Helga: 10 weeks

It's been 2 weeks since I brought Helga home.  I am not going to lie, its been a little crazy.  It's been so long since we have been through the puppy stage that I totally forgot what it's like.  Sometimes I feel like we have a 3rd kid now. But gosh, we sure love her!

9 weeks old

The first night home, I was exhausted from my 24 hour adventure across the country and back. Once we got the kids in bed, I told Cody I needed to eat, shower and sleep....and I put him on Dog Duty for the night. Her crate was in our room.  I drifted off to sleep with her barking in her crate then I was out like a light the rest of the night. When Cody woke me up in the morning, I was totally unaware of how the night went. At 6am sharp, he walked into our room and told me I had to take over because he needed some sleep.  He said Helga didn't stop barking so he tried sleeping on the floor next to her crate for a couple hours. When that didn't work, he ended up downstairs on the couch with her on the floor at his feet, both of them going in and out of sleep all night. At 4am, she was up and at it. The darn dog was on East Coast time.

The second night, he put me on Dog Duty.  We moved her crate downstairs so he could get some sleep for work. I set my alarm for every 2 hours so I could get up to let her out to potty.  At both the 11pm and 1am shift, she pooped in her crate. So. Not. Cool. Helga. I didn't get any sleep and again, she was up for the day at 4am.

The 3rd night, we decided we decided to team up.  I took the 11pm and 4am shift and Cody took the 1am shift. That seemed to work much better.

We did that the whole first week, slowly pushing the 1am shift to 1:30am, then 2am. Then we were able to drop the 11pm shift and later drop the 2am shift. She's still getting up early but at least she's sleeping through the night now.

I wouldn't say that she likes her crate by any means but we have her down to a pretty good bedtime routine now. She stopped barking after the first week and when its time for bed, she won't try to escape while your closing the door.  Heck, you can leave the door open and she will just lay down and go to sleep.

We are still working on house training her but she's pretty smart and is picking it up pretty quickly. She's definitely still a Florida girl. She's not a fan of the rain so it takes a bit on convincing to get her to go potty out in the rain. On the nice days, she's a total champ. I can let her out back on her own to do her thing and she might run a couple puppy laps around the backyard while she's at it.

One benefit of me being home is she gets lots of exercise. The boys and I take her on a walk every morning and everyday after nap.  Then, I take her on a 3rd walk after we put the boys down for bed. Rain or shine, she gets her walks in.  It's good for all of us.

We usually end our walks checking on the neighborhood horses.

She also goes everywhere with us.  I have been driving the truck lately so she can tag along with the boys and I during the day.

Portland Pup

Today she had her 10 week check up.  She's 18.5 lbs and as healthy as can be. She did so good at her appointment, our vet absolutely loved her.  He said he hadn't seen her breed before but said she's a wonderful mix! He said Newfoundlands have a short lifespan and hip issues due to their size and rapid growth but are overall really healthy dogs. He said mixing in the poodle breed will reduce her size and increase her lifespan. Plus the little to no shedding is a nice added benefit. 

10 weeks old

The boys love her and they keep her plenty busy.  Henrik's a little rough with her sometime but she's pretty good about putting up with him.  Hanley's really sweet with her...up until she takes one of his "babies". If that dog runs off with Alligator, it's game on.

Helga's Adventure Home

When we finally got to the point where we could talk about a new dog in the house, we couldn't agree on a breed.  Cody wanted a purebred Newfoundland. That was it for him, he really wasn't willing to consider anything but a Newfoundland. I know they are beautiful and are great with kids but I just couldn't get excited about all the drool and shedding that comes along with the breed.  Don't get me wrong, I loved Roxy. I would take her back in a heartbeat if we could but...I was starting to enjoy the fact that I wasn't constantly cleaning up dog hair around the house. I can handle some shedding, but I wasn't ready to sign up for the amount of shedding that comes along with a Newfoundland.  So, I started doing some research and came across a Newfypoo (Newfoundland/Poodle mix), which seemed like a wonderful compromise in my book! So, my research continued...

It turns out, Newfypoo's are hard to find! Across the country, I found 4 breeders total, all out of state. I started to get discouraged because buying a dog out of state wasn't something we had really considered. Here's why: 1) I didn't like the idea of buying a dog we have never met. 2) I didn't feel comfortable shipping a puppy cargo. 3) It didn't really seem practical for me to fly across the country to pick up a puppy.  

But then I came across a litter of puppies in Florida. There were 7 puppies in the litter, 5 were still available and 2 of them caught my eye.  The "Orange" puppy had surprisingly straight hair for a Newfypoo and appeared to have more of the larger Newfoundland head with a broader snout. Then there was the "Black and White" puppy which had the cutest markings- black head with a white snout and a white stripe down the middle of her face. I think I showed Cody the pics of both puppies on the website but I didn't mention much about them at the time. The following two nights, I went to bed thinking about the "Orange" puppy.  By Friday morning, I emailed the breeder asking about both puppies.  She responded quickly and after reading her email, I was already in love.  I called Cody at work and caught him by total surprise when I said "Honey, I need you to book me a flight to Florida." He researched flights for me but we agreed we would need to talk more about it when he got home. Which we did.  The next day, we placed a deposit on the "Orange" puppy.

Part of me thought I was crazy. I don't particularly like flying and I definitely don't like flying solo! And flying with a puppy? Who on earth thinks that's a good idea?! What did I just sign myself up for..?

But I was in love.  We all were.

We spent the next couple weeks getting ready for the puppy and talking about names.  We had a few picked out but Hanley helped us settle on Helga.

My adventure out East began on Friday, Feb 3rd.  I took a red eye out of PDX and arrived in Tampa around 5:30 am. I met Helga by 9:30 am and our flight was scheduled to depart at 12:30pm. I flew all the way to Florida and never left the airport!

She was pretty nervous the first 5-10 minutes with me but warmed up quickly. I got nervous myself when I pulled out her carry crate and realized it was certainly small for her size. Yikes, and we had a whole day of traveling ahead of us.

We played outside as long as we could before we had to check in for our flight. As we headed to our gate, I noticed 5 other dogs in the airport, none of which were in their crates.  I didn't feel comfortable letting her walk around because she's not potty trained so I took her to the women's bathroom, laid out a puppy pad and we hung out in there until she went potty.  Once we got to our gate, I took her back out of the crate and she waited quietly on my lap until it was time to board our flight.

I had to convince her to get back into the crate to board our flight but I left the top of the crate open a little for some extra ventilation (she was so big in the carrier, that her fur blocked the mesh siding). I was afraid she was going to overheat or suffocate in there! As I was walking to the back of the plane, she managed to unzip the top, pop her head out and try to force her way out. Once I got to my seat, the two people sitting next to me, looked at me and said "Oh you should just let her out." So, I did. I figured if it was a problem, someone would let me know. She sat on my lap the entire time, napping.

Our first flight was short, our second flight was 5 1/2 hours. I wasn't so sure we were going get that lucky again for the second flight. I learned my lesson from the first flight and didn't leave the top unzipped as we boarded our flight. Helga was whimpering and crying in her carrier. I had a middle seat. I apologized to the gentleman next to me on my right and told him she did great for the first flight but that's because I let her sit on my lap. He said, "Go ahead and take her out, I don't mind." I thanked him but told him I would wait for the seat on my left to fill because there was no way I was getting her back in that carrier if the person to my left wasn't comfortable with it! It was a full flight. Every seat on the aircraft was occupied except for the seat to my left. What luck! Helga hit the jackpot and got herself her very own seat.  I scooted over and placed her in the middle.  She spend the entire flight altering cuddles between me and the gentleman next to us.

Our adventure home was exhausting (I was running on 1 hour of sleep) but it really was lots of fun. It went much smoother than I ever anticipated possible.  She was so calm and relaxed for the journey home. It's a trip home that I will never forget.

We arrived home at 7:45pm.  Two very excited boys met us at the door.  Neither of those boys were excited to see me, they were only interested in meeting the new addition to the family!

Welcome Home Sweet Helga.