So according to the wife, Simba’s been peeing all over the place inside rather than outside where he’s supposed to be doing his business. When I called her on the phone today, she told me about what was going on and it evoked memories of a Crank Yankers skit where some guy was talking on the phone while he was holding a dog that might as well have had a hose attached to it.
Funny, but the wife seemed stressed.
He was pretty active when I got home at lunch, but so far he’s been sleeping all afternoon. Well, at least he’s been peeing in the kitchen where it’s easy to clean up and not on the carpet.
A day in the life of an 8 week old pup
0600: Get woken up by dad taking big sis out to go potty
0630: Get woken up again by dad to go out to potty
0645: Mmmm, breakfast!
0730: Go potty again
0800: Go for a car ride! Hey, where’s mom going??!!
0830: Back home again. Get to walk outside again!
0900: Zzzzz
1000: Wake up and play with dad and big sis
1030: Go out to walk around and potty. Hey, who’s that dog over there?
1130: Lunch!
1230: Another car ride. Whee! Hey, it’s mom! Wait, where’s dad going??!!
1300: Zzzzzz
1330: Get treats from mom for doing stuff. This is cool!
1400: Zzzzzz
1600: Another car ride? Hey, it’s dad!
1630: Go out and potty. Can we go for another walk?
1700: Is it time to eat yet?
1800: Ooo, dinner!
1845: Zzzzzz
1930: Play time!
2130: Go out to potty. Hey, it’s dark outside!
2145: Play time again!
2300: Dad says it’s time to go to sleep
0130: Dad, wake up! I gotta potty!
0600: Is it time to get up yet?
Is he grown up yet?
Ok, we’ve only had Simba for 3 days now, but it feels like it’s been 3 weeks. Whew!
I don’t remember the first few days with Nala being quite so challenging, but then again Nala was two weeks older than Simba when we brought her home. She was just starting to get into the trainable phase. Simba’s still just a dopey blank slate that loves nothing more than to hop around like a jumping bean. I think he’s started to recognize us calling him though and reacting to his name.
So far Nala seems to be adjusting well to the new addition. Simba hasn’t quite got the idea that he’s been weaned yet and always tries to nurse on Nala when we put them together. At first Nala was wondering what the heck the little guy was doing until his needle teeth sunk in. Then she was outta there. She doesn’t let him do that anymore, but he still tries.
Getting Simba used to staying in his crate is a little tougher than it was with Nala. With Nala it was pretty easy. Throw pieces of kibble in and let her go after it. Not working quite so effectively with Simba yet. Either he’s not quite as food motivated as Nala was, or he’s just not as trainable yet. I have a feeling it’s going to take a little more work with Simba.
This kid is going to be a lot more work than Nala was.
Meet Simba
Yesterday we got to bring Simba home from the breeder. Here he is at 8 weeks in a rare still shot while the wife and breeder are inside going over paperwork and stuff.
I brought him back inside so the wife could hold him for a bit before we left.
When we got Simba home, we brought Nala outside to introduce her to Simba. Nala wasn’t quite sure what to make of this black furball the wife was holding. Then we brought them inside so they could check each other out some more.
I think Nala’s still not quite sure what to make of Simba or why he’s still here. Hard to believe that Nala was once that size.
After a while Simba pooped out. We’re slowly working on crate training him. He doesn’t mind it too much and will sleep in it, although he’s still a little reluctant to stay in it. He’s adopted some strange sleeping positions in his crate. Here he’s managed to prop his head up against the side of the crate and is sleeping peacefully.
Most of the time he’s got his head dangling out of the crate like this. Don’t worry, he can still breathe.
Back on the food merry-go-round
The search for a food for Nala continues. After about 2 months on the Blue Buffalo Lamb & Rice, Nala’s back to having soft runny and now mucousy poops. Since everything else about Nala looks normal, the only suggestion the vet could offer was that Nala had a sensitive or irritable bowel (large bowel issues) that wasn’t agreeing with one or more of the ingredients in her food. Rats. She was looking really good on the Blue Buffalo food too.
So now it’s back to searching for another food. In the meantime the vet suggested we put her on some Science Diet i/d for a while. He says it’s a very digestible food for dogs with sensitive tummies.
This time I’m going to take a more methodical approach to finding a food with a thorough ingredients comparison. I know that when she was on Diamond LB Lamb & Rice everything was fine. It wasn’t until the beginning of the year when we started switching her to adult foods that the soft poop problem started.
- Premium Edge Skin & Coat formula: soft poop after a month.
- Wellness Fish & Sweet Potato: still soft poop.
- Blue Buffalo Lamb & Rice: Poop firmed right back up. Soft runny poop again after about 6 weeks.
So breaking out the trusty spreadsheet, I put all the ingredients for each food in and see what’s in the Premium Edge, Wellness and Blue Buffalo that’s not in the Diamond. Since they’re all so different, filtering out what’s in one and not in the other is easier than it sounds, but at a first iteration, the Premium Edge, Wellness and even Blue Buffalo have some kind of fish or fish meal in them. More noticable is that they also all have some form of barley, which the Diamond doesn’t have. So maybe it’s the barley Nala’s reacting to. Neither the Diamond or Nutro lamb & rice have barley or corn in them, so those are two possibilities for us to try. Diamond does have fish meal in it though, so if Nala has problems with fish too, Nutro might be the one to go with.
Anybody want a 30lb bag of Blue Buffalo lamb & rice to try?