Luxi Learns to Bake

Right so since Luxi has been home I’ve been extremely diligent about either my eyes are on her actively supervising / playing with her / training.  Otherwise she has both a pen and a crate.  I use the crate when I want her to sleep, sometimes to eat, and occasionally just cause.   The pen goes around the crate so she can go in and out of it as she wants, but also gives her more room, so she can move around, play a little more, and have access to water.   

And now I understand why I haven’t been able to get anything done this week.  Lol because I *have* been paying full attention to the puppy pretty much whenever I could if she was awake.   Which I didn't realize until today when I didn't do it, how all-consuming it really is.

So today I randomly decided I wanted to bake cookies.   Our kitchen is easy enough to close off, so I figured that Luxi, who’d woken up not much earlier, instead of being in the pen could wander the kitchen while I made cookies, and get exposure to the noise of the blender and learn a different part of the house.  

Lol I see no way in which this can go wrong.  So we had an accident even before I got a single ingredient out *sigh*.  At least I was still mostly paying attention to her then and was able to interrupt and get her outside.   So once we were back in and the floor cleaned, start over….  A few seconds later I’m rescuing my back-door shoes from her attention.  Sigh.  Redirect and move shoes.   Moments later - trying to get into the cat food.  It’s reasonably puppy proof atm so I let that go for a few seconds before redirecting and she didn’t go back to it.  At this point there was very little left for her to get into so sb good to go ;)

Mori was most definitely NOT okay with this situation.
Note the spiky back, angry teeth, and completely ignoring high-value treats...

Until I started the mixer which was very scary for about 10 seconds but she got over it quickly.   Then Mori tried to come in the kitchen and both animals lost their minds.  Mori went into full on defence cat mode - back arched, growling and later hissing.   Have you ever pet a cat in that mode?  I hadn’t before today cause any cat doing that I’d expect to get clawed, but Mori I thought might actually settle if I pet him.  The hair on top of his spine became spiky - like it was so up it was hard to the touch and you could feel the ridge which I’m guessing was actually his spine.   (lol edited after - vet friend confirms spine and also the strength of those hair follicles when they stand up is unreasonable.   Which I honestly found very cool, so sharing here.) 

Luxi, otoh, just wants to be friends.

Luxi, otoh, was jumping around and barking with tail wagging excitedly.  Lol she hasn’t really learned to read the room ;).   The drama went on long enough that eventually even Nola popped her head up beside Mori to see what was going on.  She deemed this not worth her attention and left ;)  Mori eventually settled a little.  I won’t go so far as to say relaxed, and he definitely chose NOT to enter the kitchen.  But he watched from his perch above from a lying down position with no yelling and hissing so deemed that a win.

Shortly after this drama the cookies were ready to go in the oven, so I relocated both the gate and the puppy back to previously assigned locations and peace reigned once more.  Sort of.

Omg puppies are exhausting.  It’s a good thing they’re cute.   

And Nola, ever older and wiser, just supervises from a distance.

Luxi meets Coco and Bailey

So Luxi went to meet Coco and Bailey today.  For those who don’t know - those are my Mum’s Portuguese Water Dogs.  Before coming we’d planned that Coco would be on a leash - not because she’d do anything bad, but because she was likely to be extremely excited and I didn’t want Luxi to get squished!  Bailey otoh, is retired, a much calmer dog, and I trusted her completely to not cause any concerns.

Coco - trying her hardest to be calm until Luxi comes to her

These were both the right call - esp as Luxi read both their energy levels in a heartbeat.   She had zero concerns about Bailey, but took a long time looking at Coco then running away.  Then getting closer to Coco…. And running away.   And we just let her take all the time she wanted while both her and Coco’s tails wagged frantically.   

So none of this back and forth is videoed since I had concerns so my camera was away, but it all went really well.

Then we moved to a different part of the yard as Luxi got braver - treats brought all three dogs into range, and Luxi had *definitely* decided Coco was the fun one, and crawled OVER the saintly Bailey to get to Coco from a “safe” zone lol.

Drink time!   Coco for scale ;)
That water bowl got filled *many* times w all the running around

There was a lot of run to Coco, run away.  Run through the gardens, look at Coco, run away.   Over and over again.   Eventually she decided to come be brave and they met and Coco was SO good about being gentle with her.  The number of times Luxi’s limbs were inside Coco’s mouth is absolutely horrifying to me - yet not a scratch on her, never a yelp of any sort, zero concerns.  Crazy Coconut has become the responsible big sister.

Coco saves the day for Luxor,
who hasn't yet figured out how gravity works.
Paws prevent concussions!

Bailey watched this for a bit, decided it was too hot, and went back inside ;).  Bailey doesn’t do puppies.  She trained Coco - that’s enough.

Gradually we let Coco have more leash, and eventually Coco and Luxi were running around together.   Coco’s recalls are excellent, which was helpful when we decided maybe it was a bit much, cause Mum was able to call her off running w Luxor instantly.  

I'm still smiling from how much fun they were having

They played for a couple hours at least.  I think both dogs will be extremely tired tomorrow.   But a good introduction to “first dogs not related to”.   She also got to hear a lot of new sounds (people splashing in a pool, dogs barking, etc etc - sounds of summer in a suburban neighbourhood).  AND house line saved the day when she decided to go *under* the gate which she did with zero difficulty, but because I was well aware that was a possibility, I was standing there so able to stop her in a heartbeat.   In a few months she’ll be big enough that won’t be an option, but for now that yard is definitely not puppy proof 😂.   Fortunately as I was trying to figure out how to open the gate without letting her go, big dog in the other yard barked and she came running back in as fast as possible.  Win.

So yeah - controlled introduction for the win.   Great day and I now have a quiet house with a tired puppy and two completely chill cats.

New best buds

Luxi - first week home :)

I love the crossed legs

So Luxi is 9 weeks old and has been home a couple days longer than a week.   In that time I’ve learned:

- She’s not a morning puppy ;).  Lol I cannot express both how surprised and how happy I am about this.   I had to actively train both Sasha and Mori to sleep in.   When Luxi wakes up she calmly gnawing on her chew toy until she either *really* has to go outside OR I get her up.  And when I get her up, I have to convince her.   Like open crate and either reach in to pick her up, or treats or something exciting to get her out.   This might partially explain why it was reasonably easy to train her not to charge the crate or pen door - even when she *does* want out ;) 

Do I *have* to get up???

- Related - she LOVES to go into her crate at night.  The rest of the day is more of a negotiation, but at bed time she races in there before I can even take her houseline off.   Same Puppy. Same.

When she tries to climb out of her pen she NEEDS to go out.   Anything else can be reasonably safely ignored, but climbing the side of the pen means she needs to be outside NOW or I will be cleaning the floor and it’s My Own Fault for not listening to the puppy who Very. Clearly. Told. Me.  Lol.   You should see the look I get - and now it’s earned. Because at this point I do know.  And even when I think she’s suckering me, it always turns out she needed to be out there.  

She loves to play

There’s a pretty reliable 2h nap in the am, more questionable in the afternoon, and in the evening - watch out ;) 

She does not like heat 😂. I’m wondering if I’ve accidentally ended up with another winter dog!   Ah well, will be good for my winter fitness.  She definitely knows the house is air conditioned and whenever she gets hot she runs to the door.

Tug toys are great for tiring her out, even indoors.
That's not going to last long but for now, win!

One ear is almost always inside out. Sometimes both. Idk why.  I keep flipping it back but it doesn’t seem to bother her.  At least she’s not sensitive to having her ears handled!

So often an inside out ear ;)

She is like every toddler ever in that she wants to do it All Herself.  And really resents when she’s just not big enough. One example - there’s two ways onto our deck - go up the two normal steps, or step off the side (equiv of said 2 steps).  Every time she tries to go up the big side and gets stuck and So. Annoyed.  I find it way more entertaining than I should - it’ll be great when we direct that energy to agility ;)

She’s cautions about things at first, but when she decides something is okay she’s all in.  Alas she has applied this to Mori who she is both concerned about and has decided should be her best friend.  Mori is not onside with this plan.

Even an Boder Collie should occasionally stop and smell the flowers...

Our couch is ridiculously lang (C and I joke that it’s got timezones) - this is mandatory for right now because Mori sits at my end, I sit next to Mori, and the landshark has the rest with his couch chew toys along the way.  When she wants to be snuggly, she’s with me.  Sometimes that’s an attempt to get to Mori, but sometimes it’s just me.  When she’s being introverted, she’s at the other end of the couch, chewing away on her toy.  I get that.  Sub “kindle” for “chew toy” and you’ve got my life ;)

Couch Time

She is So Much Bigger already!  I can’t believe how fast she’s growing.   But that being said, she’s still about the size of Coco’s head.  Smaller even than the cats.   But still - Big compared to last week.

Luxi's first real work day ;)

So while I worked on Friday after we brought home our newest addition, Chris was home to supervise / run interference so I could, in-fact, work.   Then Luxi and I had the weekend together before my first unassisted work day.   That weekend helped a lot as I learned what her natural routine is - when she's likely to need to go out, when she's likely to sleep, and how to swing those slightly if I needed to ;)

And it worked.  So far.  I'm not sure how the 5pm meeting will go since that's when usually the cats and Luxor get dinner - and the cats are very good at making their starvation known.  But we'll see.

😂 she almost looks like a corgi here!

So far today Luxi has be out approximately 29835382375 times for short bio breaks - since this involves a flight of stairs each time, I'm getting my steps! (Luxi can go up those ones now and seems to love doing so, but she is too little to go down them).  At lunch she visited the lovely receptionist at the vet's office, wandered around the waiting room, and got weighed.   Thereby giving both more driving and not-scary vet visit.  She weighs a total of 8lbs.  Less than either of the cats ;-P.   We also played ball in the yard which is a riot.  I tried to film some of it, but was less successful since full attention and both hands required.   I get mildly worried when in her enthusiasm she somersaults or randomly wipes out in dramatic fashion -- only cause I'm afraid she'll hurt herself long term.  But it is extremely cute to watch.   She snored her way through my meeting with my boss which was immediately *after* lunch. Win.

I've discovered one toy that is the Luxi equivalent of screen time.  Lol I've seen a lot about making sure you're involved in play and not just letting them take the toy and go self-amuse, but sometimes I need her to self-amuse for a little while, and this one little crinkly toy, in her pen, solved that for like an hour so I could get some heads down work done while she was still awake.

Rapidly becoming a favourite toy - at least for me ;-P

In between meetings we went out on the driveway to watch the world go by.  She is definitely hesitant about new things - it seems every new thing - but she generally gets over it pretty quickly.  Run backwards, hide, then come explore.  As long as the thing sticks around long enough she can explore!  She's getting mildly more accepting of kids on bikes, and seems okay with basketball -- unless the bounce it off the backboard ;-P.  So. Much. Drama.

Training-wise, rules-based things are going really well.  Esp given that she's 8 wks old.  Eg - no charging the crate door when I open it, going in the crate, jumping on a bed and lying down (mildly amusing cause I can't get her to follow a lure to lie down for anything -- figure I'll give that till next week and try again).

Not biting humans is a WIP (this is my indicator that she's over tired, when she can't be easily redirected to one of her many chewable things - and/or when she goes into attack-puppy mode.  If I make it through this with no face/neck injuries it'll be a win!   Other things, response to name, marker word, the aforementioned down, I'm failing at.  Sometimes I know I've got the timing wrong (step one - awareness ;-p), sometimes I have no idea why, sometimes I can't even lure what I'm going for lol.   She figured out paw in about 30 seconds today (treat based obv - she's 8 wks old people, words can wait.) - she's *overly* enthusiastic about it now, so will prob leave that one alone for a bit.  But it's one step on the way to jazz-paws!

So hard to see this look and still go back to work

So far we're accident free today.  We'll see how the rest of the day goes.   So far she's been great about hanging out in her pen (I'm on the couch next to it although she can only see me from one part of it) or her crate (which is closed when I want her to sleep or when I leave the house).   This is huge progress even from yesterday where she would cry or try to escape if she was in the pen and couldn't see me.

Tomorrow has many more meetings so will be an interesting test of if this is sustainable or if I go to backup plan of hiring the teenager around the corner to come puppy sit.   

Now, if only some of her daytime sleep hours could move to nighttime sleep hours.   Ideally the evening ones ;-P. Then I'd be set :).   I'm not doing all that great on consistent 5ish hours a night (cause let's be honest. I don't fall asleep the second she does - she's getting her 6.  I would like 8+ 😂. I'm hitting more like 4.5-5.  Yet another reason is a good thing I don't have young kids!). Luxi will get there in a couple weeks or a month, children?  Not so much.

Luxor says welcome to the weekend :)

Supreme cuteness

So puppy day 2 - I definitely won’t be doing every day posts 😂.   But I have 10 mins to kill and So Many Photos, so why not ;)

A solid 6h sleep and a willingness to chill for another hour after her bio break was much appreciated this am.   

Today we’re figuring each other out and routines.   Knock on wood as of rn we’ve had no house accidents today so that’s a win - but she’s also home alone rn sooo *shrug*.  In her crate, but that resulted in her needing a bath last night so we’ll see.  Won’t be gone as long today so hopefully that’ll help.

We had some fun playing chase and tug w this one

We went for 3 mini drives today.  The first one she was concerned about and sounded like a stressed guinea pig for most of the drive 😂.   Second one she didn’t seem to mind (keep in mind both of these drives were under 2km.   Like the route I walk when I have no time to go for a walk ;)).  3rd drive was maybe 10 mins and she fell asleep during it lol.  Taking that as a good sign.

She seems to like being on the floor behind me instead of on the seat. 
She fell asleep here for a good 10 mins.

She “helped” me take care of the roses today (which for those who don’t know - which is prob like 98% of you - are outside of our fence so is somewhere she hasn’t seen before).   We then hung out there for a bit for experiencing the world going by.  Socializing my puppy may turn out to be good for my mental health 😂.  Turns out if I need her to chill and just watch the world go by, I have to do the same thing with her ;)

Helping ;)

The cats are adjusting faster than I expected.   They both stayed on the couch with me when she had her after dinner I-DON’T-WANT-A-NAP crate time temper tantrum ;).  Later this evening, Mori was chasing Luxi's leash while I was holding her and decided to follow it even after she was settled on the couch.  This is the closest they've come yet.

Two formally dressed chaos goblins on one couch!

She is scared of them if they’re on the same level and wants to pounce on them if she’s higher than they are (couch).  So definitely will be keeping a close eye on that and hope one of them swats her early (ideally anywhere that’s not her eyes!).  

Potential agility puppy much?  Lol this made me laugh.  Totally unscripted :)

I carried her down to the end of the street and a little bit up the next one - we live in an area where lots of people are regularly out in the evening.  She saw powered wheelchair (not sure about that), multiple kids on bikes (no problem), a basket ball (not sure), and met a few people until she showed signs of having enough of that, so I brought her home.  She's showing signs of being overtired now, so potentially too much for one day.   She's currently rearranging furniture in her puppy pen.   lol definitely a working dog. Lesson learned. 

Extremely cute land shark

Luxi definitely just put herself in her crate and went to sleep.  So for all the yelling and drama I get occasionally (not every time, maybe 50%?) she's clearly decided that's a good safe place to go sleep.  Win. 

Overall though, all things trending right.  She’s so tiny.  I really can’t get my head around it.  And it’s been a long time since I’ve had a dog that didn’t know anything so having to remember starting from scratch.  Well - not quite actually.  Huge credit to her breeder who clearly put a ton of time in w her since I can handle her everywhere (ears, paws, belly, tail, etc) and she has zero concerns,  and she def had crate basics before we got her.  So very much appreciated.   BUT compared to Sash, and even Tucker, we’re starting from scratch ;).  

She is so cute though.  And there are nose prints on my car windows again.   That shouldn't make me as happy as it does.

Happy Gotcha Day!!!

So I started my new job on Wednesday, so of *course followed that up by right after work on Thursday leaving to pick up our new puppy!   Not gonna lie, an extra week here would've been good for my sanity.  However, here we are :) 

I can't believe it's been less than 24h.  Here goes...

She is super interested in everything

The drive to Hannover took us just under 3h (previous visits have been about 2h20min so that wasn't the best start ;).  However, we got there and got loaded up and were home again by about 10:30.  Luxor was good on the ride home, slept some and spent a lot of it investigating and crawling around the limited amount I would let her go.  Yes I realize she probably should've been in a crate, but after seeing her reaction to the crate when we got home I'm just as glad we didn't try that in the car first!  And sometimes you just have to snuggle your new puppy.

Getting used to her new home

Her first night was good.  It took about 10-15 mins of extreme puppy temper tantrum (puts Mori's yelling to shame!) and then she slept for more than 6h.  So a definite win.  Sadly I did *not* sleep anywhere near that long so made today even more of a challenge.  

Chris took her out first thing this am and gave her a bit of breakfast before putting her back in her crate for a bit.  When I got up a little later I did the rest of her breakfast, with lots of real basics - teaching her that "yes" is a good word and to follow a food lure.   She thought that was a great game.  Very willing to engage for both food and treats.  Also entirely willing to go into the crate -- she just doesn't love staying there after ;) 

Meeting Enola

I was working today so tried to plan puppy time around meetings, and relied on Chris for when that didn't work out.   Overall, it worked out very well.  Lots of go out, play, train a bit, sleep, rinse and repeat most of the day.   Only had a couple minor accidents - one of which was in the crate when C and I were both out, so that resulted in needing to clean both crate AND puppy.   She was not amused. 

Exploring the back yard

Overall though, she's happy to run back and forth between Chris and I, she's extremely curious and adventurous, yet just a little cautious -- she has gone in the pond, entirely of her own volition, and met Nola -- which she was very not sure about but took on slowly while Nola was throughly ignoring her while eating treats ;)  She also really likes to hide under things, so I have high hopes eventually the crate will go over well.   When she's exposed to something new she explores it, approaches and retreats a few times, and then decides the world is good.

Exploring the pond - she found it, went all the way in, and came back out

She's had an unreasonable amount of treats along with her actual food - we'll have to right size that 😂   But for day 1, how can you not?   No drive today, so she'll need to go for a car ride tomorrow.   That's where she'll need to learn about the backseat - I think we're going to drive around to the other side of the house so I can take care of the roses 😂    So exciting.   I will be a happy human when we get to walking on a leash but we're not there yet.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's the highlights.  Cross your fingers for us that we both get some sleep tonight - C is off for two weeks tomorrow, so we'll be on our own, and I still need to make sure Mori gets his attention too!

Moriarty - The original formally dressed chaos goblin

Egypt - Luxor Museum, Nile Cruise, and Karnak by Night

Almost everything in the museum was displayed
in a way you could really see it and get good photos

After Karnak we hit up the Luxor museum.  Small but mighty with extremely good displays.   We basically had the place to ourselves, which is posing to be a theme this trip.  Our guide said low season + World Cup (?!?!) + political unrest = very few tourists.  2 of the 3 I expected; the World Cup as an impact to Egyptian tourism I didn’t have on my bingo card.

Crocodile Museum is later in the trip, but this one is in the Luxor museum

After the museum we went to the ship.   We’d seen enough videos prior to coming that we weren’t shocked that we had to walk through several other ships to get to ours, but it was still mildly amusing ;).  That being said, low tourist season so it seems all the boats before ours are docked for renovations / cleaning / etc.   On our ship the guide said there’s us (accidentally private tour) and one other tour group of 13 people, and the two guides.  I’m pretty sure there’s an almost 1-1 staff to guest ratio rn.

Not a bad place to spend the afternoon

So was a crazy but incredible morning, then we had quite a good buffet lunch, explored the ship briefly (I don’t think we’ll make much use of the gym lol), then some pool time (with zero competition for seats), a nap, dinner - also buffet but different food from lunch (all meals included for the cruise portion of the trip), and then…

View from the ship

Back to Karnak for a sunset visit and evening “light and sound show”.  There was essentially nobody there.   Like maybe 15 people at an event that is clearly structured to hold hundreds when they’re busy.  The show itself was meh, although told the story of the temple in simpler terms that were easier to absorb having already explored it with our guide earlier.   While the show was meh, being there at sunset, effectively alone?!?!?  That was amazing.  And I’m super grateful we got to do that.   Wow.

Aisle of Sphinxes by night

Pretty phenomenal first day.  I still haven’t really taken it all in. 

The view out my floor-to-ceiling window when I woke up from my nap.
Maybe someday I'll come back and clean up the reflection,
but for now you get the unedited reality.