Balancing Act

so was a nice and hot sunny day outside. thought i'd give the furball a nice cool quick sprinkle while i was cleaning his "home". and yeap..he did something new again. He loves baths, that's certain. and he knows it's a good thing cause he gets "special" priviledges after baths as he's clean. BUUUUtttttttttttttttttttttTTTTTt if he's not taking a bath, apparently he hates getting his feet wet LOL. He will patiently stand there in that small tiny little space there leading to the back room. He's one tiny dog...that is actually a very small spot, say, 7cm wide only.

Venus and his fierce look "#@#$#@$#@$ floor is wet!"

Update pics

Venus learnt to be quite the um..what's the word, pampered? He dragged his cushion all the way to his feeding bowl, then sat on it while he "dined". After a while he even laid down to eat.

Attempted a Big Head picture.

I R DRACULA!

Food~

welp, took the little guy off orijen. doesn't seem to be doing well for him and his big brother. lots of stool and lots of tear stains. i thought i was just being overly sensitive, but as soon as i switched his big brother's food back to holistic salmon, tear stains stopped and stool drastically reduced.
just received my order for EVO small bites yesterday and switched Venus over immediately. I'm kinda on the strict side, and risky too, I didn't introduce the food to him slowly but changed it immedaitely. so far so good. this morning there is a noticably reduced stool amount from him too. Gonna wait a few more days to see if his tear stains are reduced too.

also, since he was on orijen, only one side of the ear stood up. when i switched him over to holistic for a few days his other ear stood up more, which kinda indicated something missing in orijen...not sure what, but we'll see if EVO will help with his ear.

How does he sleep?

So I was kinda sick a few days ago and got to go home earlier. Sneaked up on him and guess what I found

How he looks like when he wakes up. So blur looking! LOL

Also his ears are almost fully errected!

Ear is standing!

Almost 3 months old and his ear finally began to stand! but unfortunately lol only one haha

a few weeks ago the left ear stood up first. Now the it drooped again, and the right ear finally stood up...

also recently the hair around his muzzle started to drop on the mass. Wonder if it's Mange but how on earth he contracted it hmm

Tricks

Almost reaching the age of 3 months old.

First and easiest trick, Sit. why ? because he always sit without fail. Well not really sit but he drops his bottom and sits there. so didn't take too long to learn that.

second, lay down. This was a tad bit trickier for him as he did have this tendency of chasing my hand with treats. Finally he got the idea and voila.

third, move from down to a sit position. Easy, just put the treat over his nose and slowly move upwards. Learnt it somewhat, but need practise

forth, stand. Not sure if he got the idea, but when it comes to standing he will get up, BUT moves towards the treat. credits for the attempt but will need to teach him to just stand and not move. He's doing a lot of trial an error till he gets his treat.

Trying to find a clicker as should be easier to teach him with that. Still no luck. Shipping cost for one is about 10times more than the item itself

When it's feeding time, I try to get him to practise all the tricks before feeding him. But now he's so used to it, he's doing every one of them before I even ask. Smart kid, but nope, sorry he'll have to wait for the commands. He sits, he goes down, jumps back to a sit position, then stands. Basic routine but breaking it now.

one habit he seemed to have learnt is playing on his urinepads. I used them for him when he's being doggy-sit. One pad covers his whole crate. So I'm guessing he's used to sitting on it, playing etc. Which I'm trying to break that habit now as it's not that hygenic. Even if the urine is absorbed it's still a little moist sometimes.

Picture time

Some updated pictures of Venus with Popy

His naughty look

Taught him to sit

Venus and Popy both usually sits side by side

Venus>> Ooo can I touch?

Venus>> It bites!

Popy>> Save me....please....

How much can a puppy grow in a week ish?

1 week ago

Now

Whatever position you put his tiny little hands when you lay him on his back. He'll stay in the position for 1-2 minutes before he starts squirming lol

Another pic of him standing

Escaped!

What do puppies do when they are bored and left alone? They escape! That's what happened to Venus. Apparently I did not close the play-pen well enough, so he managed to escape his confined area and roamed free around the house for approximately, 11 hours!

What has he been doing in that period? Finding the best spots to play his toys apparently. Found a toy in the living room, Guest room, and study room. He stayed out of the Master Bedroom and toilets apparently. Best part, NO uaccidents! All urine and stool were properly left at his weepad! WOW! only two months and he has already learnt to go back to use his toilet. Not the area he was roaming free without supervision for over 11 hours is approximately, 1,300 sqf. That's big for a puppy his size. The maltese was not with him at this time, so this is 11 hours of solo exploration! tissues in the basket was not touched either! This is the first time I've easily trained a puppy this age and the outcome was phenominal!
Good Boy Venus :D

Cold night

been raining a lot lately, and winds are very chilly too. So someone got to learn to use a blanket :P

2 days later ~

Venus seems to be doing a lot better.
Experiments conducted
1) supplement fed as vet prescribed. seems to have a little effect but still helps

2) removed him from the maltese. Limit their play time together. They now sleep separately. Read somewhere puppies need to play, but NOT over-do-it. Made a big difference the next morning. So this could be another main cause. Too much play time, not enough rest.

3) his kibbles, found a way to make him eat them withOUT using can food. Ask the maltese to eat Venus' food, and he'll jump right in. Anything the maltese eats, Venus will poke his head in. Not a good way, but heck, temporary solution that works! So now, all I gotta do is feed the maltese somewhere out of sight. When he's full, just use him as bait for Venus. Make the maltese poke his head into venus' bowl, and he'll jump right in and eat his kibbles.

Last night I allowed them to sleep together. This morning Venus seems to be able to run around normally. After a while, he did start to look a little dizzy again. So I guess #2 needs to be implemented more. gonna be hard cause the puppy still needs to learn to be alone more. Daytime is easy, but night time here is way TOO quiet. He doesn't whine that much anymore but barks...really HIGH pitched bark that sounds something like..."WHAT!" "WHAT!"...seriously...lol

OMG

While he was eating yesterday, he suddenly collapsed! he was still conscious but he just suddenly fell over! thought was funny at first but then it took him a good 30 seconds to get back up. This morning, he was so weak that he could barely stand up. Even with help, he just slid and fell back down on his tummy. he could barely lift his head! OMG

Apparently he had hypoglycemia. He's been so picky about his food that his sugar level in his blood was too low. So could have caused his sudden dizziness and seizure like movement of his head. Took him to the vet and gave the him some supplement. Vet told to stay on this for a week to see how it goes. He prefers this over medication and injections, which I have no objections over it! so gave him 10ml of it gonna see how it goes. He seems to be getting back on his feet somewhat.

Back to square one...his food. Even just giving him his canned food, he's kinda picky over it now.../sigh he's barely eating two mouth fulls now. going to see if this appetite will improve later tonight.
*crosses fingers*

Finally~

Picked him up on October 16th, 2007. Small little fellow.





Here he is sleeping in mummy's arms. Sleeps like a rabbit lol

He was infested by ticks/fleas.../sigh so had to get some mild medicine for him. Got the ClassIV by Frontline, apparently it's safe for puppies too. The Maltese needed a new one too so got this for the both of them. Working quite well too. Ticks/fleas starting to get really inactive and this Saturday night he'll be getting his first bath from me. Gonna need to wash off all those dead ticks/fleas

Here is how small he is. That is roughly a 1x1' tile.


The first night and day was bad. He cried so loud like it was the end of the world every two hours or so! Apparently he was weaned using canned food which the breeder neglected to tell me. So I was handing feeding him soaked Orijen puppy food, which he didn't like but forced himself to eat after he was starving. He even vomited some of his food back out. According to the vet was because he was too hungry and he ate a lot so he vomited most of the food back out. So finally called the breeder and he went "ops forgot to tell you...", problem fixed. Got some science diet puppy can food and mixed a little with dry orijen puppy kibbles and he finished everything! lol such a huge difference! Also added some Cottage Cheese to his diet to help with his bone and joints development. Apparently they have small bones which I'm a little worried about since he plays kinda rough as will be shown below. Both the dogs love the Cheese. So I'm thinking of permanently adding this to their diet since no diarrhea for both of them.

He was already active when he reached home. Now with all this energy from the amount of food he's taking in...he's one happy and VERY energetic puppy. Mommy stopped worrying about him too since he's eating right now.

We also introduced him to his big brother. It didn't go too well at first. Popy thought that he will be neglected so he was expressed jealousy at first and kept clinging to his mommy lol was so funny. The next day he started warming up to Venus and played with him a little (running away when Venus approaches). Our initial plan was to have Popy(Maltese) tire the puppy out so he wouldn't whine that much. The plan worked even better than we hoped. Both were worn out! So no more noisy whining at night.

Peeing is ok so far. He's kinda accurate, every hour he'll need to go. So, easy to plan this toilet training. Only accident so far happened when he's outside his "home". Played too much and I kinda lost track of time. small pool. when he's "home" he runs to the weepad and does a good job. Best part, he's sharing the poopee tray with Popy. They just set their own rules apparently LOL each of them gets half the tray ie. 1 weepad each. Popy poopee on his side, and Venus on his. Smart furkids lol

As for myself busy busy busy. need to keep the house clean or else their mommy will come after me. A promise is a promise lol

Update

Finally found the breeder and got an update from him. Took my baby to the Vet and everything checked out A O K

Got some updated pics. He just started to walk around last week and according to the vet he's starting to gait a bit. Still unable to run properly.

Can barely see them but if you look closely you can see his marble like eyes. So round.

Also seems like there is a white ring around his nose. wonder if that ring will grow bigger when he gets older. His ears are still down. Waiting a few more weeks for them to eract up. One more week to go and I should be able to pick him up from the breeder. First stop, my family vet.

edit: in both these pictures, noticed that he's looking so deeply into the camera. hmm seems to be paying quite the attention. Wonder if it's just coincidence or he's really that attentive

blah

called the breeder no answer, sent a sms no reply. where is he!? just wanted to check on the puppy, to get an update on how he's doing, picture or something geez! meh this is so *le sigh*

It begins~

And so he was born.

Meet Venus. In the chinese astrology, Venus is associated with the Metal element. That was the reason the name was chosen, although it carried the female sign in the western astrology.

This picture was taken when he was 2 weeks old. He is roughly 3 now. Will be taking his first visit to the Vet on 1st of October 2007. He's from a litter of 4 paps. 1 female 3 males. doesn't he look adorable ! and somewhat lazy lol