# 52 weeks of "Lucy"



## Quossum

Wow! Congrats--can't wait to see your little one growing. I love the idea of starting so soon!

--Q


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## pgr8dnlvr

*Officially Week 2!*

Week 2! Eyes are just opening. We obviously didn't stay long and didn't want to handle her too much, but we were able to have her sleep quietly in our hands while sitting on the floor talking and visiting with the breeder  At one point Candy (Lucy's mom) nested in on Rachels coat so we put the pups with her and she actually nursed them for quite some time. Such a good and patient mom... 















Weighing time! The CRAZY thing is that her "little brother" in four days from being a 1/4 to 1/3 less than her is all of the sudden BIGGER than her?!? What??!!? Forgot to write down the weights. Thankfully the breeder keeps very careful record and even showed the growth rates of previous litters. So interesting!


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## Poodlepup1

Oh my goodness what a perfectly cute little baby!! I'm getting my little puppy (the avatar pic) on friday so I know how excited you are!


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## Brittany May

What a perfect little girl!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 3 weeks old today!!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy was 4 weeks old yesterday! She is charting to be about 5 1/2 lbs now. So interesting to see how she compares to the online charts, even though I know they are likely garbage anyway!!

We had an incident two days ago. The breeder said it was time to start short periods of getting the pups de-sensitized to clippers. She hands me the clippers and says to run them along her her coat and hold them near her. The guard was on, so everything would be ok right? So I'm watching her face for reactions (she still rested through the whole thing) and I hear my daughter exclaim - "OH MOM!!" I look and you guessed it, the clipper guard fell off and I scalped my daughters pup! Good thing we are all easy going and we mostly had a good laugh over the whole thing. We now have our first "funny family story" about Lucy! The day mom scalped the pup! I had to promise to get my groomer friend to blend the coat as much as possible the day before "homecoming" lol!







The breeder asked if we wanted to shave her face yet and after the trauma of the "scalping" we just couldn't do it! So she'll stay fuzzy faced at least a few more weeks. Though we'll likely practice more with the guard firmly taped in place! lol!


Here are some pictures from last night, her 4 week birthday, anniversary, whatever you wanna call it!


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## pgr8dnlvr




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## RileysMommy

Oh my! She's soooo precious! I want one!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Ok, so it's not quite her 5 week birthday, but I'm just getting so many cute pictures!







My daugher picked up a new webkinz in ode to Lucy. Can you believe they actually have a webkinz labeled "labradoodle"? lol!


Wasn't there just a thread about a prick eared poodle?


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## pgr8dnlvr

And TADAAAA!!! The first "on purpose" haircuts at 32 days old! Thanks to a very experienced breeder! Wow she's fast and good!

First up is her brother now dubbed "Lucky"






Look at mom and sister watching so intently!


Lucy's turn!



Finished product! She had her face, tail and bum done. In the next few days the feet will be done!


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## Siskojan

Lucy is adorable. That clipper is almost bigger than she is!


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## Quossum

What a little doll! The transformation after that first face shave is amazing!

Looks like your daughter has a new little friend. 

--Q


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## pgr8dnlvr

5 weeks old, time to EAT! 




Then more sleep...




Now some brushing and bonding with Rach..




DOG PILE!!!




A very washed out picture...


Thanks for looking! Only 3 or 4 weeks till she comes home!!!

Rebecca


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## sandooch

Oh, they are so, so sweet!


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## Quossum

Oh, wow, that puppy is a doll! Glad to see your daughter is already getting used to the brushing. 

--Q


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## pgr8dnlvr

Well 6 weeks old now! Time is FLYING by! I'm slowly gathering my supplies for at home. I have two 30" tall x-pens, she already has her crate at the breeders house, I have multiple toys (just need a kong or two), a few shirts, a collar and lead, multiple dog appeasing pheramone products, crate games video, puppy pea pads, clippers, brushes, and shampoo. I still need a good comb and I'm looking for a "super soft slicker".

Lucy plays HARD and crashes just as fast and hard. She sure sleeps a lot! We gave her her first bath. She did very well, though I think we could have been a little quieter and gentler, but the breeder did it with Rachel, I just held the camera and filmed the escapade! 

I did some clipping on her face and feet myself, though I do surely feel as though I'm all thumbs with it. She yipped a bit at one point, but I didn't see any razor burn or nicks so who knows? 















Mom and Big Sis givin' my daughter some love!


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## pgr8dnlvr

A couple more 6 week old photos including me fumbling with grooming!


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## sulamk

Very, very cute!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 7 weeks old! I can't believe she might come home in just one week! LESS than a week actually, as I'm a few days late posting these pictures. It's been amazing to watch her change progressively every few days, I hope I appreciate the changes just as much when she's actually with us every day!

Choosing a pup at only a few days old is sure a daunting task, you have all the hopes and wishes about how they'll turn out, but it really is a bit of the luck 'o the draw! When I had a pup in mind I was obviously looking for temperment first, then decent conformation (not too cobby), clean eyes (no obvious tear staining), a decent poodle coat (thicker and harsher rather than whispy and thin) and then lastly I was hoping for a light colour. I was originally thinking I wanted a larger toy, but I've found that secretly, I have been thinking it would be just fine with me ANY size she turns out. Gotta admit going from a great dane to a toy poodle whose father was under 4 lbs is kinda fun to talk about! 

I compare her to the toy poodle growth chart every week on her "birthday" and she started out looking to be closer to 4lbs final weight, but as time has passed she is now charting to be 6 lbs! Big difference on a little dog! Dad and full sister are just under 4, mom is an overweight 7 1/2, and a few other siblings range 5-6lbs! I should start a growth lottery and send a poodley prize to whoever comes closest to guessing her weight at 1 year old!

Anyway, my poor husband who has been getting HUGE guff from his friends over letting a "poodle" move into our home, finally met Lucy this week. I'm sure he'll treat her kind and lovingly, as underneath the ******* exterior he is really a bit of an animal lover. 





This was her first time trying the homemade food I cooked for her!


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## Quossum

Precious! I love tough guys with poodles. Sounds like you are *really* prepared! :angel2:

--Q


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## pgr8dnlvr

Well, Lucy is now 8 weeks and has come home to stay! 

I was so nervous just before she came home I was HONESTLY tempted to ask the breeder to keep her a while longer. But we bit the bullet and home she came. 

I work at a vet clinic so we had her brought to my clinic for her shots then the plan was for her to stay and then come home with me. I PLANNED it to be on a quiet afternoon so I could spend time with her and get her set up. Well right away that got derailed! The clinic got nuts, she had to be in her x-pen set up and that was it. All by herself so of coarse she cried and screamed the whole time! Plus I ended up having to work overtime! Poor little dog  

When we got home I had everything all planned out, just the way it would go. Nope again. She had one quick accident in the x-pen before i got a pee-pad set out. I was only going to use them for emergencies and day one WAS an emergency! lol! 

So finally only the one accident and it took many times to get her to go pee outside, but we did it. 

The first night was AWFUL! The plan was for her to be in a crate on my daughters bed, but nope, the locked crate door was too much. Even with her dog appeasing pheramone collar, the diffuser going in the room and even a few spritz of spray on the kennel  After 45 minutes my daughter asked if she could be moved downstairs. 

Then it was a night of crying. The longest she seemed to be able to go was an hour and even that was preceded by at least 15 minutes of howling. We struggled through though and I didn't get a wink of sleep. I reread some of my training books and scoured online for suggestions and to find out why my puppy DIDN'T read the books as she was NOT doing what she was supposed to!

We made it through to morning, no accidents, just a very tired family...

Got my daughter ready for school which Lucy thought was great fun! She had done her potty before being allowed to play, just like the books say. Meeting some of my daughters friends at school from the comfort of inside my jacket was ever so interesting and made her bum wiggle with joy. Then it was back home to see if we could start some sort of "routine".

Well she went in her kennel, not TOO reluctantly and only 5 minutes of whimpering and she was off to dreamland. I worked on my home business duties while she slept and went down to wake her an hour after she started sleeping. Took her outside to her spot and BINGO right away did her business! YAY! We came in to play and have a snack, did some cuddling and then back into the kennel she went with only a little nudge on her bottom! Off to sleep with only 2 minutes of whimpering! OMG!! Was she getting the hang of this?

YES!!! The rest of the day went completely by the book! She has already started loving her kennel, she attempted playing with my employees chihuahua and my retriever, she went potty every time I took her out, and NO ACCIDENTS! 

When night came I was so worried about how it would go. I had some jobs to do which kept me up pretty late, and Lucy helped where she could. She was very well behaved. Last thing before bed at 11:00 I saw to her and she just knew when I wanted her to get in her kennel for bed. She went right in by herself and ZERO whimpering when I shut the door.  I went to bed wondering how long the peace would last. I didn't know whether to set my alarm for two or three hours or not, but I figured I'd try without. She lasted 4 hours! When she started whimpering I went down and took her out and she did her business right away. When I checked her kennel she did have a pee in there  So that wasn't great, but hey, 4 hours?!? Maybe I slept through her first attempts to call me, so I didn't hold it against her  After the potty break and a quick snack, right off to bed with only 2 or 3 minutes of complaint. 

Daddy gets up at 5:30 for work and I had given him the instructios for the "routine" and it must have gone very smoothly, since I didn't hear a peep until my alarm went off which likely woke Little Lucy too!

So thats that, our journey has become and our family is now - PLUS ONE!!!  

Pictures to follow!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Before going into the house we did the recommended "walk". Luckily she's so small our yard was enough of a walk! My retriever was NOT impressed with this "excuse" for a walk, he wanted to go for a REAL walk!






The new excercise pen!


Where's my brother?!?!


That flash is too bright! (notice the worlds ugliest collar, it's a DAP collar)




Mmmmm, that feels nice...


Us girls are "primpin'!"


humans are so interesting...


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## pgr8dnlvr

What the heck are YOU?!


Can I sniff your bum?


Wow! This is better than TV!


You gotta pee?


Hey, thats MY kennel!


Our tails kinda look the same!


I know what THIS is for! (Her breeder had a big wood burning stove all the dogs would sit in front of. This fire was not on)


She seems to like to eat on three legs or doing handstands?!? huh?


Big brother asking, "Can I please go in?"


Nope. He's only allowed to wait patiently for her to come out.


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## petitpie

She's adorable and congratulations!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Well, Lucy is 9 weeks and all I can say is thank god for every day, every week...

About the 3rd day Lucy went hypoglycemic. She wasn't eating enough and she was putting out too much energy. So many factors led to the condition in our case -

Got her at 8 weeks, good for most pups but as a toy, I know she was still nursing the odd time. Perhaps more than I thought.

The day I got her she was brought to my work and had her shots and deworming. Then things got unexpedly busy and she had to stay in her pen for two hours. After the stress of her shots she cried and panicked about being in the pen, exerting LOTS of energy I'm sure.

Then I stressed her too much by attempting too many small trips on the second day (in my coat to drop daughter off at school), visiting a new bosleys shop right beside my house...

Then no matter how much I tried, how many different foods I offered, she just didn't want to take it... So there we go. All these mistakes and circumstances = a hypoglycemic toy poodle.

After the scare we settled things right down. She is certainly doing better every day, though I'd still certainly classify her as an "at risk" dog, she's often times giving me glimpses of what she will be like once she's firmly established. Having her is taking alot more care and monitoring through the day and night than I thought! Big dogs are certainly so much easier...

Lots more resting and sleeping..


Still has time for being silly...


Creating the ever important loving, or should I say adoring, relationship with her new big brother!








I'm not doing too much for training right now. I'm pretty closely following the Ian Dunbar approach, but "errorless" I don't know about that. It's come close though. I don't count any accidents after her hospitalization of coarse due to the fluids she was on. She needed to pee a lot out after getting those!

I do like the "sod patch" idea in her pen and she has pretty much always used that if she just cant wait for me to get down the stairs to let her out fast enough.

Well here's hoping for a better week 9!

Rebecca


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## Quossum

Congrats! Somehow I missed the first "coming home" post, so I had a lot of pictures to enjoy. My gosh, she is SO tiny! That was a rough scare to go through--I agree, big dogs are easier. It sounds like she's reading the books now, so hopefully things will get better and better from here on out!

Thanks for sharing your journey!

--Q


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## Mel

Love the pictures! I've enjoyed readying Lucy's updates. Pretty girl!

Now I know what you meant about the food! Wow so scary. I hope she's been eating better.


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy hit 10 weeks. It's sure been a fight as far as feeding goes, but she seems to be back on track with weight gain at least. I'm trying to be less uptight about feeding, but it is always on my mind...

Training so far (other than house training which is going pretty well) has been very slow. With a dog who is not food oriented it's very foreign to me. My golden retriever wanted to learn things right away, from day one when I got him as a tiny pup. Lucy? Not so much. Of coarse I am using quite different methods. I used "No" and "Ahhh" a lot more with the retriever where as with Lucy I'm trying to wait for the behavior I want, then reward and do happy dances when she does it. I'm not seeing much of a connection in her head yet though.

We went up for a holiday in Gibsons B.C. so Lucy had her first ferry ride! Other than that though we only kept her in the house and didn't expose her to too much. 

Here are some pics!

Giddy up Golden Boy!


Slumber Party!


Yawwwwn...


Excuse the Vitacal on the muzzle...




God, I'm DYING to clip this face. I have to build up the courage to do it myself though...


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## petitpie

So glad Lucy is well...great pictures!


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## Quossum

She's so darling!

--Q


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## Onyx11

Loved watching your baby grow thank you.


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## pgr8dnlvr

*11 weeks!*

Lucy will be 11 weeks old tomorrow!

She has FINALLY seemed to have begun eating properly! That has got to be the top for 3 of the most stressful weeks of my life... For now it seems she'll take her kibble with a bit of scrambled egg and cooked cod fillet crumbled and mixed in. Mostly kibble now so I'm happy about that! I can't believe how stress relieving it is for me to see her settle in and eat an actual meal instead of fighting to get one or two bites in!

We have started to try harder on the clicker training, since now Lucy seems to have started liking some food treats. It's been an agonizingly slow start due to our previous problem of no feed/treat drive. 

I'm so frustrated hearing about people on here with Standards who have them trained to sit in the first week. Lucy's recall is also pretty darn HORRIBLE, but hey, I guess, from what I've learned lately, it can be expected. I have been so surprised to hear about people on this forum who have adult poodles that run away?! I thought that poodles were supposed to be "home bodies?" I'm sure by a year she'll finally be safe enough without leash all the time. This summer will be tough though, since doors in our house are always left open due to a forgetful hubby and we live on a busy road  

Anywho, today we went for a looooooong visit with the breeder who has now become a real friend. All the dogs got to play together so her socialization training is awesome! When we got there she has her brother, an older sister, her mother, and an unrelated mini poodle female to play with. I'm sure it's all very valuable for her in learning bite inhibition and dog manners. Couldn't ask for a better situation! While we were there it was time to shave that fuzzy dog face off and have a bath and blowdry! We even started shaping her hind end into more of a proper "puppy cut". Wonder when I'll be able to start with bands!


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## Quossum

So cute! It's so sweet that you can wash her in the sink. 

Glad her eating / blood sugar problems are settling down--that will certainly help with the training. And yes, until she is completely reliable you'll have to keep on the whole family about open doors! There's a family a few houses down from us who are regularly out chasing their slippery little brat of a Shih Tzu. Work that recall!

Keep the pictures of your little angel coming!

--Q


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is now 12 weeks old!

Life is finding it's routine slowly but surely. For a while last week I had three days in a row of finding a poopy surprise in the house. So I had to pull up my boot straps and TRY HARDER! So now we have had 4 days in a row with happy dances of success when ALL the presents have been deposited OUTSIDE!

Our training is coming along as well. We now have pretty regularly got sit, down and come conquered. Mind you the "come" is best done inside no distractions! lol 

Lucy has been so lucky. We have kept the relationship with the breeder going strong and have now come to a point that my daughter and Lucy have been going over alone. On Sunday they were over at the breeders from noon till 8:00 pm! I'm sure this does wonders for Lucy's socialization with dogs and learning "doggy manners" since when there she is part of a "pack". There are 4 dogs living there. 6 yr old mom, 1 yr old sister, 4 year old mini poo, and of coarse her brother. She comes back wiped and I get some housework and jobs done, it's GREAT! 

Tomorrow I go to sit in on an obedience class being taught by someone I think I'd like to use. She very much seems to be on the same wavelength as many of the members on this board. We discussed registering Lucy for this round however due to her small size and previous health issues we decided it's better not to rush her into it. If things look good, we'll register for the round starting end of May. 

I am looking forward to talking to a class participant with a Chihuahua puppy who will hopefully tell me about her experiences with the coarse. Mostly I'm worried about the off lead portions for fear of a big labrador being a little too friendly and smacking Lucy to the ground or scaring her enough she won't be confident in approaching larger dogs anymore. It sounds like in the beginning when there are toy dogs in the coarse we will be seperated off into ex-pens for our work so the big ones don't come crashing in, then she said as the little ones get more confident they can be off lead around some of the bigger ones who are on lead. We'll see how it all comes together. 

Until then, I'll try to continue on as much as possible with socialization and training on my own and with friends. I'm sure we'll do fine. I can't wait until she is 18 weeks old though and I have confidence she is protected by her puppy vaccines! I am also going to breathe a bit easier when she hits 16 weeks as that is supposed to be the end of the real danger for puppy hypoglycemia! GROW LUCY, GROW! 





Scary blue eyes!


Wish her ears were just a touch longer in the leather and perhaps moved back just a bit, mind you some of this picture might be ear placement after a quick head shake so I guess they aren't quite as bad as this picture looks.


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## petitpie

Very cute little Lucy!


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## sulamk

She is really very cute!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 13 weeks old now!

We are well into starting the training now. We went to observe a class from the teacher who follows more "european methods". But unfortunately I wasn't too impressed. She didn't seem to be able to pick out or know dog breeds better than any average non dog person on the street (mistook a purebred miniature australian shepherd for a chihuahua beagle x?!?!) she also consistantly told people in the class asking technical questions about nail trimming to "go look on the internet" and when a toy breed owner asked how to hold their dogs nails for trimming she demonstrated with her Newfie how to hold like you would hold a horse for shoeing. Meh... not so much...

So then I looked into a class where the teacher is highly recommended by clients at work and even a personal friend of mine. She teaches with clicker training and is actively involved in the movie industry. She wouldn't even let you talk to her. You had to go through "staff". This made me nervous, but it was very tantilizing to think that this woman helps teach you so many different "tricks" that you just might not think of doing on your own. It's also neat that she pulls lots of dogs from her classes to audition for movies and television!

So I get a call from her staff saying she has a coarse starting THAT NIGHT in just a few hours, but I have to pay in full before going to the class. Even though there were alarm bells going off, I trusted my friend, bit the bullet and we dove in headfirst!

When we arrived I wondered what I had gotten myself into, when we got out of the car and Lucy saw some of her "classmates" she was terrified! Theres a briard pup that's only about 5 months old and he's huge (at least to her) and all the other dogs were so excited they were fidgety and barking, thus making her more nervous. She's by far the youngest and the next smallest dog is about 20-25 lbs! 

But the teacher noticed how Lucy was feeling, and told us to take her to a big pedestal in the middle of the room so she could just watch until she calmed herself down. Very quickly the class started and all the dogs were walking in control, circling around and by the pedestal. It didn't take long at all you could tell Lucy was opening up and looking interested! The teacher was right, she just wanted to feel a bit more safe and in control of the situation and putting her higher worked like a charm!

Long story short, the class was AWESOME!!! We started with teaching the dogs to go on an "upseat" basically a pedastal of some sort. I didn't think Lucy would do it, but within 5 minutes she was one of the best in the class! The teacher apparantly used to breed apricot toy poodles and that along with the fact that my daughter is the only child handler in the class seems to have gained us some favoritism and extra time from the teacher! lol! 

The teacher is so excited to have her in the class. She pointed out that a few times during the class Lucy unconsciously did "handstands". She was excitedly saying "If I had her I could teach her to walk on her hands within 3 days" and "I could think of so many things Lucy could do, she seems very apt to learn tricks"! I was so STOKED! I really think this class is going to be AWESOME! 

My daugher on the other hand started crying when she got in the car. She was so stressed and kept saying "I'm going to fail the class", "I can't talk to Lucy they way they all talk to their dogs", "I wanna be in the other class where everyone always does stuff at the same time". It was disheartening to say the least. Being 8 years old and very new at the dog training mentality my poor daughter was self conscious of the parts of the class where the teacher had each student demonstrate how they were working with their dogs. 

She's also feeling quite silly using crazy high voices and noises to get Lucy's attention in front of all these adults. I KNOW though, that this is a VERY supportive group of adults, who admire what my daughter is trying to do. They were all cheering for her and clapping when she was taking her turn demonstrating, but she was concentrating so hard she didn't want to see the praise she and Lucy were getting. I did all I could to let her know, there is no failing and the teacher is just helping us learn different ways to teach Lucy. I also reminded her of how everyone was so happy for her and proud of her. I figured sleeping on it was the best thing to do...

The next morning I found a little box and brought it to my daughter asking "Do you think this would be a good upseat for Lucy?" and WOW! Her face lit right up and she exclaimed, "IT'S PERFECT! Can we go try it?!" When we went to try it of coarse Lucy immediately went through all the process hitting her mark like a champ! Rachel could see the progress in just one lesson and one practice session and before the morning was over she was asking when we could go back to class! YIPPEEE!!! So now our journey begins! 

House training so far on the other hand is a complete and total NIGHTMARE! I am doing the best I can but she still sneaks away from me every now and then and lays a poop down before I know it. It's so disheartening. People are pointing out how she is indeed showing progress and seems to be trying every now and then to make it outside for eliminating, but for me the whole process is TOO DARN SLOW! I'm beginning to count every week of her life as one week closer to being house broken! 

Last Sunday we put the rabbit and puppy in the pen outside for the first time! What a hoot! They did AWESOME! They chased and hopped around eachother, both played with toys every now and then. The only downside is that I think the rabbit ate a bit chunk out of Lucy's coat! I'm doomed in that respect anyway it would seem though, considering the big hunk on her back I accidently shaved off when she was 4 weeks old, and her arm being shaved for IV's when she was hospitalized. Why not go for broke and add a few more patches! lol!

Lucy is now 13 weeks old, 45.2 oz, (2.8 lbs) and still somewhat charting to be 5 1/2 lbs.

Anyway, here are the pics for this week!



Here she is checking out one of the "upseats" we're using at home.

What do I have to do with this box to train you to give me treats?!


I'm gonna sniff it, is THAT what you want?


How bout I sit on it?! Yay! It worked, I got some treats!


Look, I can do it again! Ain't I purdy?!?


Sitting wasn't working as fast anymore, how bout I lie down?!


I have a home business breeding reptiles which can get very messy at times when we're "cleaning" the snake tubs! Lucy loves playing in the shavings! Too cute!





She also met a baby rat for the first time! I put them both in a bathtub and pet and held the rat for a while telling her "good" when she sniffed, and "leave it" when she thought of playing rough. Soon it will be time to introduce her to a baby snake!

Horrible quality cell phone pic...


Another new trick? Riding in Great Grammas cart all around the seniors home! She loves visiting people!


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## Quossum

She's looking so cute! I hope you stick with that class; it sounds like it really is something special. Lucy has the potential to be the star!

--Q


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## Mel

She's so pretty! 

Sounds like a good class! I really need to get Sandy in a class because she's a bit afraid of other dogs.


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## all that jazz

She's gorgeous!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Mel said:


> She's so pretty!
> 
> Sounds like a good class! I really need to get Sandy in a class because she's a bit afraid of other dogs.


Hahaha! We are both so biased about the others dogs because our dogs are so similar!  

Yeah, I really hope that I can keep moving forward with getting/keeping Lucy's confidence up around other dogs. Being a "big dog" person by nature, I found nothing more repulsive than a little one shivering and quaking in the corner or their owners arms just because a bigger dog was near. I understand they have very real reason to fear, but wish they could understand that some dogs (like my big calm great danes) would never harm them or move to quickly around them. 

Lucy's parents seemed very confident and steadfast, so I'm hoping she'll follow suit! 

Rebecca


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## sulamk

She is gorgeous! My 5mnth toy Marula is not scared of big dogs loves playing with my GSD!
In fact I worry that she is a bit over confident!


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## CT Girl

I have loved looking at all the pictures of Lucy. She is adorable! What I really enjoy is seeing your daughter's face light up as she interacts with Lucy. I love seeing all the great socialization you have given Lucy. I would not worry that Lucy seems apprehensive with big dogs. She is tiny and a little fear is a healthy thing. The way she is interacting with your big dog shows that her fear is only with unknown dogs. Once she has gotten to know and trust them she will be more comfortable. Swizzle is the same way. He can play tug of war with my nieces lab but introduce a new dog in class and he is a bundle of nerves. A class or two later when he is calm and friendly with his new doggie buddy.


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 14 weeks old and 1390 grams (49 oz).

She is STILL not housetrained and I'm so frustrated with my failure in this aspect. Is there a "point of no return", or an indicator age which would tell you, if your poodle doesn't get housetraining by now it's going to be a lifelong battle?

We are slowly trying different things with training and it's going pretty well for the most part. She seems very quick and only sometimes is a bit stubborn. We are definitely enjoying our classes.

The battle with food has returned a bit, but this time it's against dog kibble. She'll take almost anything else, so I know she's just being finicky. The hard part will be figuring out where the line is that keeps her safe, but doesn't harbour to her developing bad feeding habits.

We had our first bath at home this week as well! I did it right in the tub with my daughter and it went great! I think she's going to be a water dog even though she's a toy. 


Fuzzy faced, crazy eared poodle!


Chewin' on a Chewy.


Purdy poodle


Rub a dub dub!


Spaghetti head.


Gettin' dried off!


POOF!


I'm pooped, time for a story and bed.


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## pgr8dnlvr

I know I'm posting this late, but here is the 15 week update!

Lucy now weighs 1450 grams or 3.2 lbs now 

Here she is dressed up to match my daughter for "cowboy days" at her school!


And here she is working with Rachel in the obedience classes - 




We were very excited because the teacher ended up doing a photo shoot with her and is submitting her for a commercial! Who knows if she'll actually get the part though?!?!?!

A little out of focus but a cute little picture none the less?...


And here is a super cute video of Rachel and Lucy working together!


----------



## Quossum

She's so dainty! Your daughter is doing great. Enjoyed the video; what a nice little perk.

Keep up the good work! She's coming along so well!

--Q


----------



## Joelly

Lucy is so beautiful. Your daughter and Lucy make a good team work there. Thanks for the video, I really enjoy it.


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 16 weeks and 1490 grams or just over 3 1/4 lbs. I wonder how big she'll be when she's done. I know she's supposed to end up about 5 - 5 1/2 lbs, but really I wonder how much "taller" she'll get!?  

On her 16 wk birthday we had a holiday here in BC called Victoria Day aka Mayday. I coached the schools May pole dancers and as such had them entered in our local parade. So guess who walked the entire parade in the pouring rain!?!? That's right! Lucy! 

She did very well. She was nervous at times, particularly by some of the dogs in with the crowds of people, but she worked through it all. I wish I had pictures, and some may turn up, but for now, I have none. Sorry!

She's STIIIIIIIIIIILL not housetrained  Sometimes I think we've made great strides, then it's back to square one...

Anyway, here she is in devil horns! The first pic they still hadn't been loosened off so they were pulling at her eyes just a bit. It was only momentary though, I assure you 







Rebecca


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 17 weeks now! 1580 grams or just a shade under 3 1/2 pounds. She feels SOOOO much bigger now. I'm feeling a lot more confident with her. House training is STILL a battle, though we've had a few days in a row with no accidents, but then that record quickly went back to nothing. Oh well, I'll keep persevering!

Once again Lucy was an awesome companion while I was sick. She settles in so nicely when I needed to sleep way more than you'd figure a puppy could take.

I took this picture when she was snuggled into me


This is after she woke up from the flash


Here she is helping me sleep on the bed, with her whispy hair...


As soon as she hits a sunbeam on pavement, ANYTIME she hits a sunbeam on pavement, she loves to lie down and stretch out...




And her sillyest hairdo to date...


----------



## Quossum

She's so darn cute! My Pixie lies in the sunbeams, too.

--Q


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 18 weeks! 1.615 kg - Just over 3 1/2 kg. 

We have made some strides with the dog fear issues this week. Lucy has gone for a few walks with friends dogs and we even tackled a local dog park now that all the vaccines should be kicked in. She's being very brave and even approaching most dogs, so I'm very happy with that.

We still have a long way to go with the housebreaking, but again, we are making good headway. We ALMOST made it three days with no accidents, still very poor results in my books, but that's her best so far!


Very scruffy this week! I'll get her fixed up again in the next few days! Squinty from the camera flash too.




Her favorite spot to ride when she's gotta be picked up. ESPECIALLY in the mornings, this girl is NOT a morning girl. She seems to be one that would naturally sleep till noon and party till midnight!




Helpin' out in the snake room...


----------



## petitpie

Lucy is doing so well and she's so cute.


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Hahaha lol! If "doing well" means taking OVER 2 1/2 months to potty train! 

Oh yeah, and i mentioned it elsewhere on the photos but we are having to work on food possession now too. Boy raising pups the way you'd like is a TON of work! lol

Thanks very much for the nice comment though, it encourages us to keep working through! 

Rebecca


----------



## Quossum

She's the cutest pup!

The housebreaking and resource guarding issues are all very normal. Frustrating, but normal! From your posts about her training, I can tell she's an intelligent girl, and you'll get it all under control.

Time to do a photo shoot of her with some of your crazy-colored corns--I see the potential for something really artsy! :laugh:

--Q


----------



## Mel

Sooo pretty! Love her color...so much more even looking than Sandy's. Sounds like your doing better than I am with the potty training.


----------



## petitpie

Is she resource-guarding that stack of boxes?


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

I think she was holding the lid down trying to stop the baby ball python from escaping?!?

I'm sorry, but I just gotta post these pics I got this morning! Lucy slept with my daughter for the second night and we had a GIANT success! She barked to get me to come and take her outside to potty during the night! So far she's never had a mess in Rachels room! We are doing so much better! Maybe the majority of the house training will be DONE by the time she's 5 months?!? We've got two weeks to hit goal!

This is the sight I was greeted with upon going to wake my daughter this morning...






Once again, it is confirmed Lucy is NOT a morning dog. It took her almost 3/4 of an hour to get up after I had Rachel up and doing her morning stuff! Crazy for a pup, but she does love to stay up late!


----------



## Joelly

Lucy is such a cutie! Thank you for posting pictures. 

Her pics make me anticipate how Charlie will look like. Charlie is also a toy poodle only 3 weeks younger than Lucy. Charlie is okay on the housetraining stuff but he is superhyper and a menace elsewhere. Its tiring to keep up with him but we must. My guy def need obedience class.  I love how she sleeps soundly next to your daughter. What a cuddly cute pup.

She is the opposite of my Charlie. Charlie is a morning guy. He wakes us all up by 6am cause its time for us to feed him.


----------



## Joelly

I wonder if toy poodle will get as curly as mini or std poodle? Anyone knows?


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

It is my understanding from lots of research and question asking that toys can come in all sorts of coats, perhaps a little more so than the standard and minis. The proper and most desirable coat is the same harsher curlier coat that holds shape often seen in standards.

I have found that the smaller the toy is, the more often it has that forever whispy coat with thin matting hair. I think perhaps this is because people breeding undersized dogs proves they don't really have regard for "breed standards" so when the smaller dog fetches the most money, coat and structure go by the wayside...

In my area at least, there seem to be a lot more "poorly bred" poodles than good ones, and even though my Lucy's father was a pointed show dog I think his coat was worse than her "non registered" mother. I pray every day that Lucy turns out as much like her mother in possible. Her coat is getting thicker and harsher already for sure, but will it be that truly "curly" coat? I'm not too sure!?!? 

Please bear in mind when looking at my pictures she gets regular "blow outs" and brushed daily, so this will add to her crazy "poof" look! 

Rebecca


----------



## Joelly

Thanks for replying to my curiousity. 

Charlie (my toy poodle) is also has whispy hair, not as beautiful as your Lucy. His Dad has curlier hair than his Mom. So I wish he will be more like his Dad. Nonetheless he is loved and spoiled as ever.


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

For interest sake, here is a pic of Lucy's dad.


I don't have a stacked picture, or even a current one of her mom, but I'll try to get one soon. Her coat is even tighter and curlier now that she has finished with the pups and it keeps getting better. Here is a pic showing a bit of how nice her coat was even with the pups. I can't believe how well her top knot and tail stay fluffed up and hold their shape, even when they haven't been brushed in a week they look and feel great...


----------



## Joelly

Wow!!! I gotta say that her Mom and Dad look gorgeous. No wonder Lucy is so cute. 
Charlie's Mom is white and his Dad is brown. They have 5 litters. Not only that Charlie is the only male but he is also the only black one. His four siblings are all brown. Isn't it a wonder that your Lucy has white Dad and black Mom but she comes out brown? Or is it just me who is new at this poodle thing? Charlie is my 1st poodle.


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Ok, so I'm an idiot, I just clued in, that is a puppy cut her dad is in, so he likely still had his puppy coat at the time of this picture. I just spoke to a groomer/breeder who has used this male before, and she assures me his coat is actually pretty decent. When I saw him he was not well groomed and he was jumping all over the place trying to get at a bitch who was in season in the room, so no wonder I didnt get a decent look or feel on him. That'll teach me for being in a rush, maybe someday I'll get another look at him.

Poodles sure can hide a lot of colours in their genetics, I think that's why you REALLY have to search your pedigrees to know what might pop up, and even then there are seasoned professionals surprised! 

Lucy is an apricot and there were MANY apricots on her moms side. On dads six generation pedigree there were two creams but all the rest were black and white. Doesn't mean a thing though as I have heard that her father has produced even produced silvers before! The "fun" of poodles I guess!?

Rebecca


----------



## Joelly

Sorry for calling Lucy a brown, she is actually apricot. Yes, I agree that it is the "fun" of poodles. Charlie has some white hair start to sneak out from beneath his black coat. So who knows what color he will be, maybe zebra. Currently he looks like a panda with a white spot around his eyes.
Interesting to see how Lucy will look once her baby hair stage phase out. Our poodle really keeps it interesting for us, don't they? Not a dull moment here for poodle owner.


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 19 weeks now! 1640 grams (3.6 lbs)

House training seems to have clicked all of th sudden! I think we'll hit our goal of most of the house training being done by 5 months of age. 

Lucy enjoys sleeping in my daughters bed every night now which is WONDERFUL to see! 

We have also FINALLY been able to start going for hikes in big outdoor parks! Lucy just goes and goes, I can't believe the stamina this toy poodle has! 



Pointing at some people across the park!


Checking out the long grass...


Was that a SQUIRREL?!?


Wish this was in focus...


What's on the other side of this big log?


nevermind, this smells GOOD!


----------



## Quossum

She's so dainty! Such a dream-come-true. Love her!

--Q


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Thanks for the comment Quossum! . 

She's "dainty" I guess, especially in weight, but I don't really think of her that way TOO much... She is getting quite brave for a toy dog, (still shy of strange dogs of coarse), but she's always willing to investigate new noises or objects. 

She also has no aversion to rain or cold foul weather, she just goes right on outside and has "fun" no matter what! She also looks hillarious when she sees a mud puddle in her path, no skirting the edges for this girl, she's trucks right on through! I think my mother was HORRIFIED when she saw THAT . 

She may look "foo foo", but I wanna do all I can to raise her like a "real" dog! 

I'm not sure I ever "dreamed" of a toy dog, but I must say, the "logical" reasons that made us decide to go with a toy poodle sure seem to have been the right ones. She's just so darn portable, and its very easy to let her be "clingy" or with us as much as possible. I think my dane would have adored the chance to just lay on my lap while I read or did computer work! Can't beat the food bill of a "finicky" toy poodle and wow, those iddy biddy tootsie rolls in the back yard sure don't fill the shovel as quick as dane poop!

Rebecca


----------



## Quossum

Ha ha, so very true! 

My toy dog, my IG Pixie, presents me with quite the conundrum: on the one hand, a dog's dog who is surprisingly sturdy, holds her own with a spoo four times her weight, had minimal environmental impact (*ahem*)...but on the other hand, shivers in the cold, is as hideously hard to housebreak as any toy, and a source of stomach-dropping terror the couple of times another dog has "gone for her." (No harm came to her, she was completely nonplussed by being chased down by random "playful" large dogs, but *I* screamed bloody murder!)

You've done so well to treat her like a dog and encourage that feisty, strong personality. What a wonderful little girl! What a lucky family to have her! 

--Q


----------



## petitpie

Lucy is adorable and so curious about everything!


----------



## Joelly

Wow! Lucy is so beautiful. I love her face and her full fur. So cuddly cute.


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 20 weeks now! She weighs 1725 grams, or 3 3/4 lbs!

House training is going MUCH better. We rarely have accidents now! YAY!

Obedience classes were a little "wonky" this week. I wonder if she's entering the "teen phase" already? She was just being a dingbat interested in everything but learning. Oh well, win some, lose some!

Her teeth are finally starting to fall out too! She's lost three incisors on top and two on the bottom. I try wiggling her canines every time I brush her teeth in hopes I can wiggle one out, but they seem to be holding tight so far!





Whack a mole, poodle style!




Rebecca


----------



## Quossum

Such a little fluffball! Her color is lovely, and you can tell she's got personality plus.

--Q


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

I'm posting this late, but here is the 21 week information - 

Lucy is back to being ridiculously frustrating for house training?!?!? I don't get it, she seemed totally good, with no accidents for days, then she started with a poop inside every day or two, then she peed on the floor again and now on her worst day she peed THREE TIMES in the little room exiting to the pack patio. I just don't get it. I feel like I'm failing MISERABLY as a trainer right now 

Lucy weighs 1790 grams or 63.14 oz. or 3.9lbs.

Here is a picture of her and her "kitty". She LOVES this toy and we have been working on "fetch", with it. Well Lucy comes to work when I have to work at the vet clinic and on our way out I tossed Kitty for her and OOPS! It landed on the roof! 

I tried tossing another toy for her but nothing would do. I had to go back in, drag out the super big ladder and rescue kitty from the roof! As frustrating as she is, there are still many times a day where I enjoy her utter "cuteness".


Later in the week my poor old golden retriever had a life threatening incident  He ate old fruit platter leftovers that my daughter had left in the car. He has double porto systemic shunts and the amount of fruit coupled with the size of the chunks made us worry about toxicity as well as foreign body trouble. It was horrible, he couldn't walk properly and had no energy at all. Thankfully since I'm an vet assistant I was allowed to take him home and administer fluids here. Well crazy bounce off the wall poodle did seem to realize his horrible situation and was laying quietly on his bed with him a few times. It was very sweet...


SORRY FOR THE QUALITY OF THE PICTURES IN THIS POST AND NEXT. Cell phone photos only


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy turned 22 wks on the 2nd of July. She weights 1840 grams or 4.05lbs, or 64.9 ounces. Still on par to be between 5 and 5 1/2lbs according to this chart - Poodle Sizes-Growth Chart Toy Poodles, Tiny Toy and Teacup Poodles

I took her on a trip up the coast to my mother in laws and wouldn't you know it, she was near perfect. Not a single accident and listened SO WELL! We went on lots of walks and outings and for the first time she had a walk off lead in a huge old growth forest. I never would have done it by choice, but when we got there I realized I had forgotten her leash.  Well, it was in the coat or try her walking with my golden (he's almost always off leash) and man, she went PERFECTLY stayed RIGHT with me and when she was even a few steps away a quick call and she was back in position. 

I'm not sure if this just proves she knows what she's doing and is just loving manipulating me or if it's an indicator in the end she might actually be the good dog I'm looking for?!?!

Canada Day bandanna and treat!


A very dirty post walk poodle. A lot of the dirt had already come off all over my car, but yeah, this is the dirtiest she's EVER been. She loved it. I was very proud when she just trucked right through the mud puddles and never "***** footed" like a foo foo dog. She's a "manly little poodle". Perhaps this is why she's so stubborn and lazy about the training? The "man" in her coming out?!?!?


When brushing her teeth on the exact day she turned 22 weeks, I was able to retrieve a cute little incisor tooth! Here's hoping I can get a K9 tooth from her!


----------



## Quossum

I loved the picture of her with the muddy feet. Foo-foo dog? HA!

Hope your Golden is feeling okay!

--Q


----------



## all that jazz

*Sunny*

She's adorable! Be patient. Even my "nutso"dog Jazz calmed down and became a love and an easy trainable darling at about 14 months.


----------



## Joelly

Lucy is a darling as ever. I'm sorry about your Golden. I hope he gets better. Lucy is such a great pal to him!!!


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Well, Lucy is now 23 weeks old. Unfortunately she has lost weight. She's back down to 1.815 kg, just under 4 lbs.  She's gone right off her food again and is just way more interested in life and playing, than settling down to eat. I've sent in urine for urinalysis though just to make SURE she's just being stubborn about potty training and not actually suffering a health problem.

She ended off last week with 4 days of no accidents in the house, so that was good, but the streak ended this morning when she jumped off the bed and did a tiny pee at the foot of the bed 

I posted a thread last week about the things that are frustrating me with her, so I think I'd better take some time to think about all the things I like about her.

She's small and portable
Very cheap to feed
Accidents on the carpet are tiny when they happen
She hasn't destroyed anything (ie. any puppy chewing hasn't damaged due to her size)
Very fast learner in obedience classes
Stays with me well on hikes
Calms down immediately when picked up and will sit quietly with you for hours
Fun to have naps with
Very well behaved in the car
Very outgoing and friendly to all strangers
Puts up with all kinds of grooming and brushing, including baths!
Goes right through puddles and seems intersted in water
Good manners with cats (and hopefully other pets)
Learning to walk well on lead (though I don't ask her to heel much)
Doesn't whine much in kennel 
Stays quiet in kennel while I am at work in the vet clinic
Cute as a button!

That's off the top of my head. I think she's still got lots of potential but we'll see  I'm not ever going to "give up" on her since she's family! 

Now for this weeks pics -

Getting VERY long haired in body. I'm dying to get her to my friend to do a proper puppy trim. Unfortunately the mane was ruined when she was young, but the rest of her hair is pretty thick and looking good compared to a lot of toys I've met. 


Well, I argued how I've treated Lucy "like a big dog" as much as I can, but for the first time I found myself doing somthing I never would have done with a bigger dog. I groomed Lucy on my desk at work since it was a great height and easy, she settled in so nicely I let her rest there for a minute and snapped a pic. Can't imagine a just about 6 month standard resting quietly on top of a desk! lol!


----------



## Quossum

Thank goodness there's always some good with the bad with these crazy puppies! She's a darling girl.

--Q


----------



## Joelly

Oh my! She is so tiny. Her little face is super tiny.


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 24 weeks now! Guess I should start counting her age by "real" months instead of weeks now?!?!? 

She gained back her lost weight and gained just a tiny bit more. She's about 1880 grams or 4.1 lbs. Her eating is just a nightmare, having so much trouble getting her to eat, though I know some of that is teething. I've got 3 teeth now, including one of the bigger teeth from the back. 

She's being extra well behaved lately, and I'm happy to say she's starting to fetch more reliably! I've always wanted a dog who would fetch, maybe I've got one now! 

Her potty training wasn't TOO bad in the last week. 4 days no accidents, then a pee on the 4th evening and a poop in the early next am. Then the next three days, nothing. So I guess we're making progress! 

I took Lucy for her first "professional" groom today! She did AWESOME! I was so proud of her. Since my friend is the shop owner and a poodle breeder himself, I was allowed to stay the whole time and even get a few lessons. They all kept saying how well trained she was and that they were confident she'd just get better! At one point she fell asleep while standing for the scissoring and resting her chin on my hand. Another time she was so relaxed she layed on their table, tucked in a leg and was dozing while they were working. SO NICE TO SEE!!!!  

It was fun too, because she met a half sister who is one month older than her. She'll be competing in her first show as a puppy at the end of July. Sure hope we get to see her in the ring!

Here's a couple "before" photos. I LOVED the supe long hair on her but, but the lack of crest due to my "clipper incident" when she was 4 wks, and the harness damage from 12 weeks of age just looked so silly and short compared to that luscious bum! 


This one really shows her damaged and full of holes crest.


Lets get this party started! A quick "rough in" of the face, feet and tail...






Then it's into the tub!




Then it's into a kennel for the prelim dry after a towel dry.


Here we have her first time with a force dryer. I think I was WAY more aprehensive than her about it! She shocked me and did really great! Doesn't her leg look like a "skeleton dog" leg?!? She's all skin, bone and A LOT of fur.


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

*24 wks cont....*

Then it was time for the warm air, brush/straighten step...


Her top knot looks so cute fluffy but still damp. Reminds me of a muppet! lol






Next my lesson in banding! What a pretty face she has now that we can see it! Still just a touch too tight.


That's better!


Now some PLAYTIME on the floor with her half sister and some friends! The reward for being a "good girl" for so long!




IMAGE SHACK MY IMAGE HOSTING SITE IS DOWN RIGHT NOW. I'LL FINISH THIS STORY TOMORROW  I ALSO HAVE A FEELING IT HAS FLIPPED A FEW PICTURES ON THEIR SIDES, SO I'LL FIX THAT TOMORROW TOO!


----------



## Quossum

Good to hear she's catching on with fetch. That is *such* a fun game to have in the arsenal. Looks like she was a regular pro for the grooming. Can't wait to see more fluffy goodness!

--Q


----------



## Joelly

Lucy is growing up to be a lady. So cute and has that ladylike manner. Can't wait for the addtl pictures.


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Hey! It won't let me go back and edit those sideways pics! Grrrrr!!!!

So here are the corrected pics and the rest of them...







Uncle Uncle!!!


So you're my half sisters Gramma eh?


and WHO prey tell are YOU? 


Time to get back on the table for scissoring...




This pic looks kinda scary! lol


Resting her head on my hand she seemed to fall asleep while the groomer was doing the scissoring. Good thing her legs didn't buckle! lol


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

I just love her long muzzle...


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 25 weeks and weighs1950 grams or 4.3 lbs. 

She REALLY seems to be getting the hang of potty training and she's certainly more of a joy to be around, cuddling and knowing what I expect of her. We haven't been working much on training since my work is RIDICULOUSLY busy right now 

Lucy got a job! She was in a commercial being filmed for the "American Girl" dolls! 

Unfortunately she wiggled too much in the girls arms and the director thought her hair was a bit too much over her eyes, but was against the use of hairties. Her pay was NOT worth cutting her topknot to me, so she was used in the background at least. 

She apparantly did great on set though, considering the circumstances  The animal agent couldn't find my house in the morning, so she almost missed everything. I had my employee pick her up and drive her out to the location, and they got there just in time! 

Lucy was apparantly uncermoniously dumped into the pen with the other dogs after over an hour long car ride so she was full of beans wanting to play with the puppies and kids. I won't complain, since when I picked Lucy the #1 thing I wanted in a "Toy" was that they would be outgoing and friendly with everyone! She was doing just that perfectly, enjoying the attention from all the kids and strangers!

So here's my Lucy in the background, and funny enough they ended up using my employees Chihuahua Frieda as the alternate lead dog!


----------



## Quossum

Wow, Lucy is becoming a star! Better watch out, she's going to start demanding her own dressing room and insisting that petting appointments be made through her publicist! :lol:

--Q


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Looking at that picture, it goes to show that "acting dogs" really do need to be bomb proof. Notice that boy is pulling or tugging a shih tzus tail. What great dog handling skills, NOT! lol!

Rebecca


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 26 weeks! WOW, I can't believe we're actually half way through this thread already! 

Unfortunately she's lost a bit of weight again. Back down to 1980 grams. Oh well. (sigh)

She's continued to be quite good potty wise, at least in my house. She only had one morning with a pee and poop accident when she didn't take enough time for her morning outs. She has however pooped and peed in the Vet clinic both last Saturday and today (Monday). How embarrasing!

Thankfully Lucy's breeder babysits Lucy quite frequently, it's been so nice to send her over to be with the poodle pack so she plays herself out while I take my daughter swimming. Sure wish they let poodles in the local outdoor swimming pool! 

We took Lucy to a local Rabbit adoption party, trying to get my friends rabbits adopted. I've been looking after them until they go and Lucy frequently likes to hop right into their cage with them! It's amazing how small she is, when she gets in there it seems like there is PLENTY of room! I also find it funny that I can't seem to get Lucy to eat dog food, yet the rabbit food she likes quite a lot?!? People try to find so much "grain free" and here she is preferring the grain! lol!

Looking forward to doing a few technicolour banding jobs as well, we went to a dog show and picked up both fluorescent orange and pink bands! So begins our collection!


----------



## outwest

LOL! At first glance I thought she was a bunny in there.  What a pretty face she has, suc a sweet expression (both the girls).


----------



## KidWhisperer

What a sweet picture with the rabbits! I sure miss our bun-bun...we had him for almost nine years.


----------



## Joelly

She is as sweet as ever!


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is now 27 weeks old. Still weighing in at 1920 grams (4.2 lbs)  Just can't get this dog to eat well on a regular basis.

Potty training is still holding, I don't think she had a single accident in the house last week! I think there was one accident at the breeders and one at the vet clinic though, so yeah, still not 100%, but we're finally getting somewhere! 

Here she is demonstrating how she is NOT a morning dog. She'd like to sleep till noon every day I think?!?


She went to the river (Fraser River) for the first time! It was her first beach experience, and she did great! I have been trying to introduce her slowly and carefully to water, since someday I'd LOVE to see her swim. Must be working since apparantly she went right in! Didn't swim, but had lots of fun fetching small sticks out of the water!








Later in the day ( a very hot day) we came across a young crow suffering from heat exhaustion. She was amazed at this crazy animal. She did well though and didn't frighten or harass it. After we saw how poorly the crow was doing we got it a makeshift water bowl, gave it a drink, gently doused it with cool water and placed it in the cover of some bushes. Hope he recovered ok!


The next day it was time for some garden work!




Time for a groom! (time for me to get to those face and feet though...)


----------



## Joelly

Wow! She is cute!! You have a well adjusted puppy.


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 28 weeks now! She's weigjs 1925 grams or 4 1/4 lbs. Man she struggles to keep weight on let alone gain! 

Last week there were LOTS of accidents. Almost one a day again, though most were not in OUR house, but some were. Again, I curse the housetraining of toy dogs. I can't be THAT much of a screw up, can I?!? Don't answer that... 

So anyway, this weekend we went up the coast again, to a big car show weekend in Gibsons B.C. We have a 63, black on black, super sport impala.

Here is Lucy enjoying the wind in her hair!


Here is her scruffy "beach poo" look! She actually went into the ocean! She was up to her chest and a small wave came and pretty much pushed her right off her feet! Don't think she knew what happened though and we had her on the beach again before she had time to be upset...


Here is her "promiscuous" beach look.


Enjoying a chewy on a comfy quilt.


A new topknot design we tried.


We went to the car show and there was a booth with a lady selling these FANTASTIC harness/dress things! They are supposed to be a bit based on "t-touch therapy" (I personally think t-touch might be a crock), but the harness is fantastic and she seems to feel a lot more comfortable and supported if we pick her up by her "handle"! We bought an ensamble, not this one, but a punk skull and flames in pink! (sorry, don't have a good pic of the dress we bought yet) Another neat thing is the skirts are removable. The wonders of velcro.


We ended up spending the entire Sunday at a huge dog party! It was incredible! Over 150 humans and I'm sure almost double that number in dogs! There were all sorts of silly contests. Lucy and Rachel entered owner/pet look alike, and Lucy also got third in small jumping dog (don't worry, their idea of jumping was just encouraging them to jump up and act silly around you). Not the best pic of Lucy but here they are in look-a-like. Pretty in pink  The socialization Lucy got that day was just NUTS! I couldn't have been more proud.


And here she is out on the deck of the ferry. Not much phases THIS poodle


----------



## PlayfulPup

Lucy is adorable!!!! I love her top knot! You guys look like you really have a blast together!


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Gotta do a bit of catch up, but I did keep a log for doing these posts accurately when I did finally get the chance to sit down. Life for us the last few weeks has been a complete and total WHIRLWIND!!!

Lucy is 29 weeks now. It seems that she has done one of those "two steps backwards" in terms of potty training. One day she even peed THREE TIMES in the house, it's just awful. It seems there may be a poop in the house about once, sometimes twice a week. I'm trying to just be consistant and have hopes that she will get the hang of it someday. I keep hearing from all sorts of people who own toy dogs that come to our vet clinic the same tendencies as I'm getting from Lucy. All seem to say that if you are consistant and firm, magically one day between 9 and 12 months they just "get it". I'm hoping and praying because I sure feel like a dismal failure. 

So this weeks fun was going to this years addition of the Chilliwack Poodle Party! I didn't want to miss this for the world, and to be honest I made what may be an irresponsible decision. It is time for Lucy to be spayed and she unfortunately needs some major dental surgery (extraction of all four canines). The teeth put urgency into the operation, but the only time to do it was the Thursday before the poodle party, meaning we wouldn't have been able to bring her with us. I've been waiting almost a year for this get together though and just didn't want to miss it. Even though it means I'll likely have to put the surgery off at least 2 and maybe 3 weeks I made the decision NOT to book it. Bad mommy... Sure hope her mouth doesn't suffer lifelong problems due to this decision, since it surely could...

So the poodle party was great! Lucy meat tons of new dogs and won a whole stack of ribbons for Rachel! We had a blast and can't wait till next year where it will hopefully even bigger and better!

Lucy weight 1940 grams or 4 1/4 lbs. 





Here is a picture I MEANT to take the day of the poodle party, unfortunately it's a "fake" and her fuzzy face shows this pic was actually taken at week 31. Oh well, you get the idea


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 30 weeks now. 

I've had a ridiculously busy week trying to prepare for a huge reptile show in Red Deer Alberta. I wrestled a bit with the decision over whether to bring Lucy with us or not, but in the end I decided to take her.

We've been having problems with barking particularly at night, so I broke down and bought a citronella spray collar in case we'd need it in the hotel. She ended up doing really well, except however, we were not able to leave her alone in the room since she did end up crying and barking and I just didn't want to open and use the collar.  

We fumbled through and she ended up doing pretty well in the kennel hidden below my tables. All in all it was a successful trip and it was so nice to have her with us during the long hours of travel!

Here she is at Rogers Pass in the height of the Canadian Rockies! 




And here she is in the hotel room with just a few of the boxes full of snakes and geckos!


----------



## outwest

Love your beautiful pictures. It's hard to take a dog with you, but you proved it can be done with success. I hope the reptile show was a success, too!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 31 weeks! She has dropped weight again, but not too much. She weighs in at 1930 grams.

Lucy has taken a step towards adulthood today! She had her spay, 4 teeth extracted, Tattoo, Microchip, a big toe nail trim, ears plucked, and her patellas checked.

When we got Lucy we fully hoped she would turn into a great breeding prospect, but since she is "unregistered", I was trying to be extra picky and objective. She toes out quite a bit in the front, she had baby teeth that just would not fall out (as did her siblings), she's been a bit headstrong (not the nice easy temperment that is failsafe that I would wish upon any puppies she may have had). Couple all that with the fact that I would have limited choice in studs and it added up to a spayed dog.

I work at a vet clinic and as such I was able to assist with everything. I was really looking forward to doing a cute picture tattooed in her ear. I had actually planned on putting three pictures in, (two in her other ear), but then decided that putting her through extra anesthetic time for something that trivial wasn't too smart. I compromised with myself and put a cute little paw print in. Unfortunately I did a horrible job on the number part of her tattoo (but honestly it wasn't too important, since I did a microchip as well).

She was actually pretty bad. She's already been upset with me nicking her while doing the last face shave, so when I was holding her down for catheter insertion she was none too happy and ultra sensive. We even ended up muzzling her since she started flashing those pearly whites a little too excitedly. Better safe than sorry in a clinic situation. 

So here are the pics. I'm sorry for the people who are squeemish...


A toy poodle uterus being yanked on...


Lala land...


Yank!


One stitch on each site for good measure.. Can't stitch them too much though, since we are hoping the permanent canines will migrate to their proper place. I really should have had this done a good month or so ago... Ooops.


Troublesome hanger ons..


Tattoo






This is my old great danes canine next to Lucys. Quite the difference! She was 125 lbs and Lucy is 4 1/2! lol


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## Quossum

Love that tooth comparison! I've kept some baby teeth from my dogs, too. 

Boy, those retained teeth were in there good! Not an uncommon problem with toys, though. Poor Lily might be feeling a little put-upon right now, but now all the big stuff is behind her and she'll get her joie be vivre right back. 

I think it's neat you were able to help with the surgery and all. I think I have "mom's syndrome" when it comes to that: I'm not usually squeamish at all, can watch gross surgeries, etc., but I get a little faint when it's my own dog having something done!

--Q


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 32 weeks, wearing her "cone of shame" with... pride?!? Yup, I think she kinda likes the extra attention this thing gets her! 

She's FINALLY made it to 2kg. 4.4 lbs! 

STILL not house trained... She seems to be doing very well, but then the weather turned and the door isn't open ALL the time and .... ooops.. an accident 



Rebecca


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## Quossum

Yeah, that cone might not be much fun, but it's good for some sympathy attention, right, Lily?

Always such a little character!

--Q


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## pgr8dnlvr

Yup! Lol 

I just gotta ask Quossum, that's the second time you've said "Lily", you do realize her name is Lucy right? You got a malfunctioning keyboard, or just a spell checking Ipod?! Lol!!!   

Rebecca


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## Quossum

Oh, dear, I apologize. I don't think I can even blame the spellchecker on this one. I have no idea why my mind was fixed on "Lily." I think there's someone else who's posted here with a small poodle of a similar color named Lily, and now the look has stuck in my mind in association with the name.

I will try to keep the name LUCY in my head from now on. I am so :sorry:

This is what having to learn 110 new names at the beginning of the school year will do to you! :bangs head against wall repeatedly:

--Q


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## MrsKaia

Thanks for sharing al those beautiful pictures. Lucy is veeeeery cute


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## Joelly

Thanks for sharing the pictures. I enjoy them a lot. Lucy is very cute!!!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 33 weeks now! She has gained a good amount of weight since her spay, so maybe we have finally turned that leaf! She now weighs 2045 grams (4 1/2 lbs). I did my best at measuring her and I think she has actually turned into an oversize toy! I THINK she's 10 1/2" tall, but I'm really not sure, she's not more than that though. 

House training as usual still sucks the hiney. I'm finding with the doors closed, she'll give me split seconds to open the door or she'll think nothing of squatting. We'll see what happens though. She's almost 100% when I ASK her to go. She'll always try to squeeze something out and can even differentiate if I ask for a poop or a pee. The crazy thing is that sometimes it's only 2 1/2 hrs after the last pee break before she'll end up peeing on the floor?!? It's still not super often (once or twice a week), but yeah, frustrating as hell 

I'm getting anxious to perhaps try doing some scissoring on her, but honestly am betting money she's gonna try the laying down trick as soon as I pick up the shears! Wish me luck!

Here is Lucy helping work on our new rabbit cage/aviary!


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## sulamk

My toy girl Marula was not very reliable after her spay I thought maybe the bladder was irritated. She is now paper trained as i had a bad fall and had to have a shoulder replaccement. Not safe to let her out by herself where we live. She is now 9 months 9. Inches and weighss about 5.5. Lbs. i think Lucy is beautiful and such a character.


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## Quossum

Lucy's doing a good job guarding / supervising the construction of that pen--can't wait to see it when it's done.

It's funny: laypeople always seem to think that using the scissors will be easy and are scared of the clippers, when actually it's the other way around. Wielding the clippers is the easy part, but perfecting the scissoring skills, especially on a puppy who may or may not wiggle and may or may not possess soft, flyaway hair, is the challenge!

I recommend practicing holding them properly a bit before jumping in--that was something I really tried to do as I didn't want to start out with bad habits to train myself out of, and the proper grip is a bit different from the typical scissors-cutting-paper grip. Also watching that the entire length of the scissors is lined up along the line you want to form. I'm still working to keep my scissoring from being choppy and forming that endearing, moth-eaten look.

Good luck! Always enjoy seeing little Lucy! (And stay strong with the housebreaking. It'll happen, eventually...)

--Q


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## pgr8dnlvr

sulamk said:


> My toy girl Marula was not very reliable after her spay I thought maybe the bladder was irritated. She is now paper trained as i had a bad fall and had to have a shoulder replaccement. Not safe to let her out by herself where we live. She is now 9 months 9. Inches and weighss about 5.5. Lbs. i think Lucy is beautiful and such a character.


Thanks for the comment!! . I hear more and more of toys that take SO LONG to be reliably trained  I'll keep at it and be consistant, but I have to admit it does hurt when I blame myself and feel like I must have done and be doing something horribly wrong. A number of other people have done the same, but I guess I have to take it with a grain of salt since I have even more people, who own toys, tell me they had the same troubles. 

How did you measure Maruia's height? I sure wish I knew someone with a proper measuring stick (wick)? I know in Danes the tool is calle a wick... I can't believe your girl is so much shorter than mine and a whole pound heavier?! Can't wait for Lucy to fill out a bit more. It' starting to happen though 

Thanks again!

Rebecca


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## pgr8dnlvr

Thanks "Q" for your comment and advice 

Can you tell me, do you have any videos or advice on holding the shears properly? I'm trying to follow the second video on the thread posted on here, but man it's uncomfortable. I'm also dealing with crappy practice shears where the balance point doesn't seem to be in the same spot as the demonstration though... 

My breeder has some much better shears as well as a good table (but alas no grooming arms yet) which I hope to make use of, but she's out of town right now, so I figures I'd just practice my grip before she comes back.

I find myself more and more wondering if Lucy is starting her coat change since I've noticed all the sudden her coat is sticking up more often! The whispy coat used to separate down the back and kinda lay down a bit like an afghan hound, but now, even though I haven't cut it, it seems to not part at all or as much! Exciting stuff!

One thing I'm pissed right off and cursing about is that the day after her surgery her left eye started tearing    I couldn't be more disappointed and always joke if she doesn't stop it I'll be getting that eye removed! Gggggrrrrrr, what a let down. I'm hoping, because its only the one, this won't be a "lifetime" thing though ...

Thanks again "Q" 

Rebecca


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## sulamk

I measure Marula's height. By pushing a table against a wall and use a pencil to make a mark on the wall when I am sure the penncil is. Resting on the withers. Aand not a thick layer of hair. Theen i measure from the table to the mark.


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy 34 weeks. I am so relieved and happy to say she takes regular meals now. She gets 1/3 cup of Now, split into two meals, usually about 9:30 am and 6:30/7:00 pm. We feed by hand and asking her to do little tricks. Mealtime is now fun for everyone! 

House training is a bloody nightmare. I have screwed things up beyond belief I think. I don't know how though, I really did try my hardest... 

Some people say if the pup was left in a dirty kennel when with mom it can cause them to not realize the "rule" of not eliminating in your den throughout the whole life of the dog, but I have a hard time believing Lucy was ever in that situation. I visited her breeder multiple times in the week throughout her life and the paper was almost always clean. They did use pee pads though, so maybe that's part of it? I used a pee pad too to begin so again, maybe that's MY fault? I know I was a little disheartened to see that the breeder does have an emergency pee pad left out for the adult poodles in case they are away for a long time or in case the night is too long (elderly breeders with health problems so the pee pad is a kindness I think)

When I got Lucy home I followed the Ian Dubar method to a "t" initially, but absolutely had no success with it.

Lucy goes on command almost every time and can even differentiate if I'm asking for a pee or a poo. I can potty her and sometimes within' half an hour she will have peed in the house. 

I have only "caught" her in the act a few times, other than that she's incredibly sneaky and discreet about going potty in the house. When I catch her I'll say in a harsh quiet low voice "no"(not yelling) then scoop her up, take her outside, ask her to go (which she pretty much always will). Then I praise her excitedly and give her a treat. I don't play much with her in the yard since I have wanted her to know the yard is for potty first and foremost.

I know SHE knows peeing and pooping in the house is bad, since she's often got a very guilty look after she's done it. I just can't get it into her head that it is NOT allowed?!?

I clean all accidents immediately with full strength natures miracle and sop up as much as I can. She almost never goes in exactly the same space twice. She went AGES with sleeping in my daughters room with no accidents (I tend to get up in the middle of the night for a pee, so I just sneak in to take her out at the same time), so she's proven she can hold her urine for a number of hours. 

Things have been really bad the last few days since I got a very bad back injury or strain and I haven't physically been able to get up to get her out as often as I was. She went poop in my daughters room three nights in a row. 

Her kibble is soaked before eating and she's not a big drinker. Her urine is good odour and colour so I know shes not hyper or de-hydrated. She's had multiple urine tests over the last few months and we know there is no infection present. 

Some people suggested spays can cause bladder irritation for a while, which MAY explain some of the earlier incidences after her surgery, but now she should be healed just fine and it's worse than ever (again though, back injury has exaserbated things). 

I leave her in her pen when I know I won't be watching her closely and for the longest time she didn't ever go in the pen, but now every now and then if I don't come down every two hours or so and let her out she'll pee in the pen and jump around in it covering herself with urine, it's so disgusting 

I know one method is to lock her in a small crate and not let her feet hit the ground before taking her out. Well, although she goes in and out of the small crate frequently she is not used to having the door shut on her AT ALL.  The whining and crying that ensued when I did try to lock the door caused nothing but turmoil in our house. 

I have the "crate games" dvd, but I must admit it was kinda hard to watch and I didn't use or follow the methods. Maybe should I try looking at it again and perhaps try to train her to be quiet in her crate, THEN try again with house training using the crate? Can an older dog like her pick up the whole "crate games" idea?

Maybe should I just try to cut the pen size in half and continue to leave the kennel open in there?

I am so worried that I'll never be able to house train her completely. I'm worried that I've created a monster and I must say that in the past people looked to me for training advice, but now I feel like nothing but a failure that NOONE should look to for training advice. 

Well, here are the pics for this week - Lucy got another halloween costume. An alligator! We call the ensemble "Gator-poo"!

It's not vomit or anything on the floor, just soaked kibbles.








Gator fetched a puppy!


This is a cell phone pic. Lucy was comforting my sick Gramma. She's SO good at this job...


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## kukukachoo

Oh my. You remind why We don't really need a puppy! I have no advice just lots of hugs for you! I hope as she and her bladder mature you'll make more potty progress.


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## Quossum

Aww! I would just eat her up...if it didn't look like that big bad gator had beaten me to it! So very cute.

--Q


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 35 weeks. STILL not housetrained, SURPRISE! She makes no effort to get out or tell me she needs out, however I am just continuing to be diligent and take her out as much as I can. I dread when the weather turns. 

When her breeder babysat her the other night I appologized as I dropped her off "in advance for accidents I know she'll have". The breeder laughed and said, "She won't have accidents". 

When I walked in to pick her up the breeder looked at me with an exasperated but obviously "Being funny" look and said "Man that girl goes to the bathroom ALL THE TIME"! I just replied "told you"! lol 

She said in the 30 years she's bred poodles she's never had one that needed to be let out so frequently. She peed twice in the house and pooped once, while her brother is almost completely trained. Figures, my gosh darn luck, or LACK there of?!?!? But seriously I HAVE done this before (meaning training other puppies with NO problems). Oh well..

Anywho, we'll try again with checking urinalysis and Culture and Sensitivity. She doesn't seem to let her bladder get that full, and when the doctor figured he'd get the sample "cysto" he wasn't happy with his er... target. I could have locked her in a kennel until her bladder was more full, but since we have time to deal with this since she's got NO other symptoms indicating trouble and both vets kinda figure the testing isn't indicated, we'll just wait until a client books an ultrasound then get the ultrasound guy to do a guided cysto, (so nice to get stuff like that for free)  

With the other stresses of my life right now, I'm just going to continue to keep trying my best and plan on having a dog that is never fully trained, then if she does train I"ll just be happily surprised instead of dismally depressed and constantly disgusted in myself and my failure! 

This week I took pictures post bath. Spaghetti head! 



She's so sweet and goofy, always forgiving and makes me smile. With all these possitives and the very few negatives, I think she's a keeper!  lol! 

Lucy's Drying off! - YouTube


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## MzChristine

Sorry to hear of your potty training tribulations.. I've been fortunate with my dogs, and Casper was grown and trained when I got him, but I can relate as I have a peeing cat! Like your cute Lucy, the enjoyment of his crazy antics outweigh the pee (next to the cat box no less :argh so I just clean, sanitize, sigh and go on. What else can you do when they are part of your heart?

Love the Spaghetti head look!


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## Quossum

She's so cute, even as a spaghetti head, and her drying off video was hilarious! Now imagine a dog about ten times that size running about, rolling, and shaking like that! LOL

You're doing great, just keep up with the diligence at getting her outside, and hopefully everything will fall into place eventually.

--Q


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## pgr8dnlvr

I'm posting this a little late, but it's still in the right week! 

Lucy is 36 weeks. 

She went a whole 7 days with no known accidents. On the last day of this roll it started raining. I had her outside with me but my employee opened the door to talk to me and unknown to either of us she slipped inside and must have IMMEDIATELY pooped on the floor.  She did it again in the evening and today at work she peed in the clinic twice. UGH! 

I am working on teaching her to roll over. We're having a little trouble with it so far, but we'll see  She's very good at down, sit, and spin. She's also very good at coming to a special emergency call I have invented (though unfortunatly we still don't have an ABSOLUTELY perfect recall). We very much enjoy playing "fetch" though I'm not quite sure how to fix that bit at the end where she puts the toy just out of reach?!

Lucy and Rachel are 3 classes in at a new obedience course. I know this course isn't what many members on here would go for (it uses correction and positive reinforcement), but I figured why not try all different types of training? I wish I had perhaps gone with captial punishment immediately with the potty training, maybe she'd have the idea by now that way?!?  Oh well, lol!  

I'm really hoping to get Lucy tidied into a more correct show puppy trim, (even though she's by no means a "show puppy") Can you tell I'm a fan of a HUGE shaved neck?!? Maybe I'll try to grow back a bit of it, but I sure love it when she has a clean bib! I'm sure happy with how well her topknot is holding up lately!

Only crappy cell phone pics this week

Seasons Greeting from Lucy the poo!


Waiting in the car for me!


This was the second obedience class clip.


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 37 weeks now.

She still seems to be doing pretty well potty training wise. After that stretch of 7 days no accidents, she had one day with two poops in the house, and the next day she peed twice in the vet clinic I work at and once at her breeders house. After that we're working on another stretch and have made it four days so far! I'm trying my VERY hardest to be super vigilant. Maybe we'll get this together someday, I don't know, but I sure HOPE so!!! We love Lucy any way imperfections and all, just the way she loves US! 

This week our lighting was out for puppy obedience class. So instead of just sitting to observe, I needed to go into an adjacent parking lot and aim my truck lights at the class. Well, I think we made a discovery! Lucy did a billion times better without ME being a huge distraction! Rachel was so thrilled and had such a better time! I'm sure that some of it is just that we are progressing through the class, but yeah, I guess I'll have to step away just a little more often. 

After January rolls around, Rachel plans on joining the 4H Hound and Hare club. In this club they have two hours of training every Saturday. They work on obedience and will begin with Agility. Just so happens I work on Saturdays, so I'm betting Rachel and Lucy will make leaps and bounds without me there causing undue distraction  Way to go girls!

As noted elsewhere on the forum, Lucy started her barking at shadows in the night again. On top of that she all of the sudden didn't listen to our "fool proof" recall call... VERY dangerous  So I'm on the hunt for another training method to work with both of these issues. 

I was aware of the recommedation to only allow her in the yard with a lead on so I could do a somewhat forced recall as well as divert her attention from barking, however was stuck due to not wanting to have a collar on her all the time. I certainly didn't want to fuss with finding a lead and collar every time I take her out (which can be as frequent as every 1/2 hr. to 45 minutes  I KNOW my husband and daughter would also DEFINITELY not follow through even if I did buckle down and try... What to do? E-Collar? More "Cesar Milan" method?!?

Well the answer was right in front of me. I have a leash in my old leash collection I forgot about. It's a 3/8" 15' rabbit lead! At work when we need to take dogs out to pee we ALWAYS use a lead as a noose instead of using collars, so I thought - Why not keep that long lead hanging at the back door and just use it as a noose each time? I also have training treats by the back door at all times, so I am just taking treats out with her on the lead and trying to do frequent recalls with the lead and rewarding as much as possible. Am I doing the right things? I HAVE NO IDEA.... Guess we'll see!!

We added a band to the collection!


Resting with Dad...


Here's an old blast from the past I found in my breeders pictures files. I think Lucy was about 7 weeks in this photo, under Rachels left hand? The brown dog is a half brother about 3 years older than Lucy?


Here is Lucy with her breeders husband, her full brother, sister and mother!


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## Quossum

Rebecca, 

I've been meaning to respond to the issue you brought up in the "Pet Corrector" thread, but I knew I had to be at my "big computer," not my iPad, to do the typing! Hope you don't mind I put the reply here instead of in the other thread.

With so many things in dog training, it's not just, "How do I get my dog to stop running away from me and barking?" but more, "How do I create the kind of relationship with my dog that they don't *want* to run away from me and bark?" The older I get, the more I read, the more dogs I train, I keep on trying to get better at creating that type of relationship. The type of relationship where the dog freely makes a choice...and that choice happens to be what I want them to do. That requires being a little manipulative at times, but I am striving never to use pain or fear to achieve it. I'm sure with some dogs this is much easier than with others.

I know I keep recommending Crate Games, but have you gotten the DVD and done them? And incorporated them every day? Just putting the principles of Crate Games into play has made my dog Sugarfoot much more thoughtful about his actions in general. He can't go tearing about like a madman 24/7; he has to sit and display self control before eating, before barging out of his room or outside, before getting up again once he's been told to "Sit" or "Down" (I don't use the command "Stay"--control position commands contain this intrinsically).

It sounds like you've worked the recall...but have you worked your basic commands "in arousal" much? In other words, get the dog all revved up with play or food, and then give a control command like Sit or Down. If response isn't just as instant as it would be at calmer times, the dog isn't ready to be recalled in a stimulating environment. Then of course you can work the recall with the dog in increasing levels of stimulation.

There are all sorts of little games and such you can do to help build not just the recall itself, but the whole relationship behind it. Control access to "good things" that the dog wants, so that you are the source of all of them. The Ruff Love book has more about this idea.

I saw that you'd figured out what I was going to suggest for the nighttime trips outside: a slip lead. People here use them in Agility a lot, and we have several near the door and in strategic places around the house. Widen the loop, pop it over a dog's head, and they're captured in a second, no rooting for a collar. You could put one on Lucy, maybe attached to a light long line so that she can roam farther but still be "reeled in" if needed. Personally, I wouldn't give any leash corrections, checks, hisses, or jabs; I would just reel her in and the next day work on the recall issue. 

It sounds like there might be some confidence issues going on that're making her bark. You might try working with confidence outside and rewarding for noticing but not barking at "scary" things. One of the activities I found helpful for building up Sugarfoot's confidence after his attack was the "Look at that dog" game from the book *Control Unleashed,* in which the dog is rewarded for looking at the "scary" thing. Soon he looks eagerly at the scary thing and then at you, anticipating his treat. The scary thing becomes a source of treats and loses its fear mongering power.

Hope some of this rambling helps.

--Q


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## pgr8dnlvr

I'm posting this late, the pictures are from the right time, but I was hoping to get better ones to post towards the end of the week. It never happened 

So, on Lucy's 38th week, I was desperate to do "SOMETHING" with her hair. Not desperate enough to pay though, and my groomer friend has just been so busy lately that he didn't have time to do it and I would have felt quite bad if I had tried to push for him to do it. So I did it... I took shears to my Lucy's coat! It was pretty fun for the most part, I did the full bathe, blowdry, nail trim, shaving feet and tail, but alas, trying to do the face turned into a complete and TOTAL nightmare . 

I got "chunks" shaved out and made it look even worse than if I hadn't touched it at all. The shaggy look is driving me crazy and I'm DYING to get the bit of tearstaining she has on her face OFF! I only "guessed" at where to cut with the shears, but overall I was happy with the end result considering it was the very first time trying to scissor! I really want to work on it, and get practice of coarse, and I also need to start from step one with trying to shave her face I guess. Hopefully I'll be able to get her to her breeder ASAP for that desperately needed face shave. Hopefully Lucy will still let HER do it, even though she won't go as close as I like  

On the whole, I'm very happy with how Lucy is settling in and becoming a very real and true part of our family. We all love her so much and are getting more frequent glimpses at what a good dog she can be, WILL be!  

As you've likely figured out, I don't pick "best picture" too well, and since this thread is mostly a diary log for myself, I'm gonna put up a bunch!


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## outwest

Oh my goodness, I LOVE the video of your daughter in the obedience class. Seeing her succeed at the end was terrific.  What a pretty puppy, too!


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## Lou

pgr8dnlvr said:


> gorgeous!


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## Abbe gails Mom

Now that is some SWEET !Got a sugger high just looking at the picks.Welcome baby Lucy.


----------



## Mel

Beautiful Lucy. She's looking so grown up. I think u did a pretty good job on the hair.


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy @ 39 weeks...

Halloween!!! Rachel was a "Man in Black", and Lucy was her little Alien! It rained like stink, and though Lucy went to a couple houses walking with Rach, she happily watched the rest of Halloween go by from the inside of my coat! Wow did she get cold and WET! 

Not bad in the house training department this week. Only two days with poops in the house and no pees in the house during the entire week. We haven't been doing too much with obedience or leash training since things have been so busy, buy more and more Lucy is becoming the dog we want her to be.


----------



## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy at 40 Weeks...

Still not much of a morning dog! Her favorite time to perk up is unfortunately Rachels bedtime! Around 9:00 pm she just tears around the house and tries to get you to play fetch with almost anything! Lucy has been a good puppy in the way of chewing things, picking up the odd thing, but never damaging it, aside from PENCILS, now THOSE are fair game!  Thankfully we always keep a pretty good eye on her, so she has never really gotten much in the way of lead or splinters. 

BAD housetraining week  5 days with an indoor poop (one was not at home rather the vet clinic I work at!! GRRRR) and one pee in the house... 

My Gramma is unfortunately in hospital on deathbed... It's been very rough for us around here and Lucy is certainly steppig up to the task of being very cuddly and close to us. I have even been taking her into the hospital in my coat and noone seems to notice or care. She makes me feel so much better and stroking her during extra rough times sure helps. I guess that's one of the bonuses of a very little dog. 

I'm SO bummed that her eyes are really leaking now. Maybe I'll try to more directly deal with it in a little while, but for now I can't do too much about it. We'll still love her no matter what I guess.

Coat change is upon us it seems. She knots and mats expecially under the armpits and on the insides of her legs. Of course these are the areas that she hates me brushing  Thinking of cutting lots of length under there, but might try to stick it out. I have bought some new clippers for doing face and feet and hope to start trying to do some desensitization training asap so I can get back to being her full time groomer. 

Are you kidding me?... We really have to get up now?


I'm too tired for this crap...


Forget it, I'll just go back to bed...


Watching the world go by from her perch on the couch...


The last day of her 40th week was Rememberance Day. Here in BC Canada, this is a statutory holiday. I was shocked and dismayed after all this time to find out that Americans don't take it off? To me it's one of the most important things in the world to remember our past, and honor the people who made sacrifices for us and our country. Thankfully my daughter already understands this completely... We took Lucy with us to the local ceremony, even Lucy wore her poppy with pride.

Rachel taking her own moment of quite and reflection...


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 41 weeks now!

My husband has a friend in construction. One of his scope type tools got all wet so they were trying to dry it in front of the fire. Lucy thought that was a perfect place to chew her chew!




And today was bath day, POOF!
















And here she is doing what poodles do best comforting a dear soul in the hospital...


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## Quossum

Love the post-bath photos! Her hair is lovely in color; is it as silky as it looks, or is it more cottony? So poodle-y of her to take over that equipment box. They do possess all within their domain, y'know. 

--Q


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## Lou

pgr8dnlvr said:


> Lucy is 41 weeks now!
> 
> And here she is doing what poodles do best comforting a dear soul in the hospital...


What wonderful pictures, I love her hair styles!  And the last picture made my heart smile... <3

Thank you for sharing!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Quossum said:


> Love the post-bath photos! Her hair is lovely in color; is it as silky as it looks, or is it more cottony?
> 
> --Q


Nope, not "silky", definitely poodle-y, even though it's puppy coat. It's more like cotton, a little coarse and rough when you pet her. That's what I find kinda weird, I prefer petting a smooth, silky or extremely soft dog, but here I am wishing for a poodle with a thick coarse coat so it will be more recognizable, easy to style, and a little more dirt repellant. When I pet my golden retriever I find myself trying to memorize his feel, there's nothing better than burying your face in his oh so soft coat or sliding your hand over his short smooth face. Oh well, a trade off, at least I won't have to deal with the times he blows his coat and there's nothing but dog hair in the house! 

Rebecca


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 42 weeks now! I am happy to report that she had only one poop and one pee in the house over the ENTIRE week. And this time, without a doubt in my mind, I can say that neither accident was her fault. 

For the poop she was being finicky during the day and wouldn't eat her supper, well just before bed she decided to eat the whole meal at once, so no surprise that during the night she needed to poop. She may have asked, but my daughter is dead to the world when she sleeps so poor Lucy wouldn't have had a chance... 

The pee, Lucy DID ask me to go out, I just misread her intention. I thought she was bugging me to play and I was absorbed on the computer. I shood her away and then it hit me! I raced out to the kitchen area that goes to the backyard door and sure enough, a little puddle. OOPS!

The super exciting thing is that 3 times this last week she was VERY direct and sure in ASKING to go out, scratching on the door then looking for us and going back to the door. GOOD GIRL LUCY!!

Here is a picture highlighting a different topknot we tried this week


And this picture (at least on my screen) acurately shows the tone and depth of her colour...


This picture is simply a cute pose, too bad the colour is washed out and the image isn't in perfect focus 


Rebecca


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## sulamk

Lucy is lovely! My little girl went light and is now darkening a bit! I envy Lucy's coat my pup had afortnight in the kennels. And was such mess when she came back she had to be shaved, hoping it will grow back fairly quickly! Hope it. Comes. Nice and thick she also had a cottony coat. Congrats on the potty training!


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## brittwink21

*Housebreaking*

Your potty training woos sound so familiar to me! I have a toy poodle also. I remember when we got her at 8 weeks how impressed we were very quick with how long she held her pee and seemed to know it was bad. I never did any sort of pee pad (I thought it seemed counter productive) I did use the crate and very young she would hold it as long as she was in there. Like you I would have a good week and think we were there, then Bam! A poop in the floor, lol. Jazzy took way longer with poop than pee. I will tell you it wasn't until after her first birthday that she was what I would call fully house trained. We had a few random accidents over the next year that were probably me forgetting to let her out.

The good news is now at 3, I can barely remember all the work and she is SO dependable now, never an accident. She just gets better and smarter all of the time. 

OH I did the bell for a while and that REALLY helped get her over the hump! You should try it. It takes a while before they know how to fully signal to you when they need to go, you may be missing her signals( I was)


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## pgr8dnlvr

Can I thank someone 1000 times?!?!? Britt, you are a breath of fresh air.. (sigh)...

Rebecca


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 43 weeks. She still hovers between 4 1/2 and 5 lbs. Pretty close to perfect size, though it would be nice to not have to worry about rogue cats, owls, hawks, eagles, harrons, coyotes, raccoons and possums!

Only 2 pees in the house this week and again, I think it was not really in her control. Both times were overnight instances where she almost made it to 8 hours, just not quite  









Rebecca


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## Lou

Potty training aggrivates the I^^%$#%$#@ outta me ...LOL 
Lou has been doign great, when Im by myself at home with her, she NEVER has an accident, but when there are people here and we are all distracted and miss her signal she just squats LOL... So I said "thats it!" And decided to try and teach her to bring her leash to me when she wants to "go potty outside" (which is what I always say when we go)
So... a dog-trainer told me that teaching that is too hard, like advanced etc..., pretty much told me to forget it... so I was discouraged, but I've been so amazed by Lou that I had a feeling she'd pick up on it really like fast like everything I have taught her so far... (about 25 commands in 3-4 months!!)
So here is a video of *"Teaching Lou to bring her leash to me to go potty outside day 2"*
(and I only train her on this a few times a day right before we walk out the door to go potty outside)
And by the way, I have never trained a dog before, I have to give Lou credit, she is a genius! But I also am very devoted to her since I work from home...

Maybe you can try that or something along those lines, a way she can tell you she has to go 

TrainingLou-bringherleashtogopottyoutsideday21.mp4 video by Loustandardpoodle | Photobucket


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## Lou

Oh... she tries to bring her leash occasionally just for the treat...LOL But I distract her with something else (if we just went out to potty) example: I take her in the kitchen make her "sit" , "lay down", "stay" then I give her a bone or something that she can chew on for a longer period of time
(I take this bone away and hide it a few times per day... then I give it back to her and its all new and exciting!)


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## pgr8dnlvr

Posting this a little late... 

Lucy is 44 weeks old. Had 2 pees and 2 poops in the house, so guess that's not too bad, but wasn't her best week  

We're having some trouble with eating again. She is getting very picky and seems to prefer to eat at night, which is NOT ideal, as then she needs to go to the bathroom even LATER in the night. Sigh.... 

As far as temperment and companionship she's still improving steadily. She's really starting to fit in and I'm truly feel everlasting bonds being formed. Lucy had a sleep over with my daughter at her breeders house! Lucy's breeder is now an honorary member of our family and has been serving well as a stand in Gramma for my daughter. Very special person indeed...

Anyway, usually, when we go to visit all of Lucy's dogee family, she gets right in with the poodle pack and could care less about me. Well, she had the sleepover, which lasted over 24 hours, and when I got there to pick them up, I FINALLY got a proper greeting from Lucy! She smiled and jumped all over at me, rolling on her back as soon as I acknowledged her, she waggled around waiting for a belly rub. When it was time to go, she came running as soon as I called and wanted to go out to our car. Now I know in my heart, that SHE knows, who her real "family" are now. She fully loves and appreciates us! What a gift...

Lucy face is the ugliest and scruffiest it has EVER been, and it's driving me NUTS! As some of you remember, we had problems after she was nicked with a face shave and would NOT let me get a good chance at grooming her again without fight and force. I solicited advice and am now trying a slow and steady training protocol in order to try to gain her trust back. Twice a day I spend about 5 minutes with rubbing the running clippers (with a guard on) all over her face and neck, trying to mimic the motions I will again use when REALLY shaving her. We only do one or two swipes at a time then treat and croon over her being a "good" girl. She still pulls away and brandishes open mouth teeth every now and then (every 2 or 3 sessions it happens), but it's getting succeedingly rare. When she does it I just ignore and withhold reward hoping she'll get the idea that this behavior gets her nowhere. 

I am so glad I still have little to no problem with brushing, bathing, putting in topknots and shaving feet. Maybe someday it'll be as easy as it used to be, who knows?!



Rebecca


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 45 weeks old now. She's lost 200 grams again, bringing her back down to 2.1kg or 4.6lbs. I know she'll bounce back somehow, but for now life is just too much fun to slow down and eat. Fetch is much more interesting!

Much better this week housetraining wise! Only 1 poop inside! YAY! 

I have started giving Lucy Angel Eyes to see if I can give myself some respite from this damn tear staining. Her sister was horribly stained when I got my Lucy a little less than a year ago, and now, without any help from us, she has completely stopped tearing and has a nice clean face. Maybe Lucy will grow out of her staining eventually too. For now it's not TOO bad, but we'll see what Angel Eyes does. I'm doing a half dose daily of 1/8 tsp. 

Still can't wait to shave her face for real. Maybe Christmas week? I don't know. 

We started putting up our tree and decorations, Lucy is so far leaving pretty much everything alone?!? Was NEVER expecting that from a puppy. She really has been so good not having most of the puppy issues of destroying and chewing things. For her the biggest challenge is potty training for sure. 



Rebecca


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## MollyMuiMa

I just thought I'd chime in here and let you know that Lucy is one of the reasons I let my groomer talk me into clipping Molly's face. I really didn't want to lose her 'puppy' look! But then I remember how I thought that she looked a lot like Lucy(so pretty) and I said OK! Lucy is a little beauty and I'm sure with the patience you're showing, it'll all be good again soon! Hope your Xmas wishes all come true! Merry Christmas to you & Lucy!!!!



resent::santaclaus:resent:


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## pgr8dnlvr

Awwww!!! You are SOOOO sweet! Thank you SOOO MUCH for your kind comment!!!!   ! 

Rebecca


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## sulamk

Lucy is such a beautiful colour! I give Marula plain yoghurt about a teaspoon a day with her food and have never had any tearing. She seems to have stabilised her weight at about 3 kgs. She also loves playing fetch. 
Merry Christmas to Lucy and her Family!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 46 weeks!

More and more she's just figuring things out. It's like she's starting to understand English all the sudden! We've touched on stay a little bit in the past, not as much as I would have wanted to, but it always felt like we were just getting nowhere. Well, lately, I can look at her in the car, tell her firmly, but not aggressively "STAY" and she just does it. 

As far as house training, she did AWESOME! Only 1 poop in the house and that was early in the week, nothing since! I messed up on her week 44 post and said she had 2 poops, 2 pees, however looking back on the calender, it was only the poops she had, soooooo...... This means for the month of December up to the 17 she has NOT peed in the house once! Total number of poops to date is only 4. She may get the hang of this after all?!?!? Wouldn't that be a Christmas dream come true?

Well, we found that Lucy has her first wound. I have no idea where it came from, but I'm guessing it started as a bite or cut on the ear from my employees Chihuahua. Lucy is very rude to her since she is the most patient Chihuahua on the planet. As soon as Frieda comes in, Lucy's jumping at and on her face, licking her all over, jamming her sharp pointy nose into Friedas er.. privates. Well FINALLY Frieda has started to tell her to STOP IT. I'm almost encouraging her discipline though, as I KNOW Lucy knows dog manners, but she's just taking advantage of poor Friedas patience. 

We know Frieda snapped a couple times in the last few days and I have a feeling the blood from a bite seeped into the fur making a big spot with no air flow. I usually brush daily, but wouldn't you know, I left things for 2 1/2 to 3 days this time and during Lucy's bath to my horror I saw the huge sticky scabby mess so I went to work cleaning it up. 

At the clinic the first thing to do is shave the wounds surrounding area to assure good air flow for fast recovery and easy cleaning. Well, I COULDN'T bring myself to shave those glorious ears so I compromised, plucked some of the hair, cleaned the wound and used bands to hold most of the other hair out of the wound. For the most part, we have success, and I expect a quick recovery. 

Here is the nasty looking wound just after cleaning it up.


A good game of tug can cheer anyone up. Oh and I loosened the bands a bit after the game, so don't worry about that 




Now for the face shaving progress. Lucy was doing fantastic with the de-sensitization to the running clippers with the blade guard so I decided to take the next step and remove the guard. Well, it didn't seem to go well at all. She was back to jerking away, brandishing teeth and dilating her pupils to saucers.  What am I going to do if I can never see my beautiful girls face again? I gave up quickly when I saw she was so frightened, and perhaps will go back to trying more of the guard on. I did get rid of some of the tear staining at least. 

Lucy helped us decorate the tree by "supervising" from the couch and looking the part...


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## pgr8dnlvr

Christmas Eve marked Lucy's 47th week! Another week of NO accidents! WAHOOOO! Merry Christmas to me!

We were also successful with the face shave! YES! It took just two or three sessions and we got it all done! I think we'll just get better and better from here, or at least that's what I HOPE!  

I'm a little nervous about the next week, since my family is going on a short vacation and Lucy can't come. She's going to go to her breeders house to live with her "poodle pack" while we're gone. I know she'll be fine, but I'm just praying her coat doesn't get TOO destroyed or matted in the 3 days she'll be there! We'll see!





Lucy and her sister Melly.


The poodle pack on the stairs - Lucy is on the top step, then her full sister Melly, whose 1 year older is on the next. The third row is Lexi (an unrelated mini, Coco a half brother to Lucy, then Lucky, Lucy's littermate brother. The bottom step has Candy, Lucy's mom and a 4 month old Black mini pup from Lexi.




MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!
Rebecca


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## pgr8dnlvr

Well, New Years Eve marks Lucy's 48th week!

We actually had to leave Lucy behind when we went on our annual family holiday. Thank goodness it is only 4 days and Lucy's breeder looked after Lucy for us without any hesitation or question.  LUCKY US!

So there were no accidents in OUR house, but I hear the flood gates were open so to speak at the breeders. She started a trend over there too apparantly getting her brother and sister caught in the act of going inside too! 

She barked to her hearts content and wrestled all the day long in between sleeping on top of the breeders husband with the other three poodles on their couch. All in all, a good time for her!

There was a bit of snow this week!


Wrasslin' a nylon away from her brother! JUMP!


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## liljaker

Lucy is just adorable!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Well, this is a picture that I couldn't get to open up before posting the last update... Lucy and friends sleeping with her breeders husband while we were away. The black bit behind is another poodle, not a pillow


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is 49 weeks now. Another week with no accidents! YES! She's just getting to be so much a part of our family. Every day she gets better and better, and that's without having as much time as I'd like to invest. 

Next week my daughter is going to her very first 4H meeting, hopefully this will lead into a LOT more training and fun time for Lucy and Rachel. 4H is like FFA in the states if you're curious. Once it gets rolling there will be weekly agility and training classes with lots of other kids and dogs. Can't wait to meet all the poodles, I hear there are already 1 standard, two minis and another toy! 

Sleepy Lucy...


Helping with getting the groceries!


Rebecca


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## sulamk

Yay for the toilet training! Lucy gets more gorgeous by the day. Sounds like she is in for a busy year! Hope 2013 is a great year for you and your family.


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## pgr8dnlvr

Wow, we are already at week 50!

There was just one poop in the house this week, and can't really blame her. I fed her too late in the evening and usually I get up in the night to go to the washroom myself so I'll take her out at the same time. This particular night I slept through. Oh well!  

I love how much time my daughter Rachel is spending with Lucy. She is really getting so bonded with her, it's a real pleasure to watch them get closer and closer. An example of that bond is the blurry pic below. I was just walking by the living room and glanced over to see that Rachel was reading to Lucy in her pen. So sweet it gives you cavities!



Here is Lucy laying in a winter sunbeam. I quit using the Angel eyes a few days ago, gave Lucy a fresh face shave (which she's getting AWESOME with letting me do by the way) and honestly feel the tearing seem less lately?! Wishfull thinking?!? MAYBE! lol 


Still haven't relaxed the bands quite enough in this pic! lol!


I found myself making a resolution last night to NOT let her wear clothes again until she has a shorter haircut. I had to spend an extra long time working at matts that only seem to appear when she's wearing clothes... HOWEVER. Tonight I found myself again trying a different one of her many jackets. It's just so darn cold out there right now... 

This one is a custom made one she got for xmas. It was SUPPOSED to be fluorescent orange to match her most often used colour of bands, however it seems more of a mariners orange which has more red. Oh well, the reflectors are GREAT! 






Rebecca


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## outwest

What a sweet little girl (both of them). 

She has very little tear staining. I have heard that it can be tied to the digestive system. When my sister in law's small poodle had loose stools he had tear staining. She changed his food from the ultra rich food she was giving him to Halo, which is simple ingredients. The tear stains disappeared and his poop was firm. Just an idea, but she swears it was digestive in nature. Lucy seems like she has only a touch now. Just a little bit to go and she will be clean as a whistle.  Angel eyes does work, too. There's nothing prettier than a clean face, although Lucy is pretty just the way she is.


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## sulamk

my little one gets natural yoghurt, raw grated carrot and some type of raw meat, about 3 to 4 times a week. she also has royal canin poodle kibble for her morning meal. she has never had tear staining. she is now just over a year old. i also keep her face short. lucy is a lovely color, my girl started as that color but has cleared to creamy color although she does appear to be darkening again


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## Zmyjka

pgr8dnlvr said:


> Well, this is a picture that I couldn't get to open up before posting the last update... Lucy and friends sleeping with her breeders husband while we were away. The black bit behind is another poodle, not a pillow


It's SO sweet!!!


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## petitpie

Lucy seems to be doing well on all fronts!


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## Cin3dee

Thank you for posting all the awesome pics and your puppys updates. Ive loved ready through them all even though a lot of the potty training stuff is scaring the daylights out of me! LOL I get my puppy on friday. She will be 8 weeks old. I read Ian Dunbars methods and am going to try to follow them as well. I hope it works out for me. :afraid:
Thanks again -- Lucy is so adorable!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Well, this is the second to last week for the first official "52 weeks of Lucy". I think I'll likely continue with once monthly updates on this thread though, just for my own interest if noone elses! 

So once again I have blurry cell phone pics. Next week I'll be sure to have some QUALITY pics though. At least, I promise to try my best to get some good ones!

Lucy had one pee inside this week, this time at my work, but once again, I can't blame her at all. She practically peed right on my foot, but I was busy looking at my cell phone and ignoring her indication that she needed OUT. Oh well. She only did a little and I got her out right away and she almost immediately squatted and finished. So yeah, this one was totally on me! 

We had a horrible accident this week with my retriever. We were all out at the park playing with Chuck it's. My old and partially blind retriever accidently got hit in the eye/head point blank with the tennis ball going at ridiculous speed! 

We initially thought his eye had burst, he was in such horrible pain. Long story short, we immediately got him off the the vet on emergency status and did all we could pain control wise. He didn't in fact loose his eye thank god, but because of his liver conditions and degenerative myelopathy the narcotics and medications almost took him from us. Lucy was very confused and felt our upset and thus turned into a barking machine. I felt so bad for having to put her on the back burner for a while, but I'm sure she understood just how important it was to tend to our dear golden boy...

All is well now though, and we may rethink our chuck it playing, but I don't think there's much we could have done, it was just a freak accident 

Not too much is new with Lucy, she's just settling in so nicely. I just can't believe that next week I won't have a puppy anymore! It's bitter sweet. I think for the most part, puppyhood kinda sucks and it's so much nicer to have a well adjusted adult or senior dog, but I'm glad we went through this experience together and I'm not too sure that I wouldn't be doing it again with another one someday! Maybe a spoo next time?!

Just before our Chuck it incident - 


Here's Lucy's messiest most unkempt look yet! Hopefully that'll change next week!


Lucy and her Chihuahua friend Frieda on my friends lap.


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## pgr8dnlvr

Well, the end of the first 52 weeks of Lucy has come. I'm actually posting this a week late for two reasons, one because her birthday fell in the middle of the week and in celebration of that we sprung for a professional haircut. I wanted to include the pictures on this final (maybe) post. 

So here is Lucy on the family trip we took up to the snow. This was her first experience with big deep snow. I don't think it was a huge hit, but she enjoyed being with us! 

Here is Rachel teaching Lucy to eat the snow - 


Here Lucy is taking a turn -


Snow poodle!


Here are some before her haircut pictures - 








bathtime first!


Then for force dryer -


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## petitpie

Happy Birthday, Lucy! Hope to see you again soon.


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## pgr8dnlvr

And then the warm air drier... Looks like a mophead or something on the table, not a dog! lol!


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## pgr8dnlvr

and now to start the clip!....


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## Vixen

What a beauty!!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Well, That's it for the 52 weeks. Mind you I'm such a picture whore as you can tell, I'll likely post at least once a month. I like having this thread to review every now and then. Sorta a virtual scrapbook! 

Thanks for watching!

Rebecca


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lets see if I can post a couple youtube videos of Lucy getting work on her topknot...


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## pgr8dnlvr

Well, Lucy is 1 yr and 2 months now. She's doing pretty well and picking up a lot of little "tricks" that just serve to make her a better daily companion and family member. It's amazing to me, because most of these things are not things we taught her per say, she just sort of picked them up!

1 - Hop into your kennel whenever we tap on the top.

2 - When I get my jacket on and keys out she goes right into her kennel since she knows chances are I'll take that kennel out to the car with her inside. This is how we solved our confinement in car issues, she happily rides in her kennel which is buckled in.

3 - Go into your pen whenever the family sits at the table to eat.

4 - Whatever you do, don't wake people up in the morning, she's a great bed companion in the mornings

5 - This one we did and do work on a little, but her leash manners are great! No hacking, pulling, coughing etc. 

6 - Quietly move to the side when we are passing other dogs on a walk, don't fuss or stare down other dogs.

7- Again, guess we worked on this when she was young, but she now can happily "share" the job of licking plates (if we allow) WITH my retriever! Before she would be VERY possesive, snapping and biting at him.

8- Whenever we let the parakeets out to fly she just goes into her pen and leaves the birds completely alone. 

There are lots more little things I'm sure, but bottom line, she gets better and better as our companion dog!

House training still has it's ups and downs. February was frustrating with about 2 accidents each week. The first two weeks of March had about 1 accident per week, but then there was a bit of a change, I started her on a prepared raw diet. After that we had three weeks of no accidents, then just one poop in the house. Is the food helping? I don't know. My friend who makes the stuff feels most dogs beat house training issues on the raw since they don't have to take in so much water to digest the food, and there is less fecal matter so it's easier to time BM's. I was already feeding a quality food though, so although I've seen many positive differences, I cant say the stool volume is WAY down. Who knows though, at this point I'll give ANYTHING a try!  

I'm going through a bit of a rough spot financially, so even though I dream of going back and doing more training classes, agility, or scent classes, for now I have to save up and watch my spending. I say this when I've got a new Poodleit collar on the way! HMMPH! 

Here are a few cute pics...



An open mouthed grin while sizing up for her poodleit collar...


Darn, I meant to be growing in more neck hair but it seems as though I've gone too low with the shave AGAIN... DOH!


Rebecca


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## KidWhisperer

She's a cutie, no doubt!


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## pgr8dnlvr

Lucy is just about 1 year and 4 months now. She is still just getting better and better by the day. We seem to be over the house training "hump" so to speak. In an 8 week stretch only two poops in the house. One of those didn't count though since she was sick with a bit of an upset tummy. Being sick is always a "get outa jail free" card!

Lucy is very good to walk and continues to learn small "tricks" that one may not consider a trick, but they just help our days roll smoother. She knows what to do to help get us loaded in the car faster (hops in her kennel when she sees me get my keys and jacket), get the grooming done faster (come lay flat on my lap as soon as I pick up the brush), have a good quick walk with out much stopping (ie. don't pull on the leash and we can keep moving!), the list goes on and on. Yes, she's a smart one. Stubborn and tricky at times, but thankfully as she ages those times are fewer and farther between! 

We continue refining the "Modified European Show Clip" that we are working on, but at times I'm starting to tire of it. Thinking of colouring her points brown and pretending she's a sable, or perhaps working towards a full CC for a while, maybe some pink die and a lamb? I don't know. It's funny how you can get so used to a dog looking a particular way though, if I change the style it'll seem like the "old Lucy" is gone?!? That's what I'm wondering anyway. 

Here are a few recent pics -


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## 10442

I read thru your 52 weeks of Lucy and enjoyed it immensely. Such a pretty girl


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## pgr8dnlvr

Well, in a little less than 1 month lucy will be TWO years old! Hard to believe how time flies. I look at how pretty I think she is now, and think, gee, maybe I kinda wish I hadn't spayed her.... But then I know, I did the right thing and now my Lucy is just a one of kind, apple of my eye type girl...

Still certainly not perfect but she does prove over and over that she's smart as a whip and willing to learn as much as I put the effort into teaching her. I wish i had more money and time for classes and more knowledge and experience with my training, but oh well, we'll fumble along together. Good thing toy poodles have such a long life expectancy, that should give us a good long while to work things out!

Pretty good in the way of house training, though it seems i still can't make it two months in a row without a single accident. Literally though at most we are at one or two a month. One day we literally were ONE day shy of the whole month. Oh well, yay toy dogs! NOT!!

Here are a few fairly recent pics of Lucy. For fun we are growing her moustache and I've kinda done a modified continental look, at least until the weather warms up some. Pleased to say she still seems nice and dry eyed and even better he lips don't seem to be staining at all! This bodes well for the teddy bear styles I plan to try on her someday! Her ears are also quite faded. I'm finding myself tempted to colour them up again every once in a while... hmmm.... Maybe I will do that... 















Time to groom that topknot...



I don't know why, and I know it's probably not similar, but this look reminds me of Mozart or someone alive in that timeframe...






Christmas dress - "I'm cute! Now Gimme some pancake!"



Rachel helping Lucy open her stocking on Christmas morning...


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