cute and scary at the same time.

Artic_Wind wrote:

cute and scary at the same time.

Totally agree. Have to lock doors these days. Haha I hope I can teach him to shut them behind him!

LOLOL, not likely. One of my past Huskies, Blitz, could open doors, sliding glass patio doors, gates, kitchen cabinets, the oven door, and the refridgerator. I didn't crate him at first, and I'd come home to find nothing but his butt sticking out of the refridgerator, with Anuschka munching on stuff Blitz was getting out for them. I would have to deadbolt the front door so he couldn't open it and leave. When I found out he could open kitchen cabinets, I'd put stuff like cookies and breads, in the oven only to find he could open that too, this was AFTER I had already installed child proof "locks" on the cabinet doors. That he was able to bypass

Omg too funny! Thank goodness they don't have raccoon paws!

Oh, gosh, the door opening! What is it about these dogs and door levers? When we first bought our house, we swapped out all of the round doorknobs for levers. Kinda been regretting it ever since. My daughter actually put a latch-lock on her bedroom door to keep Misty from barging in. Our Lapphund could open the doors, too. The Shiba and Eskie couldn't do it because they were too short.

Ooooh, it's almost puppy time! Grant and Sophia!

Yes, Faye, I love the handles but pets can work them without opposable thumbs! He asks me to do everything for him, but over Christmas with all the relatives here he finally decided he had to let himself into where the action was when his requests (jumping up at the handle) were ignored.

And thank you for remembering Sophia is coming.

Sophia Loren is coming to meet Cary Grant. Finally:

Ohhhhhhh!! She is absolutely precious!

OMG! So adorable!!! So exciting! I can't wait to see her with Grant

Thank you Faye! Jimmy, they are nose-to-nose on-leash and through crate and x-pen so far and doing fine: playful and curious. Grant slept on the bed most of the night for the first time since his first night home. Not surprised. He is getting individual attention as reassurance--we just played ball, in which I toss a tennis ball and he tosses it back at my feet as he zooms by.

I'm too busy monitoring them together for photos yet, but here's Sophia with a bully stick just like Grant. She is learning the leash today and loves exploring leaves outside.

Very cute - cannot wait to see more of them together.

Thank, Jim. Haha, I'm working on it/getting better at it, and here are the first photos...

I wouldn't make an issue out of keeping them separate if they're only curious about each other. As long as they're not openly antagonistic you would probably be safe to let them have play time together.

Oh, you're going to have - eventually - some reactions like "Get this puppy off me!!!!" and "Oh, c'mon, I just want to play (and play and play and play .....)" that'll result in one or the other getting their feeling hurt (just like two kids!)

Had to totally laugh at the "Get this puppy off me!!!!" comment; our 1-year old American Bully is NOT a morning dog.  Anything activity before 10:00 am, aside from breakfast, and a trip to the back yard to go potty is met with her "little o'l lady" grumbling growl.

Sasha on the other hand is full throttle the instant her eyes open up!

We allowed the other (3) dogs a chance to individually sniff, (inspect) the puppy the day we brought her home, but as each of them were also brought into a home with dogs we did not anticipate any issues.
They accepted her into the family pack immediately, and have been instrumental in teaching her bite inhibition.

Good advice, Al and Jim. Sophia wants to play with Grant by brazenly pouncing on his face. We are taking it slow because not only is she a complete crier right now (day 1) and if Grant lays beside her, he satisfies her desire to be with the family, but she is running alongside him on the leash and his response is already teaching her manners. She has a soft mouth and isn't biting people. She accidentally mouths, then corrects it with licks, which points to some breeder training.

They will be allowed supervised play in a few days. They're doing great, and Sophia is already fond of Grant. When I ran with Grant as we always do, Sophia went for a walk carried in arms and the report from my partner was she saw us run by and kept her eyes on that part of the trail until we reappeared.

They are having very positive interactions. They have places to be apart from each other, too. Sophia learned a lot of rough and tumble from having all brothers, apparently. Haha

A comment here on something called "puppy license" - just as we humans won't severely punish a baby for doing something - an oldeer well behaved dog shouldn't severely correct a puppy until it hits about 6 months old and then, if puppy hasn't learned how to behave, all bet are off.  Big brother shouldn't do more than an "air snap" if little sister is getting on his last nerves.  

An older well behaved dog is the absolute best teacher when it comes to the little one learning how to behave.  The air snaps may occasionally make contact, in fact from time to time there may be a little blood (but there should never be more than a scratch) but that should only be the dogs last resort to a very ill behaved puppy.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Grant tell Sophia to (literally?) "get outta my face" if she keeps it up.

ETA: Somehow you really do have to get a good video of the two playing together!! Please!!!

Chris, that second pic is exactly what my two looked like, with the gate in between them, pic makes me smile. When Mishka figured out she could climb that gate, then the gate became a fireplace screen that was smooth sided. And so they would touch noses in the tiny little opening at the bottom

They are so cute together!

They are both intense dogs, so when they nap together, it's a great break. Haha I've honestly never been through having two puppies (Grant just turned 2) at once, and I don't want my Huskies to pay for my inexperience. I'm especially interested in your advice, Jimmy, because you've been there.

Chris, you'll do fine! Anything you want advice on though, just ask. As for the gate seperating them, I did that. Kohdi was just 1 when I got Mishka, puppy in the head, lol, but the body of an adult, so even an unintentional move could have hurt Mishka. Sure puppies are resilient and bounce back from almost anything, but I also didn't want any "playing" with Kohdi, in which she got hurt, to stay in her head and taint her future interactions with Kohdi. You'd be surprised what stays in a puppies head for the rest of their life.
Puppies are also EVERYWHERE, very quickly, so anytime I couldn't be *right* there, she was enclosed.

Exactly, Jimmy, that's what I am doing. Grant had so many treats (Greenies and meat) yesterday to make up for Sophia being my sidekick all day because she's still very shrill when left alone. We're working on it, using every aid from calming hormone to puppy-calming classical piano pieces (which are actually effective!) to get through this settling in Velcro-puppy phase.

Grant was/is so quiet, but Sophia has something to say about everything, from growling at door stoppers to aroo-rooing at Grant to crying at 4am (and becoming a Tasmania Devil after going potty, not unusual, but sleep-depriving).

She perks at every sound and is happy being the center of attention, but her wild behavior has convinced me to do the leashed-to-my-belt strategy with her as I did with the Corgi. She is too all over the place for her own safety even when I'm right there.

Grant is most relaxed when she is crated or in her x-pen, both of which she resists while awake. I took a shower with her shrieking from the bedroom last night. She's a pistol and I'm tired. Haha

Grant is antsy to play with her and I don't want it to turn antagonistic. But she needs to be calmer first-- and so does he, especially. He gets pretty excited when she play bows and talks to him, but he is too rough, bopping her on the head with paws as big as she is.

Prevention is my focus right now.

You can let them play, supervised of course. Kohdi and Mishka played. It may even calm Sophia down a bit. It will also allow Grant to set up some rules and such, it's where all your training of Grant comes in to play in helping you, train Sophia. The "older" dog can train the puppy in ways you and I would take much longer to do. It's pretty amazing.

My son is visiting and of course he plays tug with Sophia. He calls Grant "the wolf", who was happy to have someone to roughhouse with. Sophia was riveted by their sounds.

beautiful pictures, love the one with them next to each other with the gate between them.

RedFlashFire05 wrote:

beautiful pictures, love the one with them next to each other with the gate between them.

Thanks, Ronin. They are settling in more every hour.