Its a bird, its a train, no its Dozer!

I have to keep it short today. Just wanted to post up since I've been out of pocket due to Holidays and such.

Dozer's legs are back to normal! :-)

He's been on his diet which is the same food, just cut back to proper amounts. We also picked up some canned food (Eagle Pack as well) and are adding some supplements just for good measure based on recommendations from the GDL. Ultimately the most important thing is that he's back to his normal self and hopping around like a little deer. I snapped a few pics of him playing with the other "kids".

A quick humorous note. We were laying in bed the night before last and heard a strange noise. After turning the TV down and listening closely we decided it was some birds. Not long after that the "birds" grunted and changed their tune to light puppy snore. ;-)

Merry Christmas from the ballerina boy

Its been an eventful couple of days so I’ll try and just cover a few of the more noteworthy tales. To start with, it seems I have been over feeding my baby boy! We are buying him a special food packed with protein and since he is a big boy I was leaning towards the upper end of the suggested servings. After some research and advice I found out that I was giving him nearly twice as much food as he should have right now. With his little body growing so fast and un-proportionately at this point it seems his little legs are not strong enough to support his fat belly. I started to notice that he was looking bowlegged Sunday. Having been warned by the Breeder of such things being caused by a poor diet I figured it was all in my head. Monday he was having trouble getting around and it was noticeable that he couldn’t support himself very well with his front legs. After a short freakout session I phoned the Breeder who suggested I contact a specialist in such things and while waiting for her reply I did some research on my own. In the end the specialist confirmed that we had overfed our baby. With a strict diet, some vitamins, fruit, and joint supplements he should be fine in a very short time. We can already see a difference. Its amazing how fast things change on this growing boy. While he is still on the road to recovery, he seems unaffected after naps and the problem is most noticeable after playing for a long period of time. I think of it being similar to doing a lot of pushups. The first ten are easy and you hardly increase your breathing. Do ten sets of ten and you can hardly lift a glass of water to your mouth.

Other than cutting his food back we are giving him some join supplements. We’ve given him no treats, bones, or anything other than dry kibble to eat from day one. Last night I pealed a slice of an apple for him and he gobbled it up leaving no crumbs. I’m not sure if he really liked it or was just willing to eat anything. He has a great apatite, which is what got us into this situation in the first place.

He’s starting to hop up and down the door sill to the back door now. When we would let him out he would sit there and whine as if scared of the one inch change in elevation. After chasing one of the other dogs out a few times and then wanting to be back in the house bad enough he has finally convinced himself that he is capable of the feat. He still has accidents in the house, but its only been a few days. He will not go in his cage, which is nice! We are starting to figure out the signals when he needs to go and are doing good about getting him to the yard. The yard, OMG… I’ve already had to clean it up twice! His mom promised she would take care of this before we agreed to get the pup, but so far I’m the only one on duty. Dooty duty, if you will. LOL. He likes a five foot radius right outside the door and if I don’t pick it up he will tromp right through it. The boy goes ALL the time. I think three times in twenty minutes is the record so far. The size is whole different story I wont even get into.

I have used the term “follows you around like a puppy” before but this little guy is like a magnet. I’m constantly tripping over him. I’ll see him across the room with his mom or one of the other dogs so I walk out of the room to do something. When I turn around he’s under my feet having followed me without me knowing it. I doubt I’ll be tripping over him for long. He’s growing so fast, even just over the past few days. He’s going to be a roadblock before long!

Even with his naps throughout the day he has been sleeping about six hours or so through the night only waking up to go outside. He whines a little when he gets put to bed because he wants to eat or play but after a few arguments he quiets down and goes back to sleep.

He had a good Christmas receiving lots of toys and attention. We took him and Suesse to my parents house to play with the family and my five year old niece. He liked snuggling with everyone but wanted his momma the most. He is a mommas boy for sure. Him and Suesse spent most of the day playing with their new toys and after four hours or so we had to throw one away due to the stuffing being pulled out. One rope toy had lots of frayed pieces but was salvageable. Another rope toy had been tugged so much the toy on the end of the rope came apart and it had to be trashed. Hey, better than using dads house slippers right?

So, other than fat boy being on a diet everything is great. He’s growing like a weed and getting more spoiled every day.

I took pictures of him in his ace bandage type stuff that help support his little ankles I”ll post up later. I call them his “ballerina” pictures since it looks like he is wearing leg warmers. ;-)

For those interested, you can read about his leg problems here: http://www.greatdanelady.com/articles/puppy_feed_program_for_knuckling_over.htm

The puppy named "NO"

Its been four years since I’ve had a puppy. I forgot how much fun and work was involved. I didn’t remember thinking puppy breath was cute, yet somehow it is. Although we’ve had a few accidents the little boy is doing his business outside most of the time. I believe most of that is due to us watching him like a hawk and taking him outside every fifteen minutes or so.

The other dogs are starting to get used to him. The miniature schnauzer, Suesse, has someone her size (for the moment) to play with. It also helps that he is not intimidated by her and if she takes his toy he chases her down. The mutt, Hayden, is glad to have someone else to distract Suesse so he can play with toys in peace. He plays with the pup a little. The pup is just the right height to easy grab his dangly things so Hayden tends to seek shelter elsewhere when the pup wants to play.

We are crate training the pup. It keeps him safe and out of trouble when we cant keep a constant eye on him as well as provides him the quite time he needs to take his puppy naps. He is doing very well even though his mom is spoiling him too much. He thinks he is a baby and wants to be held already. This will be a HUGE problem when is bigger than she is so I have to break them both from the habit quickly. He is getting used to crate and doesn’t whine for his mommy too much, considering he’s a pup and still settling into his new home. Last night he actually slept six hours straight! That was a nice treat.

I think the hardest thing has been trying to name him. We laughed about giving him some foo-foo name like Fluffy. Since he will be a big boy we wanted a “manly” name like Tank or Brutis. Somehow we came up with the name Rocco, but his mom wanted to spend some time with him before committing to a name. Before we even received him and only had pictures I started calling him Pumpkin Head. Wouldn’t you know that after a few days of affectionately calling him Pumpkin or Pumpkin Head he now responds to it? While he will probably always by our little Pumpkin Head we have decided to call him Dozer, in reference to a bull dozer. This is because he is already stout and like a load of bricks. He was sitting by my feet all weekend while working in the kitchen and I cant count the number of times I tripped over him. You’d think I would have hurt him or kicked him across the room, but instead I come tumbling down while he continues to sit there with a look on his face as if wondering why I cant seem to stand up. We’ve started making every effort to call him Dozer so his new name will set in, but for now the thing he seems to hear the most is “NO”.