The Life of Yuri

Bubba needs a good home!!

2009-07-07T19:58:00.003-05:00

For my few avid readers, I am hoping to be able to connect with you and get the word out because Yuri's brother, Bubba, still needs a good home! He is, what we assume, 1/4 Jack Russell, 1/4 Pitbull and 1/2 Boxer. Bubba is the sweetest, most outgoing puppy I have ever met. I actually almost took him over Yuri!

He is currently in the DFW with his mother, brother and foster family, but he needs his forever home. If you or anyone you know is interested in a big dog, please let them know about Bubba. He is available to a GOOD home. All the fosters are asking for is reimbursement for vet expenses they have accrued thus far for his shots and deworming.

Sickness is never fun

2009-07-05T19:36:00.002-05:00

This week Yuri got sick and by sick I mean he got diarrhea. At first I was not worried, I just thought he got into something. By day two, I started to get really worried. I probably read everything out there about diarrhea in puppies and what it means, what to look for and how to help treat it. Not only was I worried that he had some sort of disease but it was also the beginning of the holiday weekend. Just my luck!

I started to really watch his symptoms, looking for some clue to what he could have. Oddly his only symptom was diarrhea. He was active as ever, actually he was more active, seeing as we weren't taking our daily trips to the park. I wanted to isolate him as best as possible. Not only for his sake but also for the other animals. He still had his appetite, he drank, he slept, he did not appear to be in any sort of pain. Also he was still pooping on his normal schedule. Ugh!

So I called my mom, moms know everything! Not to mention we have had our fair share of pets so she knows what she is talking about. She suggested I fast him for a day and then feed him rice for three days and slowly ween him back on to food by mixing it with rice. Oh and take his rawhide chew toy away.

The first two days, there was not much change, other than he was hungry and cranky. I also had him drink pedialyte to make sure he didn't get dehydrated. Thankfully by day three, his stool started to harden up. Success! Today, day four, I started weening him back on to his solid food and monitoring him. It seems like all is well in his puppy tummy.

Now I don't know if he ate something weird, which is hard to believe because I keep a close eye on him at all times, or if it was in fact his rawhide. I am thinking rawhide. Lesson learned.

Day at the Pond

2009-06-19T16:26:00.003-05:00

In his element and happy!

Just for Laughs

2009-06-17T14:31:00.003-05:00

One of my friends sent this video to me. She said when she thinks of Yuri this is what comes to mind. Yes, my friends are odd :) Enjoy!

Evening at the Park

2009-06-16T21:31:00.006-05:00

We have an amazing park near our home. I refer to it as the hidden gem. For it's size, no one seems to use it. George Bush Park is a 7800 acre park that has everything from ponds and fishing to a shooting range. Within the park there is Millie Bush Bark Park that is part of the Houston Dog Park Organization. Though Yuri is not old enough for the dog park, we do take advantage of the acres upon acres of unused horse fields.

Here are a few pictures of our first trip. We ran a bit, took a break to read 'Cesar's Way' and drink some water and then took one long walk before going home. We ended up spending 2 hours out there and Yuri was pleased.

Yuri doing what he does best.... being a dog!!

Content :)

We drank alot of water

Isn't this park amazing!!

My baby boy

The cuteness that is Yuri

The Count

2009-06-16T11:25:00.007-05:00

According to Dr. Ian Dunbar in his book "Before and After Getting Your Puppy" in order to properly socialize Yuri I need to introduce him to 100 people by the time he is 3 months old. In order to keep on top of this I am going to actually keep count and just update this particular post as he meets new people.

People: 32

Men: 5

Children: 6

Animals: 12

I need to get on this!

Photos and a Side Note

2009-06-16T10:06:00.008-05:00

We are pretty sure he is part boxer, part pitbull, purely adorable.

(sorry, had to)

This plush toy happens to be his favorite. Don't worry though, he is HIGHLY supervised when playing with it.

He was not a fan of seeing himself in the Photo Booth window. He would growl and then look at me for direction.

Side Note: We don't know Yuri's exact birth date seeing as he was a stray/rescue. When he was taken to the vet, they said he looked like he was around 10 weeks. That would make him born in the beginning of April, which is perfect! Perfect because I am now able to appoint him a fun birth date, April 1st! Happy Birthday Yuri, wait, April Fools!! Yes, its perfect :)

New Sounds

2009-06-11T14:06:00.006-05:00

Lately I have been reading "Before You Get Your Puppy" by Ian Dunbar. Not only is it a great book, it is also free online! Now granted, I already have my puppy, there is alot I have been able to draw from this book in order to help Yuri become the best dog he can be.

One of the things I have taken from the book is the importance of familiarizing Yuri with 'sounds'. He has been an outdoor dog for the past 10 weeks so many of the normal indoor sounds are foreign to him. Luckily his play room is the kitchen. First thing this morning, right after breakfast, Yuri got to experience the sounds of 'Mad World' on the Wii. The varying voices of the characters caused him to perk right up. The fun started when the main character, played by Nosa, started hacking people to bits. The sound of the chainsaw had him cocking his head left and right for a few minutes. After a few minutes, he got used to the mayhem and went back to laying on the floor with his bones.

This afternoon was a different story entirely. After a long walk, we were chilling in the kitchen. I started doing the dishes and made no effort to keep the volume down. I let the pots clang and the silverware cling, none of this bothered Yuri. I opened the dishwasher and loaded the top shelf and pushed it back in. Then I pulled out the lower shelve, something about the sound of this made Yuri jump back 3 feet and start barking. I couldn't help but laugh! I had never seen a dog fear the bottom shelf of a dishwasher. I realized this was one of the training opportunities I had been planning for. I sat down next to the dishwasher and touched it, to show Yuri it was nothing to fear. I called him over and with some coaxing had him sit next to the door. I then pushed the shelf in and out. Each time Yuri would protest to the sound and try to run in fear. I brought him back, had him sit and touched the door again. We did this for about 10 minutes, I gave Yuri many treats and then let him go on his way. He is not completely comfortable with the sound yet, but tomorrow is another day, and with another day brings more dishes to load.

Yuri's journey through normal household sounds is far from over, we have yet to experience the vacuum and I am pretty such that one will take some work. Well it's time for our nightly walk before bedtime.

Night cap

2009-06-09T22:38:00.000-05:00

I am smiling :) Yuri is carching on quickly to his feeding schedule. He finished his food tonight at dinner! Yeay! I am going to tell myself this is because he is the smartest puppy ever and not just because his tummy was growling.

Tomorrow we are introducing him to the cats. This should be fun!

Here is a picture for your enjoyment.

Yuri's first day

2009-06-09T17:26:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I picked up Yuri from his foster home in Dallas. When I first got there he was very shy. He came up and introduced himself but then stepped back for his more out going brother. But the first thing I really noticed was his size! The little man was not so little anymore. He was a 20lb hunk of muscle. I picked him up just to get a feel for his size, massive! I realized the small crate I brought to transport him to and from Houston and Dallas was just not going to cut it. We had to borrow a bit larger carrier from his foster home, help to coax him in, which involve more pushing and maneuvering than actual coaxing, layed out a towel in the back and strapped him and we were off.

The hour ride from Dallas,TX to my parents home in Denison,TX, about an hour in length, went alot smoother than I anticipated. Well other than the car sickness within the first 10 minutes. But that was to be expected. Poor boy was nervous. He was so quiet the whole ride home. Sometimes he sat up and looked around, other times he took little puppy naps. He did not even let out the littlest peep until I was about 10 minutes from home.

As soon as I set the kennel down on the porch, he walked out and peed... all over my pants, my shoe and my foot. I couldn't help but laugh. We were greeted by the family dog Minnie, a protective 5 year old English Springer Spaniel. The introductions between the two seemed to go smoothly and Minnie started playing with Yuri only to whip around and snap at him 2 minutes later. The scream coming from that little puppy woke up the rest of the dogs as well as my sleeping mother inside. He ended up being just fine, just shook up and need less to say, a little frightened of Minnie.

Next I introduced him to Lizzy, a playful 2 year old Australian Shepard. She was much more expecting of Yuri's size and his playful puppy antics. The two hit it off swimmingly. Seeing as it was his first night and he was in a strange place, I decided to leave him outside with Lizzy in the large pen with the dog house. He much prefer ed it to the carrying crate and I knew it would help him settle a bit.

This morning, I woke up and fed the little guy. Like most puppies, he tends to not eat much at one time. Plus he is used to being free fed so breakfast was disregarded by him. Following his eating the four bites that he did, my siblings and I decided to take a stroll to our pond with Yuri and Lizzy. Lizzy bonded for the horse water trough, which she views as her personal swimming pool. She will even jump from one to the next, looking for the coldest one. At first Yuri though she was a bit insane, he stuck his head in an drank from it but would not even attempt at a paw. Slowly we picked him up and put him in the shallow one in which the water came up just to his belly. He splashed for a second or two before jumping out. I thought I might have frightened him from the water, but I was wrong. The silly dog doubled around and attempted to jump in the trough himself. It was definitely a sight to see.

Now that he was more acclimated to the water, we headed to the pond. Lizzy knew exactly where we were headed and took off only to be closely followed by Yuri and my two youngest siblings. We get to the pond and the dogs are already splashing around on the edge. Lizzy is all about water up to her stomach but will have nothing to do with actual swimming, so they stayed pretty close to the side. That is until Yuri and my brother Daniel took off around the pond in a full run. Apparently Yuri decided he wanted an adventure and he leaped off the side of the pond into the air and plopped into the pond. Poor boy had to start swimming. At first I was worried, I could tell he was stressed and he was swimming straight out, I thought I was going to have to go in after him, then he turned around and came back to shore. I praised him for swimming, wanted him to know it was a good thing and then we continued on our walk/run around the pond.

Following his pond adventure, we had to bathe. He is surprisingly good on a leash and did not mind the bath at all. As long as he could stand by me while being rinsed off, he was fine.

Today has been an adventure and it's not even over yet. Tonight I plan on hitting up the local bookstore to read up on training and puppy rearing. It has been quite some time and I know there has to be more out there than what I myself know.

Orbits in the Sky

2009-05-01T14:26:00.000-05:00

The name of this blog was actually inspired by the mother of my puppy named Laika. For those of you who do not know, Laika is the name of the first animal to orbit in space. I wanted to follow along the same lines so I went to this Wikipedia page to get some ideas and maybe pick out another name of an animal who had been in space. Unfortunately most of the animal names where either too long or too hard to pronounce. But there was one name that stuck out to me and that was Yuri, the name of the first human in space. I know it may seem odd to some, but to me, it's unique, which is what I was going for. So my puppy has a name.... Yuri!

My Journey

2009-04-30T01:52:00.000-05:00

I started this blog to document my journey of raising a puppy. I didn't want to overtake my other blog with puppy blogging so I figured, why not start a new one? Everyone's doing it ;)

Now for a little background. I am not 'new' to the world of dogs. I think I got my first puppy at the age of 5, a black fluffy Lhasa Apso named Grizzly and my love of dogs has not waned since. As a child my house tended to be the revolving door of pure bred dogs, with the occasional mutt thrown in the mix. My mother was very particular about the temperament of our animals. I have had a Shih Tzu, Newfoundland, Great Pyrenees, Australian Shepherd, German Shorter Pointer, English Pointer, Standard Poodle and the list goes on. Since many of the dogs were show dogs I had experience in confirmation and more importantly obedience. I proudly boast that my dog of 12 years, Missy a Red Tri Australian Shepherd had her CD and that Winnie, our Newfoundland knew all the basic commands because of my training.

When I went to college I knew it was not smart for me to take Missy along with me. She was nearing 11 years old and it would be a rough transition for her. Not to mention, I was worried what my schedule would look like and if I would have the time. Though knowing it was the best decision for her, it still was saddening. My whole childhood I would tell her 'I am taking you to college with me'. Part of me wonders if she lived as long as she did, hoping to cash in on that promise. Sadly, a year later, Missy's arthritis and over all old age got the better of her, and we had her put down.

I ended up getting a dog, Seven, a lab/huskie mix during my junior year of college. My boyfriend at the time and I raised him from a puppy. He was perfect! Well as perfect as a dog can get. The initial puppy training was difficult but he was a very smart pooch. Unfortunately, my boyfriend and I split and not soon after that I moved into an apartment. Knowing not only would I not have much time in my senior year but also that he was not going to adjust well going from running and frolicking all day to having to be crated during the day and walked on leash in the evenings, I ended up giving him to my ex.

Since then I have wanted a pooch, but I knew that it was just not the time. Senior year, a move and lack of job and security do not make for a good home for a dog. Even my cat was depressed. But now it has been two years, my life has settled down and I am ready to devote my love to something, I am ready for a companion.

I started researching dog breeds, looking on Petfinder and just getting the word out. I knew that I would know it, when I saw it. About two weeks ago my friend told me she had rescued a dog and her 4 puppies and they were only going to be able to keep 3 and asked if I was interested. She found out about 2 days ago that the dogs looked to be mastiff/1/4 jack russell 1/4 pit. Now I know little to nothing about these three breeds, other than the horror stories one heres regarding pits. I got on Dog Forums, asked a few questions and got directed to other great site referring to Pit Bulls and Mastiffs alike. My conclusion, all systems go! I am getting a puppy.

The puppies are currently only 4 1/2 weeks old, so I have some time to get "my affairs" in order. These next few weeks will be devoted to puppy proofing the apartment, researching all the little in's and out's, finding a local vet and getting a crate, as well as toys and food and all. And that is where this blog comes in. It is my outlet for the good, the bad, the things I learn through reading and the things I will learn through experience. Thus it's my puppies baby book and like every good baby book, there will be tons of pictures! Starting with these few. Thanks for following and get ready for some puppy related entertainment.

"Laika"-mom

Puppies