Puppy Fever

Puppy Kenzo

Slowly but surely, I start to ponder more about our future Hovawart puppy. She is still many months away. This month the mating is planned, followed by 2 months of pregnancy and 2 months with her mother Joy, her litter-mates, and the breeder, Laila.

I can't help myself for speculating and looking ahead. How will she be. How will we introduce her to our home and Tilde. I had to refresh my memory of the time we got Kenzo, what we did and what we didn't do. I also re-read some of the books we got when Kenzo was a puppy. It was funny to see Gwen Bailey's book "The Perfect Puppy" again. The book title was a reminder as well how different I was back then and I laughed out loud a book with such a title could have appealed to me. A reminder of old aspirations and ambitions.

Of course, I can remember all my mistakes with Kenzo as if they happened yesterday. The things I know to avoid and do differently. Mistakes like the Big Crate Fail as I call it. We bought a crate for Kenzo after advice it would be good for a puppy with his own place and it would be convenient for us if he would have an accident in the house. I got the biggest and most expensive crate I could find as I had great expectations how big Kenzo would become. When we made ready to go to bed on Kenzo's first day with the family, I lured him inside the crate with some treats and closed the door behind him.

The small puppy started to whine and howl at the top of his lungs. I hoped he would stop and tried to wait it out. Five minutes later, I couldn't take it anymore and let Kenzo out of his crate. I remember how guilty I felt for putting him through that. As insecure as I was back then, everything being new for me, the image of Kenzo and the crate kept me awake during the night. Had I already ruined our relationship? On our first day? The next day, my guilt transferred into anger and I literally kicked the crate out of the house. First later did I found out, you have to crate-train a puppy first. But it was too late, the crate and me could never be friends again. I am a severe case of Crate Trauma.

Mistakes will be avoided, but most things I will do the same. After all, Kenzo turned out to be a wonderful dog despite my mistakes. The big wild-card is Tilde of course. Or maybe not, because it is quite predictable what will happen. She will not be welcoming a new puppy. The warm welcome she herself got from Kenzo she will not grant others. Sure, she will love to play outside with her new friend. But a newcomer in her house, with her family, breathing the air she breaths ... she will complain and protest.

For a week or so. It went the same with other dogs sleeping over. Like Dok-dek. In the beginning Tilde was appalled. But a week later all is forgotten, and a new family is forged. I will have to help Tilde and the puppy though, keep them separated when either signals a need for rest, meals are fed, etc. I need to be on the safe side. I have the coming months to speculate about it and prepare.

One other thing will definitely change as well. I will take a lot of photos and videos, not like the meager handful of photos I took from Kenzo during his puppy-hood.

This post turned out as incoherent as my thoughts. I definitely developed a case of Puppy Fever already.

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P.S: Laila and Joy, our future puppy mom, just opened their website "Hofflerteamet" if you want to take a look.