Shiba Scream

Nobody believes us when we say Maggie screams... This is what I got out of the shower to the other day. Notice how she calms down when she realizes I've been watching the whole time? Brat. Hahaha.

Doughnuts, Tennis, Family, Cat, & Petco

Not much happened on Wednesday, but Maggie did try to eat my phone when David was on speaker and then went back to her Simpson roots and wanted doughnuts.

Thursday (Yesterday)
We took Maggie to see my old teacher and mentor, Tsugawa after school got out. He busted out the tennis balls and Maggie had a great time romping around the room. :) We were picking up Michael too, so he got to meet Mags for the first time. She had so much fun and was already snoozing before Michael got his seatbelt on to go home!

After we left the school, we came home so Maggie can meet my mom, my dad & our kitty, Tigger. It was a blast! My dad actually got down on the floor and was playing with her toys with her - I totally didn't expect him to do that! It was so cute! Michael's friend Devin came over, so after Maggie got done terrorizing Tigger, she curled up and passed out on his lap before dinner. Tigger put up with Maggie very well - I was really impressed! He would stand still a bit and let Maggie sniff him, and then take off running with Maggie hot on his heels. She wasn't aggressive at all, and neither was Tig. Maggie was just excited, curious, and wanted to play, but after awhile, Tigger just went to hide behind the tv to get a break. Hahaha. We had alot of fun last night. :)

Today
After her afternoon potty break, we decided to take Maggie to Petco! She hasn't been eating the treats we got her, but she'll eat generic doggie biscuits that other people have been giving her (or the Pupcorn the Apartment office gave her, but we don't want her getting stuck on those). So we wanted to find some crunchy little treats that we could use with training. The associate said that we can totally sample anything from the Doggie Bar and we found the perfect ones that she loves! Hooray!

Vet, Playdates, Memorial Day, & Stairs!

What a week!!! It's been great! It is definitely proving more difficult than I thought to update as often as I wanted, so I think I'm just gonna keep it to 2-3 times a week. :) Here's a recap of Saturday - Tuesday

Saturday:
Maggie was such a good girl at the vet! The office was nice enough to let us in before the holiday weekend, thank goodness. The vet tech explained so much to us - and at first it was kind of hard to process. I felt bad for having her repeat it so much, but being my first time ever dealing with animal health, I was completely blown away. But we got it all down. Maggie got her second set of DHLPP and her Bordetella vaccine. We also started her on Frontline Plus & Heartgard Plus. She wouldn't eat the Heartgard Plus "treat" for anything though... We had to mash it up and put it in with some peanut butter and kibble for her to eat it. Ugh. Hope next month's easier!

After the vet trip, we took Maggie to Chesterton to visit my best friend Megan & her 3 dogs - Kairi (Siberian Husky, 2 yrs), Buffy (Australian Shepherd, 6 mo.), & Roxi (Yorkshire Terrier, 7 yrs). Maggie had a blast! Buffy was being kind of dopey, but since it was only the 2nd time I've seen her, I gave her plenty of loving too, haha. Maggie kept getting mad that Roxi wouldn't play with her! At first, Kairi wasn't used to Maggie's small size & Maggie didn't really know how to play back with her. But they warmed up to each other and Maggie attached real quick to Kai and Kai protected her when Buffy was getting dopey. :) It was super cute, and they're gonna be best friends too.

Monday:

David's family came over for the holiday! I got them a cheap room at the hotel I work at and after I got off work, we came home to meet the puppy! Allex (David's nephew) was super super excited, but he really didn't know how to play with such a small dog - it was really cute. David's Mom is really rooting for grandchildren, but I think that once she saw Maggie, she kind of understood that hubabies won't come for awhile. We had alot of fun though. Maggie was very well behaved and everyone had a great time! I think Maggie was exhausted by all the attention!

And even though I'm jumping the gun, I'm too excited to wait to say:
MAGGIE IS CLIMBING THE STAIRS!!!We're so happy! I sat with her on the stairs for about 20 minutes on Wednesday and she whined and cried and was being really stubborn, but finally, she bounded all the way up! She didn't even look at or sniff any of the treats I had set down along the way. Now she's going up all the stairs on her own! It's slow, but she's been making really good progress! She still won't go down the stairs, but I think at this point, it may be physically impossible for her since she's so little. She's just now getting up enough courage to jump off the couch, so I'm sure soon enough she'll be jumping and climbing everything!! Hooray!!!

Learning How to Walk

Since she's so little, we still have to carry Maggie up and down the stairs to and from our apartment. She tries really hard to go up, but her little legs just aren't long enough. She gets really scared going down though and won't even try that. When she was playing with my best friend's dogs, she climbed the stairs following them, but only because Mommy & Daddy wouldn't help her out and she wanted to go play. And watching her try to jump up on the bed or the couch is HILARIOUS. We'll help her after a couple good tries to get up, but we don't want her getting used to us helping her do everything - because otherwise when she gets bigger, she won't know that she can actually do it herself.

We've been working with Maggie on getting her used to wearing a leash. We started Friday night with a retractable leash - just so she got the idea that she was connected to us. She was really really REALLY unhappy with it at first, but she got the hang of it pretty quick and just ignored the leash as she pranced about the yard next to our apartment and we followed. The next step was switching the retractable with a regular 6 foot leash. We let her run around with it on and drag it behind her a couple times so she would get used to the bigger one. (She's too little to really get too far from David and I, so we don't have a problem with her running around unleashed right now. And when she gets older, we bought a tie-out to put in the ground so she can still run around the yard.) Once she got used to it being attached, we picked up the leash and just followed her a little bit with it.

Then it came time for walking! Maggie got really scared and started whining when we tried to leave the front yard - most likely because that was really the only outside area that she knew. But David and I kept coaxing her and calling her and finally she got the picture that it was time to move. And as soon as she stepped on the sidewalk, she was like a different dog! She trotted right along next to us almost the whole time with hardly any coaxing at all!!!

We made a friend over in a nearby building that likes to sit outside. Melissa is probably in her 30s and works at the pool (which opens today!). She has a younger son that rides his bike around the neighborhood with his friends from other buildings. Maggie met her the first day she was home, but I didn't think she would remember her. But when we turned the corner and went around the building, Maggie saw her and ran right up and gave her kisses! We were so proud! The kids rode by on their bikes and as soon as they saw Maggie, they jumped off their bikes and wanted to play. I asked them to come up slowly so she doesn't get scared and they were very respectful. When they sat down on the grass, Maggie looked at us for permission and when we told her to go play, she ran right over and tumbled all over the kids with plenty of kisses. The girls picked her up and were in her face wanting kisses, and Maggie did so great! She loved the attention!!

On the way home, she stopped one more time to say hello to an excited elderly couple walking to their apartment.

We were very proud of her for being so friendly and good with the kids! What happened to the timid little girl we brought home last week??? Where did she go? Now we've got a bright, smart, friendly little puppy who wants to say hello to everyone!

Videos

David and I are learning how to use our cameras, iPhone, iPad, and computer to upload and share videos and pictures on the internet. Here are some videos of Maggie running about the past two days. :)

First Two Days

On Thursday, David and I went to go pick Maggie up from the breeder! I'm surprised at how unable I've been to post anything yet! Maggie has been keeping us so busy! When we got there to pick her up, the breeder showed & talked to us about her hernia, gave us a giant bag of food to mix with her new stuff, and a blanket with her siblings scent on it.

Everything has really been great! Maggie absolutely LOVED the car ride home, which was totally crazy for us, as we were expecting the worst. She's been sleeping alot, but when she's not sleeping, she's playing with her toys. We even had our own mini-Shiba 500. Last night when it was bedtime, she hopped right in her kennel with her blankie and slept all night. We were prepared to wake up and take her out through the night, but at 6am, neither David nor I had heard her make a peep! We got dressed real quick and as soon as we turned on the light, she was sitting in her kennel just waiting patiently until we woke up. She hasn't gone to the bathroom in the house once, and earlier, she ran right up to the door to go outside! I'm pretty sure she was born housebroken & crate trained!!! Hahaha love it!

My dad texted me first thing this morning to ask how much pee and poop was on the floor and was totally surprised when we told him how well-behaved Maggie is! He thinks something's wrong with her! But he doesn't know very much about her breed, so I guess I can understand that. 6 months ago, I would've thought the same thing! :P  

Today, we took her out to run some errands. The Apartment office ladies SWOONED over her and even gave Maggie some treats! Then we went to our Insurance Agency to work out stuff from the accident with one of the office girls, my friend Lori. Maggie completely FELL ASLEEP in her arms while we were talking, and then when Lori set her on her desk as we were trying to leave, Maggie just spread out and fell back asleep on her desk. Unbelievable!!!  After that, we took her to PetSmart as a treat. We blocked the big holes in the cart and let her ride up by us and everyone loved her! All the clerks said we won the Cutest Puppy of the Day Award. Hahaha, we were so proud.

Here are some pictures of her first couple days!

Loving the window on the ride home!

Curled up on Daddy's lap

Enjoying the air conditioning

Family car picture

Can you spot the Shiba?

Two Foxes :P

Had a long first day!

"Working" with Lori

Desk Puppy

First trip to PetSmart!

Posing with Daddy

"Thank you for looking at my pictures!"

Pictures of Maggie Thusfar

We have our own little timeline of Maggie since she was born from the pictures the breeder has been sending us every other week!

Left - 4 days old

Right - 2 weeks old

Left - 5 weeks old

And on May 9th, we went to go visit the breeder and see the puppies they had and choose from the two beautiful girls you see above. Here are some pictures from that visit!

David holding Maggie

Sitting patiently while we talk

Sisters Playing

Shy Maggie

Maggie and Mom!

Since David and I both have the day off work and don't have any plans, we decided we're not going to wait around here all day. We're headed out to Fort Wayne for the day! We're going to the zoo, the mall, and maybe meet up with some friends. So glad to have a Choice Hotel Employee Discount, that's for sure! We'll stay overnight there, and then tomorrow morning, leave bright and early to go pick Maggie up from Ohio! The next time we're home, we'll have a bright-eyed little furry girl with us! Hooray!  :)