Roxy's First Week

Last Tuesday our family brought home our newest addition, a female black & tan german shepherd puppy named Roxy. We had second pick female of the litter. This was the mother, Oneida's, first litter ever and she was a great mommy to these pups. The breeder, Kelly, and her family were also amazing at socializing the pups from the very beginning. And Kelly knew the puppies as individuals and knew which had the calmest or most active personalities. Roxy was the "blue collar" girl and Kelly said she was by far the most mellow of all the females. Although we have a very active 3 year old golden retriever (from the Raising Calvin blog), we also have an almost 2 year old daughter so we wanted a pup that would be calm and gentle around her. Roxy is definitely that pup! She's very sweet and mellow; very very different from what Calvin was like as a puppy. 

On the car ride home, Roxy cried for a little bit (just like Calvin did) but then slept most of the way home. At home she was curious but cautious about her new surroundings. She was afraid of Calvin at first (up until we started working with him, he had some extreme dominance issues and he was very dominant over her). Plus I'm sure it's scary to see a huge 80lb dog charging at you from across the yard... 

Roxy ate very well from the start. Kelly told us that she might not eat the first day just because of nerves. But Roxy ate almost all of her dinner that night and she drank a decent amount of water. Kelly feeds all the pups Fromm Puppy Gold. Before talking with her, we fed Calvin Blue Buffalo brand, but we realized that Fromm is just as good if not better, and it's a little bit cheaper than Blue. We switched him over to Fromm Large Breed Adult before bringing Roxy home and he did very well. And now we're switching Roxy to the Fromm Large Breed Puppy. She's doing very well! We're also going to be giving both dogs Olewo carrot supplements to help their digestive systems and to keep their coats and skin in great condition.

Anywho, back to Roxy... the first night she cried for about 15 minutes before falling asleep. I didn't expect her to cry much longer than that; her crate is in our bedroom and Calvin slept on the floor next to her so she wasn't alone. She was up about every 2 hours the first night to go outside. But now, after 5 days, she's sleeping from around 10pm-5am which is great! 

She's had a few accidents, which is to be expected. The best accidents are when we see her do it so we can correct her right away and take her outside. If we see the accident after the fact, we don't even say anything, we just clean it up. There's no point in scolding a dog after an accident because they won't know what you're yelling about and it just confuses and scares them. 

We've been rotating Roxy's toys too. We don't really scold her when she chews something she shouldn't; we just say "no" and take it away and give her one of her toys. But after a little while she gets bored of the same toy so we put it away and bring out a new one to keep her occupied. She really likes one of Calvin's hand-me-down teethers; it's a soft bone that you run under cold water and put in the freezer, it really feels good on a teething puppy's gums. It's nice to buy fun toys again; Calvin can only have toys that are "indestructible" because he destroys regular toys in under a minute. 

So far Roxy is a joy to have. She's getting more energy every day, but she's still so mellow and sweet. She's starting to get used to Calvin now too and they're starting to play nice together. 

I'm trying to take Roxy somewhere everyday, just like I did with Calvin as a puppy. The first few times in the car she'd cry until she fell asleep, but now she doesn't seem to mind car rides. Once she has her next set of shots in a week she'll be able to go to Petsmart with me too. She's getting a little better with the leash too. The first time she'd sit and wouldn't follow, but now she's getting the hang of it and we take short walks just up and down the block. 

I've also taught her to sit now too. She doesn't know it 100% yet, but she understands what it means. It'll just take a little more practice for her to really get it. Then I can start adding new tricks like shake and down. She'll be going to puppy class too; it starts in 2 weeks. She had her first bath yesterday (partially because she needs to experience them while she's little... partially because I think she rolled in pee ha). She didn't like it at all! But she'll get used to them :) Calvin LIVES for the water and he loves baths... I'm not expecting her to like it as much as he does, but I hope she'll at least like swimming in the lake with us. We'll see soon!