Gumbo Wears His License For the First Time--and Is Not Amused

You Belong to Us Now, Gumbo

Gumbo has been going through some rites of passages these last two weeks.  The first involved him wearing a dog collar and his license for the first time.  He hated it and scratched and scratched trying to get it off of him.  It is a special dog collar since it belonged to his older brother, Rascal, The Saint.

Rascal, The Saint

Poor Gumbo.  We try not to say it, but there've been so many times we've said, "Rascal Never Did That!" We try to remember that Gumbo is his own "person".  His latest antics involve jumping into the flower pots in our patio and pulling out the roots of the our favorite bird of paradises.

Caught in the Act!

Notice the ugly wire fencing around our lily pond.  We worried that he might fall in the pond, so we added this protection.  Turns out, it was the pond that needed protection from him.  I caught him sticking his head through the wire and tugging on the lily pads.  He especially likes to pick ones that had pretty lilies attached to them.  This dog loves flowers.  He bites the heads off of anything blooming in our garden.  He especially likes roses.  The thorns don't seem to bother him a bit.  It's hard to believe that our backyard was part of a Home and Garden tour six months ago.  If the folks could only see it now.   All we need is an rusted abandoned car parked out in the backyard to really complete that "white trash look".

Don't get me wrong, we do love him and dote on him as if he were our own child.  We were so proud of him last week when we took him for a walk and he lifted his leg to pee on a tree for the first time. "He's really growing up to be a big boy!" we told each other enthusiatically.  How do dogs learn to do that without having a male dog around to show them?  What will he do next?  There's never a dull moment with a Jack Russell Terrier.

Gumbo loses his jewels

Gone but not forgotten

Well, the day finally came for Gumbo to lose his, well, jewels. Now that he's almost 6 months old, we thought it would be a good idea to put him under the knife (or literally the laser.)

We both talked quite a bit about this for several months and couldn't come to a consensus right away. We toyed with the option of breeding him but the true nature of the process was more than we were willing to put time into. We admit that we were intrigued by the possible renumerative gains of siring puppies too. I know, it's shallow and an amateur thought but hey, these guys go for $950 or more a pop. Maybe we could make some money to pay for his cost. 

Alas, the more we read about it we soon learned that there's more to it than just dropping the little stud off for a quickie somewhere and then picking up some fast cash. He'd most likely have too hang out for a long weekend performing on demand many times. I don't think we'd feel good about leaving our Gumbo with strangers. Plus, there's no guarantee that anyone would want a stud dog without competition awards either. At the end of the day, we decided to go ahead with his gonadectomy. We felt bad for him and hoped he would not suffer much pain for what he was going to endure.

One positive possible side-effect was that he might be less aggressive and chewy. So we took him in last Friday and left him with the vet who had done the same on our three previous pets. He was at the vet's from 8:00 until about 4:00. They called us at about 11:30 to say that he was doing well and under anesthesia. They noticed that some of his baby teeth were not coming out soon enough and were blocking the adult teeth from growing in correctly. So we agreed to have a little dental work as well.

We noticed that the house was very quiet and it lacked the intensity when Gumbo was present. All baby gates were down and we were free to move about the house. We thought we'd be relieved and happy to have him gone for awhile however we were really pining to get him back. We were convinced he'd have a cone of shame and be drugged and sleepy. Oh the worries we create in our heads!

We went to pick him up at 4:00 and sat down with the vet who did the surgery. He explained that everything went well and that he was a bit dopey still from the anaesthesia but that should wear off in 24 hours. They brought Gumbo in and he was as wild and crazy as ever. Jump, jump, jump. Anaesthesia? Didn't look like it. They do laser surgery on them now and there are no sutures that we could see. The feared cone of shame was not needed. Wow! He looked and acted like nothing happened at all. They gave us antibiotics along with pain meds and sent us home. The people in the lobby looked on in amazement when the techs announced he had just had surgery. Our little iron man, Gumbo. 

Well, it's been a few days since his operation and he's doing well. There's not been any huge change in his behaviour. He's still spirited and loves to run and chase his ball. Was it necessary to get him neutered? Maybe not. But maybe it will make a difference some day. Today, he's still a puppy but we can see slow, subtle changes in his behavior day to day. He's slipping, slowly into adulthood and I suppose we should enjoy these days of wild abandon as they may someday disappear forever. 

Roundworms? Yuk!

Roundworms? Yuk!

During one of our "puppy" visits to the vet, we also dropped off a stool sample for them to pore over. We've done this many times over the years with all our dogs and never had any problems. The next day we got a call from the vet that our little Gumbo had roundworms. Roundworms? What the heck is that? Both of us freaked out as if our little baby was on his last legs. We wondered what had we done to make him so sick and infected? After much Googlng we soon learned all the gory details of roundworms and all the fun they can cause. When we picked up Gumbo from the breeder, she mentioned something about giving him dewormer monthly up until he's 6 months old. Bah, we thought. That never happens to us! Well, it did! 

Well, as probably most of you already know, we returned to the vet and obtained some reasonably priced (odd for the vet) medication to treat these little interlopers. They gave us 10 prefilled (how nice) syringes full of a milky solution to be given orally for 5 days and then 5 days more, one week later. This was fun as sticking something in Gumbo's mouth was usually reserved for my fingers but all in all, he did pretty well. After the first few days of treatment, we soon saw the results of the medication. It turns out that this medication stuns the roundworms and they get passed in his, well, you know, his stool. So much to our surprise, after his morning constitutional a few days later, we saw the culprits writhing around in agony and appearing very surprised to be outside of their accommodating host. Enough said about this! Just Google it for more information and pictures of roundworms. 

Two weeks later we returned to the vet with another sample of his output and we got the verdict he was clean! Hurray! It seems that these little critters will eat just about everything and I'm pretty sure it was something he ate while out on a walk that did him in. Actually all through this, he never showed any sign of infection. We were the ones affected by it all. It was so hard to see your little baby affected by some 'creature' and feel so helpless to do anything! Thanks so much for vets. What would we do without them?

Can You Dig It? The Joys of Raising a Jack Russell Puppy

Are you overprotective with your puppy?  My husband and I are, especially after the breeder warned us that we needed to be extra careful if we have hawks in our neighborhood.  We had no idea when we picked him up at 8 weeks' old that our puppy was in danger of being swept away out of our own backyard!  To prevent this, we have an X-Pen in our backyard that we cover with lathwork where he can do his business. What would dog owners do without X-Pens?

We both understand that Jack Russell Terriers need a lot of room to breathe in.  They can't be cooped up all day inside of your house.  They need to stretch their legs; otherwise, they will drive you crazy.

He is now 7 pounds and 3 months, 3 weeks' old.  We've decided it's time to cut the apron strings and see what he's capable of getting into in our backyard.

After six weeks of keeping him in our kitchen, we decided that we need to let him leave the nest today and run with the wolves--come what may.  We were turning him loose in our huge backyard--the yard that our former JR loved and ruled over.

Besides the hawks,  we are worried about his potential for digging.  I had heard that they have been bred to "go to ground" and retreive foxes.  I am afraid that he might dig a hole and end up in a tunnel that a gopher had dug and we won't be able to get him out of the tunnel.  My husband said, "Maybe we need to get a tracker collar."

We turned him loose and watched his every move.  "What did he do?" you might ask.  Much to our horror, we found out that he is really a digger!  Much more than our other Jack Russell ever was. And we're talking big, deep holes that he can create in mere minutes.  Those little claws can really dig.  He is quite an excavator!  Maybe in his former life, he was an archealogist?  Indiana Jones, Gumbo's ready for his time on the big screen.

Raising our Jack Russell Terrier Puppy: things we've learned

Gumbo is now three month's old.  He's our second Jack Russell puppy.  Both puppies were 8 weeks old when we brought them home.  You would think that after having our first one for almost 15 years, we would be pros at this. Not so!

Here are some new things I've learned with this puppy:

Despite all the toys we bought him at Petco, his favorite "toy" is his upside down stainless steel supper dish that he likes to move around like a hockey puck all over the kitchen floor.

I learned new uses for Vicks Vapor Rub:  it keeps him from chewing on the underside of the kitchen cabinets.  Just dab a little on your cupboards every other day or so.

Speaking of chewing, I learned that a washrag which has been wetted and left in the freezer provides the poor dear some relief while he's teething.

Trying to ward off his bites?  Zap him with a squirt gun when he misbehaves.  It definitely gets his attention.  Never underestimate the importance of "time outs".  Put him in his X-pen and walk away. This is what really hurts his feelings and hopefully gets him to behave next time.

Worried about hawks swooping down and grabbing your little puppy while he's going number one or two?  Here's the answer we found helpful: use garden lathwork over his X-pen to form a protective shield.

It all goes to show that you can teach an old human a new trick.

Bite, bite, bite, bite.

If I read one more blog posts that says it's good that puppies bite I'm going to scream. Once I'm done screaming from Gumbo biting me. However well-intentioned these folks are, I can't agree that this is a good thing for puppies! OK, well maybe it is for them but not for me!

Now don't get me wrong. I really do love our little guy. It's just those baby teeth that I can do without seeing them puncture my skin. We've been trying all sorts of strategies to keep his biting down.

• Keeping chew toys on hand to stuff in his mouth before he plants a good one on you. Works pretty good as long as you pay attention to his wandering mouth.
• Make sure that our arms and any other bodily limb is not moving too much - nice meaty targets for him. These little guys love to chase things!
• Putting Vicks VapoRub on your hands. This does work but you smell pretty bad. Does work on our kitchen cabinets though.
• Acting like a litter mate and squealing when bit. This doesn't work with Gumbo. It seems like a signal to turn up the intensity and bit harder. 
• Ignoring him when bitten. This does seem to work, albeit, slowly. We stick him back in his X-pen and ignore him for a few minutes while turning our back on him. This seems to really hurt his feelings since his playmates are ignoring him. 
• Filling a Coke can with pennies and shaking it when he bites. Not worked so far. Just gets his motor running more he hears the noise. I'm sure he'd love to sink his choppers into that can!

Before you get the idea that we're going nuts, let me say that we do see some progress. Our breeder told us that if we can hang in there until he's 18 months, we should be in the clear. Great. He just turned 3 months last week. So we we have any skin left we'll be good to go in 15 months. We should be pretty good at all this by then so feel free to contact us for any tips as we'll be experts. Or we'll be in the hospital on an IV. 

Cheers!

How many times can one dog poop?

Well, it's been a few weeks since my last post. We've been through quite alot with our little guy over these past many days. Lots of fun and games. One thing that really sticks out is his uncanny ability to generate loads and loads of poop. More poop than I've ever seen!

I had forgotten that you have to feed these little machines three times a day for the first 4-6 months. He happily devours his food and then dutifully sends it out the other end. Of course where and when  he does this hasn't sunk in yet so we're forever watching him for the telltale signs of imminent evacuation.

At first, I tried to time his 'movements'. I thought if I gave him about 6 hours he would be ready to let loose and I could have him outside and ready to receive heaps of praise from his loyal owner. I soon found that despite my calculations and many late night / early morning wake ups, his gastro-intestinal system did what it wanted. It was not going to be held hostage by my time schedule. Poop, poop, poop.

Well, for the past few days, we've seen a little flicker of hope and timing. He's been going like clockwork after eating, mostly, so we're thinking maybe he's getting his rhythm down. He still goes in the middle of the night; we've given up on trying to rise at 3:00 AM in hopes of nailing his movement. After several sleepy barefoot steps into his X-pen and landing in one of his surprises, we thought we'd wait for morning when we might be able to better handle the situation. Stepping in it is not a fun thing at 3:00 in the morning.

So we soldier on. Maybe we can get him trained to use the toilet. Now that would be perfect. Maybe even keep the seat down too.