For years I have juggled as a single parent.... juggled the childcare, the housework, the social life (what social life I'm too exhausted!), my business as the sole provider for the family, being the carer for my dad and obviously that is all too easy - so let's throw a spanner in the works!
I decided it would be really cool - now I had mastered everything else and the kids were a bit older - to get a puppy. Deep breath - I can hear you all tutting at me.... I know but it seemed a really great idea!
I grew up with English Bull Terriers, they are a fabulous breed that are so ugly they are beautiful! Their majestic Roman noses, their muscular stance - the fact that you can pat them properly instead of a fur-ball flying across the room when you so much as breath on them! The advert said "big boned bitch" - I thought "that's me!" so pup selected and date for collection arranged, I started to dog-proof the garden. Hammer, chicken wire, sore thumbs, job done! Children excited, off we go to collect her. A guinae-pig sized pup, piglet faced, ears not standing up and a happy little soul. She didn't like the first 10 minutes of the car ride then sleep - I'd forgotten how much noise babies make!!!!
The breeder had said "She's fine overnight, we haven't paper trained her, she'll ask to go out!" I thought "8 weeks old? OK, we'll see!" First night, OK - she asked to go out at 1.30am then slept again until 6.30am - "OK" I thought, "we'll see!" Second night - 4 hours sleep, third night every 2 hours! Enough - puppy bootcamp and earplugs pending, but she was fabulous - slept through (and if she didn't, I didn't hear her!)
The breeder had said "She has 3 meals a day with the last one being at 11pm when my hubby goes to work!" That changed, poor little mutt doesn't want to go to bed on a full belly - that's how poo is made in the night! The breeder allowed the pups to sleep on top of her and her husband when he lay on the sofa watching TV - no wonder the pups were full of self importance!
Holly (the pup) decided that SHE was the top dog in her new home and started to exert her authority - never seen anything like it. She systematically bit (not nipped but bit) every single one of us - she cornered my daugher and scared the living bageebers out of her and by the end of the first week I called my friend, the local dog warden, for assistance. A no-nonsense dot of a strawberry blonde - who the maddest Rottweiller wouldn't cross - soon had Holly in hand! Another week on and we have a totally different pup... still nippy but not aggressive. Playful and fun - currently curled up at my feet snoring - and an absolute delight.
There has been an interesting shift in power and hierarchy since Holly arrived, she has realised that she is further down the "pack pecking order" than me or my daughter, is slipping below my son and has started being naughty with my father who is a wheelchair user! Whilst I shouldn't laugh the funniest sight ever was as I burst into my fathers room in response to shouts and thuds, snarls and barks. Holly had decided to sit under Dad's wheelchair, he hadn't wanted to move in case he ran over her tail. Putting his hand down to pull her out she bit him, then started nipping at his slippers. His response (I think a little scared) was to roll up a newspaper and try to tap the dog on the nose when she went to nip his feet. Picture this - snarling, barking puppy (thinking it a great game) being swiped at by my elderly father with a newspaper whilst alternating each leg kicking it out like he was Goosestepping! Have to say if the video camera had been handy I would have certainly been £250 better off!!!!!!!
I decided it would be really cool - now I had mastered everything else and the kids were a bit older - to get a puppy. Deep breath - I can hear you all tutting at me.... I know but it seemed a really great idea!
I grew up with English Bull Terriers, they are a fabulous breed that are so ugly they are beautiful! Their majestic Roman noses, their muscular stance - the fact that you can pat them properly instead of a fur-ball flying across the room when you so much as breath on them! The advert said "big boned bitch" - I thought "that's me!" so pup selected and date for collection arranged, I started to dog-proof the garden. Hammer, chicken wire, sore thumbs, job done! Children excited, off we go to collect her. A guinae-pig sized pup, piglet faced, ears not standing up and a happy little soul. She didn't like the first 10 minutes of the car ride then sleep - I'd forgotten how much noise babies make!!!!
The breeder had said "She's fine overnight, we haven't paper trained her, she'll ask to go out!" I thought "8 weeks old? OK, we'll see!" First night, OK - she asked to go out at 1.30am then slept again until 6.30am - "OK" I thought, "we'll see!" Second night - 4 hours sleep, third night every 2 hours! Enough - puppy bootcamp and earplugs pending, but she was fabulous - slept through (and if she didn't, I didn't hear her!)
The breeder had said "She has 3 meals a day with the last one being at 11pm when my hubby goes to work!" That changed, poor little mutt doesn't want to go to bed on a full belly - that's how poo is made in the night! The breeder allowed the pups to sleep on top of her and her husband when he lay on the sofa watching TV - no wonder the pups were full of self importance!
Holly (the pup) decided that SHE was the top dog in her new home and started to exert her authority - never seen anything like it. She systematically bit (not nipped but bit) every single one of us - she cornered my daugher and scared the living bageebers out of her and by the end of the first week I called my friend, the local dog warden, for assistance. A no-nonsense dot of a strawberry blonde - who the maddest Rottweiller wouldn't cross - soon had Holly in hand! Another week on and we have a totally different pup... still nippy but not aggressive. Playful and fun - currently curled up at my feet snoring - and an absolute delight.
There has been an interesting shift in power and hierarchy since Holly arrived, she has realised that she is further down the "pack pecking order" than me or my daughter, is slipping below my son and has started being naughty with my father who is a wheelchair user! Whilst I shouldn't laugh the funniest sight ever was as I burst into my fathers room in response to shouts and thuds, snarls and barks. Holly had decided to sit under Dad's wheelchair, he hadn't wanted to move in case he ran over her tail. Putting his hand down to pull her out she bit him, then started nipping at his slippers. His response (I think a little scared) was to roll up a newspaper and try to tap the dog on the nose when she went to nip his feet. Picture this - snarling, barking puppy (thinking it a great game) being swiped at by my elderly father with a newspaper whilst alternating each leg kicking it out like he was Goosestepping! Have to say if the video camera had been handy I would have certainly been £250 better off!!!!!!!
