Momo and Gyoza Settling In!

These two foster puppies are available via City Dog Rescue. Momo’s page is here. And, Gyoza’s page is here.

After a very quiet Friday, I wondered if we would see more from the puppies on Saturday. They were still quiet, but the puppies were much more comfortable with all of us.

Saturday, I started the process of teaching them to be a bit more independent by feeding their meals in two separate crates. In order to help the puppies enjoy this process, I used canned wet puppy food for the first time. I put the food in the crates, and then individually put them in. The first time we did this, the food was gone in no time, and they were both barking and crying their little puppy lungs out (they are VERY loud!). So, I waited for a 1/2 second of quiet, and I let them out pretty quickly.

By the end of day Saturday, I moved to feeding them 1/2 their meal in KONGs with wet food in the KONGs only. They really love wet food, but Gyoza is not motivated at all to eat the KONG if she is in a crate by herself and prefers to eat the kibble in her bowl, ignore the KONG with wet food, and bark.

Momo is getting the hang of it, and is mostly quiet in his crate, though he will bark once he eats all of his food.

Again, I just waited for a brief moment of quiet before releasing them. This is the beginning of the process to getting them both in their own crates with (hopefully!) minimal trauma to either of them.

Since they still seemed really hungry, I also bumped up their food amounts to 2 cups each. Momo seemed perfectly happy with this amount and ate everything. Gyoza left some each time, she was more focused on the crate situation than eating.

Other than crating, the puppies are doing so well with the kids! They went from being scared of them, to seeking out their company! They really love my daughter, who spends lots of time in the play pen with them!

The puppies are both very snuggly, and will happily curl up on a lap while they work on a chew or to take a nap! They are both super sweet, but Gyoza in particular will seek out people and loves attention and affection.

They also have begun to jump and bite, which tells me they are feeling much more confident! Jumping and biting is perfectly normal and social for their age.

For now, I am mostly redirecting any biting or jumping. They both really love toys, which is nice! So, I can usually redirect them onto a long, plushy toy.

Look at these precious puppies 🥰!

Saturday night, they slept in their crate again from 11pm to ~5:30am and had NO ACCIDENTS (woohoo!)! And, for the icing on the cake, they both went outside in the morning and PEED and POOPED outside! Wowza! Operation potty training is well underway!

Momo in particular seems to be getting the hang of potty training, and will almost always choose the grass box to potty in.