JinX! Does Tricks!

JinX! has had an upset stomach lately, been trying to switch her to an organic - artificial carb free food. There are so many name brand foods out there that are complete junk once you take the time to read the label. I'm trying Merrick's Puppy Plate- made from Organic Chicken, Turkey Duck and even veggies in there.

JinX! got her head rammed into a door once...she learned pretty quickly how to keep that from ever happening again. ENJOY! =)







Here are her Tricks!

JinX! SITS and FETCHES!


JinX! does COME and PAW!


JinX! does PAW and DOWN!




Planning on trying to get her to HEEL and STAY next. After that, it's gonna be "Get me that Girl's #".

JinX! is a ball of Energy

JinX! has been rather hyperactive lately. She definitely gets antsy if not given enough excercise. Thinkin about getting her a treadmill to supplement our daily walking/running with her. When she's hyper- she can be quite the um...b-i-t-c-h.




Isn't this an awesome profile shot? Those Ice Blue eyes are so intense!







JinX! doesn't like Roombas. However, she did work up the courage later on to bark at the Roomba lol



JinX! decides to take a bite out of my pant leg - she got really excited when i came home and there goes a perfectly good pair of dress pants.














JinX! is Miss Sleepyhead.





JinX! Waits for Water in her playpen. She doesn't know how to ask for it yet, so she sits inside her playpen and waits till you walk over to see what she's doing. Then she looks at you, then looks at her water dish, then looks at the plastic bottle of water that sits on a nearby table.












JinX! does PAW! Yea, it was a rushed video- i'll get a better trick video.




I found this awesome toy for JinX! It is a tree stump with 3 holes that you can stuff squirrels in. JinX! likes to fish them out and then mangle them.

JinX! Meets her first doggie friend

JiNX! had the chance to play with her first doggie friend on Saturday. Laifoo the GaNgStAA pekinese.

Is it still considered gangsta to be scared not only on the floor but also to have to climb to the highest elevation possible???

JinX! is a ball of energy

I'm planning to get JinX! a backpack so she can carry her own crap when we go running/walking. How cool would this backpack look on her??? =)




She's learning fetch recently, and she gets into these hyperactive moods where she goes on a rampage yanking all her toys out of her playpen and throwing them all over the living room. I've got to teach her to put her crap away!

More pics to come. I'm planning to post videos of all her tricks tonight.

JinX! is growing so fast!

So it's been 2 weeks since JinX! came home and she has gotten so much better (or worse) as she has adjusted to her new home. She will be 12 weeks old on Feb 7th.

In two weeks she has learned Sit, Come, Paw, Down, Quiet, Sleep Time. More importantly is that poop training is going well- she goes almost immediately outside when we take her to her spot.

She does get antsy alot - esp when she doesn't get enough excercise. Seems the only way to calm her down is to give her a fun new toy or go outside with her a do wind sprints. She is so fast when running, and she has the ability to pick up anything off the grass as we're running. Sometimes a minute later i look at her as we're running and she magically has a twig in her mouth!

Here are some cool pics from the past week.

JinX! in her piggy sprawl sleep position. Yea - not very attractive.










JinX! Poses at Kissena Park









JinX! On the way to the Vet- she's scared!









JinX!'s second car ride, she just wants it to be over with!








JinX! with Alvin - she's panting in the Car - nervous? She doesn't like car rides yet.









JinX! eventually passes out in the car- she gets bored easily. She probably got tired from whining so much about being in the car.

JinX! Goes Nuts

JinX was very antsy on Monday, it was raining during her normal walk time so we stayed in. That probably led to all her balled up energy, b/c she was running around like a crazy. So i ended up doing sprints with her in the back field and after we got back, she passed out on the floor and i passed out on the couch! (hey, i went to martial arts training for 2 hrs before that too!)

JinX! discovered how fun rawhide bones are.










JinX! is POOPED!

Miss Popular

On Saturday, JinX! had 5 visitors from about 1:00pm all the way till midnight! What a popular little girl. Thanks Cindy for the awesome treats and toy. You also got her started on her "Paw" command because hours later, Sarah realized that JinX! tried to give her paw when she asked for it!

This is JinX! keepin an eye on me, she seems to always be looking for my reaction and those blue eyes can't hide where she's lookin!









Cindy gets JinX! to perform her SIT command












JinX! loves Cindy's Shoelaces



Cindy trying to teach JinX! the UP command...then JinX! asks me- what the hell is she doing???




My Mom walking JinX! but she's waiting for me to come over before she will move.









Linda Snuggling JinX!











Sarah won't let JinX! whine while being held. Sarah is BOSS yo! Dave on the other hand, runs from JinX!- what a sissy boy.









JinX! is passed out in her bed with her toys.

JinX! off Leash !

JinX! has been off leash since yesterday afternoon when she is out of her playpen to roam the living room. So far she has been very well behaved and will mostly attempt to seek out the wee wee pad before going anywhere else. She also has the "SIT" command learned, and I'm working on getting her to "COME" over when called and also the "DOWN" command.

Last night was great, Linda and Vin- thanks for coming to see JinX! and giving me all those puppy care pointers- i got a great lesson in walking her and who knew that Linda was so good at Rockband! lol

This is JinX! playing with a beetle toy that belonged to my ferrets. She dragged it out from under the couch and claimed it for her own!








JinX! likes to snuggle with her DIGZ toy when she sleeps.

JinX! is Free!

I took JinX! off her leash today in the living room and began training her to come to me when i called her name. She came to me about 4 out of 10 calls, mostly when not distracted. This is not surprising considering the breed characteristics dictate that when they're busy, forget about getting their attention...lol

The biggest breakthrough today however, was the fact that she was off leash and coulda went poopy anywhere in the living room, but instead she sniffed around until she found the wee wee pad - which was purposely placed at a different spot than normal and she UnLoAdED! Wow, if i had to clean that off my center rug- i think i'd cry- that day will come, but as of mid-day - not yet!

Also, she has been going back to her Crate/Playpen without much protest as of late- especially at night. She is still nippy, but after repeated discouragement- she stops.


More to come...

Update: She just poo'ed on my wood floor lol

So JinX! is off leash and she chased my mom around my coffee table- it was hilarious. My mom was going in one direction and after JinX! didn't catch her the first 2 times around the coffee table, she decided to change directions LOL - and ended up pouncing on a very tired mom. I got it on video, that one is going in the memory vault for a long time. I haven't seen my mom have that much fun in a very very long time.

JinX!'s Deluxe Playpen Arrives Today

JinX!'s Deluxe Playpen Arrives today, it's gonna be her new home to keep her out of trouble. This way, she will have access to her crate and not feel so confined.

JinX! woke my ass up at 4am today and we took a VERY EARLY Morning stroll. She found a dead bird and almost picked it up to show me!

We also jogged down the block for a bit, she's still so tiny right now- almost stepped on her. She kept up well, but she tends to stop when she sees a huge patch of concrete. Is this her being prissy? Or just not used to it? Of course she loves the grass, she has helped to dig many holes already. I should be getting complaints from the CO-OP board soon...lol
We sat on the benches outside in the courtyard for about half an hour. She just sat there watching cars go by and kept her eyes glued on this jogger who was running back and forth.

We came back inside and she fell asleep on her favorite spot again, the wooden floor...I just kept her tethered to a chair and i fell asleep too.

This morning i decided to challenge JinX!. I gave her a bowl full of food with a treat inside, and let her eat for about 30 seconds. Then i slowly reached for the bowl while she was eating and picked it up chest level. I wanted to see if she would bark at me or get raged. Surprisingly, all she did was turn around and sit attentively staring at me with her beautiful blue eyes. Moments like this are what it's all about!

I left her for an hour alone to go to the post office this morning, before i left i put a piece of pig's ear in the crate- and let her go to work on it. I made sure she saw me go outside...when i returned, i didn't make a big deal about it. I walked in, didn't look at her- had my coffee and sandwich and she just stared at me- not a peep.

My Mom came over and we messed with JinX! for most of the afternoon so she would pass out and finally give me a quiet night of sleep. She was alot better today, so much more mellow but still quite nippy.

This is JinX! and some T-Shirt Trouble!




And this is JinX! and her favorite toy! The blue octopus (Thanks Linda!)

First Full Day at Home/Second Day Too!

SUNDAY 1/6/08

JinX! took her first romp leashed walk over the weekend! At first she was scared to death about going outside and would sit in the living room and refuse to move. After some encouragement and assurance, i had to pick her up and take her outside. With each new outing she got a bit bolder and began her puppy romp through the grass!

Thanks for all the visitors over the weekend, she is such a little attention whore! She got so many cool gifts.

Sunday night, i took her for a run around midnight to try to poop her out. We roamed the neighborhood for about 30mins, brought her back to her crate and she whined for about 3 minutes and then passed out for about 5 hours!

She also got brave enough to climb the 3 steps in front my my apartment last night...up AND down! Wish i could have grabbed some pics!

Monday 1/7/08

She woke up this morning to some whimpering, offered her food but she hasn't eaten yet. We had a great morning walk/run. She pooped outside and played with everything she could find- leaves, twigs, acorns. I know i shouldn't let her grab that stuff, but she's got to explore it once for curiosity's sake. I started to pull her away from picking up stuff.

We came back from the walk and JinX passes out on my wooden floor - which seems to be her favorite spot. My guess is that she likes it because it is cool to the touch and it reminds her of home- where she spent her time on a concrete floor in the kennel. Lately, i wait for her to pass out - then i pick her up and put her inside the crate area. When she's tired, she doesn't go nuts when i confine her.

My mother, aunt and Cousin come visit in the afternoon - they love her! She's gotten so nippy lately tho, and she is finally starting to play with all the toys that everyone got her. Finally picked up the Booda Bone (Buddha) and the Chilly Bone (Sharky). Teething has BEGUN! I'm in so much trouble...

I left her all alone for the first time to drive my family home. She passed out on the wooden floor and i carried her into the crate and we all sneaked out-lol.

I came back about 2hrs later and she was just laying around. I did my own thing and she just kept eyeing me, then i went into my room to give her some more alone time. She whined nonstop for about 15mins, it was hard to not listen to it- so i turned up my PC speakers and watched some Dog Whisperer video clips lol. Linda and Jenny- I can't get the hand-biting thing to work! She thinks i'm playing with her. I must not be channeling the right energy =(

So we went for another walk at night, she met some new friends in the neighborhood- a 12 yr old Lab/Retreiver mix, and snotty ass Pomeranian who decided she was too good to play with JinX! and also another toy dog. Whenever she meets strangers on the street she always sits next to me and is on her best behavior!

JinX! woke me up at 4am whining, i thought she had to go to the bathroom - lately she has not gone to the bathroom in her crate area at all...she either whines till she comes out and goes on the wee wee pad, or misses it slightly.

I almost ran out of patience yesterday, she takes up so much time and i think for a while i expected her to progress faster, and it seems she's getting braver as we spend more time together- but she's just a puppy. I'm gonna PWN her even if it kills me!

Not bad...it's only been 3 days but it is progress. She can SIT pretty much anytime she's paying attention, im trying to teach DOWN next to get her to calm herself when she gets excited.

JinX! invades New York

JinX! wakes me up at 5am - clawing at the cage door to tell me she needs to go potty- and she does it on the wee wee pad!

Then she takes a quick peek at what's ON SALE at WalMart this week.



This is JinX! in my backseat after making a mess of her cage. During the 6hr drive back to the city, we had to pull over to clean up her travel crate- and i didn't even have to reprimand her, she knew i wasn't happy =(

Nice to Meet You!

I decided to go pick her up instead of waiting for her to come by plane. 6 Hours each way to Garrett/Somerset Pennsylvania!

JinX! and i are spending our first evening together at a Days Inn by Garrett PA, or the nearest town - which is Somerset PA. I picked her up from the breeder and shortly after placing her in her crate, she began whining! And of course during the drive to the hotel - she pooped. Not just any poop, it was massive! How did that much poop come from a little puppy like that? OK enuff about poop and um i did NOT take pics of that.

Well, since we're heading into town and there happens to be a WALMART supercenter- i decide to drop by to get her some yummy treats and maybe a toy or two. Of course, as i'm walking back toward the car - i can hear her whining from a mile away. I made this my shortest WalMart excursion ever!

So we walk into the DAYS INN hotel room, and i let her out. She sniffs around for almost an hour while i do my first poop cleaning of her travel crate.

Next i offer her food, the food from Mary Alice (of Ravenwood Kennels) - the breeder- but she seems disinterested. She does drink some water. I break out this packet of wet puppy food - lamb and liver - YUM!


She starts to gooble it up! But she does things strangely She refuses to eat out of the bowl. She drags the food on the hotel room carpet (so glad we're not home yet), and eats everything there.


I offered her a choice of 5 different treats, and clearly she had no idea what they were. I don't think the breeder gave her anything yummy but dry kibble. I gave her a wonderful smelling Nathan's Hot Dog bite - it looked like a 2 week old hotdog that was laying out on the counter- but she had no idea how to eat it. So i bust out some Turkey treats and after about 5 mins she figures out finally how to eat it and she is LOVIN it.

I give her this Harley Davidson plush toy i found, when you press it- it sounds like a harley revving its engine lol. Of course she doesn't care about that- she bites onto the little tag that is attached and swings the toy around wildly.



Then as i set up my laptop...i turn around and guess what. TWO beautiful mounds of hot doggy poop for me to clean up! YAY! Of course i don't yell at her. She wouldn't know why, it was my fault for not watching her. So i distract her to the other side of the room and clean up the mess without her seeing (another training trick i picked up from forums - never let them see you clean up their mess or they will take advantage - as in USE YOU LIKE A HOUSEKEEPER).

Well i think she understands the meaning of NO. Because whenever i say it, she lays flat on the ground! WOW amazing!

So i start the crate training. 15mins inside - whining, screaming, crying bloody murder. I call the concierge and kindly inquire...where can i find a drugstore? She asks me what exactly i'm looking for. I laugh and state "a nice set of earplugs". She chuckles and suggests the gas station across the street.

So i go back to JinX!, while she is inside the crate. I look straight at her, and she makes eye contact with me. I firmly state "JinX! QUIET". She stops whining instantly, then looks at me...puts her head down and stares at me with her sad blue eyes, and i slowly open the cage door. I have repeated this at 30min intervals already 4 times.

After the fourth time, she comes out and finally realizes how to play with a set of teething rings i gave her, it lasts for about 5mins and then lays herself flat on the carpet


I try to coerce her into the crate - this time i put a very comfy cushion that i got her along with tossing treats inside...she goes in for a few minutes and then marches back out with the treats in her mouth and eats them far away from the crate. She looks at me as if to say "nice try you homo- I'm smarter than that", and she trots away from me.




So then we played a game. I would put my hand left hand on her paw...and she would jump back and then pounce on my hand as i slapped the ground. Then i put the left hand behind my back and used my right hand to slap the ground, she jumps back and then pounces on my right hand as i slap the ground. WOW- what a smartie pants- our first game together!

Now its after midnight, all the goofing around we've done has started to wear her out! So i repeatedly say JinX CRATE! and point to the crate. Guess what! She walks in! She slowly marches inside the crate headfirst, then turns around and sighs heavily and plops her head down...but keeps her paws at the edge of the opening- perhaps to make sure i can't close the door? Anyway, she does this and i lay in front of the cage. She looks at me for a while, gets up and starts to slowly walk out. I use my head to push her back inside slowly, and she backs up and lies down again. This repeats about 5 times, until she starts resting her head on my hand, and then out of nowhere she starts licking my nose! So now she comes out sniffing, and i know what she needs to do. She walks over to the wee wee pad and does her business! Wow...what a good start, let's hope tommorrow she doesn't wipe all this from her memory.









It's 12:30am now and she finally passed out but she has her head completely hanging out the crate, so there's no way i can close the door. I guess it makes her feel better - MAYBE we'll leave the door open for the first night, but tommorrow- THAT DOOR CLOSES!



She's not completely asleep though, b/c as i type once in a while she'll look up at me as if to ask, wth are you still doing up?





I tried to remember to use her name followed by a command every time but it's hard to be consistent. After all, i haven't had to speak DOG before.

I think she is starting to recognize that i'm Alpha, b/c anytime i don't approve she lays down flat on the ground.

The Waiting Game

OmgZ it's confirmed! I just purchased my first dog! Check out the pics that the breeder sent over to me. Isn't she absolutely gorgeous??? She's going to be coming in this week by plane, but it's been snowing like crazy in PA so the wait continues. In the meantime, i'm busy trying to get the place ready for her arrival...and read as much as i can about how to take care of this precious little girl. How about some help? I'm enlisting all!


Her name is gonna be JinX!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinx_%28G.I._Joe%29

Credit goes to William Wang who came up with the name and won't stfu about it.

There were many awesome suggestions and thanks to everyone who took the time to research names for her!
(For the record, i really liked "Aara" as well- but my moms would butcher than name to no end- and hearing it over the span of 10+ years is just not happening!)

(Oh and Please STFU Will, no mas!)