DIY Puppy Pee Pads

I believe that it's inevitable that this winter will result in many "puppy accidents" inside.

Daisy has already made it clear she hates the cold winter, and that she cannot hold her bladder for the duration of the night. 

The hormones have helped. There have been significantly fewer accidents. 

A puppy pad has been placed out and she has taken to it. 

But, the downside is that I HATE PUPPY PADS. 

I bought the eco friendy ones. They SUCK.

I don't want to buy them, or throw them out.

Like femine hygiene bads and diapers, they probably don't decompose in the landfill very well. 

So! I've decided to make my own! 

There aren't many tutorials. So I kinda winged it.

I used what I know about making my feminine hygiene pads to make them. 

Because it uses PUL fabric it was slightly expensive. 

Materials:

Diaper Flannel (twice as much)

Flannel. (I found cute puppy dog fabrics)

PUL Fabric (waterproof stuff)

Thread. 

I bought 1.4 metres of flannel and pul and made 6 training pads! 

I choose dimensions that were half the width of the fabric, and then into thirds. Turned out to be 19inches by 22 inches. This was super rough. And I trimmed a lot more down. 

Then the pattern fabric was fused to two layers of diaper flannel. 

when I say fused. i mean I stitched lopsided squares into it. I didn't really make a lot of effort to be super precise. I figured it was just a pee pad. 

Then with right sides together, I matched the flannels with the pul fabric. 

After trimming up some edges they were stitched together

That's right, turn it inside out, and iron! 

I like to leave a gap in the middle of one side (instead of a corner. 

I iron it all together and then do a top stitch around the whole thing. 

Final Product.

Put it down in the puppy pee area (this area needs to be changed)

So far,  nobody has used them. 

Then again nobody has gone inside.

I hope to find some of that puppy urine spray, or wait for an accident to happen and rub it all over it so they know that this is where to go.

Hubby is worried that they'll want to take naps on it. 

Daisy's Hormones

We should have taken the health insurance offer from the SPCA when we adopted Daisy.

I knew we had a problem because she was 3 years 6 months when we got her and she wasn't house trained. But I shrugged it off. There were lots of changes going on in her life. 

It's been 3 months, and the accidents aren't getting better. Sometimes in the morning, sometimes during the day. Sometimes it looks like she was headed outside, but then, she just went. And, I've never seen it happen, but I THINK it's Daisy. I'm 95% sure it is. 

The boarder where we take our dogs suggested that Daisy drinks WAY LOTS of water. 

She suggested we take her to the vet. We trusted her. 

I hummed and hawwed. And then I woke up to pee stains on my bedroom carpet and the vet was being called. Brought her in the next day. 

***

She's lost a little weight. She's on the slim side the vet explains.

Oh Uh. 

As a shih tzu cross she is prone to kidney failure.

Awesome. 

We'll just do a blood work up to check and see whats going on. 

Okay. 

It could just be that she has a weak sphynctor. 

Oh, and I guess you can't teach your dog to do kegels. 

Or maybe she's anatomically built weird, like an extra large vagina which pools urine and it just releases. 

Oh F**k. I hope not. 

***

Anyways, after an anxious 8 hours, the vet finally called back with the results: NORMAL

Sweet. 

But, because it might be her sphnctory hormones.

Expensive hormones because the cheaper ones she says not the safest for my dog. 

Okay. I trust.

Now, twice a day hormones. And then one half a pill every week. 

The joys of having a furbaby.

Update: Success. It's been working.

Less accidents. 

On her follow up appt the Doctor suggested I get her dewormed since she shows an abnormailty in her bloodwork that is linked to having a weakness to worms... awesome...

Winter Dog Care????

I was going to wait till another day to post this.
But it snowed like a lot last night.
I feel so underprepared. My dogs coats aren't made.
They don't have booties. And they aren't loving the snow at all!

The snow has fallen.

Now, how do I take care of my puppies?

The First Thing I've done in prep is taken them to the groomers.

I had their paws trimmed.

From what I hear, I'm going to have to be careful of their paws getting frost bite and ice clumps, and of the deicing chemicals on the roads when I take them for walk. 

The Second thing I'm working on is dog jackets.

My boarder suggested coats for when it gets REALLY cold and windy. 

At what temperature should my dogs where there coats?

anyone have any advice on winterizing their dogs?

The Third thing I'm thinking about is dog booties.

I've been thinking of making matching ones to their jackets. 

Like this pattern here or this one

Or buying some from Etsy or the Pet Store.

What are your ideas on dog shoes? Do you let your dogs where the shoes?

I'm also seeing some information about balms... 

 Something like this or this one, Mushers Secret

or maybe homemade recipes like this one

The Fourth thing I'm thinking about is house training.

Daisy already has a disadvantage. 

But today, I came home to not one, not two, but 4 puddles on my linoleum. 

This is Capers first winter.

Daisy has already expressed disinterest in snow. 

Puppy Pads? How can I puppy pad train my puppies? 

Check out these Nine Must haves...

And I must remember this post too about small dog care in the winter.

Airplanes ---- And Then Puppy Dog Sphinctors

The other day Single Dad Laughing posted a post about flying.

And while he might not have a preference. I do. 

My favorite. Window. There isn't a doubt about it. 

I don't have to pee or get up often. And I love having something to lean my head on. 

If I'm flying a short haul trip without any baggage. I like to be in the front rows (or the very back if landing into an airport that deboards from both ends). I HATE waiting for people to get off the plane. 

Heck, even if it's a long flight. I prefer the front. 

In my opinion, I JUST WANT TO GET OFF THE PLANE AND AWAY FROM THE PEOPLE AROUND ME when we land. 

The only downside is being crushed into the wall by the people beside you

And when you have to get up --- as a tall person, I ALWAYS hit my head on the light thing. 

When I was flying to and from Missouri. For some reason my Dad always booked me in seat 12 or 13 A. Always. Mid plane is okay, but not awesome.

In other news, Daisy went to the Vet today.

We were concerned about her drinking so much water and because I can't seem to 100% house train her. Every now and then we find little tinkles from her around the house.

So, she had blood work and a urine analysis done.

NO PROBLEMS! 

That's right. The worry was her kidneys'.

She's lost a little weight since the last visit, and as a Shih Tzu she is prone.

So, We are going to work on her sphincter because it might be weak. and that's why she makes accidents. So, tomorrow I pick up her hormone treatment.

Not quite sure.

I think I could probably be more diligent in house training.

I could probably do better.

I might be too lazy.

It's getting cold. 

Finally relaxed to sit down for a few seconds before being anxious after her tests. 

OH AND IT SNOWED TODAY!

That's right.

First Snow of the year/Winter. 

And it stayed. 

Coffee & Puppy House Training

These little guys (I know, only Daisy is seen here) HATE COFFEE! We discovered this recently when sitting around and we offered them a smell of our coffee... because could, and they 'ran away' from us. 

So after some internet research and some waving of coffee under their noises we came to the deduction that dogs just don't like coffee. 

Our puppies are still in the process of being housebroken (AGH!!!)

They have a favorite corner that we can't block off like we did around the TV (because of chairs and lamps, etcetra). This corner is where they love to poop and pee because we can't see them to scold their little asses outside. So, Hubby proposed we use some of the coffee we don't like to turn them off the area. I've been trying to use Knock Out spray on their stains to lift the odors and ultimately not 'encourage' continue use, but it wasn't discouraging. 

So I deep cleaned my carpets, let them dry, and then I sprinkled ground coffee over the area. Like so:

I let it sit for a couple of hours and vacuumed. 

My house smelt like coffee. No complaints here. 

I put everything back. 

It's been two weeks and they haven't done anything in that space. 

Daisy even like to curl up against the wall. She doesn't anymore.

I think I might do my whole carpet.... ;) 

Anyone else have any tricks and tips to house training your puppies?

And don't forget about the Friday Social Hops