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!
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