WHAT HAVE I DONE?!??!?!!??

Who me?

I am now a proud owner of an extremely demanding yapping chewing biting jumping scratching peeing and pooping furball who has yet to learn to sleep through the night. In fact, I'm not sure if he even slept part of the night. I'm pretty sure he spent all of it either sucking on my fingers while I sat next to his crate, or yapping at me while I didn't. Did I mention I didn't sleep last night? Ok, maybe 30 minutes, but still.

Eying the hair, one of his favorite chew toys

Memo hates it. It's loud and annoying and it doesn't know the rules of adult doggy interaction yet. Memo would like me to please return it to wherever it came from. Promptly. But, tough cookies for Memo, Cusco is here to stay. He's adorable and sweet and smart. He hasn't had a single accident since we got him - he seems to just naturally know that outside is for pottying. I love him, so he stays.

Cusco admiring his favorite toy - daddy's camera

Yesterday I got up at 7:30 and my parents and I were driving by 8:00. About noon we got to IKEA in Orlando. Wow. That place is HUGE!!! I've never been to IKEA before and I was like a kid in a candy store. BUT, I knew that the faster I shopped, the faster I would get my puppy, and I had an exact list of what I needed, complete with aisle and bin numbers. After navigating the IKEA maze we grabbed the stuff and checked out. Everything I needed was in stock, and I'm super excited to build my dream cutting table and sewing machine table. More to come on that later. After IKEA, it was time to get the puppy!

Breeder, me, and Cusco

After many "are we there yets" (to which my dad responded by simply pointing to the GPS), we finally made it to the breeder's house in Bradenton. We were greeted at the door by a beautiful black and white Portie, a very large Chesapeake Bay Retriever, and the sound of four yapping puppies. Upon passing through the baby gate and joining the puppies in the kitchen, my ponytail, jeans, shoe laces, and shirt were all instantly repurposed as a chew toys. Puppies! We spent about an hour at the breeder's house playing with puppies and signing paperwork, then set out to meet my brother for a (very) late lunch. 

At a restaurant with a brand new puppy

Note to future self - don't take a brand new puppy to a restaurant. We sit down and I plop him under the table with a bowl of water. He promptly sticks his paws in the water bowl, turns it over, then starts yapping and howling because he broke his toy. I put a little tension on the leash to try to bring him towards me, at which point he throws a massive (loud) hissy fit, flipping and flailing trying to escape the foreign thing around his neck. I finally pick him up and plop him in my lap, right there at the table. Not good training, but a crowded restaurant is not the place to teach a puppy to manage frustration. Even in my lap though, he continues to complain, so I tell my mom what to order for me and take him down to the beach.

Wave? I can do waves.

He’s a fearless puppy. He was mildly concerned when the water moved under his feet, but got over it as soon as he saw a big shell that looked tasty. He did a few face plants the sand and amused us with his little sandy face. To get pictures, Daddy held the camera down at his level and snapped without looking. Cusco loved the sound the shutter makes on rapid-fire, and chased it while Daddy ran backwards. Dad got some really good pictures like this, some of which are shown here.

Post-faceplant sandy nose

The first night with a new puppy is hard. The puppy is used to sleeping in a pile of puppies, and suddenly he is expected to sleep alone in a new place with new people. I made Cusco a nice little bed and set him in it, then sat down next to the crate. He yapped a little bit, but then quieted down for a sec. I said yes and dropped him a treat. We did that a few times, and he stayed quiet for longer and longer each time until he finally fell asleep. I snuck out on top of the world, thinking I was the best puppy mom ever. I should know better. He woke up an hour and a half later and was NOT happy. That hour and a half was the only peace I got that night, and I slept for maybe 30 minutes of it. After a very long night, my parents woke up and I went and got in their bed on the other side of the house. I stole a few hours of sleep this morning while they handled puppy J

Sandy nose becoming sandy tongue

I introduced Memo and Cusco this afternoon in a neighbor’s yard. Didn’t go great, didn’t go horribly. They met and all was well. Cusco was a little scared, but there wasn’t much interaction. Then Memo walked away and Cusco decided he wanted to play. He chased after Memo, at which point Memo turned around and put him on the ground. It was loud and a little scary for me, but no harm done. I kept them both out for a little while after that, but they had a few tense interactions and I decided to keep them separated for a while. I went to Petsmart with Memo and got an x-pen and they spent the rest of the afternoon/evening interacting through the pen. There weren't any attempts at eating the puppy through the x-pen, but there were some negative interactions initially. I did a little bit of clicker work with Memo, clicking positive interactions with the puppy like sniffing or puppy bowing at him and we made definite progress. By the end of the night, all of Memo's interactions with Cusco throught the x-pen were positive, so I felt a little better. That’s it for tonight. Fingers crossed for more sleep tonight than last night!

All pictures courtesy of my extremely talented father - Find many more at http://www.wlpearce.com/Pets/Cusco-and-Friends/