We have 2 exciting updates from last week: First, we had a dog trainer come to the house to give us tips on acclamating Kona to the baby. Second, we checked out an in-home day care.
Kona learns new tricks
A few weeks ago, I was sitting at a red light behind an SUV with an advertisment painted on the back window for a company called "Pawsitive Results". I've never acted on a vehicle advertisment before, but this proved to be very helpful! Craig and I had been talking about how we were going to make the transition from baby-free to baby-focused around Kona. I decided to call the company advertised on the SUV and made an appointment for the trainer to come to the house and help us learn how to make this transition as easy as possible for our "first baby".
Terry, the trainer, came to the house on Thursday night and taught us some really great tips/tricks. The biggest tip she gave us is NOT to give the most attention to Kona while Ethan is sleeping. This was my biggest misconception. You'd think this would be a good idea, but Terry made a valid point- we want Kona to associate the baby with a positive result, not negative. So, when Kona is around the baby, we are going to give her a Kong with a treat in it so she starts to recognize the baby as a positive. She gets something good (treat, food, attention) when Ethan's around.
We're also training her to sit and wait at the door to the nursery when we walk in with the baby. This way, if we won't trip over her, she won't try to lick the baby to death, jump up on the bed when Ethan's on there being changed or something, etc. So, we're training her to sit and wait and rewarding her with treats that we're keeping in his room. She's doing really well so far. We have a lot more work to do with her before Ethan arrives though.
We want to train her not to put her paw on you/us/Ethan when she wants your attention. It's super cute, but not if she does it to the baby. So, we have to stop allowing her to do it to us. We also want her to "ask permission" to get on the couch. Meaning, we don't mind if she's on the couch with us, but we want her to sit in front of us when she wants to get up on the couch. In order to do this, we have to put items on the couch that prevent her from jumping up on her own. This way, when she wants up, she'll puppy churp to get up and we'll move it to allow her. This is going to be harder on Craig and I than on her because it takes a lot of work to train ourselves to block the couch off each time we're on it. But, the end result will be worth it so Kona doesn't get all excited and hyper and jump all over the place.
Terry also gave us a list of great dog toys that use a lot of mental stimulation that will wear her out during the day and be really healthy for her. She also recommended discountinuing her food bowl and strickly putting her day's supply of food in these toys (which is what they're meant for) and make her play to get the kibble out. These toys are so cool, one is a cube that you put a cups worth of kibble in and as she plays with it, it will drop out some food when it's turned at a certain angle. It's good for their mental health as well as making her eat slower too.
In-Home Day Care
We got a great recommendation from our friend Erica Fox for an in-home daycare in Oviedo, FL. She came highly recommended so Craig and I went to check out on Friday. Her name is Sheila and she watches 6 kids (all under 2 years old) in her home. She has 3 spots opening up in June which is right around the time we'll start to need her. Her home was very clean and we both felt really comfortable with her too. All of the kids huddled around her the whole time we were there so she either had candy in her pockets or they all really like her :)
Her weekly charge is really reasonable and includes food once the child is past the milk stage. She keeps a notebook for each child throughout the day logging when they ate, what they ate, how long they slept, etc. She has a crib in each room of the house so that the kids don't bother each other. She uses the family room as the main play area which is really nice and open. The kids dance, play games, watch movies, etc all day. She keeps infants in the room attached and in view if they're in the swing or sleeping. She's located in Oviedo which is kind-of on Craig's way to work, but not directly. She's about 20 minutes from our house and about 15 minutes from Craig's work. We feel really good about her though so if she's the person we go with, the drive will be worth it. We have a few more places to interview, but so far we're feeling pretty good about our options. We'll keep you posted.
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