Welcome Home, Kanyon!

Kanyon made it home! Our trip started on Wednesday – my mom and I left Wisconsin around 1pm and drove to Louisville, KY Wednesday night. Thursday we made the drive from Louisville to Spruce Pine, NC. We picked Kanyon up (and fell in love right away of course!) and then we drove back to Knoxville, TN Thursday night. Friday, we spent the majority of the day driving from Knoxville back to Chicago. In Chicago, we spent two nights with my sister so she could meet Kanyon and hang out with us, and then this morning we headed back through a snow storm to Wisconsin. Whew!

It was a long week of driving for us humans, but Kanyon was a perfect passenger on the drive. He snuggled up and rode on our laps the whole way. While this might not be the safest way for a dog to ride in the car, it was the least stressful for him and we wanted to ease his transition from litter-life to a new family. Now that we are home and the long drive is over, he will transition to riding in a kennel in the car for a few weeks until he outgrows the kennel (because he will grow fast of course) and then he will learn to ride in the back of my vehicle. I have a barrier in my vehicle because one of the other dogs – Lyra – will try to jump into the front while we’re driving or when we’re stopped if there isn’t a barrier.

There are a million things I could talk about in terms of what the first few days looked like for Kanyon, but I’ll try to split them into separate posts so that these don’t get too long. So for this post, I just want to summarize the transition for Kanyon, because at 8 weeks old, it can be rather traumatic to go from being with mom and littermates all the time, to being alone, in a vehicle, with brand new people and new environments.

Our first night, we stopped several times to let Kanyon potty because he was very whiny in the car, and it was hard to tell if he was whiny and antsy because he needed to “go,” or because he was nervous, or sad. He seemed to really enjoy being outside and following us around, so we did let him wander a little when we stopped. This seemed to help him calm down. I also brought along an Adaptil puppy collar which releases pheromones, and this seemed to help a little as well.

At the hotel, Kanyon seemed very unsure and didn’t want to move around much, but he cuddled up with us on the beds and wanted to be as close as possible to us. This behavior likely mimicked how he slept with his littermates. I allowed him to sleep in bed with me the first night. He was pretty antsy so we didn’t sleep very well, and we went out to potty frequently so as to avoid accidents on the bed. It took him awhile to poop, but when he did it was a big celebration. Bowel movements are good news for a new puppy, and watching stool as well as food and water intake is important with puppies and can give you lots of information about their overall health.

The second night with us, and the first night at my sister’s apartment, Kanyon seemed much more content and settled, and less worried and stressed about leaving his littermates. We made sure to never leave him alone, give him lots of praise that he accepted beautifully, and we made sure to cuddle him as much as he wanted. This all helped him to transition easier, and he started to become more confident and he had fewer moments when he needed to be close to someone for comfort and confidence building.

I was sleeping on the couch so that I could get Kanyon outside frequently overnight, and there wasn’t as much room for him on the couch and since he was more confident the second night, he was much more at risk of falling off the couch. So I put his crate on the couch next to me and he slept in there the next two nights. This worked well for him, he could still see me, and he slept better that way than he did on the bed the previous night. We still got up about every 1.5-2 hours to potty the second night he was with us, but the third night we made it 3 hours between potty breaks.

My biggest priorities during our time in Chicago were:

• Environment exploration: I wanted him to be able to explore his environment as much as possible on his own. This helps boost confidence for a young puppy and promote independence while keeping him safe and not pushing him too far too fast.
• Potty training: I’ll do a separate post on this, but I wanted to develop positive potty habits right off the bat.
• Getting him to eat: This was a challenge! He refused to eat all day Friday. We did as the breeder said they were doing and soaked his kibble in broth, but he would not eat it. We even tried mixing some tuna in. Finally we made him some rice and mixed that with some broth and he ate it. I thought maybe he had a tummy ache, but by Saturday morning he still refused to eat. So I tried just giving him dry kibble and he ate that right up. He ate three times on Saturday so that made me feel better.
• Playing, having fun, and cuddling him whenever he wanted to: Play is so important for puppies, so we wanted to make sure he was having fun as much as possible.

Now that we are home, we can start settling into a more normal routine. Kanyon got to meet my spouse, as well as the three other dogs in our home. He seemed to settle in at home way better than he did at the hotel or at my sister’s, but I think just being with the same person (me) consistently helped this along.

Check out my next couple posts for more info about our first day at home, our potty training plan, our training goals for this week, and anything else I feel like writing about. There may more posts in these first few weeks because there is SO much to share about raising a puppy. Feel free to read them all, or only what interests you. There will likely be days when there are more than one post, so if you want to read them all, make sure you check back on the blog regularly, and follow our Adventure Kanyon Facebook page and YouTube channel for pictures and videos!