My name is Tina, and I am the proud puppy parent to Ms. Delilah Jayne. She will be 5 months old on Monday and although I've always grown up with dogs, she is the first puppy that I have personally owned and been responsible for. People are definitely right when they say that its like caring for a newborn, but I love every crazy moment of it.
Delilah was 10 days premature, due to her mother getting attacked by another dog, but thankfully, she has made it through the obsticles that life has thrown her way. Out of the 10 puppies that were born to her mother, only 5 survived the premature birth. I had to take her home at 5 weeks (believe me, I did NOT want to do that) because her mom refused to care for the pups anymore, and the neighbor's dog (they share a yard) caught parvo a few days later. She came home to my friends house with her brother, and was cared for by her 3 year old pit for another 5 weeks. It was horrible and terrifying that I had to take her home so soon, HOWEVER, I was incredibly lucky that I did, because the parvo spread to to my friend's house, and he lost 2 of the pups that were still there.
Its been a special challenge caring for a pup SO young, but thankfully, with a vet in the family, and a "foster mom" dog on hand, we've made it through relatively unscathed.
She has a good understanding, of sit, wait, stay, leave it, get down, come, go night night, go potty and fetch but we're still working on lay down....go figure! LOL. She walks well on the leash 90% of the time, and she is trained to heel, though sometimes I have to tell her several times
She has exposure to many things. We live in a house with a pug, a 3 year old, an 11 year old and 3 cats (though, they dont like her all that much. She doesnt understand that cats dont play like dogs). we go on car rides and go to the dog parks, and really anywhere that I can bring her so she is exposed to anything and everything.
She will be going to puppy training classes soon, as she has trouble focusing on me while there are distractions, and the play nipping and jumping are a bit more than I can handle myself.
Sorry...I wrote a book! LOL...I look forward to being a part of this forum, and to getting some desperately needed advice when she starts doing things that I'm not sure how to fix!
