She is a Hungarian Vizsla and is on this update 9 1/2 weeks old. She is the long awaited 40th birthday present from Jan and the kids, and we had to keep the decision to get her from the kids for months, no mean feat I can tell you !!!
She has been with us for 3 days now and is doing very well with toilet training and general getting used to us. Night time is a different proposition for her as she is used to sleeping with lots of other pups and is in her crate at night here. She is slowly getting used to it but howls when she is in it for about half an hour and then drops off to sleep.
The kids seem to have taken to her, as if that was ever going to be a problem !!! Playing with her when home from school is a must every day so far, how long it will last for I don't know but thats kids for you!!
This is her in typical pose with a toy, but she is rather adept at pulling these to pieces so we have temporarily replaced them so she doesn't eat too much fur!! As ant new born does Peanut spends most of her day sleeping punctuated with bursts of manic activity till she has tired herself out.
Last couple of weeks!!
Well what a difference a couple of weeks make in the world of dogs!! Things have started to click with Peanut at long last and sleepless nights are fast being relegated to the past. The little presents that she was leaving us around the house in liquid and non liquid formats have all but ceased, very disappointing for us obviously!!!
Peanut had her last jabs about two weeks ago now and taking her out for three short walks a day has really helped break up the constant raiding of the recycling bin for cardboard and plastic bottles. I must say that picking up penny sized bits of saliva soaked cardboard had become a daily ritual and very therapeutic- not!! She still raids the bin but we are more proactive in emptying it now.
Sleeping is running a close second to being bonkers in her favourite things to do all day, but the stretches of activity are getting longer. Walks can only do so much in occupying her during the day as being long limbed we have to be very careful with the lengths of walk she can have at 20 mins at a time. I can’t wait for the time when she is old enough for the long walks in the hills with an overnight stop for camping and beer!!
We spent an hour at Ainsdale beach the other weekend, her first trip to a beach, and Peanut thoroughly enjoyed herself there. So many new things to experience at this age; sand, water, digging in sand, eating seaweed, more digging, chewing her new lead, you get the picture! We were pleased when two horses went past and we took her over to investigate, leads are such a good invention as without it she would have run round them like a halfwit and got trampled on. We also ran into a 2 year old Vizsla whilst we were there. A very big male, mahogany in colour and muscular does not do him justice; he was the biggest viz I have seen.
Peanut is literally growing before our eyes at the moment, as puppies do of course. We measured and weighed her during her first week with us as she measured 15” at the shoulders, 23” nose to tail, and weighed 1 st 1 lb. Peanut needs worming every month so we set off for the pet shop to get her some tablets. They have a weigh station there for gauging the correct dose and she weighed 1 st 9 lb. Over half a stone in two weeks, quite surprised, and tonight, 25th Oct, we measured her whilst on a ‘sleep break’ and she is now 18” at shoulders and 26” nose to tail. The strength she has gained too is an eye opener, she tugs on her rope toy and can sometimes rip it out of Christina’s hand, never mine though as I am pack leader and naturally far too strong for her, however she can run rings round me if required. I refer you to the use of the lead mentioned earlier, she’s never off it at the moment!!!
We have found a doggy day care for Peanut so when we are both working all day, not very often, she can go and stay with a couple in Warrington. There are other dogs there to play with and she will be walked as well. We went round to look the place over and all was going fine till a huge Weimeraner came out to play and Peanut yelped in shock, jumped off a step and landed on her head!!! Two seconds later they were best buddies as seems to be the way with Peanut when she meets new dogs.
There is another Viz round the corner and when I am out walking Peanut we stop to sniff dogs, Peanut not me, they already know who she is !! Still quite a rarity on my walk loops from the comments I get from all the other dog walkers. I had forgotten how social thing walking a dog is, people always say hello or stop and spend a minute talking with you which is really nice in this busy world we live in.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. New dog food coming soon, to try to get her eating her recommended amounts every day, raw food !!
