New Family Member
In my last newsletter, I mentioned the challenges Lisbon has faced with her scoliosis, and our decision to add a new family member to our ranks. So, drumroll, please! Meet Ivy. She is a maltipoo (14 weeks now and 5 pounds)!
After raising seven children and various animals, we were reluctant to agree to a dog, but we felt Lisbon needed something fun to focus on, especially with her recent switch to homeschool due to a lack of good schools in our area.
An older dog was our first choice, but visits to shelters didn’t find a connection for us. We tried a very suspicious and impossibily expensive pet store (ugh), and just about gave up hope. Then I found a family online selling puppies back in our old state, and Lisbon immediately fell in love. We picked Ivy up when we flew home for my Dad’s Celebration of Life. Thankfully, Ivy was an angel on the plane ride home.
Ivy is crate trained, but we’re still working on potty training. She is great company for Lisbon, and a few washable doggy diapers make it so we don’t get too stressed when accidents happen. Because Ivy’s dad is a toy poodle and her mother a maltipoo (maltese and toy poodle), Ivy should be about 9 pounds when she is fully grown. She was black when we got her three weeks ago but is steadily becoming a chocolate brown as you can see in the picture below. Her coat is wavy and super soft. We all love her, and so far it’s been easier than I feared.
Update: You can see how Ivy got her name here.
New Romance Book Tomorrow!
Royal Time, the fourth novella in the Royals of Beaumont series will be released tomorrow (Wednesday night/Thursday morning) just after midnight! This book is currently an Amazon exclusive, so I apologize for those of you who usually purchase from other platforms. It will also be out in print.
Merry Christmas!
December gives us a great opportunity to celebrate Christ’s birth, to serve others, and consider what is really important. I wanted to take a moment to thank you so much for all the support this year, and for your love of my stories, which really kept me putting one foot forward during this difficult year. I hope you have a Merry Christmas with friends or family.
Thanks and happy reading!
Wanda
Awww, Ivy is adorable. She is probably a chocolate brown and the color only stands out in the sunlight. Otherwise she will probably look black. My terrier is almost the same color. Have you tried the bell/treat method of potty training her? What you do is teach her to ring a bell that is hanging on the door that she is going out of. Buy the smallest treat you can find or break one up in small pieces. You don’t want to give her too many empty calories. She doesn’t get this treat other than as a reward for going potty outside. If she doesn’t do anything, she doesn’t get a reward. Be sure to have her ring the bell before taking her out. You may have to take her paw and hit it until she catches on. Praise, praise as well as the reward.Eventually, she will ring the bell, she goes out and does potty.
I trained 4 dogs using this method. Everyone in the house has to be consistent. The average time until fully trained is 2-3 weeks. Good luck!
Teyla Rachel Branton
Thank you so much, Wanda. That’s a great suggestion. Because right now we feel like she is trained but only as long as WE remember to take her out. We haven’t figured out how she can tell us when she needs to go out. So basically, she rings the bells everytime we take her out, but she only gets the treat if she goes potty? She loves little pieces of carrots oddly, so we sometimes give her that as a treat, but she will eat anything, even paint chips and horse poop (ugh).
Wanda
Hi Teyla,
Yes, that’s correct. But to make it “special” for being a good girl and doing her potty outside, I would give her a different treat that she only gets when she goes outside. They actually sell these little treats for potty training . This way she associates getting this treat for going potty outside only. She should catch on pretty quickly if she loves those treats. Your going to have to make it clear to everyone in the house to not give her those treats at any other time, or it’s no longer associated with going potty outside. If after a solid month of her going outside, without any accidents, you can give her the treats anytime or just continue to give them to her like you had been. Good luck, let me know how she does.
Teyla Rachel Branton
Okay, I’m going to try to get my family on board because we all take her out. Crossing my fingers that it works. I think I have some jingle bells in my craft box. Thanks again!