Amelia at 13 Months

Last time I blogged about Amelia, she was starting her heat cycle. What a insane three weeks that had been! She left messes everywhere, I think my bed comforter is ruined, and she had been forced to stay inside the whole time! Luckily, the bleeding stopped a couple days ago, and she should be getting her body back to normal again soon. We have only started to take her back out to the apartment complex dog park, she has way too much energy! We have been careful and making sure no one else comes into the park, if they do, we are more than willing to leave before they come in. Luckily, we have not came across anyone else in the park, it is only just us.

Anyway, we took her up there on Sunday, just so I could get recent photos of her. I know I have said this before, I love taking photos of her. I get to practice with my camera, which is a constant learning process. Working with a digital SLR is a huge learning curve, and even now, I am still learning more things about it. More recently - I have been figuring out video settings!

At the park is when I really notice how beautiful she is. In the house, she's barking, growling at people through the sliding glass door, staring at my food when I try to eat, or getting stepped on in the kitchen (seriously, who lays down in the middle of the floor while I am trying to fix dinner?). But, at the park is where she will just run circles with a frisbee in her mouth, and I really see her for what she is. Her long tail, swaying behind her, how graceful she just prances around the park, or how her ears perk forward while she listens for a bird. She is gorgeous in these moments.

I have always adored golden retrievers for my entire life. I even remember admiring them as a young child. They are the dogs on the cover of books, in advertisements, in movies... the perfect family dog. When I blogged about picking out Amelia, as an 8 day old puppy, I really could not believe that it was me who was getting a golden retriever. Perfect families, with perfect lives, perfect homes and perfect children were people who owned goldens. Not people like me, who lives in apartments, has too many flaws to list, and has no children for the family orientated dog to play with. But, it happened, and she has been with us for a while now!

She is the love of my life, the reason I get out of bed in the morning, and the subject of my photography. She is my world, and has been ever since I read that Craigslist advertisement for golden retriever puppies. That was the start of my love affair with Amelia - it started even before I met her, before she could even see me.

That being said, we do still have our issues with her. She is absolutely terrible on walks. We have tried training with treats on a leash, pretending to be a tree until she stops pulling, a Gentle Leader headcollar, and now we have moved on to a Easy Walk Harness. Recently, her newest thing is pulling us, and when we do not go faster, she still whine and groan, then do a complete vertical jump in the air. It is terrible. She jumps on people, which I absolutely hate. However, the husband likes it, he encourages it, so I can not fault her for that. She does not know better.

Bonus video! Just a video I filmed at the park, of her playing "keep away" with my husband.

Jawbone Up

As the weather is warming up, and Amelia growing to be such a large dog, I have been wanting to take her out for walks, to burn off some of her energy, and possibly work on getting me slightly more in shape than what I am. At least, once her heat is over. I have also purchased her a Easy Walk Harness, because her Gentle Leader is no longer working for us at all. She pulls way to hard still, even with the gentle leader on - so hard that she's wounding her under eye area. Here's hoping that the harness works better for her!

Yesterday, my husband returned home with a new little fitness gadget that will hopefully be awesome with me walking Amelia. He got a Jawbone Up from someone who did not want it anymore. Last night I did a lot of research about it, and it seems to be something similar to the Fitbit, which I have been wanting.

I set it up, got the app downloaded onto my phone, and got my account all up and running. I amm very excited to use this new to me gadget! It seems that it can be a pedometer, fitness tracker, and can even track sleeping habits. From what I have read, it seems to be very good in giving true data. We will see.

I see a lot of fun adventuring with this thing!

Amelia's First Heat

The thing I have been dreading has finally happened: Amelia has went into her first heat cycle. I've been really concerned about it because of the messes I have envisioned in my mind about it. However, I have been slightly worried that she hadn't gotten it yet, so I am a little bit relieved. A lot of the goldens born the same month as her had already gotten their heat. My Amelia is a late bloomer, it seems.

That being said, we are officially confined to the house for the next several weeks, until it is over. It has only been two days, and she is already restless. The only time she goes outside is to go potty. I was told that I shouldn't even walk her by myself outside because a male dog might turn aggressive with me while trying to get to her. I am not taking any chances.

At first, she was not doing a good job at keeping herself clean. I was wiping her once in a while, trying to keep the mess on my carpet and furniture to a minimum, but today it seems she is doing much better. She's cleaning herself more often now, and I have not had to wipe her since. If it gets worse, we may need to look at getting some diapers for her.

She is definitely not herself, however. She's more clingy, wanting more attention, and just seeming to be more tired than usual. She just looks uncomfortable all the time since her heat started. Three weeks of this seems grueling, keeping her in the house, her long, sad stares.... I am not sure how I will survive this with her!

Amelia's Injured Paw Pads

A few things happened all around the same time, so I can't quite pinpoint the cause, but Amelia somehow injured her paw pads! Within a series of days, I bathed her in new shampoo, and we went to the grand opening of our apartment complex's dog park. We have also changed her food over the past couple weeks. I do not really remember when I first noticed her licking her paws, but it was excessive. When I noticed, I looked at them right away and found that they looked really raw. It was not just one of them, it was both front paws, and one back paw. From her licking? I do not know. One paw was worse than the other, part of her front toe pad was hanging off!

So, it could be a variety of things, I figure. A reaction to the new soap? Did she cut herself on the new mulch at the park? She is a completely indoor dog, so her pads are a little dainty. Allergies to the new adult food, even though we did not change brands or formulas? Naturally, I went into panic mode. I researched online, and went into an even worse panic. Dr. Google is horrifying sometimes!

I decided to do a couple home remedies, before I made a vet appointment. If she wasn't getting better by the third day (which was payday), she was going to be taken to the vet. I went to the Dollar Tree, picked up a couple packages of Epsom Salt, and little toddler socks. I also heard a lot about this stuff called "Bag Balm," which is some kind of ointment/moisturizer used mainly for cow utters. Though, it is good for human moisturizing, and can be used on dogs, as well. I hunted that product down, finally found it at our local Walgreens!

My method was simple: After dinner, I filled up the bathtub with about 1-2 inches of water, and poured some Epsom salt in it. Amelia stood in the bath, for a good ten minutes, while I fed her treats to stay in there. After ten minutes, she got taken out, and her feet were dried as best I could get them, then I rubbed Bag Balm on her paw pads, and covered with the toddler socks. She ripped off the socks right away the first time, so we lightly wrapped a layer of tape around the socks. It helped. When we were ready to go to bed, I took off the socks, and made sure she was not licking her paws, until she calmed down and went to sleep. I took them off before bed because I was worried about the wound turning into a hot spot, and also her taking off the sock while I was sleeping and swallowing it. Which would turn into a worse situation. When I woke up, she got more Bag Balm and socks on for a couple more hours. Then the process repeats at night.

I immediately saw improvement with her paws! The part that was hanging off healed, and now it has turned black again, it's definitely less raw, and I think it is healed enough that we do not need to do our morning/evening ritual anymore. We have not taken her back to the park, or even for a walk since it looked bad, but I think now, it looks okay to start walking her again. The photo is recent, showing her healing. This was the worse paw, you can barely notice where the hanging off part was.

I am, however, extremely nervous about taking her back to the park again, because I really think the rough mulch stuff tore up her pads. But still, I am keeping a close eye on her, making sure there is no more licking, and assuring that it remains healing.

Amelia's First Birthday

Amelia officially turned one year old on March 29th! We had a little party for her, with a yummy treat, and some new toys! She loved her toys, and loved her treats! Sometimes it feels like she has always been a part of our lives, other times, it seems like just yesterday, I was fighting with her about potty training. I have been expecting her to go through her "teenage" phase, which is supposed to be terrible, but I am very surprised that I haven't seen much of it yet. She is terrible on walks, but other than that, not much teenage phase at all!

Her birthday cookie! I really tried to get a good photo of this. I have seen many really cute pictures of a treat with the dog in the background. However, with my camera, I could either have the cookie in focus, or Amelia. Did not go well, but still cute! I loved the cookie, and at the rate that she ate it at, I am assuming she loved it as well.

We also got her a toy, and my family in California also sent a toy. I ended up putting both toys in the gift bag, and just let her "open" it, by taking out whatever toy she wanted. Naturally, she had no interest in the toy that we bought her, she wanted the toy that her Grandma sent for her. She spent a long time playing with it!

As a little bonus, I took an almost 9 minute video of her opening her toys, and playing with her favorite toy out of the bag.

Finished Gallery Wall

A while ago, I had the idea to make a gallery type wall above my couch. I cut out a variety of sizes of picture frames out of newspaper (I called them "mock pictures"), and hung them on my wall with painter's tape. I spent a couple of days moving them around, trying to get a good configuration of what I liked. Then I ordered my frames. I had shopped around a lot for a good price on frames, and found the best deal for all of them was from Ikea, even after the cost of having them shipped to me. They came with mats, and I was able to order different sizes, since I like everything to be all match-y.

Once the frames came, I used the newspaper cutouts and marked where the holes are on the original frames, and used the newspaper to measure, then had my husband put my nails in the wall. Once the nails were in, I ripped off the newspaper frame.

After those were done, I got access to my wedding pictures, so I ordered my photos (I always seem to find the best deals and coupon codes from Snapfish, I love them!). My prints came the next week, so I put them in the frames and hung them up! It definitely was a lot of waiting for the impatient me!

Now, I will talk about this for a minute. It is very far from perfect. The pictures are not evenly spaced apart, the smaller ones do not match up perfectly in a line like I wanted. However, I knew this project was going to end up like that, to be honest. I had a really hard time measuring, re-measuring, and measuring again. The newspaper looked good and lined up, but the frames... not so much.

My husband and I fiddled around with this wall for hours one Sunday, and I refused to put any more holes in the walls to get them perfect. So, I'm learning to be fine with the imperfections. I may go back later and maybe secure the smaller ones better with Command strips, because with our upstairs neighbor stomping up the stairs, and Amelia bumping into the wall, they sometimes get nudged sideways, making them uneven. It has been a struggle, walking by and straightening them out several times a week. I was trying to avoid the strips, because they are obscenely expensive for what I need - but I am starting to think I may have no choice!

But all things considered, they turned out better than I expected them to be. I like to think that you can't see the issues with them unless you try to look for them, but I'm not sure that is true. LOL!

Amelia at 11.5 Months

My love, Amelia, is almost one year old this month! She officially turns one on March 29th. I fully intend on making her a few little puppy cupcakes for her, and possibly and new toy for her to enjoy. It seems like just yesterday that we had gone to pick her up from the breeder, cleaning up her vomit when she got car sick on the way home, having all those sleepless nights, the every ten minute potty breaks... while I do not miss a lot of the puppy stuff, I would not trade it for the world!

It seems just one day, I looked at her, and saw what a beautiful, wonderful dog she had become. There was a period in her puppyhood that I got really frustrated with her, she was nipping constantly, she would pee in the house, even though we had JUST came back in from standing out there for 10 minutes. It was entirely no fault of hers, she was a puppy, and that is what puppies do. However, I thought that it would never end. But one day, I took her over to a friend's house, and would not let her out of my sight, in fear of her peeing in their new house. She shocked me when she started pawing at the sliding glass door, and ran right out to go potty outside. Since that day, our accidents in the apartment became fewer and fewer, as we finally "got" potty training.

She looks photogenic, but in reality, she is far from it. I will give you all a tip on how to get reasonably good photos of dogs: give them something to chew on. Seriously, if I attempt to get pictures of her without something for her to do, she will just waltz up to the camera, sniff it, and not go away. It makes for disastrous photos, because I really like to get at her level to take photos. I have never been a fan of taking photos from above. So, I shove something in her face (for this session, it was a deer antler), and I will just start snapping. I will probably take about two hundred pictures in a fifteen minute period, then finding which photos I love the most once I download them on to my computer.

We also recently got her officially AKC registered (which, if you ask me, was a complete waste of $40), and after another $31, she got registered with the city as well. We were definitely a little late in doing so, but money never really allowed it until now. Miraculously, we also avoided late fees. Bonus! She's all current and official now! We chose her AKC name to be "Stewart's Miss Amelia," because well... she is. :)

Amelia at Nine Months

Can you believe that it has been 7 !months that we have had her already? She has had her nine month birthday recently, and I am in disbelief! She has grown into this gorgeous creature, and has become the absolute love of my life. How did I live without this unbelievable animal?

I feel like every post I do on her becomes into this love story about her, but to be honest, its totally true. My existence revolves around her, and with every day, I love her more. Even my husband feels jealous of my adoration to this dog. That says a lot. What more can I say?

We have gotten much better with her, as a family. She is brilliant, learns so quickly, and definitely knows how to get what she wants. We take her to the dog park often, which is without a doubt, her most favorite place to be. We live in a very small one bedroom apartment, so getting her out to the dog park to run and play, even makes me happy to see.

We found a more local dog park, which is much smaller than we have previously been visiting. At the bigger park, it is much more populated, and she will follow other dogs and people around. We always have to chase her back to us. So, the smaller park is much better - we are usually the only people there, and she does not stray from us. We bring a ball and just let her run. For me, I love watching her run and get all her energy out, being in a small apartment for a large dog, is probably not the ideal.

She is also sleeping through the night outside of her crate, and in bed with us. (Well, actually, it is usually me not being able to fit in the bed with the husband, two cats, and the dog - so Amelia and I somehow end up on the couch.) But that's okay, I find the couch more comfortable than the mattress anyway.

Amelia has gotten much more beautiful with her coat now as she's growing older. Her "feathering" is coming in beautifully on her tail and rear end, making her look unmistakable as a golden retriever. Recently we have only been questioned of her breed as a "setter." It used to be "is she a lab?"

Almost 5 Months

Amelia is a little over almost 5 months old today, so I think it is time for a little progress report.

We have been visiting the dog park almost every weekend now that she is fully vaccinated and healthy. She loves the dog park! She runs and plays with all the dogs, and is so exhausted when we get back to the car, which is awesome. Occasionally, we will run into a mean dog, but she will just run to try to get away. When we see it happen, we leash her and take her to another part of the park. I worried about her at first because it was a huge park, and I knew if she ran from me, I would never catch her. But, she is the one who never lets us out of her sight.

She has begun to lose her baby teeth as well! The other day, I had given her a bully stick, and had a bit of a freak put moment when I found blood on it, and on the carpet as well. I looked over her body, and found she had lost one of her larger, back teeth. After cleaning the mess, I later found the tooth on the floor (by stepping on it). As weird as it sounds, I was really excited to find one, so that I could keep it, yay! I think the majority of her teeth are her adult ones by now, she lost 2 of the sharp canine teeth, so now I think we only have the remaining top canines left to go.

We are doing loads better with her chasing the cats. We started training what I call "bad no cat, good no cat". I put a bunch of little treats in a small baby food jar, and pretty much kept it with me at all times. When a cat was walking by, and Amelia would stare at it, I would say "hey" or something similar to get her attention and look at me. When she turned her head to me, I would say "good no cat!" And give her a treat. My theory was that if I can praise her for looking away from the cat, she might see that as a not wanting to look at the cat?

It has been working really well so far. The other day, she was laying on the carpet with a toy, and a cat came up to her. I watched the entire encounter, waiting for Amelia to give chase, but she never did. The cat first started to sniff her tail, then her legs, and slowly sniffed up to her face, but Amelia never moved. When the cat started to walk away, I thew a huge "good no cat" party for her, and gave her an almost handful of treats for that one. I was so proud.

Occasionally, we will still have a "bad no cat", when she will start chasing one, or walk up to the cat, trying to mouth him. When that happens, I will tell her "bad no cat" and lead her into her crate. We only leave her there for about 5 or 10 minutes, then start the process again. We are getting it, bits at a time!

I have been wanting to try and wean her off of the crate at night. So a couple nights ago, we wanted to test her a bit We brought everything we could up off of the floor and out of reach, and closed the bedroom door off. My husband did not want her out at night because he was certain she would have an accident on the floor. My concerns were that she would find something to destroy while I was sleeping. She did a lot of getting on the bed and then getting back off, but eventually, she went into her crate by herself and slept there. We closed the crate up a little while afterwards. Confusing because she will whine for a while after we put her to bed, but she goes and sleeps by herself last night? I don't know.

We are slowly getting it with her. We have had our bad days, and our good days. Lately I feel like we have more good days than bad.

Amelia At 15 Weeks Progress

Amelia turned 15 weeks this week! She had her final set of puppy vaccinations on Friday, which I was excited about. Those are finally done, so we have been trying to take her out, finally on grass. We have been careful not to take her on strange grass, because I have been terrified about her contracting parvo, or even distemper.

We take her out to potty on the grass outside of our apartment, but when we go for walks elsewhere, we walk out in the street. Occasionally, I come across drivers who have an issue with it (like the grouchy woman who was determined to make her point that I should be on the sidewalk), but I imagine they don't realize that I have a reason for it. So the fact that we can start behaving like a normal dog walking family, and not some obsessing weirdo, is a good thing.

Anyway, we have been having issues with her having loose stools. Every time we visited the vet, we came home with some kind of medication. First it was some medicine that we had to give her in pill form, next, we were given some powder that we were to sprinkle on her food. Neither worked to hardened her stool up. Finally, I decided to switch her food. We switched from Nutro Max Large Breed Puppy to Purina ProPlan Large Breed Puppy. We changed food cold turkey because I thought... How much worse can her poop get? I was glad I did, because almost instantly, we had much more solid poops.

With all the medication she was being put on and the problems with her stool, I was also starting to get even more disappointed with our breeder. I had paid much more money for this puppy than I ever spent on an animal, I expected her to be healthy. However, apparently it was my fault for feeding her food that she didn't like! Oops!

We have successfully got her potty trained with a bell, which is really exciting because that was my number one thing I wanted. I did not want a dog that had accidents in the house. As much as I complained about her "not getting it" when it came to potty training, I think I was extremely lucky in how quickly she picked it up (as opposed to those who struggle for months with potty training). Now that we have been training other things, such as sit and stay, I am coming to the conclusion that yes, she is also very smart. We now know sit, stay, and on occasion, down. We make her sit and stay for food, any kind of treat she gets, and even before we open the door to come in the house from a walk. It has been a difficult road to train her, but I am determined! So far, it has been worth it.

DIY Frozen Dog Treats

I bought a rather large container of yogurt for mixing into a rubber Kong toy as a treat for her. However, it is quickly coming up to it's expiration date, and I still have half of it left. I wanted to find something that would be good for my puppy, that would use up more of this yogurt.

Looking around Pinterest (what was my life like without Pinterest, jeez!), I came across this recipe. I tried it as written, but found that I didn't really like how it turned out. I had purchased a really cute dog bone silicone mold from Kitchen Collections when I got my bone cookie cutters, so I was really excited to finally get to use them.

Anyway, this is what I came out with. They are cute, though obviously not as cute as the person who originally came up with them. But I tried. I can't really place what I didn't like about doing them this way though. Maybe because I froze them overnight, and the peanut butter was still not frozen? I had to take them out and place them on a plate to get completely frozen. Maybe I wasn't fond of doing the extra step of microwaving the peanut butter? I don't know.

I took the idea of these and just made a small change to make it work better for me. I used the same ingredients I had used prior, peanut butter, plain fat free yogurt, and my silicone mold.

I just took a spoonful of peanut butter, and maybe two spoonfuls of the yogurt, and mixed them together. That's the only deviation that I took, which made it much easier for my lazy self.  Less messy too!

Spoon it into the mold. Now, I just kind of dropped it in there. Next time I will maybe jiggle the mold or tap the bottoms of the mold a bit to get the mixture to settle all the way down. And yes, I realize that my mold is messy and weird looking, but hey... once they are done, you won't see all that ugly, right?? Wipe off any excess that isn't even with the mold. I just swiped a butter knife across the top.

Place the mold in the freezer over night.

The next day, pop them out of the molds and this is what you get! Store them in a freezer bag and keep them in the freezer until ready to give to your dog.

These turned out nice, I think. Amelia loves peanut butter and goes crazy for yogurt, so naturally, she loves these! Of course, I had hoped that she would make them last longer, but as soon as I give them to her, they are gone. Still makes a good summer treat for her when we come in from a walk though.

Amelia's Vet Trip and Progress

On Friday, our Miss Amelia puppy had her second set of vaccinations, as well as her well-puppy visit with our veterinarian. She was the star of the visit that day, when we walked in, everyone was "aww-ing" at her, as it happens with every where we go lately. She has gained over 3 pounds with us, putting her at 15 pounds now. I had some concerns with her, such as her loose stools, really horrible gas, and the vet informed me that if she wasn't dewormed at the breeder's, it's probably due to her having worms. He noticed other signs of her having worms, such as a pot belly. She got a deworming then and there. When we got home, her first stool afterward, had a big worm in it! I was so freaked out, that something like that can literally live in another creature. Blech! Anyway, we got her started on Frontline, and heartworm medication.

We are still trying really hard to house break her. She has to go out every 15 minutes... religiously, otherwise she will pee on the carpet. We haven't had a poo accident in the house in about a week, so that's progress, I think. The bell training is getting better, slightly. We no longer have to ring the bells for her, she rings them on her own, but only after we are standing next to them telling her "Amelia, ring your bells!" It wasd only last night that out of nowhere, she rang them 3 times on her own (once to pee, once to poo, and once to just annoy me and get me back outside). But since those three times, nohting. I feel like she's not associating the bells with potty, but more of "they are getting shoes on, I should ring the bells". We are still working with her though.

On Friday, we got the all clear from our vet that she's okay with going on walks, as long as we stay on the sidewalk. I have been super-paranoid about parvo and other viruses that come from unknown dogs, that she has literally been confined to the grass right outside our aparment. So, after the walk-ok, we have been taking her out of the complex, and walking in the middle of the street. We can at least now, start training for the loose leash walking. It was horrible at first, but now it's getting better. No longer am I dragging her, but she walks near me... trying to eat every rock and mystery substance she can find on the ground.

She also got a taste of her first Kong yesterday. I stuffed it with a mix of plain yogurt and some of her kibble, tossed it in the freezer for a few hours, and let her at it. She loved it. It entertained her for several hours, until she finally got frustrated that she couldn't get the remaining kibble in the middle. She then growled at it, and walked away in a huff.

She is a cute puppy, and all things considered, she is well behaved and smart. She did really well at the veterinarian, slept on the table, didn't care what they were doing to her. She is learning many things (mainly how to get us to cater to her), so I can't complain too much, I suppose. She's very attention-getting with whoever she meets, including the neighbors. Every time the neighbors see her out, they rush up to give her pets and love.

We are trying, and we are desperately trying to get better with her. Getting her was my realization that I'm not going to be able to have children, and bringing her home was our version of adopting a furry child. And she is just that, a baby. She needs constant supervision, potty time every 15 minutes, middle of the night potty time, and she definitely needs the attention a baby needs. The only time I can get things done, is while she is sleeping!

Bringing Amelia Home

On Tuesday, I came back from visiting family in California. I had a fantastic time there, visiting Fort Bragg, shopping in Sacramento, eating all my favorite foods that Tyler doesn't like, and spending time with family. I took so many pictures there, close to 300, but I'll save that for a couple posts in the future. For now, Amelia!

Towards the end of my vacation, I started to make plans with Amelia's breeder to pick her up. Turned out, we didn't have to wait until that Saturday, like we originally thought. We ended up picking her up Tuesday evening. It was a huge day for me, I had woken up at 1:45am, left the place I was staying at at 2:30am to catch a 6:15am flight. After traveling all morning, I arrived back in Iowa at around 1:30 in the afternoon. I had made plans to pick up Amelia at six that same evening. We made the two hour drive back to my home, dropped off my luggage, and we were off again.

I was exhausted. Regardless, e drove up to LeMars, and picked her up. She came to us with her AKC paperwork, unbathed (and completely dirty from being in an outside kennel with her littermates), and without the small package of the kibble she was currently on, for easy switching to her new food. After a tiring day, I was getting grouchy and at that point, just wanted to go home. Maybe the situation wasn't as bad as I perceive it to be, I was just cranky? Don't know.

I held her the entire way home, and as we got off of the freeway to come back home... she got carsick, and threw up all over me, herself, and the car. It was a mess. By the time we pulled into the parking lot to the apartment, I was practically falling asleep.

While I took Amelia into the building, and cleaned her up, Tyler cleaned up the car (personally, I think he got the worst end of that stick). Then I showered, and let her explore the apartment. A little while later, she got her bath, dried off, and we went to bed.

She's extremely active a majority of the time, and whenever I try to get my camera out to take pictures, she runs up and sticks her snout in the lens. I feel like I can never get good photos of her. I made a serious effort this morning, and finally got a couple.

Crate training the first night, went really well. We went to be around 11pm, she only whined for less than 2 minutes, then was out like a light. She woke up again around three in the morning to potty, and again around five. By seven, she was up for the day. And apparently, so was I.

She'd started to get really good with her crate. The night before last, she went in with no whining, no nothing. Just laid down and slept. Last night, however... was not a good night. She went in, and cried for about 5 minutes. Really loud, obnoxious crying. We were unimpressed. Once she settled down, she was up every hour, on the hour, ready to potty... whining for about 5 minutes each time after being put back in her crate. I felt bad for our upstairs neighbor who had to listen to that.

When she comes out of her crate every morning, she is an absolute terror. Of course, I expected some of it. But, I guess it has been too long since I had a puppy, I've forgotten most. This morning, we have decided to take her out on a walk around the complex to get out some of the pent-up energy from the crate. That was huge fail in itself. The whole walk was me literally just dragging her down the street because she refused to walk on the leash. Loose leash walking training is coming next.

We are doing terrible with potty training too. In the mornings, she give us absolutely no notice of when it will happen, and just squats to pee right on the carpet (hence, trying to take her for a walk), usually standing right in front of me. We are attempting to bell train her (having her ring a bell hanging from the doorknob whenever she wants to go outside), but she isn't getting it, and I think the bells are more scary for her than anything. So, she doesn't ring it by herself.

I watch her like a hawk every day while Tyler is at work, we go out as soon as she wakes up from a nap, which really helps with the accidents on the carpet, but I'm getting slightly annoyed that she's not even associating the bells with going outside at this point. I expected her to at least be acknowledging them by now. But she's not. I know it's not her fault, but we do this every single time we go outside, I am not sure what else to do.

We joke that my husband is her personal chew toy, because she is always latching onto his hand, jumping up to his face when he is sitting down. But, I think this is a bigger issue than what it appears to be (he has never had a dog before, so I'm not sure he knows how to act with a dog, at all). I feel like both Amelia, and Tyler need some training on how to act with each other.

Yes, I understand that she is a puppy, this is to be expected. We have only had her a little less than one week, and we still have loads of training to do. However, I feel like I have all the bad puppy traits to deal with, and no enjoyment out of owning a dog. So please, don't mind my venting here.

Amelia at 5 Weeks

Tired of all the puppy things yet? Amelia is pretty much the going thing in my life right now, and we will be bringing her home in less than 3 weeks. So, we have been trying to accumulate as much stuff as we can, and be as ready as we can be for her.

The day I've been waiting for - the 6 week old visit arrived yesterday. Actually, it was a 5 week old visit for us, because I'll be leaving for California tomorrow, and won't be around to see her at 6 weeks. The breeder was nice enough to let us come visit her early. Last time we visited her, was at a week old, she didn't even have her eyes open, or was able to hear us. But, we still picked her out that day.

As soon as we pulled up and walked up to the pen, I knew which one was my puppy almost immediately (because of the white on her chest). The litter of puppies were all so cute! Wagging their little tails as we walked up, wanting all kinds of pets.

I'll be honest. The breeder had sent me pictures of her weekly, and in the last batch of photos, I had been noticing one of her eyes looked a little strange, like it wasn't aligning up with the other eye. After googling this problem, it lead to me thinking it might be a medical issue that I'll need to address.

First thing I did was pick her up and look at her eyes. They looked normal to me! That in itself made the trip up there worth it. Definitely a worry off of my shoulders, so I was happy. She's so adorable!

Before we left, my photographer friend taught me some basics on how to use my Nikon D3200, because I had no clue how to use it for nicer-photos. I am so grateful for her time in teaching me more about my camera, because it really made a difference in the quality of them! (Can you believe I actually shot all these photos in manual mode?!) Of course, I know I still need a lot of practice, but these looked so much better than what I was taking before!

I was REALLY paranoid about her eyes. I wanted to look at her from all angles to see her eyes. Tyler had told me to not worry about the eyes, that it was probably just the angle of the camera. I wanted to make sure. But, in actuality, even if she did have something going on with her eye, I'd probably be just as in love with her as I am now. I am already very emotionally invested in her.

Anyway. I look at this photo and already see a wise soul in there. I think all golden retrievers have that look.

Probably my most favorite photo of them all. Tyler held her so I could get pictures of her, and when she started chewing on his face, I just went and snapped photos as much as I could, and this was one of those in that series. Definitely doesn't look like she had just been munching on his chin, right?

I was also following her around with the camera, taking as many pictures as I could, of every moved she made. I know she's going to grow so fast, I didn't want to miss anything yesterday. I also won't be seeing her for 3 weeks, when we pick her up. I wanted memories and photos to bring home with me. We were probably with her for a good 45 minutes. I took about 100 photos yesterday.

Bonus video! Please don't mind the shakiness, my ugly voice, or the fact that the camera was zoomed in way to close, and not focused enough the whole time. I'm practicing my photo skills right now, not my video skills!

Dog Biscuits

With less than one month until Miss Amelia comes home, we've been starting the hoarding of puppy things! I'm really excited for our new golden retriever, so I want to buy ALL THE THINGS!

We've purchased her crate online (only $53, for an Intermediate size!), which arrived last week, I got a couple toys for her, and we have already got her food. I know it might be too early to buy food, but the food I've been wanting to get her went on a really fantastic sale for almost $20 cheaper for the 30lb bag. I wasn't about to pass that up. Hey, dry dog food usually sits at the store for months anyway, right? I made her a fleece bed, stuffed with pillows, as well. I've also went upstairs to talk to our weird, night-owl neighbor to warn her about the noise that crate training might bring. She didn't seem to care.

She's become my obsession, and the highlight of my week is when the breeder sends me updated pictures of her. I'll be going back home to California to visit family in a little over a week, and I've already scoped out the nearest pet stores there, too. I hope to bring some really special things back for her. My mother back home says there's a store that sells bully sticks for $1, so obviously, that's going to be the first store I'm going to hit... right after In-N-Out Burger, of course!

But anyway! My Pinterest boards are filled with all kings of DIY puppy bed, treats, and toys now. I wanted to give a recipe a try, knowing it's too early to start baking treats. My mother in California has a dog, and I wanted to try these treats out on her before I go crazy and start making batch after batch of them before Amelia comes home.

Keep in mind, as you read this, I don't cook, and I don't bake. This was actually the result of two previous failed batches of cookies. The first batch, I made too thick, and they turned out too soft and gummy. The second batch, I put too much water in. That batch ended up getting completely stuck to wax paper, and I got so frustrated that I tossed it out. This third and final batch, turned out perfect.

Here's my ingredients. I only used Fareway brand Whole Wheat Flour and banana baby food (don't use anything with onion or onion powder!). Which is awesome, because I love re-using baby food jars. The first time I went buying flour, I accidentally picked up white wheat flour. I don't even know what that was, so I went back and got the actual whole wheat. Oops. I picked Banana favored food, because this batch goes to my tester dog, who loves bananas. For Amelia, however, I think I'm going to try sweet potatoes.

• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 2 (4 ounce) jars of baby food
• Dog bone cookie cutter

Let me tell you about this stupid dog bone cookie cutter. I searched... everywhere for this thing! I looked at Walmart, Petco, Petsmart, HyVee, Fareway for any kind of bone cookie cutter, and nothing. My last ditch effort was at the mall, where they have this little store called Kitchen Collections, before I ordered online. They not only had one, but three (!) kinds of them. I picked up a set of 3 different sizes, mainly so I can start with the medium size, and work up to the largest. Also, I didn't want to go hunting for them again. Like, ever.

I mixed up the dough with my hands and rolled it out. After so many failed attempts, I was shocked at how perfect this batch of dough turned out. Both batches were sticky, but this one wasn't at all. I had no issues cutting out the dough and peeling them off the counter. Like I said, I'm no baker.

I'm not going to lie. I did not roll the dough out myself. I hate rolling dough out, so I called my husband in to roll it for me. There were times when I thought he was going to break my poor rolling pin, he was being such a brute with it. But, the dough looked good, and my rolling pin somehow survived. Win, I'd say.

These were made about 1/4 inch thick. The first batch was made too thick, and I really did not feel like trying again, so OCD me, literally measured the thickness of each one with a ruler. Anything over 1/4 inch got re-rolled.

It was also suggested to use parchment paper on a baking sheet to cook them. I didn't have any. I sprayed the sheet with cooking spray, and them wiped all that I could off. Just to get a extremely thin layer of it.

The link I followed from Pinterest suggested to cook them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. However, mine were soft still at 20 minutes. I wanted mine crunchy. I kept mine in the over, checking on them every 5 minutes or so. I might have taken them out around 40 minutes.

My list of tips, for those willing to try this:

• Might be a good idea to maybe puncture the tops of the biscuits with a fork before baking, so the air can vent through, and maybe not rise any? I might try this in my next batch.
• They will get soft in an air tight container. I follow the original poster's advice, and keep them on a paper bag on the counter.
• Don't make them over 1/4 inch. they won't get hard, and will remain soft and chewy (and might mold easier?)
• Once I poured my baby food into the mixing bowl, I put just a few drops in the jar, closed the lid, shook the water around, and poured what's left in the bowl. Don't do more than just a few drops extra. The dough will be sticky. It will then stick to wax paper, and you'll have to toss it out. I know from experience.
• If you have a Kitchen Collection store near you, go there first before running all over town looking for dog bone cookie cutters.

We will be going to the breeder's house this weekend to play with little Amelia this weekend, now that she's bigger... so be on the lookout for at least one more post about her before I leave for California next week!

Amelia the Golden Retriever

I'm just going to start this post off with stating that I have always adored golden retrievers. At some point over the course of the past couple weeks, I decided I wanted to get a puppy. Of course, I was really wanting a golden retriever, because of my love for them. But couldn't find a breeder within a reasonable distance to me. On Thursday, I began my full-hearted search to find us a dog.

The back of my mind was still hoping for a golden though. My husband told me, "You better pick a dog that you really want, because you can't trade them in." And that kind of hit home with me. I kept looking on Petfinder, trying to find a rescue dog that appealed to me. I was struggling, and feeling heartbroken.

Next, I checked our local Craigslist. There was a posting for Golden Retriever Puppies, that had been posted 30 minutes prior. One glance at the picture, I was hooked. I immediately texted the owner, for additional information.

We set up a date for us to come pick one out. We drove the 30 minutes to visit them on Saturday, and it was instant love for me. We got to visit the mother, who was calm, relaxed, and quite happy looking. We held up the pups, got tips from the breeder of what to look for in a puppy, but in the end, I had to go with my gut, which one really called to me.

She was the first one I picked up, and her little white paws are what sold me on her. They explained to me what the white paws would look like on her once she gets older, because her mother had the same. We chose her, with her adorable little pudgy face.

She was 8 days old when we went to see her. I kept talking to her, even though they kept telling me she couldn't hear or see me. I was amused though. I've never really seen golden retriever puppies, so honestly, I didn't know what I was supposed to be looking for.

Tyler held her while I took my pictures and filled out the paperwork, she just slept and didn't even seem to care where she was (granted, she couldn't see what was going on, I'm sure). But it was cute.

I have asked for weekly status pictures of our little Amelia growing up, which they agreed to do. And, they suggested that we should also come by when she is about 6 weeks old, because that's when we would start to see her coloring, and she will be much more active (obviously).

She'll come with AKC paperwork, vaccinations, and even a little collar. I'm so excited for our puppy! We won't be able to bring her home until May 24th, which works out well for us, really. I'll be going back to California for a couple weeks, and won't be back until May 20th. Also, it will give us plenty of time to purchase alot of the puppy things we will need. The prices at our local pet stores are way extreme, and me being a bargain hunter, I will probably be ordering quite a bit of things online. I should have plenty of time for them to be shipped, I think.