One of Inko's favourite games at the moment, which she won't be small enough to play much longer, is crawling under the sofa, having a scout round for anything of interest (usually finds a stray bit of kibble) and then crawling out again. I just managed to get a video of it so thought I'd post it on here!
Paula
Tuesday 30 September 2008
Settling in
On Monday morning we had yet another 5.30am wake up call from Little Miss Inko which is not a nice time to wake up!! It's difficult to get her to be quiet enough before opening up the crate door so she learns that she doesn't get let out when she's making a fuss. It was pretty much a case of waiting till she paused to take a breath and then quickly whipping the door open while there was temporarily no noise!!
On Monday morning Inko had her first visits to the vets for a puppy check-up and to have her first jabs. To try and get her used to her lead I popped this on to go out, even though she would be carried. I then took it off as I put her in her car crate so she gets used to that too. She was an angel once again in the car not making a sound all the way there while sat in her crate. When we got there I popped her lead back on and then when I picked her up and got out the car to go into the vets she didn't make a fuss but I think she was a bit anxious because I could feel her snuggling in tight in my arms. She was a big hit with the receptionists who made a nice fuss of her over the counter.
The vet seemed to be a fan too and had a good cuddle. She was so well behaved in there, not making a fuss at all when being checked over - the vet was really pleased with her condition. Then he weighed her - 3.8kg. She thought the weighing scales were quite a nice toy to chew and when she was taken off of them she lay down looking very sweet and innocent, sneakily chewing the side of the scales with the corner of her mouth!!! When she had her jab she didn't even flinch - such a brave girl! She was going to be micro chipped as well, but the vet said he prefers to do this on the second visit so that the puppy's first visit to the vets isn't a frightening experience because of a big scary needle.
When I got back from the vets I decided to set up our spare dog crate in the lounge next to the sofa so that I can pop her away to sleep during the day near to where I am and mix between near me, and away from me in her main crate. This way I can also quickly pop her away as soon as she falls asleep and then can have a quick snooze on the sofa myself!!
During the day yesterday my mum and dad came over to have another visit and so did my sister, Michelle. Inko had a great time being made a fuss of! When they had gone, and Inko was fast asleep in her crate, I decided to take my first trip out to leave her on her own for a bit. I needed to pop just down the road to pick up a prescription from the doctors so I thought that would be a good opportunity to give it a go. I felt really stressed the whole time I was out!! I was probably only out for about 15 minutes but I was worrying about her the whole time!! Need to make sure I do more of that though so that she gets used to it...and I get used to it...for when I go back to work.
When I got back we went round for a visit to my sisters house and Inko had great fun exploring a new house! She is a huge fan of squeezing into small places, especially running behind sofas (as Jo and George will testify from our night at their house on Friday!). My sister and I spent much of the time trying to stop her going behind a sofa that had a couple of wires behind it -it's amazing how quickly she manages to run to get to places she knows she's not allowed!! Managed to miss her requests for a wee and she had an accident on the floor - quite hard to spot when she is just running and squawking from excitement and when she is doing that to get my attention! Most of the times I've managed to correctly spot it!!
On the way back I knocked on both of our neighbours doors on each side to introduce them to Inko and to apologise for the noise at night and in the morning at the moment (and bought them some chocolates as an appeasement gift!). They both loved Inko and said they hadn't really heard her...I have a feeling the people living in the house attached to ours must surely have been being polite when they said that as I don't know how it can't have travelled through the walls - for a small dog she has got a very powerful set of lungs!!
I had been worrying that she wasn't eating enough as she only seems to have been picking at her food so I got my sister to pick me up some pedigree chum puppy food pouches at the shops. I didn't have any biscuits mix to put with them so I put a few bits of her dried food in with it too. She thought this food was the most yummy thing in the world ever!! She scoffed it down, even quicker than she did the scrambled egg the other night! She even kept going back to the bowl to see whether there was any more in there!! Might do this for one meal a day.
Last night Adam made sure that for the 30-45 minutes before we wanted to go to bed we played with her loads to tire her out. When she started to look sleepy we quickly took her out and then popped her into her crate for the night. We had a fair bit of howling and barking (she has quite a repertoire of sounds!) that lasted for about 20 minutes or so and then she settled down - finally!!
6.15 wake up call this morning! Much more civilised - yay!!!!!!!!!
Paula
Do you like our new interior design look? - it's called puppy chic!
"Helloooo!"
"Look at me, all grown up with my ID badge!"
On Monday morning Inko had her first visits to the vets for a puppy check-up and to have her first jabs. To try and get her used to her lead I popped this on to go out, even though she would be carried. I then took it off as I put her in her car crate so she gets used to that too. She was an angel once again in the car not making a sound all the way there while sat in her crate. When we got there I popped her lead back on and then when I picked her up and got out the car to go into the vets she didn't make a fuss but I think she was a bit anxious because I could feel her snuggling in tight in my arms. She was a big hit with the receptionists who made a nice fuss of her over the counter.
The vet seemed to be a fan too and had a good cuddle. She was so well behaved in there, not making a fuss at all when being checked over - the vet was really pleased with her condition. Then he weighed her - 3.8kg. She thought the weighing scales were quite a nice toy to chew and when she was taken off of them she lay down looking very sweet and innocent, sneakily chewing the side of the scales with the corner of her mouth!!! When she had her jab she didn't even flinch - such a brave girl! She was going to be micro chipped as well, but the vet said he prefers to do this on the second visit so that the puppy's first visit to the vets isn't a frightening experience because of a big scary needle.
When I got back from the vets I decided to set up our spare dog crate in the lounge next to the sofa so that I can pop her away to sleep during the day near to where I am and mix between near me, and away from me in her main crate. This way I can also quickly pop her away as soon as she falls asleep and then can have a quick snooze on the sofa myself!!
During the day yesterday my mum and dad came over to have another visit and so did my sister, Michelle. Inko had a great time being made a fuss of! When they had gone, and Inko was fast asleep in her crate, I decided to take my first trip out to leave her on her own for a bit. I needed to pop just down the road to pick up a prescription from the doctors so I thought that would be a good opportunity to give it a go. I felt really stressed the whole time I was out!! I was probably only out for about 15 minutes but I was worrying about her the whole time!! Need to make sure I do more of that though so that she gets used to it...and I get used to it...for when I go back to work.
When I got back we went round for a visit to my sisters house and Inko had great fun exploring a new house! She is a huge fan of squeezing into small places, especially running behind sofas (as Jo and George will testify from our night at their house on Friday!). My sister and I spent much of the time trying to stop her going behind a sofa that had a couple of wires behind it -it's amazing how quickly she manages to run to get to places she knows she's not allowed!! Managed to miss her requests for a wee and she had an accident on the floor - quite hard to spot when she is just running and squawking from excitement and when she is doing that to get my attention! Most of the times I've managed to correctly spot it!!
On the way back I knocked on both of our neighbours doors on each side to introduce them to Inko and to apologise for the noise at night and in the morning at the moment (and bought them some chocolates as an appeasement gift!). They both loved Inko and said they hadn't really heard her...I have a feeling the people living in the house attached to ours must surely have been being polite when they said that as I don't know how it can't have travelled through the walls - for a small dog she has got a very powerful set of lungs!!
I had been worrying that she wasn't eating enough as she only seems to have been picking at her food so I got my sister to pick me up some pedigree chum puppy food pouches at the shops. I didn't have any biscuits mix to put with them so I put a few bits of her dried food in with it too. She thought this food was the most yummy thing in the world ever!! She scoffed it down, even quicker than she did the scrambled egg the other night! She even kept going back to the bowl to see whether there was any more in there!! Might do this for one meal a day.
Last night Adam made sure that for the 30-45 minutes before we wanted to go to bed we played with her loads to tire her out. When she started to look sleepy we quickly took her out and then popped her into her crate for the night. We had a fair bit of howling and barking (she has quite a repertoire of sounds!) that lasted for about 20 minutes or so and then she settled down - finally!!
6.15 wake up call this morning! Much more civilised - yay!!!!!!!!!
Paula
"What? I like sitting in the middle of plants!"
Do you like our new interior design look? - it's called puppy chic!
"Helloooo!"
"Look at me, all grown up with my ID badge!"
Sunday 28 September 2008
The first night
At about 10pm last night all three of us were starting to look rather sleepy so Adam and I popped a tired looking Inko into her crate and headed upstairs. She whined and howled for no more than 3 minutes and then settled down - very good start!
Didn't hear a peep out of her all night until just after 5.30. I (Paula) dragged myself out of bed and headed downstairs, a little bleary-eyed, and was met by a very excited Inko! When she stopped yapping (briefly!) I whipped the door open quick so she could get out before she started again so that I wasn't rewarding yapping! She was soooo excited to see me, bless her - made the early start worth it!! I quickly led her out into the garden for a morning wee, as she hadn't been all night by the look of things in her crate. She seems to be getting the knack of how to get to the garden now and, more importantly, what she needs to do when she gets there! Glad it was dry, and glad I didn't stand on the slug on the decking!
I ummed and aahed about whether I should pop her back in her crate for a bit at this point and head back to bed or whether to stay up. In the end I curled up on the sofa in the hope that she might join me and we could have a snooze together with me knowing where she is (and not worrying that she is eating wires, furniture etc...!) Unfortunately she was quite awake at this point and thought that climbing all over me and trying to eat my hair was much for fun than lying still so I ended up popping her on the floor on the new vet bed mat we have in lounge!!
Today she has switched between being very sleepy and going quite crazy! She still likes playing with her toys on the blue mat in her enclosed area but she is also now playing with them on the vet bed 'mat' in our lounge! So she has spent much of today moving toys between the two!! She has been having a good explore of the garden and has been much braver doing that today, covering much more of it than she did yesterday. She also started pouncing through the flower beds - luckily our planting is somewhat untidy anyway so no damage to be done! She has discovered a real liking of leaves, mud, stones and especially sticks! We have been doing a lot of 'Inko, let's see what you've got there' today - good practice for opening her mouth as we must have done that about a hundred times today to remove various bits of garden!!
Another new favourite thing of hers that has started today is taking the manky bit of vet bed out of her crate and bringing it into the lounge...and then taking it back again...and then coming back to the lounge with it...and so on!! This, it would appear, is much fun!! This evening she took it one step further as she dragged the big bit of vet bed out of the crate that we had put in and doing the same with that! Very funny to see her dragging something that is easily twice as long as her around the room. I just hope she doesn't try and pull the big blue mat out of the enclosed area next!!! There's a short video at the bottom - sorry it's not great quality but I took it on my phone - notice how she stops for a quick snack before carrying - well this vet bed moving is hard work...she needs to keep her energy levels up!
We have started doing a little bit of training with her today, we've decided to use clicker training - we started by introducing her to the clicker and getting her used to the idea that a click means a treat or a cuddle so she knows when she's doing the right thing...Inko, it turns out, is a big fan of cheese! I even managed to get her sitting on command which she still seems to be doing (without cheese) so will have to see whether that knowledge has still been retained tomorrow.
She also had her first go with her lead on today - the first thing she did was grab hold of it and, of course, took it to her blue mat - problem was, because it was attached to her, it followed her when she left the mat! She seemed to think this was a great game so I quickly grabbed hold of the lead so she didn't eat it! She didn't seem to keen at first but then when I just wandered along with her, holding it very loosely, she seemed not to worry too much about it, although did turn round to bite it a couple of times. Will try and get her more used to it tomorrow.
After a bit of crazy running around and toy playing (on the mats of course!) she has now settled back down again.
Might have to wake her up shortly to tire her out really well before we head up to bed in the hope that she settles as quickly as she did last night, and in the hope she'll stay quiet slightly longer in the morning...if it's another 5.30 I think I might go back to bed tomorrow!
It's first vet trip tomorrow for first jabs and mircochipping - hope she doesn't hate me afterwards!!
Didn't hear a peep out of her all night until just after 5.30. I (Paula) dragged myself out of bed and headed downstairs, a little bleary-eyed, and was met by a very excited Inko! When she stopped yapping (briefly!) I whipped the door open quick so she could get out before she started again so that I wasn't rewarding yapping! She was soooo excited to see me, bless her - made the early start worth it!! I quickly led her out into the garden for a morning wee, as she hadn't been all night by the look of things in her crate. She seems to be getting the knack of how to get to the garden now and, more importantly, what she needs to do when she gets there! Glad it was dry, and glad I didn't stand on the slug on the decking!
I ummed and aahed about whether I should pop her back in her crate for a bit at this point and head back to bed or whether to stay up. In the end I curled up on the sofa in the hope that she might join me and we could have a snooze together with me knowing where she is (and not worrying that she is eating wires, furniture etc...!) Unfortunately she was quite awake at this point and thought that climbing all over me and trying to eat my hair was much for fun than lying still so I ended up popping her on the floor on the new vet bed mat we have in lounge!!
Today she has switched between being very sleepy and going quite crazy! She still likes playing with her toys on the blue mat in her enclosed area but she is also now playing with them on the vet bed 'mat' in our lounge! So she has spent much of today moving toys between the two!! She has been having a good explore of the garden and has been much braver doing that today, covering much more of it than she did yesterday. She also started pouncing through the flower beds - luckily our planting is somewhat untidy anyway so no damage to be done! She has discovered a real liking of leaves, mud, stones and especially sticks! We have been doing a lot of 'Inko, let's see what you've got there' today - good practice for opening her mouth as we must have done that about a hundred times today to remove various bits of garden!!
Another new favourite thing of hers that has started today is taking the manky bit of vet bed out of her crate and bringing it into the lounge...and then taking it back again...and then coming back to the lounge with it...and so on!! This, it would appear, is much fun!! This evening she took it one step further as she dragged the big bit of vet bed out of the crate that we had put in and doing the same with that! Very funny to see her dragging something that is easily twice as long as her around the room. I just hope she doesn't try and pull the big blue mat out of the enclosed area next!!! There's a short video at the bottom - sorry it's not great quality but I took it on my phone - notice how she stops for a quick snack before carrying - well this vet bed moving is hard work...she needs to keep her energy levels up!
We have started doing a little bit of training with her today, we've decided to use clicker training - we started by introducing her to the clicker and getting her used to the idea that a click means a treat or a cuddle so she knows when she's doing the right thing...Inko, it turns out, is a big fan of cheese! I even managed to get her sitting on command which she still seems to be doing (without cheese) so will have to see whether that knowledge has still been retained tomorrow.
She also had her first go with her lead on today - the first thing she did was grab hold of it and, of course, took it to her blue mat - problem was, because it was attached to her, it followed her when she left the mat! She seemed to think this was a great game so I quickly grabbed hold of the lead so she didn't eat it! She didn't seem to keen at first but then when I just wandered along with her, holding it very loosely, she seemed not to worry too much about it, although did turn round to bite it a couple of times. Will try and get her more used to it tomorrow.
After a bit of crazy running around and toy playing (on the mats of course!) she has now settled back down again.
Might have to wake her up shortly to tire her out really well before we head up to bed in the hope that she settles as quickly as she did last night, and in the hope she'll stay quiet slightly longer in the morning...if it's another 5.30 I think I might go back to bed tomorrow!
It's first vet trip tomorrow for first jabs and mircochipping - hope she doesn't hate me afterwards!!
Saturday 27 September 2008
Coming home!
Inko and Tarkka had a pretty good night last night. Apart from a quick trip to the garden at 4.30 for a wee (thanks Jo for taking them out!), we didn't hear from them again until about 6.45. We all headed out into the garden and they had a fantastic time running around together, jumping on plants, and hunting for sticks!
After tiring Inko out sufficiently for the journey home, and ensuring she had 'done her business' so we didn't get accidents on the way back, we headed off on our trip back to Camberley at about 9am. We were pretty lucky with the traffic on the way back and managed to get back by about 12.30. Inko coped really well with the car journey - no accidents at all and she wasn't sick. We didn't hear a sound from her either which was great. She spent the time moving between the crate and Adam's lap.
Inko asleep on the way home
There is also a mat in there which she seems to have taken a particular liking to. As soon as she picks up any toy she runs over to the mat and lies on there while playing. She also lay on there and leant over the edge to eat her food when she finally decided she was hungry!
She has had five visitors already today (Paula's mum and dad, Paula's sister Michelle, and Paula's sister Jennie and her boyfriend John). Lots more people lined up over the next few days and weeks to make sure that her socialisation is getting off to a good start. She has gone down very well with them all - they all think she's fantastic!
We've been making sure that we take her out into the garden regularly and so far we've only had one accident in the house which is great. Let's hope things continue to go well in that department!
After tiring Inko out sufficiently for the journey home, and ensuring she had 'done her business' so we didn't get accidents on the way back, we headed off on our trip back to Camberley at about 9am. We were pretty lucky with the traffic on the way back and managed to get back by about 12.30. Inko coped really well with the car journey - no accidents at all and she wasn't sick. We didn't hear a sound from her either which was great. She spent the time moving between the crate and Adam's lap.
Inko asleep on the way homeAs soon as we arrived home we took Inko straight into her new garden and she went to the loo straight away - clever girl! We tried to give her lunch, but she was much more interested in exploring the house and garden and was happy to go into her crate for a look as soon as the manky bit of vet bed from her litter pen was put in there!
We have set up an enclosed area in our dining room that she can stay in when we are out and her crate is in there.
There is also a mat in there which she seems to have taken a particular liking to. As soon as she picks up any toy she runs over to the mat and lies on there while playing. She also lay on there and leant over the edge to eat her food when she finally decided she was hungry!
She has had five visitors already today (Paula's mum and dad, Paula's sister Michelle, and Paula's sister Jennie and her boyfriend John). Lots more people lined up over the next few days and weeks to make sure that her socialisation is getting off to a good start. She has gone down very well with them all - they all think she's fantastic!
We've been making sure that we take her out into the garden regularly and so far we've only had one accident in the house which is great. Let's hope things continue to go well in that department!
After spening a lot of time exploring, she is finally asleep and is curled up on the sofa with us at the moment looking very angelic! Have a feeling that this may not last - expecting some rather crazy running around before bed!!
Will report back tomorrow to let you know how her first night completely on her own goes!! Fingers crossed all will be peacefull!!
Picking up Inko!
Having waited about 8 months since first deciding we wanted to get a lappy, we finally set off from Camberley for our trip down to Devon to pick up Inko yesterday at 3pm. The journey wasn't too bad until we hit the A303 near Stonehenge where there was the usual bottle-necking of traffic which slowed us down for an hour or so.
We finally got to Jennifer and Jay's house at about 7.30 and got to have a play with Inko and the other 3 remaining puppies! Jennifer was great and went through loads of tips to help us over the next few weeks. Both her and Jay have been fantastic over the last few months and we are both so grateful for the huge amount of work they have put in with bringing up our little Inko over the past 8 weeks. Of course none of this would have been possible without Neka and Keskiyö who have produced the most beautiful litter of puppies!!
Once we had our puppy pack (wouldn't recommend reading this hyperlink page if you are eating!) and had signed all the paperwork, we finally headed off with a lappy of our own!!! We headed off down to Plymouth to stay with Jo, George and Josh, and Inko's litter mate Tarkka. Inko and Tarkka had so much fun last night, running around like hooligans! Below are a couple of pictures we took once they had tired themselves out a little bit and actually stayed still enough to take them!
Here is Tarkka 
And here is Inko having a well earned rest!They settled nicely in their crate, and didn't make a noise as we all headed off for bed!!
Introduction
We are Adam and Paula and this is our blog about living with our Finnish Lapphund, Infindigo Monta Aurinko - Inko for short! Infindigo is the Jennifer Simmons and Jay Henson's (the breeders) affix and kennel name. Monta was chosen by Jennifer as a 'middle name' for all the puppies - it means 'many' in Finnish. This was chosen because Inko was one of 9 puppies - the largest litter of lappys born in the UK to date. We chose the name Aurinko - Finnish for 'sun' - as they were born in the summer.
If you want to read about our adventures of getting to know the breed, join the Southern Finnish Lapphund Society and ask for a copy of their summer newsletter. If you want to read about Inko's story before we picked her up go to Jennifer's puppy blog.
If you want to read about our adventures of getting to know the breed, join the Southern Finnish Lapphund Society and ask for a copy of their summer newsletter. If you want to read about Inko's story before we picked her up go to Jennifer's puppy blog.
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