Well here she is ... Our new arrival to the Farmhouse ...
"Flossie"
Flossie has now been with us just over a week ..and it's taken me that long to get time to share her with you all .. For all of you who are mothers ...well I'm sure you have experienced with your babies the long nights of crying with "VERY" little sleep ..and our sweet girl proved she wasn't much different than a newborn ...
She Turned 9 weeks old on Friday ...and is she ever a bundle of Joy and a bundle of energy ...
The Picture above was the day we brought her home and had just put her in her crate in the backseat ..Well .. those little eyes say it all and she ended up in my arms on the way home ..
She slept most the first day in her crate with no problem and my thought was wow this is going to be much easier than I thought .. she already is o.k. in her crate .. My Fantasy was dashed within hours of that thought ..when we headed to bed ..and she was not happy to be crated ... when she realized she wasn't in OZ with her sisters and brothers anymore..as she was the first puppy to be picked up.
It took 3 nights and 3 days of howling , crying and down right throwing fits to get her crate trained even with all the positive re-inforcements of feeding her inside her crate, playing inside and putting her toys inside her crate ..she was determined she would much rather be in our Beds or in our Laps ..but in order to establish who's the boss or who the ( alpha dogs ) around here are we didn't give in which was so Hard ... (I know it's hard to believe that sweet little face throws fits hah ..LOL ! ) It would have been much easier to give in and let her sleep in my bed but I knew the repurcussions of that from my previous dogs ..and knew I must outlast her and endure. Which I did ... Not easy but it pays off in the long run as any trainer or Ceasar Milan would tell you.
She was easily potty trained in 3 days which has taken alot of work getting up every 2 to 3 hours during the night and taking her out every 2 to 3 hours during the day to establish that outside in the grass was where she should go..She got it right away ..and the hard work paid off day 3 she cried at the back door when she needed to go and has done so ever since with no accidents in the house at all ..Crate training has it's BIG PLUSES !!!
Day 5 ... I began leash training her and teaching her the sit command .. both came easy to this smarty pants ...and in 10 minutes she was following along ..and sitting to get her kibble treat.
By Yesterday I have to admit I was totally and thoroughly exhausted ..literally "Sleep Deprived" .. and I admit in Tears .. Thank The Lord for Abbey and Papa Fred ..She took care of Flossie all day yesterday and kept her with her in her bedroom last night so I could get a full nights sleep and Papa fred helped play with her and get her energy exhausted and boy do I ever feel better today .. It's amazing what losing sleep can do to a person ..!
The world looks alot brighter to me today ..LOL !
And Flossie looks a lot cuter today ...LOL !
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Flossie is a sweet sweet puppy .. of course aren't all puppies .. and we are thrilled to have her part of the family.
Flossie will be obedience trained and will be coming to our Marketplaces with us ..as I am looking to train her as a therapy dog so she will need to get all the socialization she can so she knows how to be the perfectly well behaved dog around children and elderly and other animals also. Eventually I hope to have her pass her Therapy and Good Canine Citizen tests so she can visit retirment homes and hospitals in the future.
In the meantime ..we now have to start juggling work with puppy ...which has been impossible the last week ..but I think we will be able to get that in hand this week.
Wishing you all a Beautiful week ahead ..may it be ever so blessed !
