Toilet Training Troubles

I have found in the past that friends who have just had a new baby seem to spend an inordinate amount of time discussing their offspring’s toilet habits – generally reserving their discussions for others in the same situation, but sometimes with me, and they wonder why I give them a confused and concerned look over the subject of the conversation.

Since getting our two puppies I am ashamed to say that the conversation in our household seems to be moving along similar lines. It’s scary. Discussing the frequency, location and even the detail about the motions of Charlie & Champa is something that should never be done outside the four walls of our home, but we find other dog owners, especially puppy owners, are equally toilet obsessed. I hope we grow out of this phase!

Reports from fellow dog owners that their little darlings were perfectly toilet trained within 2 days of entering the home are simply depressing. Emma would like to get our two to go to the bottom of the garden to ‘do their thing’. I would be happy if they managed to make it outside the back door. Or at least if they acknowledged that the middle of the carpet is not the ideal place to flood, rather than look proudly up at us as if to be waiting for some reward. Nearly 2 months in and Charlie is pretty good, Champa still seems to let excitement get the better of her, at the expense of our nice lounge carpet.

There – see? I’m even discussing it on the blog now! No photos on this blog post, for obvious reasons!

Champa? What’s All That About?

When asked the names of our puppies, we usually get a smile when we tell them Charlie’s name, and a confused look when we tell them Champa’s. It is usually repeated back along the lines of “Champ?”, “Shampers?”, “Jumper?” and it takes a few attempts for people to get it, often with an explanation of where it comes from.

My previous dog was called Inca. Keeping the same ‘theme’ I had in mind that my next dog would be called ‘Maya’ – ancient civilisations seemingly have the benefits of two syllables to aid easy yelling across a field, not being offensive (again, to aid yelling across a field!) and a name that generally people can spell (useful for vet’s receptionists!) and at least understand. Although I never would commit to a dog’s name until we have seen the dog and checked that it ‘fits’, I did have in mind that my next border collie would be Maya.

Then we travelled around Asia and got to know a bit about the history of the region. One of our favourite places was Laos, and the best time we spent in Laos was in the Free The Bears sanctuary in Luang Prabang, where we spent 3 weeks helping out with the 20 or so bears they have there. They have 5 cubs there and we spent a lot of time with the bear cubs – being slightly less dangerous than the 200kg adults we were at least able to interact with the cubs. One of the cubs was a poor little thing who had suspected hydrocephalus, as well as being almost blind and a little deaf. She had to be in an enclosure on her own for much of the daytime (though I believe she was to be moved in with the other young bears shortly after we left) as she would never win any competition for food, and kept bumping into things. She was called Champa, and the name suited her as it suits our Champa now. Champa is an ancient kingdom that covered much of Vietnam and some of Cambodia and Laos from the 7th to the 19th century. In honour, and memory, of Champa the bear cub, we decided to call our border collie Champa. 

Welcome

When we first went looking for our puppies, we tried to ensure we were happy with the breeders and their background before we set foot in their homes to view the puppies. I knew all too well that ALL puppies look really cute, and as soon as you see one you will want it, so the concept of visiting a few different litters and making our choice of puppies from a big selection was just not going to happen. So long as the breeders were nice, the puppies healthy and puppies’ parents were friendly, I knew neither myself nor Emma would be able to say no to the first puppy we saw!

Decision number 1 was the breeds. As a lover of border collies, there was only one choice for me. As someone who has always wanted a chocolate labrador, Emma’s mind was also made up. Hence we went for one of each!

Decision 2 was the sexes – again this was easy. I have always had bitches, Emma always dogs.

Decision number 3 was a lot harder – a puppy from a breeder or a rescue dog. This was a tough one and a decision that we changed our minds on a number of times before getting them. Rescue dogs is certainly the ‘better’ choice – there are too many dogs out there in rescue shelter to not give it serious consideration. For a number of reasons (I may cover in a future post) we decided to go for breeder-dogs this time around, and to commit to getting rescue dogs in the future. It is a personal decision for all, and I would not (and obviously cannot!) criticize anyone for opting to go for a dog from a breeder rather than from a rescue centre, but everyone should at least consider a rescue dog as an option.

Decision 4 was where to get the puppies from. We decided the breeders had to be kennel club registered – not because we wanted perfect examples of the breed from a long line of champions, with posh sounding kennel names, but simply because we did not want to get a puppy from an unregistered breeder. So, with a lot of help from Emma’s mum, Janet, while we were away, we found the breeders in our area, did some ‘vetting’, narrowed down to those with litters ready soon after we got back from travelling, and visited them.

My first impressions of Charlie was a fat, miserable looking dog, who still managed to look cute. Emma loved him. Well in fact, Emma loved the whole litter and couldn’t decide which one to go for, so I helped out and picked the one who looked awake, but not too over-eager.

Emma’s first impressions of Champa was an over-excitable psycho who seemed covered in poo. Despite the fact that we do both love both puppies, we still maintain these views to some degree, but they do seem to be just typical of their breeds – he is lazy and stubborn, she is excitable and easily bored.

But we loved them and couldn’t wait to get them home.