The Reno Puppy
For me, moving to an acreage was as much about wanting space and quiet as it was about the potential for all the animals. With Gru staying with my parents when I would move I missed him terribly and having a dog in my life has just always made it better. Paul and I started having the dog conversation when we started looking at acreages. We knew we wanted something big to make noise and protect us all but also one that likes being outside and is good with kids. We both loved the idea of a Bernese Mountain dog and thought it would be a great acreage dog. We also looked at rescues puppies, but it seems like everyone had the same idea to get a puppy around that time and we never had any luck. We talked to a few Bernese breeders, a few other breeders and always looked to rescue (I checked 4 websites daily). When we signed the deal for the acreage we started losing hope as we wanted to get the puppy while we were still in the town house to make training easier with a small fenced yard versus no fence on the acreage. We also figured, puppies are notorious chewers and even the best of them usually damage a few things around the house, so we wanted to get the worst of the puppy phase out of the way before the renovations were done. Somehow damage at an older place seemed less painful than a newly renovated place.
My first puppy Kiwi I got in grade 8, I found an ad for her the classified ads of the newspaper (if you are wondering how old I am that might give you a clue). I would go everyday to get the newspaper to look, especially on the weekends because those ones always had thick classified sections. She was the last of 11 puppies. As much as I want to believe I helped with the puppy phase, I know my dad did a lot of the work. Then came Gru, he was a rescue and he was older. He didn’t need to be potty trained or a kennel. I found a picture of him on Twitter that led me to the rescue site and he fit right in.
As I was searching for more Bernese breeders, I came across an ad on Kijiji (I know…) for a puppy that was a Bernese Cross. She was on a farm northwest of Edmonton. Her picture just kept me coming back. A half King Shepherd, quarter Bernese and quarter Newfoundlander it seemed like the perfect mix for what we were looking for. I went back to it for 3 days before I finally told Paul we should go look. He told me to send a message. Turns out she was the last one left of her litter. I asked if we could come see her, and Paul told me to ask if we can take her home that day if we wanted. He wasn’t about to drive another 2.5 hours round trip if we liked her. The guy said absolutely. We stopped at a pet store to get a collar, leash, some bowls, a bed and a few toys. We weren’t sure if we needed to get a kennel so we held off. I want to make it clear that I only wanted to go look…
When we got there, there were two puppies. Her and her brother. They were holding onto him until his owners could move. He was HUGE and rambunctious. She was much smaller and more timid and sweet. We found out she was a bit of a “teen mom accident” in that her mom (the shepherd) went into her first heat while the dad (Bernese/Newfie) was visiting. So a brother and sister’s dogs were the parents of these puppies. With the mom of the puppies being so young she was a little too rough and was separated from the puppies at about 4 weeks. Luckily all the human owners are farmers and knew what to do to supplement the pups. We decided pretty quickly that we wanted to take her home with us.
She sat in the back with Olivia and from the moment we put her in the car she was a dream, there wasn’t even a peep. I think being away from her mom helped with any separation anxiety, but I know she missed her brother a bit. Knowing that she was outside her whole life, on the drive home I was nervously trying to make a plan on how to potty train her. For those of you who don’t know, in my last couple years of University I was actually a dog trainer at Petsmart. But still it had been a while since I had to train my own dog. Well this little baby floof just knew that outside meant bathroom and I literally had to do nothing but let her out as she quickly knew to go to stand by and paw at the door to be let out. I was expecting to be up at least once a night for a 9 week old puppy. That first night she woke up once as she was startled by the furnace turning on. I guess it wasn’t that shocking since she had never heard a furnace before! After that she has basically always slept through the night, and has never been much of an early riser.
When it came to her name that was a tricky one, we all had our own ideas and wanted to make sure we were all happy. Paul and I always joked about getting a Bernese Mountain dog and naming her Bernice, but that wasn’t popular with the 9 year old. Because she is so fluffy and soft a lot of names had to do with that. The potential names we had on the list were Bernice, Cotton, Evergreen, Snowy, Copper, Piper, Marshmallow, Reece, Eleanor, Evelyn, Penny, Kamala, Mousse, Chai, Coconut, and Béarnaise. In the end Mousse just seemed to fit, not only was she going to be big like a Moose, but the idea of naming her after a food was something I loved with Paul being a chef.
We never did end up getting her a kennel because she never needed one. With me working from home she wasn’t alone a lot, but when we did have to leave her we would just put a baby gate up in the entry way. She loved her toys and still has all of her toys since she was little as she doesn’t destroy them. As time has gone on she has free reign of the house. We don’t have to put away shoes or anything from the counters (even food) and she has never damaged or stolen anything off counters while we are gone. She does likes to steal things, mostly from Paul, like his socks because it is a game for her. She even likes stealing my scrunchies right from my head!
In just a few weeks after getting her the renovations began, she was there for the whole thing. All of the demo and all of the building. This little pup was only 12 weeks old when we started and was known as the reno puppy by everyone who was working on the house. She had her favourite parts of the house to nap, which was usually the front closet or right in the way. We had so many different contractors and workers in and out of the house and she was always a hit. She seemed to love every one of them, but we all know she had her favourites. She always wanted to be involved. She really only was outside during the most noisy jackhammer times, which then she would hangout in the garage. But other than that, even with no fence she stayed close by. We did get a longer lead to put her on when we couldn’t always watch her.
Usually by the time I got to the acreage on weekdays it would be dark and we’d be brining dinner as there was no kitchen to cook for most of the time. I could leave fresh Love Pizza in the car with her to run into a store and get bulk water and drinks and she wouldn’t touch it. She did love to tear up scrap construction material, but it was amazing because she would never try to eat any of it, just leave a mess for me to clean up.
As tough as it was always having to make sure she was ok while also trying to get work done, she always managed to do something to make us smile. She spent so much time sleeping right next to the air compressor, listening to the nail gun, listening to me hammer at the fireplace that when people ask me if she is scared of thunderstorms I just laugh. Let me tell you though, she definitely is a shepherd. Sometimes she has moments where it is tough to turn “Officer Fuzzy Paws” off, but at the same time I feel safe having her here.
Once we moved in, she started getting a little too brave. There are dogs all around us and she just wanted to go visit and make FRAAANDS! She loves other dogs so much, and she loves being chased, so basically as soon as she got out if we didn’t put her on the lead, she was gone to the neighbours! Even when she was on the lead she snapped right through the plastic snap of 3 collars. Not just to run to the other dogs but to try to get our annoying neighbours, the squirrels! She’s definitely got those heavy Newfie bones because each time it didn’t even phase her. Either way we had to come up with a different solution. Our options were one of two things, build a fence or install an invisible fence underground. There was an invisible fence the previous home owner had installed. But it was old, it wasn’t fully working and they took the collar. Who takes the collar?! Trying to find a collar for that old of a system was impossible so we decided to put in a new one. I was worried however, would it even work? Mousse seemed like she would take a short-term pain long-term gain approach to the whole thing but boy were we wrong. She had that fence figured out within the first hour! She is only on the second lowest setting, which feels at worst feels like a weak static shock. To be honest she barely has to wear the collar anymore, she just knows.
The freedom to roam around the property, explore the smells of all the animals that pass through and just have fun have been awesome for her and us. I love working in the office and being able to look out the window and see her exploring down below. She also play a mean game of basketball, it just usually costs us a basketball every time (P.S. if you have any leads on cheap basketballs let me know!)
Now that the renovations inside are pretty much complete, we turned our attention to outside and probably will for the next couple summers. You can safely assume that Mousse likes to “help” with those as well. Just last week I was trying to stack logs and she was trying to unstack them… I can’t wait to tell you more about the outside and life on the acreage. Mousse has also been with us on many adventures. She loves hiking and loves the mountains. You can bet there will be more stories about that as well.
Today is one year since we picked up our sweet floof, and she has definitely made life more interesting and I can’t imagine being out here without her!
