Week 25 - Our Holly! (A jolly Christmas present!)

Week 25 - November 28 - December 4, 2013

My first feat of week 25 was successfully cooking a full Thanksgiving dinner with all the major trimmings (and then some!) for my sister and her fiance and our friends Arthur and Kristina and Arthur's mom. The table was teeming with deliciousness and overall we managed to have food that was all hot at the same time and all tasted quite good! More than a success - it was a slam dunk Thanskgiving feast with no major snafus! Woohoo! (I think Baby Hals gave me the whole cape for the day...I think she wanted all of her food to be extra tasty haha). It was a delightful day full of family and friends and delicious food!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mmmm! Our beautiful feast!

Of course in the midst of the fifteen minute flurry of getting all good on the table Daniel wanted a picture, but here you go. Proof I cooked dinner? And that the apron barely fits haha.

On Friday while Ali and Brad were at work, we decided to take cousin Leela to the park with Chance and had a good time letting the pups charge through the woods together. And through the course of the day we made a semi-impulsive, completely awesome decision. It was Daniel's idea...but it was the kind of idea that I had to be 100% on board with or it would never work. But by the end of the day it was official - we were getting a puppy!

Chance and cousin Leela checking out the view

The ultimate puppy dad - he ran the pups up and down the hills

Our reasoning (because I know this is a little crazy...but it's something we are really excited about!)
1. We have been talking about whether to get a second dog for years. If we were going to get a second dog, Daniel really wanted a puppy that we trained from scratch. Up until now we were either working way too much or in the midst of moving. We have always wanted Chance to get to enjoy the benefits, comfort, and fun of having a sibling dog. He has always enjoyed playing with our friends' dogs and loves being "one of the pack" at the Hals house or at doggy day care.

2. It was now or never (and by never I mean several years). And When else in my life would I be both unemployed and childless? ...Retirement? If we dove in now I had three and a half months to fully dedicate to our puppy. The pup would be 5-6 months old by the time little miss Hals arrives and would then have at least four or five more months before I would be working. By then she'll be able to make it through the day!

3. Chance is still a young and playful dog who can serve as a wonderful behavioral model too! We had always wanted to raise a puppy with a well trained dog around to model good behavior. Chance isn't perfect, but he really is a good pup and a puppy would learn a lot from observing his behavior. We didn't want to have a seniored Chance bothered by a puppy - we wanted a young to mid-life Chance who would be excited to play with a puppy.

4. They would have each other to play with once little miss Hals arrives! (As I type they are playing together in the living room) :)

5. How could the maternal hormones in me say no?! Let's just be honest! Snuggling and cuddling and caring for a puppy right now? Ahhh! So awesome!

6. It would keep me busy and active through the pregnancy. (Not that I haven't been so far, but this would encourage me that much more).

So...with our minds made up we did our research and confirmed what type of dog we wanted. My requirement was that the dog HAD to be smaller than Chance (me and two dogs and a stroller?...we needed a dog who was smaller and thus, less strong than Chance). Daniel required a smarty pants. He had always wanted an akita (he grew up with one), but the size was always the clincher for me. A shiba inu was a great compromise for us and the more I read about the breed the more I felt it would be a good match for Chance. Both breeds require strong owners, both are playful and smart. A shiba inu tends to be a bit more independent than some breeds, which would work well because as an adult dog Chance was independent, but also dog who is hugely loyal and dependent on us. Shibas weren't good fits with families that had smaller pets (like guinea pigs or rodents, possibly cats) - totally fine because Chance destroys small animals! Shibas aren't yappy barking dogs. The considerations go on and on. The only other major factor was compatibility with children, which is certainly influenced by environment (and the fact we would have a child in his/her environment), but looking for a family that had raised the puppies around kids from day 1 and had puppy parents who were great with kids temperament wise would seal the deal. ...It also doesn't hurt that I think shibas are some of the cutest dogs on the planet!

I managed to find a family in Pennsylvania that had seven kids who had handled the puppies from the beginning, they bragged about the mom's temperament, and it was the first day the pups were open for adoption because they were going to be exactly eight weeks that day! If we were going to get a puppy I wanted to be able to capitalize on the golden socialization window as much as possible! We were the first couple coming to see the pups, so we were going to get to choose from all five that they had.

I could hardly sleep Friday night because I was so excited. Daniel went out and did his fifteen mile run Saturday morning while I went out to the bank to get the cash we would need and then ran to Target and Petco and picked up the various basics that we would need to have a puppy in our house. A collar, leash, a few puppy size chew toys (Chance's are pretty large, tough and beastly), and puppy grade food (I went with the same brand we feed Chance so we can eventually graduate them to the same stuff - we've been happy with Nature's Recipe).

Once Daniel cleaned up and we scarfed down yummy chipotle burritos we were off to go find our puppy! It was two and a half hours each way - we had to drive up into the farm country of Pennsylvania and had a really good time talking on the way up there, discussing puppy raising strategies and catching up. We sent pictures to Daniel's family to try to get them to guess what we were up to.

Clue # 1:

Clue #2

When we got there we were immediately impressed by how sweet and gentle and awesome the mother of the pups was - what an amazing disposition! The pups were all outside, but were all snuggled together at the base of a bush at the front of the house snoozing together. So did we get to see the pups playing together? Not really, we were meeting some very sleepy puppies, but I quickly had it narrowed down to just a few and we took them aside to get to check them each out a little more closely. I loved the red shiba features and quickly narrowed it down to two pups. Of the two they were both alert and looked healthy but puppy A was the noisiest of all the puppies, a bit of a whiner, and was called "the squealer" by the family, she was also significantly heftier than any of the other four puppies. They had lost me at "squealer." Puppy B seemed calmer, but still observant, seemed normal size compared to her litter mates. Puppy B won!

Holly's mom!

Holly's mom - this gives you an idea of how big Holly should get

She's not sure what is going on, but here's Holly!

Before we knew it we were off with our puppy! (Who was definitely shell-shocked), but she quickly fell asleep in my arms and slept most of the way home. We also had a bag of the food she had been eating and a blanket that smelled of her litter mates per my request. She was calm and quiet and sweet in the car and when we got her home. Mid trip we stopped at a gas station and to let her out to pee and I quickly had the "oh boy" realization when I put the collar and leash on her and realized she had definitely never ever worn either! Later on that night I tried to take Leela, Chance, AND Holly out together and I swear...I looked like a self-mocking circus performer...anyone watching me would have laughed...hard.

Ali and Brad were pretty big fans

He's processing...

Sunday morning Ali and Brad headed out to get their new apartment and start the transition and de-molding process for their things. And Sunday was our first real day with the puppy and as a two pup household and Daniel and I had a blast playing with her and getting to know her better. Chance did really well, but was still kind of wary of her - it was almost like he didn't quite know what to do with her (I mean, she is much smaller than the dogs he usually plays with). We eventually left the pups to nap and ran our errands quickly and came home with a Christmas tree! I kept bracing myself for Chance to look all sad and depressed (even though we were trying SO hard to keep the attention even and keep him feeling secure in how he was still our beloved pup), but honestly every time I looked...he was fine! Such a huge relief!


By Monday (day 3 at our home) Holly and Chance started playing in the yard! It was a huge breakthrough and I was ecstatic and sooo relieved. Chance is huge compared to Holly and can fit her entire head in his mouth, so I was nervous too, but overall I was impressed with how gentle he was with her, while still being playful! I tried to praise him as frequently as possible while he played gently and over the next few days I watched their play very carefully and managed to catch him and scold him the three times he truly got too rough. That evening when Daniel came home from work for the first time since we had gotten Holly, we were both excited to see how she reacted and she instantly recognized him and was incredibly excited! Yay!

He seems pretty happy to me! More play sessions and extra walks?! Yes please!

There's a little defiance in that personality...can you see it? We are working really hard to be firm and consistent!

The puppies first play session!  I cannot tell you how excited and relieved I was for them to start playing together!  this MADE my day (and Daniel's!)

My evening snuggle bum!

On Tuesday I learned that Holly was a neighborhood kiddie magnet as when I was walking her during the day everyone was flocking to see her and pet her and I quickly learned that she ADORES little kids. She borders on the side of possibly being too excited, but really, she just loves kids and people and is really upset if she doesn't get to say hello to each person. By Wednesday she could climb up a flight of stairs (it's now been over two weeks and she still can't go down them), but by day five our little bunny could bound up the stairs and was doing increasingly better on a leash. By the weekend we figured out that if I stayed up a little late with her and we let her sleep in our bed, she would sleep through the night! BAM! And in the course of the entire week we had one accident that was entirely my fault. (She woke up from a nap and we both had to pee...but this pregnant lady tried to duck in the restroom before taking her outside and wasn't fast enough). My fault, not hers. Seriously though - that's the only accident we've had! We both get good stars because it takes parent and puppy to become house broken!


We are still working on her nippiness/play biting but are using the standard bite inhibition techniques and I think they are working. I call her the little piranha, but she is also very sweet and snuggly. She and Chance are steadily getting along better and better. I have also figured out what types of toys Holly needs to keep her entertained and finally got a deep enough arsenal of toys to be able to offer the variety necessary to divert inappropriate (bad) behavior. Hooray!


And Baby Hals? Doing great! Wiggling and active as ever. I still have pretty intense bouts of round ligament pain that generally strikes in the late afternoon or evenings, but other than that I really can't complain!

25.5 weeks!

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