Puppy update a few weeks down the road

We've had Sebastian almost a month and a half now. Here's updates:

• We're now giving him 5 mg of prednisone once per day, not twice, and it seems to still be fairly affective at stopping the itching. He's still itchy, though, so we may end up having to take him to the vet anyway. Sebastian is also way less manic and ravenous. Usually. He gets super annoying around bed time or when he's tired.
• We've started him on one pill of fish oil per day. Hoping that might help with the itching too.
• He's finally losing his puppy teeth. He's very bitey still.
• He's pretty well house trained at this point. Messes are rare.
• He really likes squeaky toys.
• Oscar tolerates him much better, but I still wouldn't call them buddies. There are brief moments when I think it looks like Oscar wants to love on Sebastian or play with him, but it doesn't last long, and usually ends with Oscar hissing and/or swiping at Sebastian.
• Abby and Sebastian have finally started to play some in the evenings. They never play outside, though, which is weird. And most of the time Abby doesn't want anything to do with Sebastian; it's just sometimes at night when she gets a wild hair and decides it's play time.
• He sleeps really well at night. He's great in the crate. :D
• The diarrhea cleared up after a week or two when we first got him.
• We messed up and didn't continue his deworming meds like we were supposed to, so now he has worms again, and we're treating all the animals this time. Ugh. They'll all get a second dose in two weeks. And we'll continue treatment as directed this time.
• He's learning his tricks pretty well (sit, up, down, spin). He might be pretty smart!

Puppy Update

Quick bits:

• Sebastian seems to have come to us already crate trained. Yay!
• He's not house trained. Several messes, but he might be slowly starting to get it.
• He's very very itchy. We've tried benadryl with no luck. Oatmeal baths didn't help much either. So we're trying prednisone (5mg twice per day at the moment). It helps with the itching, but the Sebastian is very thirsty, VERY hungry, and is pretty manic ALL THE TIME.
• Abby doesn't like him much. She's not aggressive towards him, but she also doesn't want him messing with her. So, of course, he's constantly trying to get all up in her business. He wants to play. She does not.
• Oscar isn't a fan, but Sebastian is VERY curious about him.
• Sebastian came to us with diarrhea, probably due to a combination of intestinal parasites, changes in food, and stress. 

Fleas Bite

We visited Travis’ dad last weekend, and apparently their dogs had fleas. After we got home, we discovered that our dogs also had fleas. Great.

We gave them flea baths with some kind of “natural” flea shampoo, but I don’t think it did much. After a few days, Travis got the dogs (and Oscar) flea collars but it seemed to have very little effect on the dogs. So yesterday Travis washed the dogs with a new flea shampoo (Hartz Ultra Guard Rid Flea & Tick Dog Shampoo, active ingredient Phenothrin 0.27%).

The bath seemed to help Samson, but Abby has been manic ever since her bath: constant panting, pacing, and itching. She seems to only find a little relief outside.

We tried giving her enough benedryl for a 150lb dog, but it didn’t seem to help much. She got a little bit better over night, but she is still very uneasy, and she kept us up a lot of the night with her restless behavior.

The last time she acted like this was when we put some of the flea medication on her. It’s got to be some kind of allergic reaction to the medication. Hopefully she’ll get better soon.

Oscar Tries the Nip

Gave Oscar some catnip for the first time. Well, technically it's not the first time, but it's been years because the REAL first time I gave it to him, he was a kitten and seemed completely uninterested. He enjoyed it pretty well this time around. :)

A Walk in the Grove

We took Samson and Abby to the Grove on campus today. Coach Nutt was giving a welcome speech to all the incoming freshmen, so we thought it'd be a good opportunity to socialize the dogs. Anyways, we harnessed 'em both up and loaded them into the car and drove out to the Grove. Samson always sits patiently in the back seat and looks out the side window. Abby on the other hand stands up the whole time and sticks her head in between the front seats and looks out the front windshield. Once we got on campus, Samson started whining eagerly as he saw people walking around outside; he gets so excited. lol

After we parked and got out of the car, we walked the dogs around and Abby saw her first squirrel. I hadn't realized it, but she's never really seen a squirrel before! She wanted to chase after it, but she behaved and was easy to hold back. It was pretty funny, though.

Samson behaved really well as usual. He loves meeting new people. He usually wears out pretty quickly in this humid heat, though, and it wasn't even all that hot today. So we just made a small circle through the Grove, then headed back to the car.

In other news, Oscar kinda chewed up our camera. Nothing major, just superficial damages, but it really pissed off Travis so now we're in the market for a new camera. lol C'est la vie.

Oscar Says it's Time to Eat

Oscar doesn't get a lot of face time in the diary, so I thought I'd show him off in this post. He begs like this all the time whether he has food in his bowl or not. I think he just likes the attention. ;)

Four-Month Update

Abby Stats: 1 year old

Abby has turned into a very confident and happy dog. She’s not afraid of anything. She is a regular barker and guards the house well. In fact, just yesterday my mom came to the house while we were at the neighbors’ and rang the doorbell. Both dogs barked of course, but Abby also stuck her head through the cat door to see who was outside. Mom put her face to the window, and Abby, head still stuck through the cat door, growled menacingly at her. I had to laugh when I saw her do it; she looks a little ridiculous with her head sticking through the cat door. It makes me feel good to know that Abby will do a good job intimidating would-be burglars.

Abby walks really well on the leash, though she tends to try to lead. When we take her and Samson out to the square, she will sometimes bark at other dogs when we try to pull her away from them. I think she is just doing this because she is confused or is unsure of how to behave around other dogs that are leashed. It’s definitely something to do with the leashes, because she is always very friendly when she meets dogs when she is free in the back yard.

Other than that, she eats really well, has gotten into a regular schedule about going out, and plays with Oscar regularly. She loves digging in the yard (to our chagrin) and playing with Samson. She gets jealous when he is outside on his own and will bark and whine wanting to go out where he is. She doesn’t seem to mind as much when the situation is reversed and she is outside on her own.

She likes to cuddle and play with us in the floor. Her personality is so much like Ellie's sometimes, but minus all of Ellie's fearfulness. Abby really has been a Godsend for us.

She is very fond of chewing on her toys; we bought her a Kong Extreme about a month ago, and she’s already chewed off a few pieces of it. She also really likes the bones that she has, and has done a very good job of not chewing up much that she is not supposed to. The Christmas tree, however, had its trial by fire not long after we put it up. Somebody (probably Oscar, but possibly also Samson since he likes to get into tight spaces…) knocked the tree over, and we came home to find a bunch of chewed-up ornaments. Luckily none of our good ones were destroyed (it was only the inexpensive decorative ones), but we scolded her really well and she hasn’t paid any attention to the tree since then. She seems to learn very quickly when she does something wrong, and rarely does it more than once.

Also, we discovered today what appears to be a third dew claw on one of her hind legs. It looks so weird and is not like the others. It's sort of soft and looks as though it could just be pulled out or something. Gives me the heeby-jeebies just wrting about it. We might have to have it removed just for being so... creepy. lol

Oscar Decides She's Okay

Ellie Stats: 18 weeks old, 11 weeks with us, 50 lbs.

• Ellie hasn’t peed on the carpet in weeks. :D
• She barked and snapped at Samson last night when he got too close to a bone that she had snatched from him earlier after he left it alone.
• Oscar has decided he likes Ellie. They play all the time now.

Easter 2009

Ellie Stats: 14 weeks old, 7 weeks with us, 37 lbs.

• Ellie plays great with Maggie (a Boston terrier) and the kids (our nephews are visiting).
• We took Ellie and Sam to the Grove yesterday for an Easter egg hunt. She did really well with all the kids wanting to pet and play with her.
• Oscar is finally really playing with Ellie.

Ellie's 2nd Week

Ellie Stats: 9 weeks old, 25 lbs.

• Ellie and Samson officially play tonight for the first time.
• Oscar is warming up to her as well. He jumped at her in his box, but she didn’t know what to think of it.
• Ellie is also beginning to scratch at the door when she needs to go out; she’s inconsistent at best.
• Ellie is getting much better with the crate. She does not usually whine while she’s in it, and waits quietly (though not always patiently) to be let out.
• Barked back at Samson before backing down from his food.

Day Seven with Ellie

Ellie Stats: 9 weeks old, 2nd week with us, 22 lbs
Oscar is beginning to accept Ellie. No mistakes in the crate. Ellie is showing signs that she is holding poop and pee for the outside. Biting pretty often during play.

Day Four with Ellie

Ellie isn't crying as much when people walk in the house while she’s in the crate. She's playing more with Samson. Oscar the cat still hates her. Ellie is peeing on the floor sporadically. She sleep through the night again.

Peanut Butter = Happiness

We bought this toy for Samson that we can put peanut butter inside. Fun times ensue.

Samson and Oscar - BFFs

Samson and Oscar play like this all the time. Oscar will squeal and squeal when Samson chews on him, but then he'll turn around and just rub up all over Samson as if saying, "Do it again!" lol

OMG LASERS!

So I bought a little laser pointer to play with the cat, but it turns out Samson is a fan as well.

Had fun making this video. Sam is about 9 months old in this one.