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.


-
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.


-
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."

-
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!

-
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.

-
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.

2 comments:

  1. Meagan you are a writer! Loved your post and especially your writing style :) Aunt Wendy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks! I just write whenever something comes up... glad you like it! Nothing new lately with her unfortunately... :(

    ReplyDelete