The Mad Margate Family

This weeks update.......

2009-05-24T20:51:00.004+01:00

On Tuesday it was time for Usko to have jab number two, which he took on with the bravery of a soldier and didn't even make a sound. He was slightly more sedated by the whole ordeal though this time and enjoyed a good sleep after.

There have been several thefts this week one of which left Vicky horrified as she found Usko running around the garden with her dirty knickers. he he he

Next was the sky remote and lots of shoes and slippers but the funniest being his new penchant for sweeping the garden with the kitchen broom.....

Usko has been having some nice walks in the mornings with Vicky and Connor on the way to school, then when I get home from work after I have had a coffee Usko and I go for a nice walk. There is one noticeable benefit from the walks and that is that he is much calmer at home. We can tell instantly now if he is getting bored and wants to go for a walk as his behaviour gradually gets worse and worse.

Talking of walks and being calm Usko is currently sleeping in his crate as he has been for the past 1 1/2 hours, I think that this is due to the loooong afternoon that we have had.

We have been to Kearsney Abbey today which is about 40min drive from home with a great little wood for a short walk, large greens to play on and 2 lakes with streams to paddle in.

We had a very nice picnic which included Usko having his dry food with a special bit of added tuna and spring water for flavour.

After this we went for a nice stroll through the woods and round to the first lake where Usko delighted in having a paddle in the stream, with Connor joining in too.

Video to follow when I can get it to upload!!!

On our travels we met lots of dogs and new people friends too. As always all the people were totally besotted by the unusual dog, " is he an Alsatian?" or " is he a Husky"....... I know that we all have to endure these questions but the best part is the response and vacant look that you get when you tell people what he actually is!!!

As for the dogs that we met along our route we are still to work out which is the best way to greet them, and Usko doesn't seem to realise that its not a good idea to pick on dogs that could quite clearly eat him for breakfast........There was no major confrontation but that was just down to tolerance of the small barking Usko!!!

What an awesome day we had and it shows us even more than we already knew that owning a Lappy is just an amazing experience that makes our lives better in so many ways. ( Thank you Toni.)

The other milestone that Usko has passed this week is being able to get up onto the sofa as you may have seen on facebook, now we seem to spend allot of time putting him back on the floor and saying NO. But we will get there in the end.

There has been a few times this week that the bowl in our crate was used to turn the crate into a swimming pool, this twinned with the dip that we took in the stream today has made Usko start to smell rather musty so this evening we had our very first bath! It was a rather fun filled experience but ended very well and could well have added to his tiredness tonight.

That's all I can think of for this week but there will be plenty more to come and sometimes with less of a gap between posts :)

Welcome to Lappyhood........

2009-05-14T23:01:00.007+01:00

With each passing day Usko becomes more and more of a little mischief, today he ran off with my t-shirt and socks into the garden, yesterday he ate one of my network cables and several times this week he has decided its much easier to wee on the lounge carpet than it is to go out in the garden even though he has constant access to the garden!!!

As several people have said on our facebook status's and pictures this is well and truly our welcome into Lappyhood, and as much of a challenge that it can be we are loving every minute of it.

We have been continuing with our basic training and have now pretty much totally mastered our sit, well as long as we know that there is a treat on offer anyway. Usko now automatically sits and offers his paw before he receives his food.

I have taken him for walks a few days this week just up and down the couple of roads local to our house and he really seems to enjoy it. We have been practicing sit and wait at the edge of the kerb, sometimes he does it sometimes he is a bit harder to convince.

There still seems to be some domination issues over Connor ( all advice greatly received), we are still using the advice that has been given so far and seems to be working to a degree. They play very well together sometimes but then this doesn't last too long before it turns back to the biting and dominating behaviour.

The bond between Scratchy and Usko is still growing and they now play a bit, and scratchy enjoys to tease Usko until he then chases Scratchy around the house.

The one discovery that has been made more than once is that cleaning the floor is pointless because it just gets messed up again 5 minutes later.

My new toy, and my own chair........

Ha I am going to mess up scratchy's bed, that will teach him to teasing me.......

Its Ok mum I can dry myself................... Hey Dad lets have cuddles, I am a good boy really..............

Well that's all for this installment, there will be more again soon.

The Weekend

2009-05-11T15:11:00.004+01:00

Well the longer that we have Usko the more we realise how much of a steep learning curve it is for both us and him.

We have overcome some of our initial challenges for example Usko is now very much settled in with his eating now and we have given him some slight variations on his meals which are still mainly dry food but with some meals he has chopped carrot or tuna oil, and he has also tried some cod and yesterday much to his delight was given the left overs from our roast dinner. He scoffed it down and the bowl hardly needed washing up after! lol

Over the past week I have been trying his collar on for 5 to 10 mins at a time and he is slowly starting to accept it, but he seems find the lead much harder to get used to. On Sunday afternoon I thought I would try a new experiment to take his attention away and for a first attempt it seemed to work very well. I gathered some treats and put his collar and lead on making him sit while I did so, then after a couple of minutes getting him used to it I ventured out the front for a very brief walk up the road. There was so many new things to see that he totally forgot about the lead and walked very well. Even when I pulled on the lead to direct Usko he seemed fine with this. We walked just a few houses up and back twice but that was enough for his first taste of walks. I shall be continuing in this way over the next couple of weeks in the hope that when he can go for a longer walk the lead and collar will be second nature

We seem to be spending a lot of time in our crate the past few days to try and stop the biting but hopefully it will soon sink in that biting equals being alone and that will deter him from chewing anything other than the intended toys, instead of Vicky's handbag that he found and demolished the handle of......

The bond between scratchy and Usko slowly seems to be building too, they have even had a brief food sharing experience!!!

We cant imagine life without our newest family member, challenging as he can be at times.

Normal service will resume

2009-05-08T20:36:00.004+01:00

Hi everyone, sorry that it has been a bit quiet this week but I have been on nights.

Well on Tuesday we took Usko for his first vet visit and the start of his puppy jabs, he was super brave and only gave a tiny wince when the needle first went in. As usual there were a few people stopping us to say hello and have some puppy strokes which he loves.

Once back home Usko had a nice long sleep and I also had a bit of a nap too:)

This tired spell didn't last too long and he was soon on his feet and causing havoc again.

Usko has settled in very well and is eating much better now, we do find sometimes that a tiny smear of tuna oil helps if he is struggling with feeding.

The one big thing that we have taken note of over this first week is the amount of play time that we can have before Usko starts to get tired and nippy with us, and as the week has progressed we have found that as soon as he gets a bit ratty he will happily go in his crate and have a good sleep. I have been trying to read up on training issues when possible, and have been trying a few different approaches to stopping the biting issue and also the trying to dominate Connor like he would with a brother or sister.

We have had some helpful hints from Jo about how she dealt with this problem between Tarkka and Josh, sometimes it works and sometimes Usko can be a little more trying but over time I am sure that things will settle down to a happy medium.

I have been putting Usko's collar on for short periods and he seems to be adapting to the idea of wearing it quite well, we even had a few minutes of successful walking around the garden with the lead too today which is very promising.

The practice of sit command has worked very well especially with the promise of some beef treats for his troubles. He now nearly automatically gives a paw too when you ask him to sit for a treat which is just sooo cute......Vicky has been doing this with his dinner too whilst I have been on nights and he now knows that this is good etiquette before food. :)

There have been some fun and games for Vicky this week while I have not been here, On

Tuesday evening he decided that he would teach himself to use the phone but when it didn't work for him just threw it across the kitchen floor, or maybe he was just trying to tell Vic to get off it for 5 mins and play with him. lol

Wednesday evening he had some visitors and so thought it would be nice to bring them a gift, they were not quite so impressed with the lump of dry poo which he had in his mouth for them.

Usko has already mastered that if he has something which will not please us he can run past us as fast as possible and try and hide with it in a corner, such a little sneak!!!

As an added bonus for the week we found out today that Connor has chicken pox so that will make life doubly interesting for the next week, Connor got a bit upset today when Usko managed to eject his Batman game from the PS3 whilst in the middle of an important bit! oops!

All in all we have had a fantastic first week and after my long night shift on saturday night (9pm to 8am), it will be good to get back on to days and be able to give you more regular updates and carry on with our training and trying to help Usko through the teething and biting stage.

Well I hope that you are all enjoying our blog so far and there will be plenty more to come over the next few weeks and months.

Trials of Lappyhood

2009-05-04T23:42:00.005+01:00

Well today has been quite varied with Usko's behaviour going from absolutely model to a very trying little Lappy!!!

There was a slight mishap first thing this morning but that was my fault for not making sure we had a proper wee, and then upon our return into the house Usko went straight in the front room and weed all over his nice bed that he has in there. oops!

We had some more visitors today in the way of my parents, this was where Usko excelled himself with his behaviour as my mum is very scared of dogs after an incident as a young girl.

He kept himself to himself and just played quietly without even wanting to meet her face to face.

Once they had gone we sat down to dinner and Usko was given his, although I spent most of the time encouraging him to eat rather than eating my own.

When dinner was finished we had some playtime in the garden and this was to be the start of the devil behaviour which carried on until bedtime. There has been alot more nipping this evening and trying to see just how far he can push things.

Whilst sitting in the lounge Usko went off for a wonder so we just left him to it for a few minutes, he seemed to be very quiet and I soon found out why!!! Apparently he just thought he could help with the washing by separating the colours and whites for us. he he he

There was one very noteworthy event this evening which those of you that have seen my pictures on Facebook will have seen already, the event was the fact of both Usko and Scratchy sleeping in the same room for a about an hour without any crates or pens to protect them from each other....

It was soon time for bed and Usko went back to his model behaviour and took himself straight into his crate without even being asked, the door was closed and it has been silent since.

Tomorrow is the day for our first proper vet visit and time for his first jab which I am not looking forward to at all, we shall let you all know how it goes.........

Day 2

2009-05-03T23:16:00.005+01:00

After breakfast and a bit of playing we decided it was time for our first mini outing with Usko, we all got into the car and set off to Pets at Home to buy some more toys, treats and worming tablets for him and to register with the vets. During out visit to the store we had many adoring comments and Usko was centre of attention just as any Lappy should be :) We came home with a bag full of toys and bits and Usko's first injection booked for Tuesday, don't think that is going to go down too well but just have to wait and see..... The friendship has started to grow between Usko and Scratchy, I have even managed to get them taking treats from me at the same time with a hand for each.

After this closeness they seem to have begun to have a bond, but neither wants to back down and let the other become the dominant which is unusual as the cat tends to lash out once and then the dog submits. To make for a welcome break in the proceedings with the two we had some visitors in the way of my sister and brother-in-law who just love Usko and can't wait until we can join them for walks with their two dogs ( Border Collie Cadbury and Springer Spaniel Smudge).

Usko is determined not to back down and likes to voice this in no uncertain terms to Scratchy.

This has carried on for the remainder of the day until Scratchy went out for his evening stroll when something very strange happened, Usko sat by the back door waiting for him to come home and kept whining for him.....

We distracted his attention and had a good play in the lounge which tired him ready for bed.

As with last night the terrible two are now locked in the kitchen together and all is very quiet, we are realising the small changes that we do need to make though with things like moving the cat food out of reach as young puppies seem to think oh good more food!!

Well we are now all tucked up in bed and looking forward to tomorrow when we get to do it all again. yippee.

Night all.

Usko's first day with the Mad Margate Family

2009-05-03T09:09:00.008+01:00

Well the waiting is over and we have our new furkid, his name is Usko and this was a name that we had the pleasure of choosing. The translation into english is Faith, as some of you will know this is something that we have had to keep in abundance over the past year. As I type this he is laying on the floor next to me asleep, our first day has been fantastic and fairly well behaved. The day started with us arriving at Toni's at around 11am, as we entered the dogs room there was a wonderful greeting from both Usko and Matka. Connor gave Usko his first new toy a puppy Wubba which he took straight off into the corner and played with much to the dismay of Matka who thought it was a bit unfair and tried to steal it. After spending quite some time playing we set off for the drive home, the first hour wa spent on Vicky's lap in the back of the car but after a quick break at Clacket lane services it was time to try the car crate. This was quite happily accepted and meant that Usko could have a nice sleep on the remainder of the journey. We arrived home and were greeted by a few of the neighbours who came to say hello and have cuddles which as with all Lappies was much loved by Usko. Scratchy the cat was very unsure about this 'funny looking cat' that has come to see him but slowly sems to be accepting him into our pack. There has not been any major confrontation as yet and they have been within a foot of each other, Usko tends to just look at the cat and walk straight past showing not alot of interest which is better than we could have hoped for.

After lots of playing and a couple of naps it was time for bed at about 11pm, Usko had already been asleep at my feet in the lounge but was still happy to go in his crate with only a couple of minutes whining before silence, this lasted all night and when we woke up at 7.30 it was still the same.

I quickly came down to see if all was well and indeed it was, Usko was wide awake but just watching the cat walking acros the kitchen. He greeted me with a very happy face and once out of his crate ran around excitedly wanting to play. We quickly went to the garden for a quick wee and paid no attention to the cat as we passed him. This seems to confuse Scratchy somewhat.

well thats the story so far and there is plenty more to come on here, Yahoo and Facebook too.

Getting ready

2009-04-22T21:55:00.004+01:00

Before a Lappy can come and join us we have to get the house ready for him to live in, well it had to begin with a slight remodelling of the garden. I have laid a concrete area which shall become the toilet and general use area for the pup which is fenced off from the main part of the garden, then I have laid a small patio at the rear of the conservatory to give an area for us to sit and watch Connor playing with the pup. Next I moved into the house and began getting the conservatory plastered and the laminate flooring laid which follows through into the kitchen which has also had a few bits moved around to provide that little bit of extra space needed. Pictures of the finished article to follow.....

Introduction

2009-03-31T20:46:00.008+01:00

Well I guess we should start at the beginning, quite some time ago now we decided that we would get ourselves a new member of the family ( a dog). We like many others chose to use the pet planet " what dog is best for you" quiz and it pointed us in the direction of the Finnish Lapphund, obviously we had a few of the regular breeds in mind but after doing a bit of research knew that we just had to look more at this breed. Our first meeting with a Lappy was the same as most peoples, at Toni's house. Once we had spent some time with Toni and her beautiful family of Lappy's we were well and truly hooked. Over the next few months we continued to speak to Toni and began to meet other Lappy owners at the SFLS walks, the Oxford walk being the place many of you met our son Connor and this is now remembered by Simon and Lou as 'Connors Mud Walk' after he managed to fall in the largest puddle of mud that he could find. Well it has now been around 18 months since our journey began and it has been quite a roller coaster year for our family, what with a kitten by the name of Scratchy joining us and Vicky going through two miscarriages This has not stopped us going to walks, Crufts and local shows which has got us the affectionate name of 'The Mad Margate Family'. The story continues........