poochy, my little pup joined my family. She got sick recently and I had to bring her to see a vet and when I saw the nurse wrote her name as Poochy Liaw, it just dawned on me that she is legally part of my family now! (And that my hubby is probably gonna ask me why I didn't use his surname. If you are reading this, sorry. I thought the nurse wanted my surname so she can call me into the vet's office but it turned out she called out Poochy). 

Ever since I have Poochy around the house, there has not been a dull day but it is definitely tiring at times. She is like this hyperactive little furball that looks like a mouse, a beaver and a rabbit sometimes (that's what I call value for money). Having her around also made me realise a few life lessons, example...

#1 If you are cute, you'd probably be able to get away with most things. Even public urination!

'I am a walking poo poo and pee pee machine!' 

She is so cute but she has yet to be properly toilet trained so I had to clean up her poo poo and pee pee. 

Some more, she was sick last few days and she suffered diarrhea and vomit so it was very tedious to clean up. But while she was sick, I realised how much she had wedged herself into my heart that I couldn't bear to have her die. 

#2 But even if you are cute, there is one thing that you'd probably couldn't get away with (apart from murder, I think) like whining and complaining.

'Hold me please'

For the first few days, she kept whining every time I leave her alone to sleep. She was so good at it that she could get it going for 3 hours straight. *headache and heartache* Honestly, I couldn't much tolerate it even though she could be so cute when she does it. So, I am training her to be alone by herself with her toys at the moment. Now, when she wants me to hold her, she sits down right infront of me and give me THAT face. I don't think anyone could resist that look. Much improvement! 

#3 How to encourage good behavior!

So I enrolled her in puppy pre-school last week and I really felt that it was very beneficial for both of us. The main lesson that I learnt and I think can be brought forward to many aspects of our lives (mainly motherhood) would be how to encourage good behaviors. I guess coming from a strict asian family, my parents (mostly dad, anyway) have always resorted to punishing bad behaviors while good behaviors are often ignored (maybe a nod of approval but definitely no nice spicy chicken wings as reward). But during this class, I learnt that in order to encourage good behavior, always use the reward system. When the puppy is misbehaving, break eye contact to indicate disapproval and turn around to ignore. When the puppy does something good, make eye contact, compliment, and reward it. Puppy is such an attention seeker that sooner or later they will catch on to what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. 

Using this method, I will tend to notice when she is behaving correctly to reward her and honestly that feels much better than trying to find out when she is misbehaving and then punishing her. It is a more positive experience and helps bring us together. 

Ok, that is all from Poochy and me. Looking forward to Xmas! 

Take care and wish you score all the good xmas deals you dream of! 

How I got my first Pomeranian cross pup

Ok, I blamed it all on maternal hormones that kicks in after you are in a relationship for too long. Most normal couples (especially after getting married some more) would actually start baby making process but I chose instead to embark on puppy hunting process. 

Most of the time, I was like this.... 

I dare you not to say 'aw...' when you see pics of puppies like this... 

Or this... 

Or this... 

I even cried a bit when I see these pics. They are so cute!! I feel like cuddling them and never letting them go!! But my puppy hunt wasn't all that touching, it got a bit heart wrenching, actually. 

I heard about puppy farms and was determined not to get a puppy that was farmed illegally but then registered breeder costs a ton! And so I tried to set my sight to adopt stray, unwanted or rescued puppies. I will be honest, they weren't that cute. The cute ones were gone like hot cakes! 

Then a friend of mine suggested gumtree so I searched around for puppies in gumtree. Let me tell you, that was the most heart wrenching one. I will not recommend that place to anyone who are seriously looking for a pup. All the time I was there, 60% of the people doesn't reply, 5% of the pups advertised has been taken (it is like quick sale going on there!) and 15% of the time someone set up pranks or hoax ads to cheat good people to call up other good people and waste both of their times. And that leaves 20% right? Well, the hard truth was that 20% of the time, I couldn't afford the price that they were charging for the pup. Sad, right? (Y U NO CHEAPER??) Plus don't know whether the puppies are from illegal farm. 

So sad in fact, I actually cried.

Funny how I have been hunting for a few months now and I have yet to venture into a pet store. So hubby suggested we take a look one day. We promised each other that this would only serve as a survey mostly and we wouldn't get any pups today. But one look at the female pomeranian x papillon and I was lost. LOST! Well, luck has it that she is not for sale till the very next day because she needs to receive her first vac shot but the next day would be the day we are travelling!! So, we asked the cashier whether they could reserve the puppy for us but they won't. So sad, offering them money also wouldn't help! Got money also don't want to do business! Damn! 

The day we got back (2 days after), we touched down in Perth at 7pm (after 5-6 hours flight!) and we rushed to the pet store. See, SOO dedicated! And would you believe it? She was still there! (One of her sibling was sold though so I really felt relieved that she was still there). As hubby said, since she was still there, maybe she was meant for us after all. 

See, how cute? Poochy (that's what we named her) in her new bed~! 

Poochy with her chew toy but I think she prefers to chew every other thing as well! (especially my toes!)

Poochy's soft toy, ENGIBEAR! (In case you don't know, it means engineer bear! :P)

Poochy with her soft toy (Engibear!!) and pink blanket and chew toy at the corner!

Poochy with her pink blanket

Poochy ala racoon style

The thought that she was meant for us sounded sweet in the first two days, but days afterwards when I had to clean up after her shit and urine and also endured her relentless biting and crying (when left alone), I am sure that was too romantic a thought! 

 I still love her though