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. 

Howloween 2012

We had our 2nd annual halloween party yesterday. It was a blast. :)

Not so much for the dogs, though. We had to keep them pinned up in our bedroom. They behave pretty well, though. We gave them some chew treats, and pet on them whenever we walked by the door (we just had a tall baby gate blocking them in so they could still see all the goings-on).

Anyways, the dogs have been well. Samson has good days and bad days with his knee. Mostly good, I think, but he'll go through an especially "limpy" handful of days every now and then.

Abby threw up yesterday. She ate her supper then yacked it right back up. She later went on to eat a rawhide treat and had no trouble keeping it down, so I think it was probably nothing.

Other than that, Abby's been fine. Very happy and affectionate as always.

Frisky Sam

Lately Samson has been feeling quite frisky. This is a big change from his usual mopey self, so we're taking it to mean that his knee is stating to feel better. He still limps, but it seems like every night around 8:00 to 10:00 he tries to play with Abby. Their favorite game? The mounting game (it's a dominance thing). Obviously this is not good for his knee or hip, so we have to always separate them or distract them with treats.

Other than that, we're still doing the glucosamine and fish oil, two each twice per day.

Splish Splashin'

We've been thinking of getting a little wading pool for Abby and Samson to enjoy during this crazy heat that won't seem to let up. We were worried that they wouldn't like it, though, so we hadn't bought one yet. Luckily for us, we happened upon a discarded wading pool that somebody had dumped on the curb in our neighborhood. FREEBIE!

So we filled 'er up and here's the results. :)

Samson After 8 Weeks of CM

We slowly weaned Samson off of his 8-week regimen of prednisone last week. He had his last pill Saturday, so he's been completely off of it for a few days now. He's still limping, but the good news is that the limping hasn't gotten worse since he's been off the pred. Keeping our fingers crossed that it stays that way, and he'll continue to heal. Hopefully he'll be back to 100% a year from now…

We continue to give Samson 4 pills per day of glucosamine+chondroitin and fish oil.

For the past couple of weeks Samson and Abby have been getting playful around 9:30 or 10:00 every night. It's hard making them not play because I know they've both got a lot of pent up energy. It's been FOREVER since we've taken them both to walk around the Square, and even though I walk/jog every morning with Abby, that doesn't help with Samson's boredom at all (and if I'm honest, it only barely helps with Abby's).


To tease you a bit — and to break up the monotony of all this news about Sam's bum knee — I've got a cute video of Abby that I'll post later after I've had a bit of time to cut out the dull bits. :)

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. :)

Goofy Puppy

She's not inebriated, I swear!

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

Abby Loves Playing with Sam

Abby messes around with Samson like this all the time. She has really taken well to him. Samson on the other hand, just sort of puts up with it. lol

Settling In

Abby Stats: 8 months old

Abby is much more confident and comfortable in her new home. She loves going out in the back yard and playing with Samson (though he gets tired of her). She tries to play a lot with Lilly and Lola (a pair of boxer mixes) next door through the fence. She’s very good about going to the door when she wants out. Problem is, she’s not learned when it’s ok for her to go out, when it’s a bad time; she likes to wake us up in the middle of the night… that’s getting a little old.

Abby is left; Samson is right.

Starting to Grow Up

Ellie Stats: 7 months old

• Ellie’s personality seems to be transitioning from puppy to adult. She’s been a little less playful all the time and a little calmer. Sleeping more; eating less.
• Ellie chewed up the kitchen rug. Apparently she still hasn’t learned that those are off limits…

Five Months Old

Ellie Stats: 5 months old

• She's still chasing her tail.
• Spent the night outside her crate for the first time. She did great and didn’t tear up anything!

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.

Ellie Has Learned How to Dig

• Ellie digs her first hole in the yard today.
• Ellie is starting to get vocal during play with Samson. Barking and growling a little.

(Heather and the girls left this morning.)

A Spat with Sam

• Ellie and Rebel are playing well. No more toy-related arguments.
• Samson gets really annoyed with Ellie playing and not letting up with him. One time he growled and started to go after her, so Ellie runs away. Travis stopped Samson, and Ellie sulked in the kitchen. Other than that one incident, Ellie and Sam have played very well together. He gets annoyed with her, but he hasn’t seemed to want to really attack her except for today.

Ellie Meets a New Dog

Ellie meets Rebel (a french bulldog) and Heather’s girls (our nieces). The dogs play pretty well together, but Rebel growls and jumped on Ellie twice because of a toy he wanted. Ellie loves the kids, and the kids love Ellie. :)

Still Week Two

• Ellie is still scratching at the door. I think she’s getting better with it. Still messing up at times but not any today.
• We bought her a name tag for her collar today.
• Still playing rough with Samson.

Play! Play! Play!

Playing a lot with Samson. Biting lots!

Meeting a New Puppy

We had family visiting from out of town and they brought along their new addition: Maggie, a 12-week-old Boston Terrier. She had great fun playing with Samson, and Sam did a great job of not squishing her flat in the process. haha