Sunday, October 25, 2020

Our New Baby Comes Home Today

 

Lady Emma Cuddleston-Smythe and Bella.


We are pleased to announce that a new member of the Fritz family has come home and is ready to upend our lives a bit, but gladly so.  Our new baby is Bella, a 7-week old Golden Retriever whom we picked up at the breeder yesterday afternoon. I wish that I could bottle the look on Lady Emma's face and her reaction when the breeder brought Bella out from the kennel and put her in Lady Emma's loving arms. Priceless, as they say.


Happiness is a warm puppy as Charles Schultz would have said.

We brought Bella home and carefully and slowly introduced her to Augie, our 16 month old Black Labrador. Augie wanted to play immediately but he can be rather overwhelming to a young pup. They seemed to get along fairly well and before too long Bella was taking over the roost, eating out of Augie’s food and water bowls instead of her own. Of course, Augie returned the favor by eating Bella’s puppy  chow. I’m not sure how this will play out.

House breaking training began immediately with us taking Bella outside every thirty minutes and so far, Bella seems to be getting the hang of this potty business thing.

Dad, being the good old bean that he is, volunteered to sleep on the sofa in the family room for the next week to help Bella adjust to her new home and not get the “night time frights”. We tried getting Bella  comfortable with her crate by putting toys and treats in it to coax her in. We want her to go into the crate on her own so as not to be afraid of it (like Augie is). Once she went into the crate on her own a few times we tried closing the door for a minute or two and plan on extending her time in the crate with the door closed.


At bedtime we turned out the lights, except for the outside porch lights and put Bella in her crate and Augie in his bed nearby. Bella was ok for a little while, but eventually the inevitable crying began. To make a long story short, I ended up keeping the crate door open, with Augie in the same room (kitchen) while I stretched out on the couch in the next room, door open so that I could keep an eye on both hounds, making sure that Augie wouldn’t try to hurt Bella. After that, silence for the rest of the night.

I woke up the hounds at three hour intervals: 1AM, 4AM and 7AM to take Bella outside for potty breaks. There was only one accident during the night so on the whole, I was pleased with how the first night went. Mrs. Fritz and Lady Emma got to sleep through the night and I slept sort of ok, despite waking myself up twice during the night as explained above.


Lady Emma came downstairs around 7AM to take over dog sitting duty so that Dad  go upstairs and get some sleep in the bedroom. I trundled out of bed at 10AM, so that gave me three more hours of uninterrupted sleep. Bella is supposed to be Lady Emma’s dog so we are letting her do most of the work during the daytime.


This will be a lot of hard work over the next 4-8 months, but the payback is well worth the effort when your dog grows up.


Life is back in balance once more; we have a Golden Retriever back in our house.







zzz

15 comments:

  1. Ah ! nothing like a new puppy - BUT hard work , I have grey hairs to prove it - but worth it !

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    1. I’m already feeling the effects of sleep deprivation.😄

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  2. A lovely puppy, and a lovely story about her first 24+ hours of so with her new family.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  3. We missed the puppy stage this time around as we adopted two rescues at age two (ish). But I well remember the first couple of days when we were not so sure if they were fully house trained! They never did get the hang of crates and now one sleeps in a basket in the bedroom and the other starts the night on the foot of the bed and climbs down after an hour or two to sleep on the floor. I suspect that our rescues know they are on to a much better deal with us then they were with the original owners and are milkiing it for all they are worth!

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    1. Three of our five dogs, to date, have been rescues oof about two years old. Our first Golden, Katie, was raised from a pup. Bella is our second pup since 1998. I’m getting reacquainted with the joys and troubles of puppyhood. 😄

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  4. What a wonderful story. I’m still fairly sure God had Goldens in mind when he created dogs.

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  5. Two young labs; what a busy but happy home you will have. The joy that is apparent on Lady Emma's face says it all! Dogs are such marvellous creatures.
    Regards, James

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  6. Dogs are great and Labs/Retrievers are amongst the best although my wife would not get a dog that large - ours looks a bit like a retriever (same colour) but he is a cross between a King Charles Spaniel and Japanese Spitz! He sleeps in a crate in our attached garage 95% of the time - but has to get on our bed if there is thunder! My wife's brother just got an Alsation pup about a week ago - no name yet although I have christened him Gunter! Have fun with the puppy training.....

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    1. Thank you and good luck with your puppy training too.

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  7. Congrats! Dogs are well worth the inevitable carnage they create. Good Luck!

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  8. Sweet looking pup, and I'm getting flashbacks to last December when we brought our pup home - who is now a 65 pound behemoth who thinks she's a lap dog.

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  9. Somebody looks very happy with their new pal.

    John

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  10. Your house and family has been blessed! May Bella live a long and happy life.

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