It's All About Supervision

Oh, so true.  Not of Beagles in particular, but of pups in general.  Everything is sport to an unsupervised puppy, and of course they are not born knowing that it's wrong to rip the cover off the sofa, chew the leg off the piano, or bite holes in the wallboard.  My pups didn't realize that if they climbed into the fenced flower bed and flattened all the plants, that I would be most distressed, but hardly surprised.  And they most certainly had fun doing it!  I should have used a picture of the flower bed, but did not have the heart to take one and have to look at it again.  For now, I'll avert my eyes when I walk past it - and add some additional fencing before I got to work.

My small city yard is divided into Dog Yard and People Yard, which allows me to have grass and flower beds.  The People Yard gets extra fencing when we have pups, so I have an additional Puppy Yard, but the pups are currently looking for ways to expand their space, I guess.  I'll have to redo the grass when the pups are all in their new homes, although the Japanese Beetle Grubs made that a necessity this year anyway.  Fern will learn to use the regular Dog Yard, but in the meantime I am quite sure she is the one who figured out how to go over the fence and into the flower bed.  I saw her thinking about it yesterday, as she nipped off the flowers that were hanging over the fence.  Bad Dog, Fern.  Typical Puppy, Fern.   It's all about supervision.

One down.  Mickey left for his new home last night, to a nice young couple getting their first dog.  It seems like an excellent home, with two committed young people who both really wanted a puppy.  I pup together my packet of information with lots of helpful things included, since these are first time puppy owners.  They already had the puppy book and raw feeding book that I gave them when we did the interview, and I'm sure they will do a good job of raising Mickey, who will be getting his name changed soon.  Too bad, Mickey is such a good name!

Dixie goes off tonight, to the family with the three young children.  She's a silly, giggly, funny pup, and should be great fun for the kids.  She's not very mouthy, not a real Ankle Biter, but I'm sure the kids will be less than impressed when she nips at their shoes and pant legs - or their bare toes!  This too shall pass, with plenty of supervision, and lots of patience.  Raising a pup can be a challenge, but is so rewarding.