The dogs are nearing their six month mark now, and one thing that’s not getting better is the barking. It’s the beagle in them. I’m pretty sensitive to this, as I don’t want to be “that” neighbor, but there are times when they have to be outside for some reason or another (like today while the cleaning lady is here. They’re not allowed to scare her off). And they bark. And bark. And bark. Sometimes they’re barking to come back in. Sometimes they’re barking at each other. Sometimes they’re barking at the neighbors. And sometimes they’re barking at the wind blowing the leaves. It’s annoying. They’re my dogs and I think it’s annoying so I can only imagine how the neighbors must hate us.

I want it to stop. So I need suggestions. What works to stop barking? Any collars, training methods or magic tricks that involve blinking twice and snapping my fingers? Help, please!

No, I haven’t sent them back yet. Or gone to the doctor seeking medication for my apparent insanity. I did take them to the vet yesterday though for checkups and shots. They were unthrilled by that, to say the least. Both have fleas, both have umbilical hernias (which can be fixed when they get…errr…altered) and the vet apparently decided that since I’d already given him a crapload of money for Oliver, he was going to take pity on me and waive one of the $125 initial sign up fees for the Wellness plan (through Banfield pet hospital). And he gave me a free bottle of flea shampoo. I guess paying promptly and being a concerned pet owner scores points.

Potty training is…going. They know to potty when they go outside. It’s the getting outside part first that’s the challenge. Heath is learning to go to the gate to the kitchen (which leads to outside) and whine. Reeses wants nothing to do with outside. It’s cold. Crating them is helping with potty training though. We have been crating them together but starting today (well actually yesterday afternoon but I caved last night) I’ve been trying crating separately. I feel vaguely guilty about that, but everything I’ve read recommends it. It might actually be harder than doing CIO (cry it out) with a baby, though, because Reeses made enough noise for the 45 minutes to convince anyone walking by that I was burning him with a cigarette lighter. Seriously. Loud. And. Piercing. Every time I thought he was going to give in and go to sleep, he started up again. I don’t know how the other one (whose cage is right next to his) slept through it. And yes, after 45 minutes, I caved again. It was either that or hit the bottle. On a good note, earlier tongith Reeses went “missing” and I found him sleeping in his crate!

I did find out today that they’re actually 10 weeks, not 8 weeks as the people originally told us. I emailed to ask for their birth date and while they didn’t know it, they did say it was 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. That means 10 weeks.

Otherwise, their individual personalities are starting to show, they’re definitely puppies as they’re chewing on everything, and Heath has been wonderful for cleaning all the stray socks, gloves, and toys out from under the couches. He’s the more…energetic of the two and is going to be the hardest to get under control. Good thing for him he’s got that sad puppy face.

Funny enough, Reeses is the one we’d have gotten had we only gotten one and I think he’s the more low-key of the two. He’s the one that wants to do his outside business and bust a move to get back inside. But he’s also the one most likely to play quietly and least likely to wander off while exploring. Don’t think he’s all good though. He’s the puppy who always manages to grab a bite of the cat’s food on the way from the back door to the puppy play area (aka our living room).

Tuesday night I got some fleece and made them both a no-sew blanket for their crates and some fleece rope puppy toys. They are loving them some toys–small tennis balls, rope toys, and soft stuffed toys. They’re not interested in any bones though. And still, they chew on the stuff they’re not supposed to. Like the wheels of my laptop cart. Fun

On a side note, I think it’s funny how a post on puppies brings lurkers to posting!

And since no post is complete without cute puppy pictures…Heath under the couch and Reeses on his new blanket (this pictures gives you a good shot of his eyes, which are very pretty)

I’ve been steadily wearing Josh down on the dog thing, poor guy. After we had to put Oliver to sleep, I had the puppy lust even more. When Oliver was alive, we knew that there was no way we could have a dog, because Oliver was grumpy and mean and hated dogs. It wouldn’t have been fair to him, the dogs or fun for us.

Last night we went to “look” at some puppies someone was giving away, and uh…well. Meet Reeses* and Heath.

Yes we got two. Yes, I am insane and yes, I think we’re going to need more puppy toys.

They’re 8 weeks old, border collie/beagle mix puppies. The people who had them still had both parents, along with two other dogs, plus they were keeping one of the puppies, they had two cats, a hamster and three kids. They liked animals.

I don’t think either of us intended to come away with one, let alone two. We really went to “look”. But once we saw how many dogs they’d been living with, we decided they’d be lonely on their own.

So far Brianna is thrilled, our cats (Max and Trish) not so much. Both puppies have peed on the carpet and eaten a ton of food.

Reeses is the darker one with the Rottweiler type coloring. He was the runt of the litter and that was actually what they named him.

Heath is the lighter one and was the little girl’s favorite(she was about 8 or 9). We renamed him to match Reeses.

Both are very social, very friendly and like to lay in laps. Let’s hope they don’t get much bigger than a beagle or that’s going to be a real issue.

The most challenging part of this is going to be getting them on a schedule, so I can get them potty trained and still get some work done. We’re going with the crate training method because really, I can’t imagine not crating them. My vet is closed Mondays and Tuesdays so that will be the next order of business, getting them there, and then I’m going to look into classes for the puppies and me to take.

click here to see more puppy cuteness on their Google Web Album. For those who saw this link before I posted it on my blog, I did add a few pictures.

Oh, and puppy advice is always welcome!

P.S. It needs to be said that my husband is the bomb-diggity.

*I know Reeses is spelled with an apostrophe but I thought that was weird for a dog’s name, so I’m not using it. I felt the need to put that out there because invariably, someone would be compelled to point out the editor’s misspelling.