A couple weekends ago we went to the mountains, Ducky’s first time up high (around 2000 meters). It was a huge relief from the hot days we’d been having, and we all had a fantastic time. Thank goodness L & E asked us before we had the puppy – if we’d needed to decide after her arrival we probably would have thought it would be too complicated. But it went really well, trains, gondola rides, goats and all.

One of many fun moments was this exploration of some leftover snow (right after getting all wet in the Bettmersee). Finding snow was a special bonus, normally she would have had to wait months before playing with snow down here at home. With our new little Flip Video it was easy and fun to record too. (That’s me in the shadow there, almost falling off once, and that’s M supervising from dry ground. )

Who’s the cutest dog in the world? The right answer for every dog owner in the world is, of course, “my dog!”. And here she is, Ducky, the cutest dog in the world, just after she’d performed a perfect “out”. Guess which room she was supposed to be “out” of?

Trish King’s Parenting Your Dog was the first book we bought in preparation for having a dog. We love to read and “Parenting Your Dog” is a pleasant tale (pun intended) of the parallels between raising kids and raising canines. And it’s packed with sage advice.

Like the wonderful “stupid mom routine”. Trish King describes how you can deal with behavior problems in a wonderfully positive and creative way: you intentionally misinterpret unwanted behavior, reacting in a way that your dog thinks is really stupid, which results in your dog stopping the behavior.

Sounds good, right? Well this one really works and we have the proof: she’s quietly sleeping outside the office door.

Today I was playing with Ducky, then after a little while we moved on to a calmer toy, one that she could play with alone (ha! I thought so anyway). And I went into the office, which is off limits and blocked by a child gate. Ducky decided that was not to her liking and sat on the other side of the gate and barked. Loudly. Demanding. Ouch.

So I decided to try out the stupid mom routine. When she barked a second time, I cheerfully asked, oh Ducky, you want to go out? Then I put on her leash, came with her to the door, and let her out. That is, I let her out for 5 seconds, alone, with the leash still on my side of the door. Then I let her right back in and acted normal again. I brought her the ropey toy and went back into the office. All very cheerfully.

She came and sat at the office door and barked again: “Hey! Two-legged dummy! Play with me!”. Time for take 2 of the stupid mom routine. We went to the door, she went out, I stayed in with the other end of the leash, and 5 seconds later I invited her back in. Ducky didn’t take long to decide how stupid I was. This time she wasn’t interested in another toy, she just gave up on her stupid mom and plopped down on the floor away from the office door.

Thank you Trish King, you’re a genius.

It’s hot today so we all went to the beach. For us that means a little trip to the Aare, a river that runs through town and offers wonderful swimming for humans and dogs alike.

Ducky tried out her swimming paws for the first time. She loved running through the shallow water, and ended up swimming quite by surprise after running off a rock slab that went into slightly deeper water. She’s still deciding whether or not that was OK, but she’ll have plenty of chances to dip in again. Summer has only just begun. And with about 3/4 Labrador genes the odds are high that she’ll live up to her name.

Ducky with her new found friend, the owner of Gray:

As huge fans of Ian Dunbar’s positive puppy training approach, we were ready with several Kong chewtoys weeks before Ducky arrived. Now that we’ve been together for a few weeks (time is really flying now), we realize that the Kong dream didn’t really come true as we wished.

Make no mistake about it, Ducky loves to chew, and we do give her plenty of chewables to keep her happy. But the idea that she would blissfully spend hours in a crate or puppy playpen working on her stuffed Kongs just hasn’t materialized.

She does work on the Kongs, but she doesn’t really chew them, she licks them. Once she gets out what she can with her tongue, she doesn’t pursue it much longer and moves on to the next occupation (which might be a Kong, or might be another chewable, or might be some heart-wrenching whining for attention).

So we’ve been adjusting rapidly and scrambling to find chewables that can keep her happily occupied, or rather, that she can happily occupy herself with. The ultimate goal is to get her used to not being entertained by us every waking hour.

So far her favorites run the gammit of easy-to-find, natural, chewable products: sticks! pine cones! a knotted rag! dry holly leaves! (really, she seems to love the prickly flavor of it). It’s really great that we don’t have to look far for any of those, and can renew chewed up items quickly and easily. Her one legged penguin and ropey chew thing are among her favorites too.

Plus we’re always hunting the pet shops for long-lasting chewables… like the little rawhide sticks that could almost pass for cigarellos… is she cute or what?

Have you ever had the good fortune to walk around town with a little puppy? The smiles you gather just lighten your step, the people around you all relax by about 10 notches, and whatever the weather is, the air is filled with warm and fuzzy.

Today we went for a bus and train ride with little Ducky, who non-chalantly greets everyone who approaches, and they in turn become her adoring fans. You just can’t help it. Puppies are just so cute. And Ducky is, of course, the cutest of all.

So we decided that there’s a simple way to end all of the world’s conflicts: the puppy effect! Just get the puppy crews out there and watch the smiles multiply. They have a way of opening people up and melting hardness in an instant.

Wearing bright yellow crocs helps too, of course.

Ducky’s here!! Sshhhhh, she’s snoozing…

We’ve all gotten throught the famous “first night” together. Just one trip out in the middle of the night and then another at 5 am and then the day started. Someone did tell us “life won’t be the same…”. OK, we get it now.

Our biggest success came the last time we took her out, when she did her business (all of it!) almost right away. Then we went for a little walk around the block and she got to sniff all the new smells and play with a special branch in the playground. Puppy poop and playtime, our new focus.

She has a squeaky toy that the kids downstairs gave her as a welcome home present, and she loves chasing after it and bringing it back. She even drops it for another toss! Superdog, that’s our Ducky!

Today she’s settling in to her naps pretty regularly – we’ve learned fast to take advantage of those quiet moments and get a little done – besides feeding, playing, going out to pee, playing, feeding, going out to pee, playing, you get the idea… .

A couple of times we consulted one of the gazillion dog training books hanging around, just to check on the details about housetraining and getting used to her new home etc. They make everything sound so easy and automatic! Ha! We’re reminded of a quote that says it all: “You plan. God laughs.” She’s having a good chuckle right now.

And we’re smiling from ear to ear.

Ducky said hello to the world on March 24, 2008. She’ll be coming home to us on June 5, in just 5 days!! We’ve been reading up on raising dogs since way before we ever thought it would be possible to have a dog where we live.

And listening to podcasts. Lots of them. And scanning websites. Soaking up as much as possible on our way to raising the perfect little dog. Yeah right. Please bear with us, we are ambitious.

More recently we’ve been collecting dog paraphernalia, all kinds: crates (yes, that’s plural, don’t ask), chew toys galore, collar, leashes (yep, more than one), etc. We’ve even set up a puppy play pen.

The landlord agreed, the neighbors are on board, all we need is the little critter. Cantwaitcantwaitcantwaitcantwait.