Big improvement

France is much better! Hooray!

His tests came back negative for parasites, so his digestive upset must have been caused by something he ate. I wonder about that little spider he snarfed up on one of our walks. Or gnats - he loves to grab gnats and little flies. I suspect we'll never know.

The combination of Flagyl and ID dog food/bland diet have worked their magic. France has given us a normal looking stool and we're back to work today.

Handsome boy -- hard at work!

Poopy puppy

France has diarrhea. Yuck. Poor guy. He woke us up at 3:30 Sunday morning, whining in his crate. He'd pooped in there and was super contrite. Needless to say, this started about 12 hours of mad dashes for the relieve area outside - usually about every hour or so.

We went right to the bland diet protocol, cooked up tons of rice, bought out the local grocery store's stock of cottage cheese. We started France on Pepto Bismol, which seemed to put a stopper in the pup. No more diarrhea for the next day and half so we stopped the Pepto. Guess what returned? Big time.

Today, we took a trip to the vet. They'll run a couple of tests to see if they can find a cause. And France and I came home with Flagyl and some ID dog food.

So what did he eat? Leaves? Sticks? Rocks? He's never off leash -- even to relieve. We live in a condo so we don't have a yard. It's a mystery. Whatever it was, it certainly upset his digestive system. Hopefully, the Flagyl and ID will calm it down and France will recover quickly. After all, we have an outing on Saturday at the Jelly Belly factory in Vacaville.

If you've had similar experiences with your pup and/or have a good remedy, let me know. France, especially, will appreciate it.

Puppies and ponies

Our puppy club was invited to visit the Sonoma Horse Park in Petaluma. We went last summer, too, so this was our 2nd annual outing. The manager, Ashley Herman Griffin, took a minute to hang out with France.

Apparently, France thought Ashley had been working too hard and needed a puppy pick-me-up.

Here are the puppies and raisers who were able to make the outing. Elizabeth (4th from right) is with her new breeder, Jaika. The black lab next to Jaika is Zia, a new transfer puppy. Welcome to both the new BLFs!

The horse park was busy. This is a young rider in the hunter competition. France enjoyed watching them in action . . . from a distance.

Here Ava and Canasta (puppies L and R) are walking with Nancy and Carol (humans). There were lots of horses and ponies, and lots of puppies and pet dogs.

Elizabeth taught us the right way to feed apples and carrots to the horses. Keep those fingers flat! Just like giving a piece of kibble to an excited pup who is on food protocol. France politely uses his lips to get the kibble.

We walked down the line of stables to meet more horses and see them in their stalls. Who's more interested here? The horse or Joe, Sharon and Bill's career change lab.

Three black labbies hanging out in a bit of shade. They are Zia, Jaika and France (left to right).

Great carrots!

France passed out as soon as he got into the car for the ride home. It was a big day for a little puppy.

Silky was adopted!

Silky found a new home. The folks at GDB worked long and hard to find the best family for her. She went home with them a couple of weeks. ago. We'll send our contact information to the Dog Placement folks to forward on to Silky's new family. Keep your fingers crossed that they get in touch and we can keep up with Silky in her new life.

Here's Silky with Stacy and Stockholm (Silky's in the middle) at Fun Day 2010. Her brother, Stefano, is waiting to be matched with his new partner. Another brother, Stockholm, has been selected as a breeder. Sisters Susie and Sophie are in training. And sister, Stacy, has been selected as a breeder. Their brother, Spencer, was donated to a guide dog school in Samsung, Korea.

16 weeks and growing tall

France has grown about 6 inches in the past 6 weeks.  We make marks on the wall every two weeks, holding the pencil across the top of his shoulders. He's tall enough to use the elevated dog dish and actually look down into it. Six weeks ago, he couldn't reach the water dish even when he stretched his tongue out as far as it would go.

France eats 1.5 cups three times a day -- although he'd like about 6 cups 8 times a day. Typical labbie. 

He likes to crawls into a lap for serious nylabone chewing time.  And he usually wraps one of his paws around our arms to make sure we don't accidentally stop holding it at the right angle.

France does very well on outings. He's getting used to his puppy jacket and trots right along. He is usually pretty calm when he greets people and other dogs, although he gets excited when he meets one of his dog buddies. It doesn't take much to wear him out - it takes a lot of energy to grow. And France can fall asleep in an instant. Even the ex-pen makes a great pillow for this pup.

I couldn't resist the view from outside the pen. See the lab lips?

Introducing France to our world

As a writer, I spend a lot of my time in libraries. France is too young to go to Cal, so I've introduced him to the public library in Albany.

His favorite thing was the carpeting. (It is at home, too.)
Jim and I took advantage of an early opening time at Office Depot to do a quick in-and-out with France.

Take a step - grab a sniff - another step - a couple of sniffs and maybe a lick (Yuck) - step - sniff . . . . and so it goes.
We were nearly the only people in the store so Jim and France found me in one of the aisles.

See the tongue? Think he's bored?
We are impressed with what a mellow puppy France is -- quite different from our early experience with Silky. When I play tug with France, he pulls gently and is careful to miss my fingers. Can this be? We'll see how things develop as he gets a little older and quite a bit bigger.

Jim and France at CVS - another quick in-and-out trip. See the rug? See the puppy on the rug? He's consistent.

So why would any puppy expose his tender puppy belly to the cold tile when a nice piece of carpet is at hand?

Little puppy, back in the sunshine. France did very well on both our in-and-out trips to stores. After leaving CVS, Jim and France walked past a Subway shop, a salon, a couple of other stores and a little coffee house with several people coming and going.
We are discovering that France prefers slow introductions to new places and things. And he wants a little down time between outings.

Puppy's work (read "play") is never done

 For his first week with us, we kept France close to home. He explored the house and got to know a couple of our neighbors. He learned the road to the relieve area and met the puppy toys. So far, France's favorite toy is the little red kong.

 He carries it around, bounces it then pounces on it, and takes it into his crate for some serious chew time. 

 We're getting in lots of puppy snuggle time, too. France likes to settle in on laps . . . 

 . . .  and it's OK with us, too. (Look at that yawn!)

 Puppy mellows out after a few minutes of playing. The warm lap helps him relax.

 

This guy's got relaxation down -- pretty typical for puppies.  Play, sleep, play, sleep, play, eat, drink, relieve, play, sleep.

The next week, we started walking around our building - inside and out. We explored the rest of the first floor and walked around the outside to the front. France met Mr. Elevator and the stairs -- just looking for now. As another week passed, he took his first ride on the elevator, went up stairs and came down the bottom one, rode in the car and started visiting some quiet store fronts. He also grew an inch and a half and gained 4 pounds. Big boy - ready for a big puppy toy. France, meet Mr. laundry bottle.

We've introduced sit, come, wait, OK, that's enough and let's go. He rides beautifully in the car, is quiet in his crate and has just started to spend time on tie-downs. France is a mellow guy and learns things pretty quickly. What a guy!