Oh my gosh. I don't even know where to start to pick up from when I last blogged. We had family visit, graduation, christmas, casino night and brought home puppies. Yes, puppies.
Let's start with the puppies becuase I know everyone just wants to see pictures of them. Let me answer some of the frequently most asked questions.
Question: Why do you have two puppies? What made you decide to get puppies?
Answer: Well Stephen has wanted a dog for the longest time. He brought it up often. I always said no or said I'd have to think about it becuase I grew up with a cat. I'm not really a dog person so I wasn't really jumping at the chance to actively go and pick out a dog to adopt. Plus dogs take a lot of work. Basically, we've talked about it, thought about it, slept on it, etc. Well, right before Christmas a friend at work told me that she's getting a puppy from my other coworker whose dog had a litter of eight. She was just giving them away, first come, first serve. I had her send me pictures of which ones were left and they were so cute. I texted Stephen and he pretty much melted. I told my coworker to "put them on hold" for us. Stephen and I talked really seriously about it for one night and decided that we would take the last two. That way when we were gone at work, they could have a buddy. These two speckled sisters are now bringing us much joy and at times, a bit of stress.
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| First night home, 6 weeks old. |
Question: What kind of puppies are they? What is their breed?
Answer: They are an Austrailian Shepherd mix. We do not know what the mix part is becuase the mommy dog literally got knocked up on the streets as I like to say. It'd be interesting to get them DNA tested to find out, but I dont know how much that costs
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| Mocha, 6 weeks |
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| Pepper, 6 weeks |
Question: Are you crate training them?
Answer: We are now! At first, before we had a crate for them, I was keeping them both gated in the entryway. It's the most puppy proof area of the house. I felt they were too young to be separated from eachother all day long. Well one day I came home to utter destruction of their "room". The taped down potty pads were torn up, there was pee everywhere, and they had even removed the wooden threshold. That night I ordered separate crates. Once they arrived I decided to just put one crate in the entry way and one in the hallway and gate them both off in seperate areas. I thought "okay, you're more comfortable in your surroundings now so I'm going to separate you two, but still give you each a little home (crate), a potty area, and some play space". Everything was going just fine (other than some puppy whining) until one of them jumped the baby gate and roamed my house all day. So I switched them until a few days later, that one also jumped the baby gate. Now they are crated separately during the day and that seems to be working out well now that they are older. At night, I let them sleep together in the entryway. Everyone is happy if we do that.
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| Utter destruction of their "room" |
Question: Do they like to cuddle?
Answer: Yes! But mostly when they are winding down and getting tired.
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| Puppy cuddles! |
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| More puppy cuddles. |
Question: How are they different from eachother?
Answer: Mocha is smaller, has shorter hair, a black tail and has brown spots along with black and white. She gets nervous and shakes around new people and in the car. She's quieter and doesn't bark as much or as loud, but she's usually the one crying for whatever reason. She is less dominant but can intstigate chasing or biting just as much as Pepper will. She's sweet and takes her time eating, falls asleep first and relaxes better.
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| Mocha, 9 weeks |
Answer: Pepper is bigger, has fluffy hair, a brown tail and is mostly black and white. She is the alpha female and will steal a toy from Mocha even if she is already playing with the same exact toy. She learned to bark first and barks loudly. She is always the first to finish eating and is easily distracted by her sister or the grass.
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| Pepper, 9 weeks |
Question: Do they know any commands.
Answer: As in in the picture below, they can sit when you tell them to, but you need to be holding a treat!
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| They are only sitting becuase I'm holding a treat. |
