Pilgrim has kennel cough and "down syndrome" - By Mom

About a week after Pilgrim came home, he started coughing.  We're talking the hacking kind of cough that results in gagging.  Poor kid!  So I took him to the vet and she said, "yep, that's kennel cough."  It's usually nothing - just like a cold.  But in a young pup who hasn't had all his vaccinations, it can turn into pnemonia, which is very serious.

So he's on antibiotics and cough suppressant and I'm supposed to keep him quiet.  The first two parts are no problem.  The third...

Trouble with kennel cough is, the dog feels fine.  Try keeping an 8 week old puppy who feels fine, quiet.  The only option is to confine the little dude.  This works to calm him down, but it's a lot like shaking up a can of Coke.  Or pulling the pin on a grenade.  You better hope you don't take the next step.  But...a pup can't stay in a crate forever.  So when you finally open the gate...look out!

Haley is as big of a problem.  I'm also supposed to keep the two of them separated, as it's highly, highly contagious (hence, the name).  But it took me about 0.002 days to determine that 1) she's already been exposed to it for a week, and 2) it's not worth it.  She is an adult dog who has had all her shots, so...they are in fact allowed together.

Except that the worst possible way to calm down a puppy is to turn him loose with another puppy.  So I have been trying to at least shape the insanity into something productive.  Training.

Because we're now all quarantined, Pilgrim can't attend puppy class until he fully recovers.  So I'm dusting off my Petco lessons from when Haley was younger and home-schooling.  Pilgrim is doing very well, except for "down".  He just didn't get it using the Petco approach.  I remember another puppy in Haley's class having the same problem.  That puppy ended up dropping out of the class.

So I took a different approach, which entails getting him to sit, and then simultanously saying, "down", holding a treat on the ground with my right hand, and sweeping his front paws out from under him with my left.  It took some coordination on my part, but it seems to be working!  He's now "down"ing on his own.  Good boy!

I'm also working with Haley again, something I haven't done for a while.  But now that training is in the daily routine, it's there for both of them.  This week Haley has learned, "go to your place."  This will come in major handy.  Such a smart girl!  Next week, tax returns.  I need to call the Lissners.