And Yet Another Puppy Post!

Robin lost two teeth today! She has a goofy gap-toothed grin as her two front lower baby teeth fell out. She probably swallowed them. But teething is a way serious issue for little dogs: wake up and let the chewing begin! Here's another action shot:

Yes, that's an actual, untouched photo of her mouth in action. But just when you exclaim, "What were we thinking?" and decide that little Robin was pick of the litter at Satan's Puppy Mill, she falls asleep on your stomach and has delicate puppy dreams and is all warm and squishy..

That all occurs in the space of three minutes. It does keep you on your toes. (Of course, an entire blog entry and inquiry could easily be devoted to considering just what a puppy dreams about. Robin has been alive a grand total of fifteen or sixteen weeks and would not seem to have a huge range of life experiences. But dream she does: howling and twitching and eyes rolling wildly. Curious!) But she is a grade a student when it comes to house training. Not one accident yesterday at all!
But I have a vet appointment today for puppy booster shots and an ear check (seems to be shaking her head and rubbing her ears). I realized that with the exception of the harrowing eight hour odyssey that she endured on her Pennsylvania to Connecticut adventure, she has no car experience. So I bundled her into the car, thinking to drive around the block and prepare her for Thursday's excursion. No sooner had I rounded the first bend than I thought, "Gee, she's awfully quiet" and I glanced into the rear view mirror to see her nose becoming visibly longer and pointier and well, greener (no mean trick for a black puppy!) and her tongue came out and she drooled prodigiously and the next thing I knew her lunch was on the seat along side her. Poor little Robin! We'll see how she fares today on a half hour journey...
But despite the puppy preoccupation, she's a good kid and has been helpful while I clean up the garden. She likes carrying sticks around and has done a fine job of jumping on the piles of leaves I've raked. She's been really good in my studio, too, where there is no end of excitement and danger. Bob and I are both preparing for a show upcoming at The Trailer Box Project in Danbury. I think Bob's pretty much on top of things, but I lost a month when mourning Jules and have a bit of catching up to do. (Mostly sewing backings on pieces and tweaking a book I hope to complete). Thank the stars that Robin has been mostly cooperative!

More Puppy Appearances and What to Eat for St. Patrick's Day

There have been repeated calls for more pictures of our charmer Robin. But she is in constant motion when awake and looks very much like a black blur. Once asleep, however, she presents a calmer study, although her penchant for sleeping on her back provides us with eccentric shots, like the one above. Crashed out indeed!
Robin has progressed nicely in the house training department. She had a single accident (liquid) yesterday but we have mastered the rapid evacuation out the door two seconds after she finishes eating so we seem to have the solids department under control. Bob maintains she's the smartest puppy we've ever had. She is a quick study but I am currently more aware of the sharpness of all those little puppy teeth.

This is the Noble Seated Robin. There is a quality about her that's mature. I mean, look at that face: she does present as a grown dog. That is, when she's not biting and chasing her tail and running around like the little banshee she really is...

Here's the other side. I think she was watching Maggie- everything that Maggie does is fascinating to Robin. The other night, Maggie decided to play Rodeo Girl and run, bucking and snorting ferociously
from one end of her pasture to the other. Robin was terrified but couldn't look away. Robin is fascinated by everything; she's only 14 weeks old, so everything is new.
But lest I forget, it IS St. Patrick's Day and Bob and I are in a quandary about what to eat. Many vegetables are green but we don't eat beef so corned beef is out of the question. Pea soup? If anyone has any ideas, send them along. In the meantime, Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Liquids and Solids

Yes, I stole the title for this post from a book someone else wrote ages ago, about their dog and (you can guess) the excitement involved in house training. Get it? It's all about liquids and solids. Bob and have had more discussions in the past week about canine bodily functions than most people have in an entire life. I have taken to keeping a note pad, complete with time and location of puppy byproducts. It certainly makes for fascinating reading!
Robin- despite having arrived at our house 100% NOT house trained- is doing remarkably well. She sleeps most of the night and it is me that rouses her at 2:30 or 3:00 to make a little trip outside to eliminate so no surprises happen on the bedroom floor. She is smart and doing a good job.
But she has been most unhappy when we attempt to leave her alone, an unacceptable state to a young dog! Let's face it: her entire thirteen week existence has been in the presence of her mother and litter mates and the other adult dogs at the breeder's house. So she has had zero experience on her own and has protested in all kinds of inventive ways. She sings, she howls, she leaves the above mentioned liquids and solids, obviously signalling her displeasure.
And she has proven to be quite the escape artist! Bob and I barricaded her in the kitchen (with plenty of toys ad blankets and reading material appropriate to her age and interests) but she pushed through a three foot high plywood partition blocked by kitchen chairs with ease. We then made a four foot high barrier on the stairway, with a board wedging the barrier tight. Somehow our little Robin- in an imitation of Spider Man- scaled or flew over this obstruction, and Bob found her upstairs. He sent an incredulous email to me at work. I dreaded coming home, and we both worried she'd hurt herself trying to escape the stockade that our house now resembled.

(The pictures, by the way, are of the very end of Robin's very funny tail. It looks like an etch-a-sketch drawing of a dog's tail, except at the end where there is this eccentric little twizzle. Totally endearing!) In any event, today we debated crate training (I've always been opposed) and Thunder Shirts (supposed to wrap the dog in a snug embrace and relieve anxiety) but decided to live dangerously and just leave her with the run of the kitchen and the upstairs hallway. We went out to run errands, hoping that she'd be happier with more room to situate herself where she felt secure and comfortable.
We came home and she was okay: at the top of the stairway squeaking and looking a bit perturbed, but happier than she had been. I went out again this afternoon, and Bob was in his studio, leaving Robin on her own once more. And do you know, she was once again better off with more run of the house... and no surprises in the form of the famous liquids and solids to clean up! Maybe we've found the charm.

Welcome to the First Robin of Spring!

There she is... Robin! A glamorous puppy- our puppy! We are expecting her to be delivered by the stork (actually a dog delivery service) early tomorrow morning. I took a vacation day off from work to be here for the delivery. I requested that it be noted as "Maternity Leave" from work! I had tried to get her delivered on Wednesday or Thursday (my typical days off) so that Bob wouldn't have to play Single Parent (with all the accompanying little surprises like accidents and chewed objects) but when it became obvious that Robin was coming on Friday morning, I decided to rearrange my schedule.

I can't wait to meet her. She has gotten raves from the breeder (who actually considered keeping her out of the litter) and she looks perfect. Mother and Father dogs (Chloe, and Gunnar, respectively) are "pure breds" but fortunately, neither is a popular breed (like Poodles or Labs) and therefore not over bred. Chloe is a Blue Long Haired Weimeraner and Gunnar is a Llewellin Setter (the Field (ie, hunting) version of the English Setter). Don't even get me started on all the weird genetic disorders that plague popular dogs! Goldens are now considered (along with Yellow Labs) the dumb blondes of the dog world, not to mention that they now frequently die of cancer and suffer from heart ailments at alarming rates. So, no pure breds (whatever the fuck that is anyway!) for us!

Here she is, vogue-ing again. I can't wait to be photographing her in our backyard... her empire!
I miss Jules so much that it's astonishing. But I am hopeful and certain that having a new she-devil in the house will help to heal the gigantic hole left in our lives.
I'll post updates!