Week 1

Cally is making progress with house training. However there have been a few accidents here and there. Some of them have been my fault. I am trying to be a puppy mommy and a human mommy at the same time. It seems the hardest time of the day is when the boys get home from school. In all the excitement of them coming home and getting off the bus, Cally feels that she can sneak a pee in kitchen and we won't notice. But..... we do! I am going to try to have her go out 5 minutes before they get home. Timing is everything!!!! We have been working with her learning her name. She is doing okay, but she does get easily distracted. We have been working on this at night when the kids go to bed. I sit in one room and my husband moves from room to room calling her by name. If she goes to hime right away then she gets a treat. She is responding more to him than she does to me.....Big surprise there! But overall she is learning and responding to our commands. One of Cally's distractions outside seem to be tree leaves. She is obsessed with running with them, chewing them, chasing them if they are blowing around! The crunchy ones are very interesting to her. As I end this, I did have a question to put out there for any other boxer owners. Does your Boxer get red eyes? Do you know if this is normal for this breed? Is it something I need to worry about? Can I do anything to prevent this from happening? It seems that at the end of the day she appears to have bloodshot eyes. It resolves itself on its own. Please feel free to comment. Thanks

Day 1 and 2

With all the excitement and exhaustion of having a new puppy, I did not get a chance to blog yesterday. Cally is one amazing Boxer puppy! She has exceeded all of our expectations so far. Her first night went really well. As I had mentioned before she and my husband have a special bond and she wormed her way into sleeping in bed with him! He took her out at 4 am and again at 6 am. She didn't whimper or cry, nor did she make a single mess. Speaking of messes, she has only had ONE accident in the house so far. She is catching on to the house training. We have been watching her and following her around. It seems that she will whine a little bit when she has to go. As soon as she gets into the grass, she goes! She is an early riser though, oil vey! She loves to play hard first thing in the morning and enjoys a nice long afternoon nap.

Last night was a repeat of the previous night. She slept in the bed and woke up twice to go tho the bathroom. Both times she did her business and came directly back in to go back to sleep. This morning I had her all to myself for a little while before the boys woke up. She has sooooo much energy at the 8 o'clock hour. I plan on taking more pictures later today and posting them up. Tomorrow is the first day of school for my boys so we will see how Cally does without the distraction of them.

Homecoming!

Today is the day! Cally came home! We picked her up around noon today. Although it was a long ride home use did surprisingly well. She stayed on my husbands lap while he drove home. She even fell asleep for some of the ride. At one point we pulled over for a bathroom break only to have her want to play. She made friends with a State Trooper too! He was just passing by and stopped to check her out. Once we got home, she transitioned nicely. My sons have just loved having her here. Cally found the dog bed and has moved it to her designated spot that she has chosen. She even took a little nap this afternoon in it. We have done what any doting parent does and have been snapping pictures all day. We had to laugh as we were in the back yard, she has discovered a few fallen leaves and she loves to play with them. Boy, is she gonna love it in the Fall? While we had our dinner in the kitchen she remained the perfect puppy and stayed in her bed until we were finished. We will be continuing that habit for sure. No beggars in this house. It seems that she has chose to really follow my husband around. At times she does appear to just be sad. I am sure it is difficult for her leaving her Mom and puppy brothers and sisters. As well as her Breeder family too. We want to make her as comfortable as possible during these next few days. I will post again later.

3 Days pre Cally

Well we are down to 3 days till our sweet Boxer Pup gets here. We have been preparing for her. We came across one minor issue if you can call it that. The question was should we crop her ears? After some research we decided not to have the surgery done. It is said that the surgery itself is painless, but the recovery can be quite painful for the puppy. With most of what I read it is mostly done for cosmetic purposes only, and there is no proven medical necessity to have it done. Our puppy has already had her tail docked, and that was another controversial issue on most blogs. I want to clarify that we are not endorsing ear cropping nor are we against it either. We see how some owners would want that look in this particular breed of dog. We just decided that this is not the look we want in our little girl pup. As the adoption day draws nearer, we have been discussing all the puppy rules with the children. As they have had many questions themselves, we have been amazed at the depth of their thoughts and concerns for the puppy. My youngest son feels that we should take a picture of Cally's Mom, just in case she misses her. We could pin up her picture in her crate to help ease her homesick feelings. We are pleased to see them get involved with this journey. We encourage their help. Cally will be so Loved!

7 Days pre-Cally

Hello! Welcome to my Blog. The plans for this Blog are to share our new life and our daily training updates as well as weekly pictures of our Puppy Boxer, Cally. I wanted to start this journey before she actually arrives to our home. Today marks the, one week to go count down, and we are excited. We found her on the internet in a boxer pup search. We traveled an hour and a half to meet her. She made direct eye contact with each of us. My husband knew right away that not only did we just pick her, but she just picked us too! We are new to the Boxer world.

We previously owned a Japanese Chin, named Dixie, she served our human family for 12 years. It was with a saddened heart that we had to put her down. The house just seemed empty without a four-legged friend. We began researching different breeds of dogs to see what kind best met our family structure. As a mom of two boys, I wanted a playmate and a trusted friend for my children to grow up with. From everything I have read, it seems we made the right choice. In seven days we will be picking up our new Boxer pup up from the Breeder. I am filled with many thoughts and emotions. I want this Blog to work as a personal journal as well as a teaching tool to puppy training and its trials and tribulations. I have been trying to prepare the house and children for Cally's homecoming. There are many new rules that need to be put in place for the puppies safety as well as the boys. . I already had the "shoe" talk. We have come up with a solution to keep their shoes safe. They will simply be placed in their closets and they MUST keep the door closed at all times. I am sure that we will institute more rules as we go. There will be so much to learn about Cally and what she likes and doesn't like. Come and check back frequently and follow her progress. All educated and devoted Boxer owners are more than welcome to share their thoughts as we embark in a new journey.