Echo's Explosive... you guessed it!

In case you didn't get it from the subject line.... Diarrhea!
Yesterday, he must have eaten something, or picked up some kind of bug. Marnie and I have no idea what it could have been because we are always out with him and did not see him eat anything out of the ordinary. But what a surprise to come home to! There was puke and crap EVERYWHERE in and around his cage. Out the back, out the front, out the side... The poor thing! He must have been just dieing in there because it looked as though he was pushing his bum out to the sides of his crate as to not mess inside. He didn't succeed all that well as he had it all over himself and the crate as well as the surrounding carpet. Marnie was the lucky one who got home first and said that she let him out right away where he proceeded to crap 3 times. When I got home, they were back inside with him laying there just happy that we were home -- like nothing had happened!
So Marn ran to Walmart to pick up a little portable Bissel steam cleaner as I started to pick up what I could... he went out another 2 times while marn was gone.
We had to cancel our dinner plans with Marn's sister and Dave's relatives from Scotland because we weren't about to put him back in the crate for a few hours.
I felt so bad for him! I had to take the crate and chew toys outside to hose them off - the toys went in the dishwasher.

Anyway, the emergencies continued all night long. Echo woke us up yelping at about 1:00 AM, so Marn got up to let him out.... and he had already messed in the crate AGAIN - he just went in at 11:30. So she decided to blow up the mattress and sleep downstairs with him so that she could let him out when he needed it. Well, she said he woke her up almost every hour to go out, whether he really needed to or not. He at least was attempting - you know that feeling?! He didn't puke all night, or since we got home yesterday, so that's a good thing and makes me feel that there's nothing too wrong with him. He also ate supper and breakfast this morning fine. The runs continued this morning, though. Marn's parent's offered to take him for today so that they could keep an eye on him which was great, so we packed his crate up this morning and Marn took him over there.

We actually have a Vet appt. tonight, so I called them this morning and told them about what was happening and asked if I should bring in a stool sample for them if I could. They said yes, that's a good idea -- I'm not sure if I heard his hands rubbing together when he said yes, but I guess I'll decide whether to bring one based on the report back from The Simpson camp this afternoon. At 3 PM Drew said he hadn't had anything solid yet all day, so chances are we'll bring one.

Puppy weight: before the explosive diarrhea started he was 34 LBS. We'll get the official weight and health report tonight.

1st Dane Visit, Market and Dog Park

It was a busy weekend for Echo and us.
He got to see his Mom and rest of the family on Saturday morning because we were driving up to Chesley to order more wood for our deck and fence. Dantry Danes is pretty much on the way, so we decided to stop there for a visit, plus I needed to get some files for the web site and chat with her a bit about what I've done so far. It was pretty neat to see him with all the bigger dogs and play with his sister, Maggie - they were about the same size, with Maggie maybe even a little bit bigger. Fatter anyway. Danielle said that Echo looks to be the perfect size and weight, but maybe could take on a little more food, so we were happy about that, because we weren't really sure. The week before we had increased his food by a cup a day because he really was looking skinny. People keep telling us that he looks thin, but I think other people's perception of what a healthy weight is for dogs is too fat. Anyway, she went on to comment about him many times over the short visit we had about how good he moves, and looks. Marn and I both got the impression that she was jealous! ;) but not really, I think she's just really happy that he looks good. Starting this week we're giving him 4.5 cups/day, and then increasing it by .5 cups every 2 weeks until he hits 4 months which should bring the total intake to 6 cups per day!
Anyway, while we were at the farm and chatting to Danielle and Matt, Echo and Maggie got into it a little bit. Echo didn't like something she did (none of us saw it) and started growling and trying to bite her - definitely NOT playful. He sounded serious! So I started to step in to back him off and Danielle yells over to me, "don't get in, let them sort it out!". I didn't want Echo to hurt her pup! Echo just kept on going at her, and finally Maggie ran off and Echo settled. Danielle said that when you step in like that and don't let them "talk it out" it teaches them to skip the talking and just go right to fighting when they don't like something.
It was kind of cool... but the Coolest thing was seeing the other dogs around them! Some of the leaders of the pack kind of stood around and watched to make sure everything was going ok, and when it started getting a little heavy, one of them - it may have been Madison, I can't remember - stood over Echo as if to say, "ok, that's enough!" Echo just kind of looked up and was like, "yep, whatever you say!".
We went in the house to chat a little more and Echo and Maggie started fighting again, but this time not so bad, and Madison again got in there, but this time opened her mouth and pinned Echo down by his neck (ok, his whole body was basically in her mouth). She didn't hurt him, and did it pretty gently, actually, but Echo stopped immediately and then laid there spread eagle saying, I give! Really cool to see. The rest of the time there he played fine, and even tried to get some of the big girls in the house going (they basically ignored him).

Sunday morning we took him to the Waterloo Sunday market where we couldn't walk 5 feet without someone asking if they could pet and see him. It was pretty funny as you'd hear in the background, look at the weimaramer, what a strange colour for a lab, what kind of dog is that? I told Marn that next time we go I'm strapping a sign on his back that says, "I'm a GREAT DANE!" She said that in 2 months no one will be making that mistake... hehe
But, EVERYONE had the same comment after we told them that he was a Dane. OHH, A Great Dane! REALLY? He'll be a big boy! I've never seen that colour (understandable) Have you got a harness for him yet? Oh, you mean a horse! UUGGHH!!!! I love how people are interested, but why the LAME comments! I can see myself getting very cranky if these comments keep coming, which I'm sure they will...
Anyway, I understand why people loved him at the market -- he's adorable!!
We decided to take Echo to the dog park in Bechtel park last night before ultimate frisbee because he's been slowly gaining more confidence with other dogs and starting to play a little bit with smaller and similar sized dogs. Also Saturday's experience with his family helped. We thought it would be good for him even though he's still a pup (we often forget he's only 11 weeks old because he's about the same size as a 5 month old lab).
Anyway, there was this bigger dog (think mastiff/terrier type head, about 90 lbs) walking very good to the fenced area with us who was interested in Echo, but didn't pay much attention to him and who entered the area first. He took off right away, like a switch went off in his head as soon as he stepped through the fence he knew it was play time and looked around for other dogs. So we went in and started walking with Echo tailing beside and behind us not sure about what to do when that dog came tearing back at us (obviously happy and wanting to play) and headed right for Echo full tilt. Echo just froze and backed up a bit and the other dog basically bulldozed him and jumped right over him clipping Echo a bit on the way over. Echo yelped like crazy and laid there with his tail firmly pressed against his butt and end of it tickling his belly, then came running right behind us. Uggh! Not the greatest introduction to the dog park that we were hoping for! He basically stayed there for the full 30-40 minutes we were there. The whole rest of the time, that other dog didn't come back to Echo as he found another bigger play buddy to rough house with.
Poor Echo was terrified at that moment shaking and wide-eyed! He did better the longer we stayed, and we did run into some very friendly and gentle dogs which helped a lot, but he never actually started playing with any of them like we've seen him do in the last week. We should have waited a little longer outside the gates until that bigger dog got himself a friend. Ah well, who knew? He'll do better next time and put that little incident in the back of his head for when he's big. :)

Puppy Classes

We signed Echo up for puppy classes/obedience 1 at a local training facility in Kitchener and we're really excited about it. They start on Thursday July 27th and run for 6 weeks. This was one of the classes we sat in on a few weeks ago. Marnie wasn't too keen on the environment because she had a hard time hearing the instructor (concrete walls with dogs and people yapping), but most of the training will occur at our house or with us outside of that facility, so that wasn't a concern to me.

Some of the things they teach are;
100% positive training. We both are a little bit skeptical of this because we think that dogs DO need to be put in their place every now and then (ie: We're the leader!). Our breeder agrees and her dogs are great.
Sit, down, off, come, stay, drop it, wait, settle down, heeling on loose leash as well as socialization before classes, concentration, personality creation and problem solving and prevention are also covered.
It seems like a lot in only 6 sessions! It will be a lot of work for us, but I can't wait to see him progress.

We've started a little bit already with sit, down, come (played last night in our backyard with the "come" game and it was so cute to see him running back and forth between Marn and I), stay, wait (wiping feet after coming in from outside), heel during walks and generally he's doing pretty good. Definitely does better when treat is in hand, though.

Click the picture above, or check out the trainers site at http://www.delightfuldogs.net

These classes will take us straight through to Aug. 31, and then the next session for Obedience level 2 starts the following Tuesday Sept. 5, so nice timing if we keep taking him there.

My Neglected Deck and Fence

Well since finishing the steps on the deck before Marnie's 30th party (on June 10th!) we haven't really done a thing to it.... No time and no money! Thank God I am doing a website for Danielle in exchange for Echo because that would be way too much debt to deal with right now. I planned on getting some of our deck done with my week off with Echo, but I didn't get to anything at all.

But we are going to bite the bullet and drive up to the Mennonite place this weekend to order more wood in order to fininsh the fence (at the very least - only 2 more sections and won't be that much money). We are hoping to order everything we need to finish up the deck too, so we'll have to sit down and figure that out this week.

We planned on finishing the fence later in the summer/fall - when our neighbour told us he was going to do his, but he changed his mind and ordered the wood and had holes dug in one week, then put the fence up in one weekend! Makes us look lazy since we started it in May!! The deal was he was going to fence his backyard and we will fence the remaining section up to our house, which is effectively half our yard. We had hoped to put up a fence and gate between the houses with our other neighbour as well, but now I'm not sure we'll get to that this year.

A Visit From BC

My friend Bernadette is in town for a few days and she came over with some other friends on Friday night for a visit on the patio and to see the house, deck and Echo. She also had her really cute son Bodhi with her who is about 16 months old now? Her husband Don stayed back home, I'm sure preparing for their visit back to Malaysia where they met, married (India, actually), and where Bohdi was conceived.... I'm assuming! I think they want to "show off their work" to their friends back there.

Here's a cute photo of Bohdi and Echo sitting on the deck. I'm pretty sure he's saying "doe doe" in this picture (or whatever the Chinese word for dog is). He, like Braeden, likes Echo but don't really know how to act when he gets close and starts sniffing around. The laughs turn to uneasiness and running away which is kind of funny, but because Echo's a puppy and is nibbling with sharp teeth, it's a good thing.
It's too bad Bern and Bohdi couldn't stick around a while longer, we all miss hanging out with her, plus the last time I saw Bohdi he was only a few months old.

It's just a phase... right?

The biting, the chewing, the biting, the chewing and it is only week 2 with Echo. We just don't understand why the human hand (foot, arm, leg) feel so much better to the mouth of a puppy then the specially designed for dogs(and expensive)chew toy. Seriously, Echo will be happily chewing on his latest nylabone or his stuffed frog (so cute)and the innocent owner will lovingly stroke the cute puppy on the back and WHAM, now the chew toy becomes the hand. Redirect puppy to appropriate chew toy, a few chomps and WHAM, back on the hand. Is there anything sharper than puppy teeth? Truly, any attempt at redirection to the toy is futile, fleeting at best, so walk away dear owner, walk away and try again later.
Dare I even say it...he hasn't discovered the sweet taste of furniture yet!

Current puppy weight : 29 pounds. He is literally growing right before our eyes.

Spoke Too Soon

Who knew that Danes could read blogs? After my lengthy post about how well he's been doing with house training and that he hadn't had an accident in the house since last Wednesday, Echo pee'd upstairs - and on Marnie's first watch!
I don't get this one... He was in the crate all morning from 8am-11:30am because Marn had to go in to work for a few hours. He did great and didn't mess his crate at all. When Marn got there she let him out and he peed and pooped right away, so she fed him and played for a bit then took him out again where he performed. At around 1pm, they went upstairs to watch some TV. Echo was playing fine by himself but then got up and went around the side of the couch and let it fly. Marn heard the strange trickling sound, caught him in the act and brought him outside where he finished...
I don't know if Echo was just "acting up" because of the routine change and different person taking care of him that day (missing me!) or what, but this is very disappointing. He was doing great. Hopefully this won't be much of a setback.

Marn also noticed that Echo was acting very "wired" for most of the afternoon. She said he didn't have his normal afternoon naps for an hour or two and that he wanted to play all day which kept her on her toes!

More fuel for the theory of; he misses me. :)

Anyway, he slept last night really well. Maybe because of the lack of afternoon naps? Neither Marn or myself woke up until 7am so I got up to check on him and he was sleeping! 8 hours in the crate - I think we can safely say he's pretty much crate trained now. Last night he was wiped so I said "go to your crate" pointing inside. He was SO tired and dopey and could hardly stand (so I helped him up), pointed again and said "crate" and he walked in layed down and fell back alseep no problem.

Crates Are Wonderful / A Growing Boy

I should have posted during my week off, but watching this dog for the first week and then getting him around to visit everyone was a full time job!
My week with Echo is almost done and what an amazing week it's been. He has learned and grown in leaps and bounds. Crate training was "done" in... I'd say 4 days. I want to keep a sort of record of how that went so that I can look back on it in months down the road. If you're reading, this probably won't mean much or you won't care too much about it. I don't know how this compares to other dogs, but because he's ours and he's the first dog we both have had where we're crate training. It's cool to see him like his crate!

I already ran through the first 4 days which were the "hardest" (because of the crying and my getting up so early), so starting Tuesday morning I was hoping for another 6 hour sleep through the night. I got it and a little bonus of an extra hour. Yes! 5 days in, and he's sleeping (or holding at least) for 7 hours! I woke up at 4:30-5 AM by my alarm and just layed in bed listening for any movement or whimpering downstairs. Got out of bed and listened closer to the stairs, and there was nothing. So I went back to sleep and woke up at 6am to a little bit of cry's. They were quiet and didn't sound too urgent yet, so I got up and let him out. He had the longest pee so far that I'd seen. What a good boy!! 7 hours through the night holding it was amazing at only 5 days of using the crate.

Wednesday morning he surprised me again with a long sleep until 6 or 6:30 AM and had a long pee when I let him out. I had a hunch that he had to do some more but wasn't making any move to do it, so I brought him back in while I made coffee for myself before going for a walk around the block. He trotted to the bed that Mom made and started playing with his toys. I thought, wow, this dog is great so far.... Only 4 pee's in he house - all my fault for not watching, sleeps through the night without a sound all ready, goes in his crate occasionally and rests through some of the day by himself. Is house and crate training going to be this "easy"? I couldn't wait for Marn to get up so that I could tell her how good he's been doing.... but I spoke too soon. I knew he had to go, but I got cocky. I was in the kitchen making my coffee and checking email on my laptop and his bed was at the bottom of the stairs where he was playing. Thinking nothing of it, he would come in the kitchen a few times to check on me, and go back, I thought, how nice! Until I had coffee in hand ready to go out with him. He left a little brown surprise on the bed of all places! (not his crate) Of course I didn't see him do it, so I couldn't get mad at him, but I picked him up and took him out front where he pee'd some more and sniffed around. When I got back in I cleaned it up and acted all sad and mad at the poop and he just layed there about 5 feet away watching my every move (exactly what we're trying to get him to do if that happens). At least he didn't do it on the carpet!! I'm sure that he didn't want to go there but he had no choice. I didn't give him enough time to eliminate outside because I was concerned about getting coffee on so that I could walk with him to do it. uggh!! Dumb me again. That was the last time he's done anything inside now that I think about it. So that brings the tally to 4 times peeing inside (twice on carpet and twice in kitchen) and one time pooping on his play bed (washable cover!). All 4 times peeing we caught him in the act, brought him outside where he finished, and all 5 times were because I wasn't paying close enough attention to him. I know a little better now to watch when he's on the move.

Thursday morning, again no issues going in his crate and laying down right away, sleeping through until 6:30 AM and goes out right away in the morning and pee's a few steps into the grass. that's the only thing that I wish I had done from the start -- taking him to the back of our yard to pee and poop. Right now, he's peeing a few steps from the bottom of the stairs (or out front) - which is great because he's going outside, but I could have carried him to the back from the start. It's not too late to try and change that, and I'm sure when he's older he'll probably go where ever, but right now it'd be nice if he did it at least in the middle-to-back area. Anyway, I'm not comlaining at all. He's doing surprisingly well.

Friday I took him to Cambridge to meet up with dad and chester again. I took him on Monday after taking him to Mom's to meet her and Tony and Lisa's kids for the first visit and they both went pretty well. Tony's kids weren't too interested, especially Mackenzie - she didn't come down from the computer for at least an hour, but Kaiya and Kaden liked him and followed him around for a bit. Echo pretty much just slept the whole time. He had one burst of energy where he chased the kids outside for a bit.
Chester didn't know what to think of him as he kept jumping back whenever Echo would move towards him. I'm not sure they knew how to play yet and pretty much just sniffed and backed up. This time, Chester and Echo (Echo being bigger already and more confident with every day) chased each other around the kitchen and living room. It was pretty cute to see them getting along and running around. Dad and I chatted in the kitchen while they were in the living room, but I didn't quite trust Echo enough for that so we went outside where Chester had a clear advantage - speed and co-ordination! He would burn up the tracks literally running circles around Echo while Echo would just sit and look around not knowing where the next "drive by" would come from. It was pretty funny, and unfortunately I didn't bring my camera. But other than that, they both ran around and chased each other for a while. We'll see how Chester does when Echo's twice, three times, four times his size and more! Right now they are about the same. Dad thinks Echo weights more and I thought they were pretty close to the same. He was about 22 lbs as of this past Thursday according to the vet. Right now after lunch he's exactly 25 lbs according to our scale. 3 lbs in 3 days? not bad!

He had a clean bill of health from the vet, by the way. They were very excited to meet him as they had never had a blue dane before and they're really excited to see him again in three weeks to see how much he's grown.
It seems everyone who sees him needs to ask questions about him. A grey lab?, oh cute weimaraner! I only knew of two colors for danes? (there are 6) he's not that big (for 9 weeks old?) Chris and Carey were dog sitting last night for us and while on a walk they said they were stopped 4 times from people asking questions, one even stopped his car on the way by, rolled down his window and yelled to them, is that a great dane?! Wow, cool colour! And then asked a few more questions and he went on his way. Crazy... What will happen when he's 160lbs!?

Anyway, the point of this was to tell about his crate and house training, but I got a little side-tracked. He is doing extremely well as far as we can tell. His crate is already his home and he frequently goes in and sleeps with the door open all the time. Today Candance, Dave and Braeden came over for breakfast and before they came he went in and had a sleep and didn't come out until at least a half hour after they arrived. He went back in while we were eating too and slept again. I couldn't be happier about this since I thought we were going to be for a long haul with him getting used to it. He doesn't fuss at all about being put in, even in the middle of the day for a few hours (I had to get some things done around here and outside of the house). As soon as he wakes up we put him outside and he pee's right away. He does this after a car ride too (short or long). We now have to work on getting him to signal us better when he needs to go out. He just started walking to the door, but it was so casual the first time he did it that we missed it (and he peed). Today he walked to the back door and looked out and pawed a little at the door so I jumped up and let him out and he peed as soon as we got to the grass... GOOD BOY ECHO!

Echo is here!

The day is finally here, and I finally have a few minutes to write about it. It's been a busy weekend and past few days.
We picked Echo up on Friday afternoon - we were the first - and after some time talking to them about the dog, the website, fixing her computer (kind of) and signing papers, we were on our way! Marnie got to hold him all the way home (making up for a childhood trauma inflicted upon her by Candace when she "wasn't allowed" to). Big sisters just have a knack with teasing younger siblings, huh?

Anyway, he is adorable right now. He mostly sleeps the day away with periodic bursts of puppy energy.
The first 2 days with him were spent up at Chris' parents cottage - we were unsure about doing that, and warned everyone before we got the dog of the potential sleepless nights, but it turned out ok. Echo did extremely well the first night there, but not before we "broke him in" with his crate. When he got home with us the plan was to tire him out a lot, then put him in his crate and then leave the house for about an hour (we went to the local pub for dinner). I'm not sure, but I don't think we tired him out enough before putting him in the crate. He whined and yelped like crazy, and thank god we left the house because there was no way we could have been there and listen to that noise. It was heart-breaking! I think the second mistake was I left a window upstairs open and it's a funny angle because when it's open it kind of deflects the noise from outside into the house downstairs. So I'm sure he heard cars and kids playing outside. This at about 5pm on the Friday, so you know it's going to be busy out there.

Anyway, we ate dinner and came back and to our horror, he was still yelping and whining... uugghhh. We'll never know if he actually fell asleep or not but we like to think that yes he did for a little bit! When we got in, we noticed that there was a little red-coloured stain on the blanket in his crate. The colour of the treats we used to lure him in. The poor little guy worked himself up so much that he got sick.... and then ate it, so very little cleanup. :)

He's also been very good at going outside to do his business. Every time we take him out (about every 2 hours right now) he pee's, even if it was only 10 minutes prior he tries. He has pee'd 2 or 3 times in the kitchen now, but all of them were my fault. I know that as soon as I let him out of the cage he's going to pee, but I didn't get him outside soon enough at least twice. I let him out and then went to get a baggie for clean up, and as soon as he took a few steps NOT towards the door, he started peeing. But I stopped him and took him out to finish which he did. Good boy!
Another time it was late and I realized he hadn't been out for a while, so I awoke him and said, let's go pee, let's go outside. He got up ok, and I was trying to get him to walk to the door with me instead of carrying him out (stairs and thresholds take too long!) he walked over his bed (mom's xmas present) and started peeing... Nope! Lift, carry, outside, and he finished... and then left another present for me to clean up, so he really had to go. Speaking of, I need to get him out now...

So back to the cottage - he was a hit and got TONs of attention all weekend. As far a crate training at night went, he whined for about 10 minutes going down the first night with Marn and I sleeping beside the crate and then slept straight until after 4am. I had set my alarm for 4 am to take him out and he made it no problem - I actually had to wake him up to go out. But getting back in the crate wasn't the greatest. It took him about 20-30 minutes to settle and fall asleep again, only to wake up at 6:30am for good. So I got up again, took him straight outside where he "performed" again and then went for a walk and hung out with him outside until every one else got up. I don't mind being up that early at the cottage on the water. It's so nice and peaceful. Everyone else who was up that early on their walk and who ran in to us asked the same questions. "what kind of dog is that?", "wow" or "oh my god, you're nuts", "I've never seen a great dane puppy before" (probably because they're not puppies for very long), "I've never seen that colour before", "will he get big?" (no, he's a miniature great dane!), "will he be friendly when he gets big?". It was cute because people are interested and all have the same reaction when we say he's a great dane, but come on people!

Night 2 at the cottage wasn't as good for him. It took about 30 minutes to settle when we first put him in, and then waking him up at 4am, going outside and putting him back in, and again he worked himself up so much that he threw up again. It wasn't a lot, and Marn and I decided to not give in and leave him since he wasn't actually laying in it. He finally did go to sleep about 45 minutes later but was up at 6am this time which was harder for me to get up and stay up with him. Kudos to him, though because he did have a poop. (engaging reading, huh? The bowel cycles of a puppy...)

Here are some more pictures of the new guy:





Anyway, I have the "hard week" off this week. People keep telling me that he'll get better and that the whining at night won't last long. At most about a week and a half. Well, I know this but it sure will be nice when he whines for only 5 minutes at night and is able to sleep through the night. hopefully as this week goes on, he'll get better. He's already lasting longer at night. We got him to sleep last night at 11:45, but he went in at 11 and I didn't let him out until 5am this morning which was great. I woke up at 4, but didn't hear him wrestling around, so went back to sleep. He woke me up at 5 with urgent calls, "let me out or there'll be trouble!!". What a good boy for holding it so long - 6 hours! But with that came another early wake up since he took another 45 minutes to settle down and was up at 6:30. Talk about prepping for a baby ...but I think this is tougher! ;)