May 2013 - Life Gone To The Dogs

Mom Growls: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/05/15 at 9.07am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona’s mom growls at the puppies for the first time

5-1-2013 Mom Growls!

Mom stopped sleeping with us at night a few days ago. I could see mom sleeping in her crate close by. When she did not come in with us that first night none of us cried after her. We are getting to be big puppies and do not have to have our mom with us all the time now. Still, we love our mom and it is always fun when she is around.

This morning when The Man got up he came into our room and woke us all up. I really like sleeping, but it is always so exciting to see what The Man is going to do. He let mom out of her crate and she went out of the room. The Man said something about her needing to go potty. I do not know why she just does not go on the floor like I do. It is fast and easy to do it that way. Actually none of the big dogs go potty in our room. I will have to teach them all how to do that.

When mom came back she wanted to come in our pen. She would bark at The Man and look at the door to our pen. Mom is so good at telling The Man what to do. I am learning from my mom, so I can boss him around too. The Man opened our door to let mom in. I got so excited that I rushed the door. Actually all of us puppies got so excited that we rushed the door and ran past our mom. The Man was at the door though and he helped us out by turning us around. Sometimes The Man seems like he is pretty smart. He knows what I like and helps me get it.

Mom was right in front of us and the first thing I did was smart I think. I went looking for food. Mom still has some milk. She does not lay down for us to get the milk any more though, but we are big puppies and can nurse while she is standing. Unfortunately mom does not have enough milk, but we get lots of other food now. Mom did not seem real interested in us, she was looking at one of our chews. The Man put those chews in our pen and they really are good. My brother Gunner, who used to be named Louey, is taken aside to chew on them by himself a lot. The Woman keeps taking him with her. Gunner really likes her, I can tell that. But now mom is wanting his chew. Gunner decides that it is his chew and tries to grab it from mom. The mom growls at him. This does not stop Gunner, so mom growls again.

This is a new game where mom growls. I decide I want to play the mom growls game too, so I try to get the chew also. Mom growls even more. I can tell mom is not happy with us trying to take that chew from her, but it is only mom. Mom growls at us again, and we charge her. I can see The Man watching us. He must think this is a fun game for puppies to play.

The chew is pretty small and mom growls at us a few more times before finishing it. She is standing in our pen looking at The Man. That is when Lightening, who used to be Liglag, decides to chew on her ear. He jumps up in the air and grabs her ear. Mom growls again. Then Gunner decides he wants to swing from mom’s other ear. Mom even growls more. It is fun when mom growls.

The Man is watching and says “Poor Lady, let me get you out of there”. With that The Man gets mom out of our pen. We try to chase her out, but she is fast and The Man closes the door before we can catch her. I wanted to see if mom growls outside our pen too. For now I have learned that if mom growls it means fun for all of the puppies.

Mom growls and nobody cares

Author’s Note: While Lady growls at her puppies at this point she has never actually snapped at them. The puppies need to learn better social skills and mom is the best teacher. Lady is very passive though and this presents some challenges. I deliberately put the chews in the puppies pen knowing that Lady would not let them take it from her. These chews are amazing to use I might add. I would highly recommend them over rawhide or real bones. We have used both of those, and there are problems that they can cause. The only problem we have had with these is the dogs loving them too much.

Ellie: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/05/14 at 8.23am / by Randy McBride / 1 Comment

Leona’s sister Ellie meets new people

4-25-2012 Ellie meets her future owners

Sometimes I wish I had more sisters. I am the oldest girl in my litter of puppies, and I am the boss of my sisters. Whidbey is bigger than I am, but I can wrestle with her and beat her. Ellie is my other sister. She is about the same size as me, but is a different color than Whidbey and me. Ellie also seems to like to snuggle up with mom more than the rest of us puppies also. I am lucky to have two sisters. Also I can push them back when we are eating and get to the food. My brothers are bigger than we are though, so it is hard to get our share of the food sometimes.

The Man brings two bowls of food to us several times during the day. There is so much food in those bowls! The only problem is that all of us puppies are so hungry when he first brings the bowl out that we push to get to the bowl. I noticed we are growing and all of us do not fit in around the bowls like we used to. The Man started using bigger bowls, and that did help some. But it still is pretty crowded when it is time to eat. English Springer Spaniel puppies have a lot of growing to do, so we need to eat a lot.

Ellie and I are the smallest now. Little Lee has gotten bigger than us. It was nice when he was the smallest so I could push him around. He is a pretty strong puppy though, and since he has gotten bigger it is hard to boss him. Ellie is smaller though and it is easier to wrestle with her. I wish my brothers were as small as she is so I could beat them wrestling easier.

Today The Woman came and got Ellie. I heard The Man and The Woman talking about visitors coming to see Ellie. I am still not sure what I think of visitors. New things can be a bit scary at times for a little puppy like me. Sometimes even the big dogs here seem to get nervous when they do not know what is going on. I hope Ellie is safe going to meet the visitors today. The Man does seem to guard all of us, puppies and big dogs. However if he is not fast enough something scary still could happen.

I could hear when the visitors arrived. When The Man and The Woman started talking they seemed friendly. Maybe it was OK. There was two visitors that I could hear. The visitors were sounding so happy to see Ellie. I could hear them laughing and being so nice to her. Ellie is a good puppy. Sometimes when she gets jumping around it gets all of us excited. Ellie will bark for us to come play with her. That is when it is time to go wrestle her. She can run pretty fast though and when those boys chase her she gets away.

The Man came back to our pen. I was not paying much attention to him and had my back turned to our door when He opened it. I felt the door push on me a little, then The Man picked me up. While The Man is nice to me I still do not know what I think of getting picked up. I like having my feet on the ground. What if The Man dropped me? He never has dropped any of us puppies, but he might.

I was taken out where Ellie was with the visitors. She was playing and showing off. Ellie is a show off, not like me. Seeing my sister liking these visitors made it easy for me to like them too. I was thinking about showing off also, after all I am better at everything than Ellie, when The Woman picked me up. The Woman seemed to want to hold me close to her. I have seen Ellie snuggle like this with mom, and when I am sleepy it looks like fun. But right now there is too much exciting stuff going on. I need to show these people what an awesome English Springer Spaniel puppy is like.

Ellie snuggling with her mom

Ellie and I played with the visitors, until we got sleepy. The Man took us back to our pen so we could get our nap. Ellie and I had a fun time, but now it was time to rest. This time when the visitors left all of us still had the same name as before. I like that, it is less confusing to try to figure out who The Man and The Woman are talking to that way.

Leo: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/05/13 at 7.27am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona observes as another group of people shows up to look at Leo

4-22-2013 Leo

Yesterday was very exciting, and so different. My sister Lani, along with my brothers Liglag and Leo were out and got to play with some new people. Leo had a lot of fun, although he probably slept a lot while they were here. Leo seems to sleep more than Liglag. Leo is a nice brother. He and I only wrestle a little bit. He does not bite me very much, and he lets me bite him all the time. That is what a good brother should be like.

It was so exciting this morning. The Man came and turned up the lights in our room. Then he walked over and sat in his chair, ignoring us. All of us cried very loudly telling The Man he was supposed to get us out to eat and play. Leo was not as loud as the rest of us, but he never is. He thinks he is smart the way he sits there so calm at times. Leo is always thinking, but that does not help him any when I decided to wrestle with him. I can jump on him and knock him over now. Leo is a good brother.

It took us a long time to get that man to let us out of the big pen so we could play. When he let us out it was fun to rush out and jump at him. I watched Liglag, Lost and Whidbey run at The Man when the gate opened. The Man has always been nice to us, but I am not sure what he thinks about all of us jumping on him. If got angry he might take me back to the vet. That is where I lost my tail, and I never want to go there again.

We played really hard this morning. Playing is more fun when we are out in the room instead of being in our pen. The Woman always seems to be unhappy with where we have went potty. She does not understand things I think. When a puppy has to go potty we need to go right now. None of this slow moving stuff like people do.

When The Woman got done cleaning up our pen she picked Leo and Liglag up. “Leo and Liglag, you both are going to meet some very nice people today” she said. Then off they went, leaving me and the rest of the puppies in our pen. I still am unsure about wanting to leave our big room. I have gotten where I know all the smells and sounds that are in this room now. I even know some good places to hide if I get scared. I get scared sometimes when new things are going on around us. Like when new people show up at our house, which is scary. Liglag and Leo do not seem to get scared when new people come. Maybe those new people who came yesterday were nice to my brothers and Whidbey. The kids seemed nice when they came in to our room. I wanted to go meet them, but The Man did not let us out of the pen. He is so dumb sometimes, he should know that puppies are really good at meeting new people.

Leo and Liglag were not with the rest of us and I heard some different people come in. The Woman had said that there were new people coming to meet those boys today. It is hard to not be out there meeting those new people, but I also like being safe in my own room. Liglag has always been brave, so maybe it is best to let him meet those new people first. He is bigger than the rest of us too, but I can run faster than him. I am worried about Leo though. He is my nicest brother and is not as brave as Liglag. Leo should be safe though, I hope.

With the new people in the house we puppies decided not to take a nap. Instead we waited to see what was happening with Liglag and Leo. I could hear those people playing with my brothers, and everyone sounded so happy. I want to go out there and play too. It sounds like fun, and those new people should meet me. I am the best at playing in the whole litter. I am a good puppy.

The Man and The Woman brought Leo and Liglag back, along with two new people. They looked so nice and friendly. We all wanted to play with them. The dumb man still did not let us out to go make friends with the new people. He should know that it is important for dogs to make friends with strangers. If we do not know each other how are we supposed to get along? I know that there is more to teach my man, and sometimes it seems like he does not learn anything.

After the people left Liglag and Leo were put back in our pen. The big dogs had been able to get out to meet the new people. Well mom and Leroy had been able to meet the new people. I keep hearing them say that Leroy is the father of the puppies. So my mom is Lady and my father is Leroy. I hear The Man call Leroy a dork at times, and then The Man laughs at Leroy and plays with him. Maybe I can be a dork too, and get played with.

It had been another very exciting day for me. I think today is the best day ever. I saw new people, and was safe in my pen. My man is still dumb, but he is nice. He brings us food, although sometimes he is slow with the food. As I was starting to go to sleep I heard The Man and The Woman talking. I try to listen to them, unless I am wrestling, since what they say seems so important. The Woman said “Well Leo is now named Kodak.”

With that The Man said “Leo is Kodak, and I am glad he is going to live with those people. I thought they were a perfect match for each other. Leo, I mean Kodak, needed a home like they will provide”. I could tell The Man was done talking, so I went to sleep.

Leo is now Kodak

Lani: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/05/10 at 8.47am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona’s sister, Lani, meets some strangers

4 -21 – 2013

Today started out pretty much like all our mornings do. All of us puppies were waiting for The Man to come feed us. He is never fast enough with our food. Then my big brothers push us smaller puppies aside. My sister Lani is smaller than those boys, like me. But Lani is bigger than I am, so she can push back a little better than Ellie and I can. Ellie is my other sister. Both of them are fun to wrestle with.

Once we got done eating we went out and played in the garage. Lani attacked me and then we wrestled around. She did beat me, but I will get her back later. Those boys kept jumping on everyone. Leo does not jump as much on me as the other boys do. He is my favorite brother, today. The Man and The Woman are with us and I hear them laugh a lot while we are playing. Sometimes I can tell when they come in the room they are not happy, but when they spend time with us that seems to leave. I have not smelled fear from them in a long time. They were afraid when all of us puppies were hungry.

When we started getting sleepy The Man moved us back to our big pen. Sometimes I wish I could stay out there with The Man when I was sleeping. I am not sure why, but he makes me feel safe. I notice that Lani acts like she feels the same way too. But for now Lani, the rest of the litter and myself have to go sleep in the big pen.

The Woman cleans up our pen for us. Sometimes puppies make an awful mess. My sister Lani hates a mess. She has always went far away to go potty. I remember seeing Lani in our whelping pen go to a far corner to go potty. Sometimes I get playing and forget where I am when I need to go. So it is nice that The Woman cleans up. I like to help her when she is cleaning too. I will grab those puppy pads and drag them around. I am not sure why The Woman takes them away from me. It seems to me like she would want some helpers, and I am willing to help.

This morning when The Woman is done cleaning up, and after we have taken our morning nap she takes Lani away. Lani is gone for a long time. Before Lani comes back The Man comes and takes Leo and Liglag also. I wonder what is going on with them, but I am still pretty sleepy so I do not think about Lani and the boys that are missing to long before I go back to sleep.

When Lani and the boys come back they smell really different. It seems like some of familiar smells are not on them anymore. I bet The Woman is the one who did that to them. The Man likes to smell like we do, but she does not. Doesn’t she know that our smell helps us keep track of each other? Still I know Lani and my brothers when they come back and I decide I want to wrestle with them. They do not want to wrestle though, instead they want to take a nap. It is hard to have a good wrestling match when the other puppy is sleeping. So I bite Lani a few times before I stop and let her sleep.

As the day goes on I smell some new people in the house. I am not sure how many of them there are though. About as soon as they got here The Man came back and mom out of our room. Then in a little bit he came back and got Lani, Liglag and Leo. I could smell those other people out there and it seemed that they were with my brothers and Lani. My mom was brought back in our room before long, but not Lani and my brothers. I hope they are alright. It is kind of scary out there. That is why The Man keeps us back in this room. It is our safe place. We are all together and can watch out for each other here. Well, we puppies mostly just hide if we are scared. But the big dogs are here and they stand guard over us. It is nice having such a big family.

When Lani and my brothers come back there are all those new people with them. I press my noise up against the pen to get a better look at them when they come in our room. It is safe in our pen. As they come closer I see smaller people with them. There were two boys and a girl. The boys are more active than the girl is. I bet all of them would be fun to play with. Those new people seem happy to see us too. I wonder why The Man does not let us go out and play with them. He is sure a dumb man, doesn’t he know that people like to play with puppies. He should let us go play with them, or at least let me go play with them. After all I am the most important puppy here.

It is not fair that The Man let’s all those big dogs out to play with the people, and not me. Our big dogs seem to just love these people. Aunt Libby, Lincoln and Latte all barked when the people came in, but now are happy. Latte gets to stay out and play a game with the people. They take a toy and throw it, then she runs and chases it before bringing it back to them. She seems so happy while doing this. I notice that she keeps looking at The Man to make sure it is OK for her to play with those people. While I am watching this Lani decides to wrestle me. She can bite pretty hard when we are wrestling. I let out a big cry, but nobody seems to listen.

Before long those new people leave. Lani and my brothers are back in the pen with the rest of the puppies. We have had a very exciting day. I think maybe I do not need to be scared of people. This is something to think about. As we are starting to take another nap I hear The Man say “Lani now has the name Whidbey.”

Lani is now Whidbey

Author’s Note: The process of the puppies meeting their new owners is always interesting to watch. Sometimes the puppy is so sleepy that there is not much interaction. Other times the puppy is alert and has a blast with the new people. This visit went very well for the puppies. We like to expose the puppies to a number of people before they go to their new homes in order to help adjust them socially to people. Usually it does not take much. There seems to be just something natural that takes place when a puppy and human meet.

Explore the Garage:Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/05/09 at 7.25am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona gets out of her pen and begins to explore the garage.

4-18-2013

Moving into the new pen has been a big change. We have so much more room than we did in that whelping pen. The whelping pen was bigger than being in mom. We puppies keep getting bigger places to live. There is so much going on in our room. I understand that this big pen me and the other puppies are in is in what The Man calls his office. The Woman calls it a garage though. I am not sure what a cave is, but The Man said it is his Man cave. The Woman just laughs at him when he says that though. I want to explore the garage though. It looks like there is so much out there to see.

When The Man comes to see us in the morning he eventually gets around to feeding us. Puppies want their food right now when they are hungry. I can see The Man pick up our food bowls when he comes in. I do my part to make sure that our bowl is empty before The Man can steal our food. I have never seen him eat puppy food, but as big as he is I am sure he must eat everything. After he takes our bowls I watch and smell him putting food in them. There is no goat’s milk that I can smell when he puts the food in the bowls. He then leaves and comes back, without the food! That man is so dumb. Why would anyone lose food? I wish I could get him trained to do these things right. He seems to be so smart at times, then he does something stupid like lose my food.

The Man goes over and sits down in something that is called a chair. I have never got to sit in a chair, but my mom does all the time. After way too long The Man leaves our room again, but I can smell him stirring up my food. Soon he will be coming back and I am so hungry. Mom does not seem to have enough milk to keep us all full. I am not big enough to make those boys stop taking so much food. If they would not eat I would have enough. Thankfully The Man brings us food. I like my man, but he needs to learn to move faster when I am hungry. All I can think of now is him coming back with our food.

This morning when he brings the food back he opens the door to our pen, like he has been doing since we moved in. This time he does not stop us from leaving the pen. Instead he sets the bowls outside the pen and we charge out the door. I have wanted to explore the garage, but for now I am so hungry. If I go explore the garage those boys will eat all that food. Exploring the garage will have to wait, I am hungry.

It is hard to push my brothers out of the way to eat, but I managed to get filled up. All of us puppies were getting tired. We always do after we eat, but we had very important matters to take care of. We need to explore the garage.

At first when we started to explore the garage it was scary. Liglag was the bravest one of us and he slowly started walking around to explore the garage. He found a tall table and steps going up it. Those steps were too big for him to climb. Instead he started running around. He is fun to watch explore the garage. By now I am far too sleepy to explore the garage myself.

With all of us puppies getting so sleepy we decided to go back in our pen. There is a nice blanket there, and it is really good to sleep on. Maybe we can have more time to explore the garage later. For now this puppy is sleepy, and I need my rest if I am going to keep up with those boys.

Puppies at rest after they explore the garage

Aunt Libby: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/05/02 at 11.56am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

Leona and her liter-mates meet Aunt Libby

April 15, 2013

The big pen we have moved into is nice. There is so many places to explore. I am only a puppy, but I am an awesome English Springer Spaniel. We can smell things, and I smell new things close to our new pen. There are several bigger dogs in our room. One of them is my Aunt Libby. She is kind of like my mom, but she is an Aunt Libby dog instead.

I figured out she was my Aunt Libby when The Man was talking. He does not talk very often, but I have noticed that when he talks all the dogs stop and listen to him. This means what he says is important. All of us puppies were inside our pen and then a giant pack of big dogs came running up to us. It was scary at first, but mom was not scared. Since mom was not scared I knew it was OK. This one slender girl dog seemed so happy to see us. That was when I heard The Man call her Aunt Libby. He said “What do you think of the puppies? You are their aunt Libby”.

I had smelled Aunt Libby before. I think she was in our whelping room one or two times. Aunt Libby never came close in that room. Mom got nervous with Aunt Libby when we were in the whelping room. The Man was there too and when mom got nervous he said “Time to go Aunt Libby, you will get to play with the puppies later”. I think Aunt Libby is someone we are going to get to play with.

Aunt Libby kept sniffing all of us through the pen. We also kept sniffing her. All of us were so excited. It is fun to meet new dogs! There were other big dogs there too, and most of them were really excited also. Coming out to this big pen is so much fun. We have more room, a place to go potty and now there is my Aunt Libby to sniff.

English Springer Spaniels get very excited when something new is going on. I notice that we puppies also get sleepy after getting all excited or after we eat. Soon with all the sniffing going on we got sleepy. I did not want to go to sleep. Smelling big dogs is fun. Aunt Libby seems to be so awesome too. I bet Aunt Libby will be fun to play with, but I was so sleepy that I feel asleep.

My brother Liglag is bigger than all of the rest of us. He is also very brave. When The Man opened the door we all started waking up. Then Liglag made his brave move and went for the door! The rest of us puppies just stood back and watch. Going out there with those big dogs looked different to me. They are so huge, and Liglag looks so small. He is the biggest, so those big dogs must be so big.

When Liglag went out the door Aunt Libby ran to greet him. Aunt Libby took her nose and put it under his belly sniffing him, knocking him over. He jumped back up and ran to her again. Aunt Libby and Liglag were having so much fun. The other big dogs stood back from Aunt Libby. I think Aunt Libby is the leader of those big dogs. If another big dog got close to Liglag she would push them back. I think Aunt Libby will protect us puppies.

When Liglag was put back in the pen Aunt Libby seemed to want to come inside too. Aunt Libby loves puppies. We all tried to go play with her, but The Man stopped us. Mom did not seem very happy that we were trying to see Aunt Libby either. I think mom is scared that Aunt Libby will take us away from her. The Man made sure the door was closed and Aunt Libby was outside. When that took place Aunt Libby lay down at the door guarding us. I think she is a good dog and will help take care of us puppies. I just need to figure out how I can escape to go visit Aunt Libby, I know she would like that too.

Aunt Libby guarding Lady’s litter

Author’s note: Libby has had a couple of litters of puppies already. She absolutely loves puppies, and has adopted any new ones we have added to the pack in the past. The down side was that she is alpha and did want to take them from Lady. It took some good pack leader skills from us to make sure that Libby understood her place with the puppies. She did very well after she came to understand whose puppies they were. I recommend learning about leadership from books like Be the Pack Leader: Use Cesar’s Way to Transform Your Dog . . . and Your Life. It is more then just training your dog, it is how you think about the structure a healthy dog needs.

Big Pen: Leona’s Puppy Diary

13/05/01 at 3.24am / by Randy McBride / 0 Comment

On moving day Leona discovers the big pen.

April 14, 2013

With my plan for a big escape being stopped by The Man I was not sure what was going to take place. He was talking about it being moving day, and since I am such a good puppy I was going to do exactly what he said. After he stopped us he reached out and gently picked up two of my brothers. They started to cry, but when The Man snuggled them up close to his hairy face they stopped. We are smart puppies and we know that if there is hair growing somewhere that there must be milk close by. My brothers started sniffing and looking. I never have smelled any milk on The Man’s hair, but it has to be there somewhere.

While my brothers were sniffing for some milk on The Man I heard him say “Hey let’s go to the big pen guys”. The big pen? I know what a whelping pen is, that is where I was born and have lived all my life. I know nothing about a big pen. Since I am now over two weeks old I am a pretty smart puppy though. I can figure out what a big pen is.

When I was in that dark room, inside mom, I remember there was an exit. We all had to make it through that exit to get in the whelping pen. Now that I think about it that was a moving day too. This moving day must be like that one. Now I can see clearly there is an exit. I am watching The Man holding my brothers and he is taking them out the exit. I bet that to get to the big pen we need to go out that exit. I hope that there is lots of mush at that big pen. What about mom and the big pen? She is the smartest English Springer Spaniel in the world, so I know she will go to the big pen too. She has been going out that exit many times already with The Man. Maybe she has been at the big pen already.

While I am thinking about mom and the big pen The Man comes back to the whelping pen. He grabs Ellie and then he gets me. Quickly we start sniffing that hair on his face to see if we can find his milk. The Man must have milk, after all he is bigger than mom. Mom has milk so why wouldn’t our man have milk?

“Ok little girls, off to the big pen you two go as well. Your brothers are waiting for you” The Man tells us. I can see we are moving pretty fast. He needs to slow down so I can smell this new place better. There is so much new stuff here. There is a very strong smell. It is the same smell that is on the padding that is put in our whelping pen when The Woman cleans it up for us. I know that clean smell, but this is a little bit stronger. Even so I know what it is.

“Through the laundry room you girls go, and on to the big pen” The Man informs us. That laundry room has some very interesting smells in it. I must make a note of that so I can go check those smells out later. I wonder if any of those smells is food in the laundry room. Maybe there is a good meal hidden in that room for me to find.

Before I can figure out a plan for finding some food in the laundry room I smell something different, but very familiar. Big dogs! I know those big dogs smell. I even know Leroy barks! We are being taken out by the big dogs. I wonder if the big pen is close to those big dogs. I sure hope those big dogs are close to our pen and that they like to play with puppies. I wonder if big dogs like it when a puppy bites them. Maybe I can bite some of them to see if that is a game that big dogs like.

Quickly The Man puts us down on a nice blanket. We are inside a great big pen. The scent of the big dogs is so strong here and there is so many other things. I am overwhelmed by all the new smells. Oh this is the best day of my life. All these new smells to figure out around the big pen. I cannot see the big dogs, but I can tell they are close from the smell. I keep thinking that Leroy smells familiar. Kind of like mom, but very different.

With all the new smells coming from around the big pen it takes me a bit to look around. I seem to smell stuff often faster than I can see it. I also will hear things and not see them. I try really hard to look around, but maybe eyes are not as good as my noise or ears for finding things. With my eyes I can see that this big pen is way cool. It is so big and we can decorate so much of it with our food. Hopefully those other puppies will not go potty next to our play area.

Soon all of us have been moved into the big pen. I hear The Man tell The Woman this move might just be for today. I hope we can stay here in the big pen. It is a little bit scary with so many new things around us. But those big dogs have always been nice to me and mom really likes them. So I do not think they will hurt me. Maybe someday I can be friends with them.

As I am thinking about making new friends I get tired. Moving to the big pen has been a lot of work for little puppies. There is this nice blanket in the big pen too. Maybe The Man put it here for me to sleep on while I am in the big pen. My Man is pretty smart sometimes.

Leona sleeping in the big pen

Author’s Note: Dogs naturally do not like to live in the area that they are using for going to the bathroom. With eight puppies in this litter they need to move to a big pen in order to get them away from their waste. Giving them room to get away from their waste is very important in helping them with their potty training. If they grow accustomed to sleeping in their waste this could present more challenges when trying to potty train them. We use puppy padsin bulk at this stage of raising a litter of puppies. Under the blanket we are still using Washable Puppy Pads . There are still lots of ‘accidents’ and this helps clean things up.

Happenings while living and raising Springer Spaniels