Sunday, July 3, 2011

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All Roads Lead Back To...The Puppy Manual

We are on day three with Jam. We've had him three nights. Last night was the worst.

Crying. Getting up three times to pee (he peed three times). And then crying each and every time I placed him back in the crate.

Argh! What's a puppy raiser to do?

Actually, there is something to do. Read the puppy raiser manual again. It's easy to get in a rut and think, after two puppies, that you have the routine down, but the puppy raiser manual has been completely revised and updated. If you want to know if you have the most up to date copy, look for a section called Puppy Socialization. If you don't have that, you don't have the most recent copy.

Upon reading the manual again and scouring the brand new puppy section for advice, I found this sentence:

"We highly recommend a crate be used for bedtime and naps."

Well, of course! Jam viewed his crate as a little jail cell. In fact he was napping right now. Why not go upstairs and do some napping and blogging crateside?



Here he is sitting pretty in his crate. At first all he wanted was out. But he is pretty comfortable sitting inside with the door open and lounging around.


Because he was a sleepy puppy, he drifted off quite quickly.



I wish we had been smart enough to consult the revised manual sooner, but at least we are rereading it now. Remember, when in doubt, check the manual. As opposed to children, guide dog puppies do come with a manual!

2 comments:

  1. Love the new blog look and especially the headline picture. Also, it appears that his name is to be spelled big J, little a, little m and not all caps, yes?

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  2. Well, that is a deep philosophical question, Karen! You could make a very convincing and I would say correct argument that it should be spelled JAM as it is an acronym. However, another argument can be made that he was named for Joe BASED on his initials and that as a name it should be spelled Jam rather than being thought of as an acronym. I went the name route rather than the acronym route. I thought it would be less confusing, but then it doesn't harken back to Joseph A. Merluzzi does it, you might say. Hmmmm. I think I may need to conference with Fred!

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