Don't Bite Back

Most new puppy owners have a single similar question about the new member of their family, "why do puppies love to bite?" 

One of the puppy's most important social activity is play-biting. That's why it is essential not to take a puppy away from its litter at less than 8 weeks old as the puppy will develop most of its social traits within that span of time and the litter is a lot of help. Play-biting allows the puppy to gauge how hard it can bite without actually hurting someone else. Puppies will bite each other until one squeals in pain and stops playing their biting game, which would tell the other puppy that the bite did hurt and if that pup continues on like that, nobody will play with him anymore. This is essential as the pup will carry this learned lesson to adulthood, having gauged on how hard his jaw can bite to hurt or not to hurt someone else is a very good thing for the dog, other dogs and their humans.

Lexie and Nala are at it again

Play-biting may also be the reason why a puppy will bite on your table legs, chairs and most of your furniture, especially if the pup doesn't have someone else to play with. If your puppy starts to play-bite with you, don't push him or her off, just react in a productive way whenever his bite becomes painful by turning away from the pup and giving a high pitched squeal to indicate pain and make the pup learn its lesson. Taking your finger away and giving affection at the same time would only make them think you weren't hurt at all and that the bite the pup just gave was okay. 

these pups are full of energy and could play the whole day

If you have a dog in the house, introducing a new puppy could actually initiate play-biting between the two (which is good). Don't try to stop them even if it gets a little rough, that is ofcourse you have complete confidence that your dog will not hurt the puppy. Remember, settle the issue with you and your dog/pup by yourself, be dominant -- but let the other dogs settle their issues by themselves, this will create for a natural hierarchy in your pack without any confusion.

Chuck gets in the fray, pinning Nala to the count of 3

I read a story about this very docile adult dog who's never shown any aggression in all his life, but one day while this child was playing with the dog, he was accidentally hurt and bit the child as a reaction. The puncture wounds would indicate that the dog didn't actually know how to control his jaws and that could probably indicate the dog's lack of play-biting when he was still a puppy.

Remember that playful pups, play-biting or no biting at all, does not lead to aggressive dogs. It always depends on the owner.

Winter Nose

Most puppies are born with pink noses. At the norm, their nose should be pigmented from as early as 4 weeks to about 8 weeks. Although some puppies take more time for their nose to be fully pigmented, others really don't get pigmented at all, they spend their lives having a pink nose or a winter nose.

Nov. 18, 2008 photo

Our Chuck Bass and Lexie Grey have partially pigmented noses as of now. Lexie is still 10 weeks old and you can practically see the growth progression of the black pigment on her nose, no worries there. Interestingly, Chuck still has a partially pigmented nose and he's already 1 year and 3 months old. When we got him at 6 months old, we initially thought his partially-pink nose would be completely covered in liver color after while. But after 6 more months without a solid liver-colored nose, we've already accepted his partially pigmented nose as permanent and that it may stay that way for life... or so we thought. Last night, Ivy and I compared Chuck's nose photos at 6 months and his recent nose photos (yes, Chuck has a lot of nose photos in our archive. A liver colored nose also indicates that Chuck is a Red dog and will have no black pigmentation in his body at all). It was fascinating to find out that Chuck's nose has a slow but progressive growth of pigmentation. 

May 14, 2009 photo

That's really good news for us all! Not only because of aesthetic reasons but mainly because pigmentation is crucial for dogs, as their nose, if without pigmentation, are very susceptible to sunburn and skin cancer. 

So if your dog has a winter nose, make sure you put a little sunblock on that cute nose before getting him or her under the sun for long periods of time. Be responsible!

Chocolate Tricolor

I remember this lady at the Dog Parade we attended last March telling me, "that's a nice beagle, i also have a beagle at home but his coat is better because he's a tricolor." Great, as much as i wanted to say something to her, i just smiled and nodded ok. Chuck is definitely a tricolored beagle, just one look at him would tell you that. Even his pedigree papers says he's brown, tan and white.

This recently came back to me as i have encountered a few beagle owners who thinks the only beagle color is the common tricolor black, brown and white. 

Well, we are proud to own the only Chocolate Tricolor coated Beagle i have seen so far in Davao. I would also like to own a Lemon coated Beagle in the future, though it's a little bit hard to find.

For more info on Coat Colors of Beagles, please click here.

Tags

Guess what the mailman brought in today! It was a three-week wait but it was well worth it. Dog Tags for everybody! Lucas gets the big blue bone. Chuck gets a red fire hydrant. Beka gets two tags, a gold heart and a gold star, the star shaped tag was free as they made a mistake making it but included it with our order anyways. And Lexie gets the purple star!

A Cold and Rainy Night

Some dogs huddle, other dogs cuddle.

It was cold and rainy last night. Thank goodness for the fairly tiring activities they had the whole day, the dogs decided to call it a night a little bit earlier than usual. 

Lexie and Nala sleeps outside the house. And though it breaks our hearts to leave them outside as they are too cute not to stay indoors with us, we know giving them boundaries will make it easier for us when the pups grow up. Though Ivy's potted plants do get most of the early-morning-puppy-energy-discharge, it seems like one plant disappears every morning, i do admire my wife's patience on the pups as i know how important the plants are to her. Nala usually sleeps on the cold (and damp, if available) concrete floor and Lexie always looks for the comforts of her soft bed. But the cold made them huddle and cuddle together last night, a very different gesture from the all-day play-biting sessions of the two.

Even our two indoor dogs didn't escape the mood of the night. Rarely do Chuck and Beka share the bed as Chuck prefers to sleep by his lonesome, he always leaves the bed to Beka as soon as she takes her space on it. But not last night. Last night was a cold and rainy night. Last night, the two beagles huddled and cuddled. 

Our dogs huddle, our dogs cuddle.

Domino Black Kennel

It's official! We are now Domino Black Kennel. 

(click photo to enlarge)

We just received our papers from the Philippine Canine Club, Inc. (PCCI) which includes my PCCI Associate Member's ID (my photo sucks!) and the transfer papers of Lucas and Chuck Bass.

Labsatian's He's D One (Lucas)

(click photo to enlarge)

Nate of Yellow Knight (Chuck Bass)

(click photo to enlarge)

And to answer your question -- No, we are not planning to go get more dogs for breeding purposes, nor will we be concentrating on breeding or selling dogs.  We just had to transfer our dog's papers to my name and that requires us getting a PCCI membership and a Kennel name. We are purely against puppy mills and irresponsible breeders.

Anyways, we're still waiting for Beka's papers and will have it transfered to us as soon as we get it. Lexie Grey and Nala aren't registered pups, but it really doesn't matter, they're part of our pack no matter what.