Frenchies Don’t Like Birds

Well, I don’t know if all French Bulldogs dislike birds, since I really only KNOW one frenchie. However the one frenchie I’m getting to know quite well, mine, Sizzle, doesn’t seem to care for birds all that much.

Why do I say this?

We were sitting down at an outdoor table at a local restaurant and all was going just fine. Sizzle was in his soft carrier in the little basket under our youngest daughter’s stroller.

He was being a nice little frenchie until about half way through the meal he started barking….and barking….and barking….and barking. I thought maybe he had to use the bathroom, but we did just take him before we left the house.

Then I realized there were doves walking around on the ground under our table. They were trying to eat the corn chips my daughter was dropping on the ground. I’m not sure what it was about those birds, but Sizzle wasn’t too happy with them.

Thankfully I was able to calm him down by giving him something else to do besides look at those apparently annoying birds. Sizzle was happy and we, and the other people eating at the restaurant on those outside tables, were able to finish our dinner in peace.

Technorati Tags: dine, dogs, eat, family, french bulldog, frenchie, pets, puppy, restaurant, food

A New Game for Sizzle

Sizzle did really great at the new “target” game we played today. We played it for his marker training session for today. He’s a pretty smart guy. Basically we put something down on the ground and wanted him to go stand on it. Since this is is first day playing this game, there are no commands involved. If you’re unfamiliar with marker training, also known as clicker training, that probably sounds very weird, but it’s actually VERY cool.

He did a great job with his training today and is still dong a very good job with his house training/breaking as well. He seems to be more playful now and tried playing fetch for the first time today too. At first he didn’t bring the ball back, but after a few tosses, he started brining the ball back most of the time.

All in all it was a good day for our french bulldog puppy, Sizzle!

Technorati Tags: dog training, dogs, housebreaking, pets, puppies

House Training Update

Sizzle is doing pretty darn good with his house training. I have to say that I’m quite happy with it. There are only a few instances that he’s messed in his crate in the house. Once it was my fault, another time it was my husband’s. My mistake was mis-calculating the time I was supposed to take him out for his bathroom break. I left him in his crate about 45 minutes longer than I was supposed to. My husband made the mistake of staying at my desk while he was waiting up for me one night. Sizzle is right by my desk so I think that just kept him awake well past his “last-bathroom-break-of-the-day” time instead of him realizing it was sleep time.

The house training program/outline/guide we’re following allows Sizzle only 5 minutes when we let him out to “go bathroom.” I’m finding that he’ll pee within a minute of going out, but “#2″ takes longer. In fact, I pretty much have to wait almost to that 5 minute mark before he’ll go. Sometimes it really, really looks like he’s done after he pees. But I’m beginning to notice that if I stay out there and actually give him the 5 minutes, somewhere between the 4 and 5 minute mark, he’ll “#2.” I’ve also learned that he won’t have to “#2″ every time I take him out, but will go about twice a day when I give him the time. The rest of the time, I can just take him right back in the house after he pees (so bathroom break is no where near 5 minutes) and he’s good until the next break. It’s amazing how much BOTH you and your dog learn when you’re consistent in what you do.

Technorati Tags: dog training, dogs, french bulldog, frenchie, house training, housebreaking, pets, puppies

Sizzle’s First Adventures

So, one cool thing about having a small breed dog for a change is that we can take him with us more often than we can take our pitbulls. In the week that we’ve had Sizzle, he’s been to a softball tournament, a practice weight pull, a visit to see my sister’s new baby, the pet store, and dinner at a sushi bar (no he didn’t get any sushi). This picture shows Sizzle cruisin’ in his crate with his bowl of water at the softball tournament.

Since Sizzle hadn’t yet completed his shot series in his first week with us, at no time during any of those outings did he ever touch the ground. We even bought one of those BIG plastic storage containers to take along with us so that when he has to “go bathroom” we just put him in there with some newspaper and that’s basically been his “traveling toilet.”

We like being able to take Sizzle with us when we go out because we don’t have to worry about him being home for an extended period of time without us if we’re going to be gone for a while. Another reason we like it is because we don’t have to worry about hurrying home BECAUSE he’s home without us for longer than we’d like. If we know we’re going to be out for longer than a couple hours, we just take him with us. Of course, there will come a time when he just can’t go with us on one of those longer outings. Hopefully that won’t have to happen for a while. If and when it does, we’ll probably try to get a “sitter” for him or take him to a relative’s house so that they can care for him while we’re gone. I’m sure it will be soooooo much easier to find a volunteer to keep an eye on our house kept frenchie puppy than it is for us to get someone to keep an eye on any of our pitbulls. Big dogs sure miss out on a lot of cool “little” perks small dogs get to take advantage of.

How Sizzle Got His Name

Actually, it’s pretty simple. Sizzle’s mom’s name is Star and Sizzle’s dad’s name is Fizzles. So we thought that Sizzle would be a good combination of the two. Plus it has some “pizzaz” to it. LOL

So far, Sizzle’s dad has 2 major wins and his mom is already a Champion. She made Champion at 11 months old so she truly is a “star!”

We got Sizzle from Rick and Tyra at Island Frenchies - Thanks guys! We love him!

Like I said in our first post, Sizzle’s human dad, was interested in showing dogs. Since we can’t show our pitbulls here in Hawaii (there are no UKC shows here), we had decided to, one day, get a French Bulldog so that we could get into showing dogs. Well, I guess that “one day” is here and it came sooner than we expected, but we’re very happy with Sizzle and excited about showing him.

This is all very new to us, so just the experience of having Sizzle and doing things with him is something we’re all looking forward to. If he happens to do well, that would be cool too. We’ve always enjoy attending shows, so to be a part of one will be a blast no matter what the outcome.

Technorati Tags: dog show, french bulldog, frenchie, puppy

Our First House Dog

As mentioned in this post, Sizzle, our new french bulldog puppy, is our first ever house dog. Even though our pitbulls are crate trained, this is our first attempt to have a dog live in the house with us on a permanent basis. Sooooo, we’ve been doing all kinds of reading up on housebreaking or house training puppies. I found one resource that I really like and have been following the plan they layout for house training your puppy or dog.

Since this is Sizzle’s first week with us and he is only 11 weeks old. We are letting him out to “go bathroom” every two hours. Thankfully, he’s really great at night, so we haven’t had to get up in the middle of the night to let him out. As long as we let him “go” before we go to bed he does just fine. Sizzle’s “dad” wakes up early for work every day, so he gets let out at that time and has not messed in his crate at night since we got him.

We’ve also been pretty good about keeping an eye on him in the house, so, so far, no “accidents” in the house either. The house training resource I’m using specifically states that if the puppy messes in the house, it’s not a dog problem, it’s an owner problem. It’s our job to keep an eye on him (especially while he’s being trained) and make sure that he does not get into trouble. It only takes a few seconds for a puppy or dog to go pee or poop somewhere in the house, so for now, Sizzle is only on leash in the house if he’s not in his crate and is only out of his crate when we can keep an eye on him.

He did pee in his crate a couple times, but that was because we didn’t let him out when we were supposed to. Once we got busy with our other dogs and his “let out” time passed, and the other time I just calculated his “let out” time wrong and I had him in his crate longer than he should have been. So both times, more “owner errors” than Sizzle errors. LOL

Next time we’ll tell you a little more about how we chose Sizzle’s name.

Technorati Tags: dogs, dog training, puppy, housebreaking, house training, french bulldog

Hi, My Name is Sizzle

Hi, my name is Sizzle! I’m a French Bulldog in Hawaii. My owners are actually pitbull people, but I was just soooo cute they had to buy me. Well, that’s not entirely true, but it is for the most part.

My mom actually fell in love with frenchies about a year ago. My dad got real interested in showing dogs about that same time. In Hawaii there are no shows for pits, so that leaves me.

You’ll learn more about me (and my owners) here at this site. I’m their first french bulldog and their first house dog and their first show dog. So this is a learning experience for all of us. Thankfully, I have good genes.

Technorati Tags: dogs, french bulldogs, pets, frenchies