Unschooling Ribgy - Puppy Update 9/21/12

Unschooling Rigby - Puppy update for 9/21/12

September 21st, 10:04

Current Mood:

calm

Step by step, things are falling into place and our anxiety levels are lowering.

Since bringing Rigby home last Saturday, he's had soft, bloody stool. I called the vet on Monday, and they wanted to see him Thursday. I was told they preferred to wait 7 days from when you picked him up, thinking he needed time to adjust to his new home.

Tuesday night he gave us a scare. He was lethargic and his breathing seemed labored. I freaked out. I was completely attached heart and soul to this pup, and the thought of him not making it was too much for me to bare. I called the vet and said we had to come in sooner than Thursday.

Wednesday morning they got us in first thing. His stool tested positive for Giardia. In hindsight, I should have demanded the vet see us Monday. They gave us medicine and Ribgy very quickly has responded. His stool is firming up and the blood is gone. He isn't going as often either.

Crate training- Many have suggested we crate train. The first night, we kept his crate by our bed. He whined until we figured out we had to make the room completely dark. We expected him to whine when he had to go to the bathroom. He didn't. DH woke up around 4:00am to the aroma. The poop was all over Rigby, the crate and our floor.

The second night we moved the crate to the kitchen/dining area. Whining amped up to howling. He was not whining because he had to go potty. He just did not want to be in the crate.

On the third night, I decided to sleep on the couch and not crate him. I hoped the rest of the family could sleep. Rigby did awesome. He laid down between the couch and the ottoman and fell asleep. I was able to get up around midnight and move to my bed. So now we are not crating him. He has free reign of the kitchen/dining/living room area, and he seems happy. He will curl up on his make shift dog bed, (its a chair pad) and sleep hard. We say goodnight, leave him, and he is fine.

We take him out very often. He's getting a lot of exercise.  I think this is why he sleeps so deeply. Potty training is coming along too. When we see him potty outside, we praise him and give him a treat. Yesterday he peed and then turned and looked directly at me with this look on his face. It read - Did you see me? I peed! I gave him praise and he ran up to me so happy. I know he is starting to understand. He's now taking care of his potty needs outside more often than inside.

As a condition of buying him, we had to take him to a certain vet. Now that we have met that obligation, I will be looking for a new vet. I didn't like waiting for Ribgy's first appointment, especially when we saw bloody stool. When I mentioned I had concerns about the amount of scratching he was doing, the vet asked, "Have you bathed him?" Well, yeah. He had poop all over himself that first night home. He said Rigby's dry skin was because we had given him a bath. It was basically a warm water bath, no soap.

I was hoping for advice on how to relieve puppy dry skin. Give him oils? No baths? Really? The shampoo I made him has apple cider vinegar which should be good to restore his PH. I remember when my son had severe dry skin our doctor said frequent baths actually helped if you followed up with skin lotion.  For now, we're skipping the urge to bathe him. We wipe him down with towels if he gets into something he shouldn't. I'm hoping our new vet will have better advice.

Shortly after bringing him home, it began to overwhelm us. We all had that feeling in the pit of our stomachs. What have we gotten ourselves into? Will our life feel relaxed again? The lack of sleep did not help. There was so much to teach him!

I decided to take an unschooling, relaxed approach, which has always been our family's learning style. Once I focused on one thing at a time, and on the moment at hand, I began to relax and feel this was going to work out. We had lots of advice from our friends and family, but I tuned into Rigby's needs and how we could best meet them. Taking it one concern at a time, and not thinking about how much we had to accomplish helped.

Tomorrow it will be one week since he's been a part of our family. Today he is 12 weeks old. We may have many expectations for our Rigby, but we have time to take it slow and enjoy his puppyhood.