Monday, June 29, 2009

Where do I begin?!

Saturday was quite the adventure I must say. Woke up in the morning and we decided we'd take Callie around with us in the town. First stop, PetSmart!

Let's just say Callie loves PetSmart. It's where we go for classes and she adores her trainer Kathy. Along with this admiration is her submissive peeing. For some reason whenever she even smells Kathy it's like Niagra Falls!! I walk in while Mom parked the car and Kathy just stuck her hand through to let Callie sniff her and yep, she peed. No one else was around to hold Callie so I had to tie her around my waist while cleaning up her mess. All was going well until mom came in, then Callie got a little wild. Hmm... 70lb dog pulling while tied around my waist? Yes, it DID hurt. I felt like I was getting punched in the stomach repeatedly. Once that little ordeal was over we got to deal with what mom calls, "The heffer". She apparently works in food and saw us having some trouble with Callie getting extremely excited and looks at my mom with a completely straight face and says, "Oh, she'll be good once she's trained." Then glances down at Callie and walks away! My mom and I both agreed we wanted to punch her in the face.

People just look at her size and think she's older. She's 5 months old barely and is a PUPPY. She's very well trained and listens to us, but her excitement gets out of control so even though she's doing what we ask she's still going to be bouncing all over. We ask her to sit and wait, she does so, but 5 seconds later she's back up, her whole body wagging, begging us to take her over to where people are so she can hang out with them. That's her puppyness. That's not something we can fix with training, it'll be fixed once she's older. If you're relating her age to human years, she's about 5 years old. When you have a 5 y/o can you expect them to stay right next to you while shopping, not saying a word, not touching anything, and doing everything you ask percisely? Of course not. It's the same with her.

Thankfully once we checked out she was doing a bit better. Peed 3 more times just there. The cashier was very happy to hold Callie for us while my mom signed and I cleaned her messes. The other cashier was completely fawning over her announcing her love for Great Danes. That experience was much better! Then the manager got a huge smile over his face as he walked by her to help check out someone else with a little Australian Shepherd puppy. The Aussie whose name is "Rocky" and Callie were sniffing each other and showing off play signals but Rocky sure did not know about Callie's size! The manager kind of laughed at Callie becoming vocal and explained to the woman she was just a puppy. I guess he knew his breeds because we never talked to him. A little girl who was a part of Rocky's family giggled and got a shower of kisses by Callie which she adored. At least PetSmart ended on a good note!

We were driving by Lucy's place and decided to drop by. Both her and Josh were home. We let Callie hang out and play in the grass in the shade outside of their apartment. For some odd reason Callie only jumps on Lucy! Mom and I were mortified but luckily Callie didn't scratch her this time. We don't even expect it because she jumps on rarely anyone else... Callie, we need to work on that. Anyways, we got to talking and found out Tammy was over at Aunt Wendy's house and thought it'd be fun to have Callie and Tammy play, but since no one was home during that time we brought the dog's over to Josh's house.

Tammy, Callie, and Beasty all played nicely but Bear didn't enjoy it which he boldly showed by growling! The three played around the yard awhile until Lucy got Tammy to go into the horse's/cow's/mule's pen. We laughed SO hard watching Tammy getting chased down by the horse! Then the horse began rearing and running after her again, until they reached the turkey cage and Tammy would go on one side, the horse on the other, and they kept turning around it. Callie got in the pen, too, but quickly realized the size of the animals in there and looked up at them like, "WOW! You're a big doggy!!" She got smart quick in there and decided it was best if she stayed out of the pen and by us. Tammy did not get that concept at all. She enjoyed having those animals running after her and didn't get hurt at all.

Now that Callie was tired out we took her over to Aunt Wendy's house. She stayed in the garage with Tammy while everyone did their thing. Poor Tammy, Callie still wanted to play even though she was tired out. Tammy kept getting annoyed by Callie pawing at her and nipping playfully at her. Tammy went home though and Callie just layed down and relaxed in the garage until we brought her around back to see the other dogs. Scout and Zoey were down from Utah with out family. Last visit Scout, who's a German Shorthaired Pointer to get the size, towered over Callie. He was dominant towards her because she was so small. This visit Scout looked at her and just sniffed. Callie is now towering over him!

We soon left after that and took Callie home while we ran some errands. We had to go to WalMart and we asked about what their policy is on dogs. Turns out even though she's a therapy dog in training we can't bring her in until she IS certified. Oh well. Other places will let her in. She really needs that type of socialization. She needs to be around foreign things to her, be around large quantities of people, and learn how to calm herself when many stimulating things are around. PetSmart alone cannot provide that. Once we get her vest that states she's a therapy dog in training we'll call management and see about what the true policy is rather than just go by what the cashier says.

That night we took Callie out for a walk around the high school. She loves that place! We did like a loop around it and realized Callie was no where near being tired so we decided to go get our water jugs filled up with her then stop by McDonalds and get $1 sodas. We then went back to the high school and played around tons more. Then back home to where Callie promptly laid down and slept! :)

Since yesterday was Sunday we couldn't do much. So we had Callie hang around the house until night time came. Went over to the high school again as usual. It was seriously 11:30pm when we got out. Of course there was still a couple I guess "romancing" there. Didn't see them then they suddenly popped up on the bleechers. We let them be and played with Callie in the sprinklers there. They soon left. Let's get one thing straight, once they got on the track Callie was right back on their leash. Callie NEVER made contact with them or anything like that. We just minded our own business. Well maybe 15 minutes later they're still sitting in their car. Then a local rent-a-cop showed up and called my mom over. I grabbed Callie fast and put her on her leash. We headed down and he began telling us dogs aren't allowed on the fields. Apparently, "Children play on there and we don't want dogs pooping all over the grass and dirt." Wished my mom had a more of talking back attitude and showed him our poop bags and told him we were better owners than that. Oh well. Of course, we're still going back just never on the track again. We'll just make sure no one is there to call the cops on us.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Oops!




Oops! Guess I forgot to update things on here... Sorry!

Things have been good with her. She walks very well on a leash, graduated her first obedience class, is fully house trained (has been for awhile), and she gets along well with the kitties! What more could we ask for?

Let me get you guys caught up here...

TRAINING:
Knows commands very well, still needs treats as motivation due to her puppyness. Apparently once we've gone a month with a command we can wean her off needing treats because it will be a habit. Good to know. She knows sit, down, paw with both, wait, stay, come, let's go (loose leash walking), go pee, go lay down (goes to her bed and lays down), almost knows leave it, and is getting the concept of dropping it she'll drop it maybe 80% of the time. Her trainer loves her to death, and I think she's doing very well in her classes seeing everyone else there was close to a year old. Although I must say I was very proud of all the other dogs in the class! We all did so well!! Unfortunately she's still learning to sit and wait at the door when people come in and we desperately need to work on that before she gets too big. The biggest things I'm proud of for her are her stays and comes. Goodness! She's 5 months old and will stay perfectly still even in PetSmart when I leave her and disappear out of view. Her comes are about 95% effective. Can let her out without a leash in the front yard and she'll stick by and come when we call. We even feel good enough to let her run off-leash and know she'll come. Sometimes it takes her longer but she does. We learned an emergency come command, verbal word is "Now/Hurry". In case she was in immediate danger we can use this to have her come back quickly. We have to play a game with her where when we use this command she comes up to us she gets a mouthful of hot dogs. Let's just say after one round of this she was booking it to us! She will begin her intermediate class the 11th or the 18th. Not sure... From there she'll move up to advanced, and we'll work with her to get her CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and she'll move on to being a therapy. She'll go to hospitals, nursing home, and maybe even schools for educational seminars. Good job Callie!

HOME:
She's becoming more true to her breed. Most of the day she just sleeps now. We got a doggie
door finally. Waking up at 5:30am then periodically letting her in and out every 5 minutes until 8:00am then sleeping and letting her out every 30 minutes after that was really taking a toll. The first day we got it installed she would go through without a problem, but didn't get the concept and still whined at the door. That night I was sitting awake watching TV at 1:00am, and then I hear the doggie door opening. I flipped out because Callie was at my feet! Frantic that someone was breaking in, I ran into my mom's room and immediately woke her up. She listened and got scared as well, we could here the doggie door opening and closing. Hesitantly we moved to her sliding glass door and flipped on the light, afraid as to what we were going to find. Was it a stray dog? A burglar? Nope! It was Snickers, our cat, coming IN. He learned how to function the flippin doggie door before Callie and no one showed him how! So now both kitties use it efficiently and can go in and out. Callie learned how to use it after a couple of days and now we never have to worry about not getting there to open the door in time and her having an accident. She's also doing very well with the cats. They have their riffs every-so-often but for the most part they leave each other alone.

GROWTH:
Callie eats about 6 cups of food per day. Some days she only eats 3, some days 8-10. Depends on how much she's growing that day. Our vet averaged that she should be growing .5lbs daily, and she is living up to that. No idea how tall she is, except the scary thing is that she's only 20 weeks old and if she stretches her neck her head can touch the tops of the counters! Yikes! Her tail is a lethal weapon. Not to mention her enormous paws. One night Callie stepped on my mom's foot and it turned purple and swelled up. For a little bit we thought her foot was broken but she was able to walk on it so we knew it really wasn't. I think Callie is up to 70lbs now. She no longer fits on her bed when she stretches out. Well, that isn't anything new. Luckily we bought her toys in extremely large sizes so those still work out for her. The crate is getting bigger. We've resulted in only crating her when it's too hot outside to leave her out or when we're not going to be gone long. We're hoping by time I go back to school we can teach her all of her house manners and make sure her newly developed separation anxiety has passed.

QUIRKS:
She now is a drooler. You can ask Lucy. When she gets a drink of water I swear she never even swallows it the water just pours out the sides! Then she drags it with her everywhere. By time she's done greeting you you're practically soaked. She drools for food. Nice habit there... Not to mention she'll just drool randomly. Oh boy can't wait until she's bigger and has bigger drools. On a funnier side, Callie has developed this very weird habit. She runs back and forth around the sofa and is like a maniac! We thought she was just releasing energy then found out the true reason, when a cat goes behind the sofa she'll run to both sides in a desperate attempt to see which side they go out of! Silly pup! She's also doing this thing where she walks by you and lifts up one back leg and places it in your lap. Don't know what that's about. She'll also do it to the sofa like she's trying to sit on it. She really does think she's the size of a toy dog and can fit in your lap! When you're sitting on the couch she'll give you paw. Oh no, not because she wants attention, but because from there she tries creeping up on the sofa. She'll then proceed to stand up, move her leg further back, try giving you other paw, and climbing up. Sorry babe! You're only allowed up when WE say. That's the rule.

Just for humorous purposes and for those of you without a Dane know what it's like to have a Dane, here are some excerpts from this website:

http://www.ginnie.com/Danes.htm

-You can carry on a conversation with a dog's muzzle firmly in your crotch

No joke on this one. You hardly even notice this anymore!

-
Your dog can hide an entire tennis ball (among other things) fully inside his lips and give you that innocent look that says, "What? I'm not eating anything!"

One night we clipped her nails, she rolled over, her jowls opened up and we found a STICK in there.


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You've learned to force a smile when asked "do you have a saddle for that thing?"

Oh yes. Hear this one daily. As well as "She's going to get huge!" Yes, we know.


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Your dog stands in your lap and reaches over you to stick his head in the drive-through window at MacDonald's and nearly gives the cashier a heart attack when she turns around to give you your change

Oh goodness. The funniest one that's happened yet is we were getting sodas at McDonalds and the woman turns around, sees Callie stands up, and jumped and said, "OH MY GOD!" Then was talking about how freaked out she got by Callie all while handing us our food, then turned to a worker thinking we couldn't hear her and said, "Did you see that? Their dog is HUGE."

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Your boss commented, "If you were married, I'd call the police," after you showed up at work with a black eye

Oh this is hilarious when you own a Dane. Not having a bruise is uncommon!

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A visitor yelled "No!!!" while telling a story, and your Dane hid for 3 hours behind the door in the bathroom before you found him

These dogs are big babies. One night Callie got scared and tried hiding under a chair that was much too small for her.


-Your dog sneak onto the bed in the middle of the night, and you wake up feeling like one of those dividers in a TV dinner


One morning I woke up and thought, "Wow, Annie! (Our cat.) You've gotten bigger..." then looked at my legs to see in the night she snuck up on my bed and slept with me.

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The term "lap dog" takes on a whole new meaning

Most definitely. 70lbs or so and she thinks she's 2lbs. Sit on the floor and she's sitting in your lap.

-You jump 3 feet when he barks

She's a girl, she's a puppy, yet her bark is SO deep and even freaks ME out.


Well, there you go! I'll try and post everyday if I can.