Right now I am now sitting here on the sofa with Else sleeping next to me – How tiring it is to have (and be) a puppy! Else is a purebred English Staffordshire Bull Terrier who was born in Sweden at Wangenstaff on Christmas Eve last year (2023). She was the smallest in the litter of five and weighed a whopping 106 grams at birth – which is equivalent to a slightly poor chicken fillet. Today (11.5 weeks), she soon weighs 4 kg, while her siblings weigh almost twice as much.
And of course she has made her own
We have only had her for two weeks and I have already had a mental breakdown thinking about the fact that she is going to leave us one day. Oh no, tearing up, here we go again!?!
I took a month off from the day we picked her up, February 28th, and now there are only 16 days left until my first day of work. Days and nights pass as one. Else, and as most people would probably think of their dog, has a huge amount of personality and opinions of her own. And she is sometimes a real bully, piranha and troublemaker – especially when she has to go to the bathroom! She’s not telling us in any other way, yet (but we’re looking forward to her going to the door when she needs to go out, for example).
From the first day we brought her home, she has slept soundlessly in her cage just outside our bedroom. We have the door open so we can hear when she wakes up and “rearranges” the pillows and blankets in there, and then it’s time to carry her out to the new, fenced toilet yard in one part of the garden. We had the alarm to go off every two hours to avoid accidents in the cage – and we managed it half the time.
She is currently not very happy with walkies, so she lies down and falls asleep in two minutes when we have dressed her in a jumper and jacket, hehe.
The first few days were spent getting to know her and making sure she felt safe and at home with us. We played a lot, googled a lot (!!!) and found out, among other things, that carrot, cucumber and apple (without the cores) are good for the dog, but that avocado, salt water and most plants can be really dangerous for her! Scary!
I mentioned that she can be quite turbo, and at times we have almost felt at a loss. She can get really mad where she runs back and forth in the house, bites our feet, gnaws on wires, corners and growls to the broom. We try to say no and divert without success. But then it gets quiet. And suddenly a brilliant Else, so happy, comes over to us on the sofa. And so does the stench..! The poo is neatly placed under the dining table and the pieces have once again fallen into place.
Made a group on Facebook
One of the first things I did was create a dog group on Facebook for my local area, and within a week we had close to 50 members, so it was really cool! Through the group, we have gotten to know many dog owners and arranged to meet three of them, and it has gone absolutely fantastic! An active Border Collie, a quiet Labrador who used to be a guide dog (but turned out to be afraid of the dark, so it wasn’t very suitable anyway, but what a great and calm guy), and finally a small mix of Chihuahua and Pomeranian.
Puppy training and socializing!
We aim to participate in many courses with her in the future, and a puppy course is the first we have started. Even though she slept on my arm for most of the course, she did get to do some excercises!
We have also been to the beach and have even sat inside the car as it got washed in a car wash – it was so much fun! She is so brave!
We have visited the vet to check the weight, have our claws clipped and given a treat. We have also visited the pet shop a couple of times.
Hun er tøffere enn toget og bryr seg lite om støy og plutselige hendelser, MEN.. She is as tough as can be and cares little about noise or sudden events, BUT..!!
If you sing or your stomach rumbles! Well, THEN you can hear a little “boff” from her in addition to her comforting/saving you (by biting your face. Not a psychopath at all..). Or if she gets a chew bone, of all things. She will bark at it, but if we put it in water for five minutes, it’s just fun and games anyway.
And then we have our cat, Lille My, to whom we are also trying to get her used to, and so far Else shows interest, but no aggression. Unfortunately, Else has chased My twice, and of course she thinks it was great fun. Now we practice a bit with Else on a leash in front of My and reward her when she doesn’t fixate.
We want Else to become a robust, stable and calm dog, and we believe she has everything it takes, so the responsibility lies solely with us.
Home-alone training, practicing self-soothing, and obeying commands when outdoors are things we have started to practice now.
We’ve already taught her sit, lie down, come, touch, take, drop, come up and go down, and she’s not even 12 weeks old, so she’s a sharp little nutter!
We practice taking selfies with her holding my shoulders, but since she is still so small, we use the step we have in the living room so that I sit down, while she stands on the step. The problem at the moment is that she thinks ears are great tasting, so tricking her onto my shoulders is putting my ears at big risk, lol!
So this was a summary of the first two weeks of life with Else ❤️ We feel she is growing every single day, and looking at pictures from last week the head has become wider, the paws have become bigger and the whole body has become much longer.
She sleeps for about 18 hours a day and luckily she is a real cuddly pig who prefers to be with us on the sofa. She loves lying on her back ❤️ Or lying down and looking at us ❤️ And then we make the most of the few waking hours we have with her ❤️
Maybe someone recognizes some of this, and then it would be very nice if you leave a comment ❤️ And don’t forget to check out her Instagram 😎
🌈Irene
One Response
She looks so sweet! Thanks for sharing!