You Can't Fix Stupid.

Sometimes the amount of stupid and silliness I see in him every day scares me. ;-)

Update ....

Wow, how time flies! I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated this! Sorry about that folks. A lot has been happening around here: Kane is recovering from his TPLO surgery and I've started a new job working with a bed bug sniffing dog!

I work for a pest control company which employs dogs trained to sniff out bed bugs as one of the services they offer. I'll be working and training with one of the dogs. Her name is Aggie (or Agent 99), she's under two years old, and is a golden retriever. I haven't actually met her yet, as she is still in training, but from what everyone else has said, she is smaller than their other golden (a male named Magnum), has a deep reddish color to her coat, and is sweeter and more laid-back than him.

I've been studying for the past two weeks to pass my state certification tests on Tuesday; two thick binders full of pesticide information, laws, and identification of pests. Even though I won't actually be applying the pesticides or even doing anything with them in my job, they want me to be certified to make sure I have the information down for any clients that might ask me questions. The pay is several dollars above what I was earning at my previous job, comes with full benefits, a company car, a gas card, and everything I spend on Aggie (toys, crate, grooming, etc) is reimbursed.

The only thing I'm a little nervous about is the fact that Aggie will be living with me. Kane is going to lose his mind with happiness about having another dog around the house to play with, and he's not allowed to lose his mind with happiness for another 3 months.

Kane's recovery has gone well, for the most part. He's using his leg better than he was before the surgery, although he's still preferring to toe-touch when he stands. He's putting weight on the leg and actively using it when he walks, but he still has a limp, which I'm hoping will go away over the next couple of months during recovery. He has an x-ray scheduled for the end of the month at MSU to make sure his leg has healed properly before the surgeon signs off on a "return to activity" directive.

We had to wait an extra week to take his stitches out because at some point, he managed to lick at his incision without me noticing, despite the inflatable donut collar he was wearing. Sneaky dog. So I had to switch cones to a bite-not collar. Have several pictures I snapped during the first couple of weeks he was home.

This is the cone collar they gave him at MSU. It was huge and it freaked him out. He'd sulk with it on, lowering his head, and get it caught on a crack in the pavement. He'd freeze and look at me for help. So, I'd have to reach down, free it from the crack, and nudge him to keep walking. Rinse, lather, repeat.

I could barely fit his cone through the door of his crate. And then when he laid down, it ballooned out. I knew he need a different cone, so off to Petsmart I went.

I came home with this. An inflatable, donut-type collar. He liked this much better, probably because he could see around him.

After the first week, I allowed him out of his strict, 24/7 crate rest because he was making the both of us crazy.  On the condition that he would lay down on the air mattress and BE. QUIET. I'd bought the air mattress because there was no way I was carrying him upstairs to bed with me and he yodels if he has to sleep by himself.

His incision, 2-3 days after I took the bandage off. Sorry for gratuitous weiner. 

He didn't like his bite-not collar because he couldn't turn his head.

You can see how much they shaved here. Down his surgery leg and over one hip to the other. But they left his tail alone.

The collar gave him a lot of bad ear days. :)

I was going to include some APBT history in with this post, but it's already longer than I expected with the pictures and such, so I'll save that for tomorrow.

I'll feature another legendary APBT, Garrett's Jeep ROM  (son of famous CH. Crenshaw's Honeybunch ROM) as well as the "keep", or conditioning, James Crenshaw followed for all of his dogs. Each dogman has a different "keep" he follows to get his dogs in fighting shape for their matches and I hope to compare them.

TPLO

Things have moved very quickly with Kane's leg. Have some bullet points!

• Kane had his consultation last Thursday at MSU.
• The surgeon palpitated the joint, manipulated Kane's leg this way and that, and diagnosed him with a partial (if not complete) cranial cruciate ligament tear. He quoted me an estimate of $28-$3200 for the TPLO surgery.
• My mother is awesome enough to split the surgery between her Care Credit and a credit card, and then I'll pay her back.
• The surgeon was concerned enough about the way the joint felt and the quick muscle loss in the two weeks between my visit with Dr M and MSU, that he wanted to admit Kane that day, do the surgery last Friday, and then release him the next day. I told him I couldn't do it because of my work schedule, so he agreed to admit on Monday (yesterday), surgery today, released on Wednesday--despite the fact that they were fully booked this week.
• With this in mind, I took off Wednesday and Thursday of this week from work so I could be home for him the first two days.
• MSU ended up calling on Friday while I was at work and left a voicemail, basically saying "Oh, whoops, heehee, surgeon isn't here on Tuesday like he told you, so we went ahead and re-scheduled your appointment to drop-off Tuesday, surgery Wednesday, released Thursday. Please call to confirm!" Gee. Thanks.
• Called them back on Friday initially, but they'd already closed. So, I called them yesterday. The receptionist said they were fully booked this week, but they had a cancellation on Thursday, would I like to take it? I said, "No, you don't understand. The surgeon said it was okay if we did the surgery despite you guys being booked." She replied, in a slightly uppity voice, "Well, it'll be easier for you to take the cancellation on Thursday, and I'll have to confirm what you're saying with the surgeon, but ok."  ...... Seriously? Like I'm just inventing the fact that the surgeon said he'd get Kane in even though they were booked? Why would I just come up with that? But everything worked out, surgeon confirmed, yadayada.
• I dropped Kane off today for admittance at noon.
• He took a huge crap in the middle of the hallway. Yes. Yes, he is That Dog.
• When the student handling his case leashed him up to take him to a kennel, she went one way and I went the other. Kane dragged her to keep up with me, but after some encouragement on the student's part, followed the student with one last look over his shoulder.
• She called me earlier tonight to tell me that Kane was being a model patient and was one of the favorites at the hospital. They'd already gotten the radiographs and measurements done for tomorrow. And, he also ate his dinner without a problem.
• She'll call tomorrow morning to tell me how the night went for him, again before his surgery at 1pm and then after, and finally one more time later that afternoon to tell me how he's recovering. This is a lot more communication than I expected from such a large teaching hospital, but it's very helpful for my nerves. :-)
• I pick him up at 330pm Thursday.
• Then we begin the fun part -- 8 weeks of strict crate rest with leashed potty breaks only, radiographs taken at 8 weeks confirming the surgery is healing properly, and then 8 more weeks of a gradual return to exercise. But still no running or jumping until a minimum of 16 weeks after surgery. Oh joy. 4 months of no exercise for a highly active, not-quite-2-year-old puppy. Because, I'm sorry, but leashed walks up to 20 minutes is not exercise for Kane.
• I have a runner between Kane's crate and the enclosed porch so he doesn't slip on the hardwoods. Then my stepdad is building a ramp for the three steps down from the porch to the front yard with some indoor/outdoor carpeting so that Kane doesn't slip on that either. For the most part, Kane will be getting around with a jerry-rigged towel sling.

Wish him luck in surgery tomorrow!

Rollercoaster Monday

So, I've got good news and bad news about Kane.

We'll go with the god news first because it's short and so amazingly awesome.

Kane has his CGC!!!

Yes, you read right! My bonehead puppy passed his test last night with flying colors. The AKC representative even wrote: "Awesome job! Great ambassador!" on his sheet. He got a super-cool CGC bandana; all I have to do is send in the form and the fee, and the AKC will send me his official CGC document in a frame. He's now known as Kane Denator Puppers, CGC.

Today, I took him outside and tried to get some nice photos of him showing off his bandana. Unfortunately, even though he has his CGC, he couldn't resist the allure of deer poo in the backyard. Just pretend the brown smudges aren't there. ;-)

Kane doesn't know what all the fuss is about.

It took only two good rolls in the deer poo to get his bandana to that level of dirtiness.
My stupid, delightful, doggy boy.

Kane decides eating grass is preferable to this photo shoot.

Kane is still not impressed.

Was that a squirrel? Lemme chase it, lemme chase it!

It's sitting right there! Staring at me. Taunting me!
Lemme go teach it a lesson. Please??

Oh, jeez, mom. Now it's up the tree!
You let it get away!

It's so hard being a Super Star. Just ask Kane.

Notice how is left rear leg is cocked underneath him
and his right rear leg is stretched out to the side?
Bad news time.

So, for the bad news.

Earlier yesterday, I took Kane in for what I thought was going to be a quick and easy vet appointment. He has a bump on his front right paw that I thought was a histiocytoma (although Kane's is nowhere near as bad as the one pictured on that webpage). Dr M examined the spot, told me to soak his paw in Epsom salts twice a day, wrote a script for an antibiotic, and then asked me about his limp.

And then from there ... it grew into something so much larger and terrifying than I ever thought.

Kane has had an on and off again limp since late April. It would get better with strict crate rest, and then it would pop up again two or three days later. I didn't think anything of it. Turns out he has a partial cruciate ligament tear in his right rear knee. More commonly known as a cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) tear.

Dr M had Kane do some Sits and Downs for her. Each of those times, his right leg was stretched out to the side. She 'hmmm'-ed and then had him lay down on his side so she could manipulate the leg. She felt some swelling in the knee as well as grade 1 "drawer movement". Basically, what it means is that instead of his knee moving only in a hinge movement, it's moving forwards and backwards across the joint like a drawer. An uninjured CCL prevents that sort of drawer movement, keeping things nice and tight. Grade 4 drawer movement is usually indicative of a complete tear.

She thinks his grade 1 movement shows that he has a partial tear, but it's never a 100% guaranteed diagnosis because she's had a dog with grade 1 drawer movement get into surgery and have a complete tear.

Dr M wants me to get Kane in to see a specialist as soon as possible. Even waiting 2 months can be detrimental at this point, because this CCL tear has likely been going on since April. (She'd initially diagnosed his lameness as a pulled muscle since she couldn't feel any swelling or drawer movement in his knee, and she was hoping for the less serious injury.) Unfortunately, with a partial CCL tear, the longer it goes on, the worse it gets. The frayed ends of the ligament end up rubbing against the cartilage in the knee and wearing it down, causing arthritis; and usually the end result of a partial tear, if left unresolved, is a complete tear. At this point, she said he is guaranteed to have some arthritis in his knee when he gets into his senior years (usually around 8+ for pit bulls).

There are different kinds of surgery available to repair the CCL. One is known as an extracapsular imbrication; this is the traditional form of surgery, but, unfortunately, even though Dr M can do it and it would be so much cheaper, it is now (usually) reserved for those dogs who are under 25lbs and/or are senior and/or have a low energy level.

Kane is none of those things. Even though he is no longer willing or able to use his right rear leg and is thus hobbling around on three legs, he is still bursting with energy and sometimes it gets the better of him. I still have to prevent him from doing zoomies around the yard, I still have to hide his chuck-it ball so he doesn't pester me with it, and I still have to keep him from launching off the porch on his potty breaks.

Our other options are either a TPLO (tibial plateau leveling osteotomy) or a TTA (tibial tuberosity advancement). These surgeries are basically the same; they focus on changing the angle of the tibia and how the femur meets it, and using a bone plate to stabilize the bone's new position. However, the TTA is a more recent (~2004) variation of the TPLO and cuts through a different part of the tibia. It's less invasive, and thus has less of a recovery time, and is also usually cheaper. TPLO/TTA surgeries restore mobility to ~97% after recovery, versus ~93% for the extracapsular imbrication.

The only problem is the cost. Dr M referred me to MSU veterinary school and they quoted me an estimate of $2600-$3300.

Yes. That thump you heard was me hitting the floor in a dead-faint.

Based on my research, that seems a little high (as most estimates I've seen are more in the $1500-$2500 range for a TPLO), but I'm not sure of the reasoning behind that estimate either (what they're including, etc, that I could potentially cut out or have Dr M do at her practice to save money [bloodwork, etc]). I have a consultation set up with MSU on the 25th of this month at 830am to discuss our options.

However things work out, he will either have the TPLO/TTA surgery done or his leg taken off if it's cheaper. I know Kane and he won't care whether he has that leg or not. He'll still be my wild and crazy puppers, careening around like a madman. Of course, if he does end up a tripod, there will go my dreams of titling him in Rally or Obedience. Or trying out dock diving with him.

Someone said to me that "a bullet is cheaper", when I told them about the cost of Kane's potential surgery. I wish I'd been able to punch them in the face. Who the heck says that sort of thing? Really?

CGC Class -- Week Three

Ok, guys, the Kanedog and I are still here, I promise!


We skipped his second CGC class session (two weeks ago now) because his soft tissue issue came up yet again. This is a recurring issue for us it seems, since it's been popping up off and on since May. I don't think I've been tough enough on him with crate rest. Right around the third day, we both start getting crazy and I figure that maybe I don't have to enforce the leashed potty breaks and off he zooms around the yard and I can only laugh and laugh as he jumps and twirls and does the butt-tuck boogie and acts like a complete doofus. And then he gets back inside, I put him in his crate, and the next potty break, he's limping again.


We'll try it again and this time I'm really going to buckle down.


Last week, his class went very well. In fact, he did spectacular. I need to stop thinking of him as a doofus puppy with a few bricks short of a full load, because he's not. Well, ok, he definitely isn't the smartest dog in the world by any stretch, but he's got enough smarts to know what to do and when, and if he doesn't, he is so eager to please that it makes up for his mental abilities. He seems to understand when I want him to work and hen he can goof off now, whether that's because of the energy he feels from me or just because he's put two-and-two together on the class location, I'm not sure. But either way, I'm still amazed at the focus he gives me.


I was floored when he recalled to me across the room, through a line of dogs on either side. You could have knocked me over with a feather. The lines started out at a distance of 5 feet, then moved closer to 3 feet, and then, finally they were only 2 feet away. He was the only dog who recalled to their owner every time, without hesitation and at speed. Except for once, when he caught sight of another owner giving her dog a treat for a good SitStay and he briefly debated going over to her to see if she'd give him a treat too. But I kept recalling him and he eventually decided he'd have better luck with me and recalled without ever completely making it over to the other owner. He got lots and lots of praise and extra noms for working through that extra distraction.


The only hiccup during the class was when the instructor brought out a ball to show the goldendoodle owner how they could use things other than treats for a reward. Kane has always been a toy-driven dog; honestly, I'm surprised he's not aggressive about them. But he has a special love for balls.


And sure enough, the ball came out, Kane saw it, and I was dead to him. No amount of poking him in the butt, waving a hand in his face, rubbing a piece of steak on his nose, nothing got his attention and re-focused it back to me. I'd warned the instructor that while he was a food hound and would happily work for it, he was head over heels for balls. I simply cease to exist for Kane when there's a ball in his presence unless I'm holding it. I'm debating whether I should work on that or not. I want to try flyball with him eventually, so I'm not sure I will.

The instructor spent some time on leash corrections while she talked about loose leash walking. This was very interesting to me as she described how to do a leash correction properly and made certain we knew that leash corrections didn't work for every dog or trainer. She hasn't used leash corrections in over 20 years. But she demonstrated the difference between dogs using the Samoyed, who is very independent and stubborn, versus Kane, who is softer and more easygoing.

It took four corrections for the Samoyed to get over her stubbornness and leave the chunk of steak on the floor and not touch it. It took one for Kane to not touch the steak, and actually the second time she tossed the steak on the floor, he actually backed away from it.

I almost cried watching him do that. It brought back very bad memories of my previous abusive, dominance methods. He  looked so cowed and scared, avoidance behaviors out the wazoo, ears back, lip licking, the works. I wanted to run over, pick my puppers up, and reassure him. If only I could still pick up his 50 lb fat ass. ;-)

The instructor pulled me aside after class and asked me about my reaction to it. I explained to her Kane's past with my abusive dominance methods and how seeing it reminded me of that. She comforted me and said it was the reason she explained that leash corrections weren't for every dog, and that it was a similar history with her dogs which caused her to stop using them. Back when she had first started training, it was very crank-and-yank. When positive methods started being introduced, she saw the difference in the happiness of her dogs and how much more they enjoyed training. She said I definitely don't have to use leash corrections with Kane if I didn't want to; that even though they're more effective in stopping a behavior, for some dogs, they're overkill and Kane may be one of them.


That was last week. I've been working on his heeling with the "you're in line with my leg, so you get treats shoveled in your mouth" method and things have been going well. I think we're almost ready to start proofing it to places other than the backyard. Maybe on his walk today, we'll try it.

CGC Class -- Week One

A few days ago, I signed Kane up for a CGC class run through the doggy daycare he used to go to. I was going to wait until he was 2-3 years old and had finished maturing, but after Ellie and with my renewed purpose towards Kane, I decided now was as good a time as ever. Many of my friends are aware that I was just a little (or maybe a lot) nervous about how well he would do. He's never been in a formal class setting; everything he knows, I've taught him myself, and I wasn't sure how well he'd do with other dogs in such prolonged contact with him. He's reactive towards other dogs, in a friendly manner, and I was so sure his brain would liquefy right out of his head and I'd be one of THOSE owners with one of THOSE dogs.

But it went remarkably well overall, and I'm super-proud of my puppers. I'm exhausted so I'll copy-and-paste the rest of this.

There were two other dogs in the class: a lab/golden retriever mix and a samoyed. The lab mix was hyperactive, easily excited, and mouthy as all get out; he'd actually bruised his owner from his mouthing. The samoyed was better than the lab mix, but still easily excited and prone to the zoomies and she loved to BARKBARKBARK, especially when her owner wasn't doing what she wanted, lol.

Compared to those two, Kane was a saint, LOL. I'm a lot more confident in Kane's ability to pass the test now; I'm amazed at how well Kane did overall, considering this was his first class setting.

There was one incident at the beginning that has given me a lot to think about, though. I had agreed with the Samoyed Owner to allow our dogs to greet, also under the instructor's direction and supervision. The Samoyed was friendly, exuberantly so, and after doing a polite mutual sniff of genitalia and butts, she shoved her face right up into Kane's to sniff. Kane, however, did not appreciate that and stiffened and growled a warning.

I immediately redirected Kane, the Samoyed Owner did the same with her dog, and everything was cool. The instructor liked that we were both quick on the draw so to speak, but the incident had riled Kane up a bit and he was losing whatever focus he'd initially had (which wasn't much since this happened within the first 5 minutes of Kane's first class EVER). The instructor saw this and asked to take Kane.

He was having none of it. He wasn't shrieking or lunging back towards me, but he kept trying to pull towards me (I was only ~4-5 feet away during this entire episode). The instructor did a couple of leash corrections (not even hard enough to be termed a "pop") and he flattened his ears and plopped his butt down into a sit and licked his lips at her. Noticing this, she immediately stopped the leash corrections, reassured Kane with a couple soothing strokes to his ears, and then gave him a few "easy" commands to follow. He warmed back up to her a little, enough to happily respond to her clucks and follow her around for a bit, but it was obvious he still wanted to be with me instead. He was panting harder than he should have been, focused entirely on me except for when she clucked or waved food at him, and he always sat with his back to her.

After she got him settled to where he wasn't panting as hard or pulling towards me (although he still had his back to her), she asked me if I'd realized that even though he was a physically strong dog, he was mentally very soft. I said yes, I had, and explained to her why I thought he was that way, going into vague detail about my prior "training methods". And boy was that humiliating to say in front of everyone, even if the trainer reassured me that everyone makes mistakes and I'd obviously learned from them. She said that I was probably right about those methods causing his softness to some degree, but also thought that he was probably soft to begin with and those methods had simply exacerbated it even more. She trains mostly positive, using food as the primary motivator, but she does use leash corrections sometimes. That being said, however, she advised me to use leash corrections as a last resort, since Kane was so easily motivated by food and his ball, and the corrections might hurt his ability to focus. She also reassured me about Kane growling at the samoyed; that likely happened because this was Kane's first time in a class setting and he was a little worked up about everything, though she made a point to keep him from getting close to the other dogs after that.

I'm still worried about the growling. Kane is 19 months in two weeks; he's approaching adulthood as a bull-doggy and growing out of his puppy friendliness with everyone and everything. I'm 100% sure he'll be friendly to people for the rest of his life, but this is the second time he's growled at a rude dog in as many months (the first time was ~3 months ago when a lab also got in his face). Maturity is a prime time for his dog tolerance to change and I think that's what's happening. Any opinions?

After that it was smooth sailing!

I really can't get over at how focused he was. Once he realized he was there to train (despite the new setting and other dogs), he was 100% focused except for when the other dogs did something crazy. Like the Samoyed getting the zoomies, jerking her leash out of her owner's hand, and zooming around the room to do some impromptu agility obstacles while BARKBARKBARKing at how awesome everything and everyone was. Or like when the lab mix also short-circuited and decided that his owner wanted to be mauled and humped and tangled up in the leash.

Did I mention Kane was practically a saint compared to them? LOL.

Things I need to work on with Kane:

1) Heeling. I still haven't taught Kane heeling. The trainer was AMAZED at how well Kane did when I told her he didn't know how to heel, AFTER she told us to loose-leash/heel walk around the ring. And he did do a good job, although there were the occasional moments when he switched sides on me or decided he'd had enough of what I was asking him to do and he sat in front of me. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to teach him that when he's on just the flat collar, he has to heel; when he's in the harness too, he can do whatever he wants. Right now, he's the opposite; I have to work to get him to walk nicely on his flat but he automatically does great in a harness. Too bad you can't use a harness on the test. :( We're miles ahead of the lab mix who still pulls on the Gentle Leader his owner has him in.

2) Not auto-greeting in the friendly stranger and friendly stranger w/ a dog tests. He seems to think that if I talk to the person, it's okay for him to greet them (and their dog). Looking back, I reinforced that without being aware of it, so that'll be something new for the both of us.

But that's IT. Everything else went so smoothly!

Mountain Goat Day.

These videos were taken as part of a small, on-going competition amongst friends. This round was showing a cued sit; the harder the sit (whether due to placement or back-end awareness), the more arbitrary points you get, up to the full 6 points.

I initially started by having Kane sit on my car.

Except Kane found it way too easy to sit on my car, so I had to think of something else.

And came up with the idea of having him sit on the 4-foot-tall, foot-wide tree stump in my backyard. Suitably armed with the necessary temptations/rewards (a chunk of turkey sandwich meat, his favorite Bil-Jac liver treats which I didn't end up using, and two chocolate chip cookies [one of which I accidentally dropped in the beginning of the video and made him Leave It]), I set out to see if Kane could actually accomplish what I was asking him to do.

This is definitely filed under: "Hmmmm ... I wonder if my dog will ..." :-)

Yes, I did initially help him get his balance, but I could tell he was going to sail right over the other side because of how top-heavy he is and once he got his feet up under him, he sat on his own. :-)

When you think about the fact that this is a 50lb, clumsy puppy-brain pit bull trying to sit in a foot of space, I think he did an amazing job!

Is This Thing On?

I'm sorry for the lack of updates in the past month, but I've had a hell of a time lately.

Kane almost died of heat stroke on the 21st of June. It was muggy, but not terribly hot, so I took him out at ~10am to avoid the noonday heat. I'm usually good about cutting him off as he's never known when to stop since he was a puppy, but that day I somehow missed the signs. The only suspicion I had, at first, that something wasn't right was when he didn't want to jump in the back of the car to go home. He gave me a look as if to say, "Um, no thanks. Too much effort," and laid down in front of it instead.

After persuading him to jump in, I made the fateful decision to turn right out of the drive instead of left. Left was the quicker way home, but Right took me past his vet's on the way home. I figured I'd keep an eye on him and if I noticed anything else odd, I'd stop at Dr M's and see what they thought. About halfway to the clinic, I checked on him in the backseat to see his big old mouth open the widest I'd ever seen it--I could almost see down into his throat, and he was drooling a little.

I might've broken the speed limit getting to Dr M's at that point. When I got there, they started by taking his temperature. After it reached 107.5 F and kept rising (normal dog temp is 101-102 F), Dr M ordered Kane in the back for a cooling bath. It was several minutes before she came back out and explained exactly what they were doing: continually rinsing him off with cool water and wrapping cool, wet towels around his head and neck to cool down the blood going to his head.

It wasn't until about 10 minutes after I'd arrived with Kane, when his temperature had lowered to 104 F that they brought him out, still wet, to see me. He was super-happy to see me and snuggled right up to me with a wagging tail. Later, I found out that Dr M had brought him out to check his reaction towards me because she was worried about brain damage and whether he was still all there. Since he didn't want to drink water, they were forced to give him an IV for a couple of hours and monitor his progress; at a severe heat stroke level, bodily systems and organs start shutting down, and she was worried about his kidney's failing. When I went back to pick him up, I was sent home with a 14-day supply of a probiotic supplement to support his digestive system and keep the bacteria in his gut happy (since that is the first system to go) and instructions for a bland diet the next day of hamburger and rice.

Three days later, on the 24th of July, Ellie died. This is still a loss I'm trying to muddle through. It was sudden and shocking, and has forever changed my life and my relationship with Kane.

In the face of this loss, I've taken to re-doubling my dedication towards Kane. I'd previously gotten his hips x-rayed because of worries of hip dysplasia (being backyard-bred, neither of his parents had hips tested, and his mother had been put down for them earlier in the year). Now that I know his hips and elbows are good, I'll be getting him into dog sports, with the hopes of titling him in Rally, maybe Obedience or Agility depending on how things go. I also want to try Dock Diving in a more "professional" environment since he already does an amateur version of it at the lake.

We've also been doing more doggy-fun activities, such as Bark at the Park (dogs are invited to a baseball game; Kane got to share a foot-long hotdog with me and schmooze with everyone there, both human and doggy) and Biggby @ the Point (free dog treats, professional photography, and coffee for us humans).

We were also going to walk in the local 4th of July parade, with his patriotic-themed "costume", until he came up lame after a playdate yesterday. I did get a good mini photo shoot out of it though. Here are a couple of the best shots (he refused to look at me for most of the shots, but he was a good sport!).

Kane is not impressed.

Show-dog style!

I just loved his grumpy expression in this one.

Some good news ...

I emailed all of the representatives involved with HB 4717 currently and received an actual, non-automated reply from one of them: Rep. Hugh Crawford from the 38th district.

Dear Ms. ***** & Kane,

Thank you for contacting my office with your concerns about HB 4714. As the Chairman of the Regulatory Reform Committee I do not plan on taking up this legislation at this time. Your e-mail has been filed for reference purposes. Thank you again for contacting me, I appreciate you taking the time.

Sincerely,

Hugh D. Crawford

State Representative

38th District

So, that is one representative down.

Have a video of Kane to lighten the mood of this blog right now. I've called this game (creatively) "Get the ball". This gives him a run-through of some of his commands and teaches him impulse control, which is important for every dog, regardless of whether you want them to know more than a couple basic commands.

WW: Stalky Puppy is Stalky.

The Hike

Things Have Been Happening, but I haven't found the time to post!

I was offline for 3 days because Ellie, cute little 9 week old Ellie, figured out on my first day back to work that she could scale the side of her expen like it was freaking Mount Everest and launch herself over the top. My mother did me a favor and stopped by to let the dogs out, and Ellie greeted her at the door. We don't know how long she was out (I had left for work 4 hours previously), but she only piddled in one teeny spot and the house wasn't destroyed. Except she decided to chew on my DSL cable, lol. She did a lot better than Kane would ever have done. (And  I'm still not sure how he'd do if I didn't crate him; that may be an experiment for another day.) Ellie can, however, hold it in her crate for four hours, so I've been crating her and running home on my lunch. Yay for amazing puppy bladder control!

On one of those three days, I put Ellie in her crate for a nap and took Kane on a hike for some bonding time. I actually typed this portion of the post up the other day, and then Blogger decided to Hate, and I lost all of it. I've been too irritated/bummed out to re-type it all up and add all the pictures (110!!) again ... So here goes The Hike 2.0.

There is a small nature preserve that runs behind my house; it's surrounded by suburbia, but it's got some nice trails and it's a good, quick and dirty spot to take Kane when he needs to burn some energy off-leash. Kane loves to hike off-leash. It's the easiest way to get him to flash a dopey pit bull smile. He'll often run off ahead to sniff before running back, as if to say "Jeez, you're slow, can't you go any faster?", before zooming off again. If he goes down a path that's muddy or that I don't want to go on, I call him back with a This Way! and he zooms back to me.

Today's picture ...

I really love my goofy boydog.

He's the best heart-dog anyone could ever ask for.

Day Seven: Could It Be?

Last night, on Ellie's 9-week birthday, she held it all night! *does cartwheels!*

She still woke up during the night and whined a bit, but she quickly settled after 2-3 minutes. That's usually my gauge for whether I have to actually roll off the couch and take her outside. If she whines longer than that, up to 5 mins or more (if I'm really tired!), I know it's Serious Business.

We'll see if that continues tonight. :-)

Day Six: Photo Blogging ...

I finally got my replacement camera charger in and was able to take some pictures and a handful of videos of the little squirt. I have plans to upgrade to a dslr some time in late July/early August, but in the meantime, I'm not missing a second of her puppyhood.

Day Five: Slow as You Go ...

It stormed all day so we spent most of it inside.

Ellie doesn't seem to mind the rain as much as Kane; if I can get him outside, she'll follow him without a problem. In fact, she liked to linger outside despite the bad weather, whereas Kane ran out, peed as quick as he could, and came running back. I was a little nervous about her reaction to the thunder, but she didn't mind that, either.

Clicker training is going ... okay. She's smart enough to understand it, I know that. When I look in her eyes there's a level of awareness in them that Kane didn't have until he was 7 months old, at least. She's watching and absorbing everything; I can see the gears turning in her head. But I think she needs to mature a tiny bit more and finish settling in before I can really work with her on it. I'm still doing multiple, short sessions every day, but right now she has the attention span of a gnat. :-) She's still good with the hand signal and will sit for it every time, but the verbal signal is at 50/50. Not really surprising when you think about it.

Kane and Ellie are doing great with each other. Kane has taken on the mantle of Older Brother and is giving Ellie corrections when she needs it. Earlier today, she was especially hyper (maybe because she actually almost slept all the way through the night!) and was ignoring my efforts to keep her butt on the ground and stop jumping against the expen. Kane quickly and efficiently took matters into his own hands (paws?) after one time too many of her making a racket next to where he was trying to sleep: he gave her a short, sharp corrective bark in her face. I'll tell you what, her butt hit the floor and she didn't try jumping again. He gave her warning signs before then, too; he turned his head to look at her, his ears went back, and he stiffened. As she gets older, she'll be better able to recognize those more subtle signals.

Tomorrow is her first vet appt with Dr. M. I'm expecting that to go smoothly; she'll be getting her second set of shots. Thank god, because parvo and canine flu is really bad in my area this year.

Day Four: What a Bust ...

My plans for today were simple. I was going to get gas at Wood's, then head in to East Lansing and do some people watching with Ellie along Grand River. She would meet 4395345 million college students who would coo and cuddle with her, she would see scooters and golf carts and bikers and rollerbladers and people dressed in hats and with backpacks and all kinds of stuff and that would be another check mark on her socialization to-do list.

It didn't quite work out that way.

I got gas, Ellie met two new attendants at Woods, and then off we went to East Lansing.

Day Three: Out and About

Today was Ellie's first day on the town. :-)

I left Kane at home because I didn't want to deal with him on a leash and Ellie in my arms. He still has a tendency to pull to other dogs and I was planning to make the rounds at all the local pet stores (where I am referred to as "the owner of Kane—you know Kane, that pit bull I told you about who is so friendly and polite?").

Our first stop was at Wood's Marathon. This is an old-style, full service gas station and garage, where the attendants (all gruff old men or young hunky dudes) come out and clean your windows for you while you pump your gas. They're very dog-friendly, allowing dogs on leash inside the small room where they have the register and the pop coolers, and they have a big old container full of milkbones they hand out freely and slightly excessively. :-)

Kane is very popular there, even with the owner who was bitten by a pit bull when he was a kid and has slowly graduated from giving me the treats to give to Kane, to giving Kane the treats out of his own hand. There's a younger guy, maybe a few years older than me, who apparently had pits while he lived in Texas and absolutely adores Kane; he's constantly offering me money to buy Kane off my hands, joking around, knowing I'll never sell Kane for any amount of money in the world. I have to watch him when he has the container of milbones because when I haven't he's given Kane almost half the container! Luckily, Kane has a fast metabolism and has maintained his svelte figure. ;-)

As you can imagine, the sight of a fluffy girly puppy had all the big tough men melting to pieces around Ellie.

Day Two: Oh god, what was I thinking?

Repeat after me:

This is only the second day. It will get better. This is only the second day. It will get better.

Last night was an eye-opener. Ellie was passed out from 9pm to 4am. At 4:10am, I woke up to her crying. Kane was awake as well, bleary and red-eyed and with a very long-suffering expression on his face. I managed to crawl off the couch to let her out of her crate, so she could go potty on her pee pads, as per my plan of the previous day. I picked her up and set her right down on them to prevent any late-night exploring or playing.

And waited. And waited. And waited.

Ellie stared at me with a "now what?" look. I stared back at her with a somewhat bemused, "don't you know?" look. And around the time we both started falling asleep waiting for her to pee, I grumbled, picked her up, and managed to shuffle zombie-like to the back door and let her outside. She piddled the second her wee little paws touched grass. I carried her back and put her in her crate, muttering under my breath about something I can't remember but was definitely grumpy and probably not repeatable. She went back to sleep after about 5 minutes of whining. I managed to shove Kane back over to get my spot back on the couch and fell back asleep as well.

And then 6:23 rolled around and I woke up to Ellie howling. Loud enough and desperately enough for Kane to be concerned, even. It was too soon for her to be let out again, so I moved around on the couch and talked to Kane a bit to let Ellie know someone was still in the room with her. After ten minutes she settled back down.

Only to do the same thing at 7:45. When she woke up again an hour later, I sighed and decided it was about time for me to get up anyways. I let her and Kane outside and fed them both when they got back in. Ellie's been doing very well on her Purina One and Eukanuba mix, with no bad poops, so I'm hopeful she'll do well when I finally switch over to Eukanuba. After that, she walked into her crate, plopped down, and passed out again, and Kane and I took the opportunity to catch up on more sleep.

Her personality has already started to come out more today. She's more independent outside, less likely to be directly underfoot, and boy does she watch Kane like a hawk! She's mimicking some of his behaviors (so I'll have a couple of grass grazers, I imagine, lol) and is starting to chase after him as he does his zoomies and tries to get her to play with him. God, she's so cute with her little wiggle-butt running and jumping around. I really can't wait to get my camera charger back so I can take some video.

She had her first exposure to a riding lawn mower today when the neighbors decided to mow their backyard. She was very inquisitive and tried to run over to investigate it; good thing I had her leashed. :-) When she did get spooked (the neighbor had to gun the engine once or twice to get out of a swampy area), she recovered quickly and soon she ignored the mower entirely. Belly rubs helped. She'll do anything for belly rubs!

I've begun to train her in earnest today after seeing her more relaxed. I play with her paws, stretching the toes, poking my finger between them. I look in her ears, rub them a little, and peel her lips back to look at her teeth. She was a little fidgety at first, but protip—give her a belly rub and she doesn't care! She's very smart and a quick learner, too. After holding her dish up once to make her sit before I put it down, she did it every time after that. She had her first exposure to the clicker as well. Click/treat, click/treat. I'm not sure if she's really catching on with that, but she was a little distracted and wanted to play more than anything so I stopped after only 4 or 5 clicks. I'll try again tomorrow, this time making her work for her morning food.

And I know you guys are going to hate me, but … I'm pretty sure she's already house-trained. *ducks the rotten tomatoes* She refuses to pee or poo on anything but grass. Not even her pee pads. I took her outside around 5 after her nap, and then fed her and played with her when she came back inside. Knowing she would have to potty soon, and determined to stick to the plan of her using the pee pads at some point, I put her in her expen and watched TV as I puttered around online. I was going to wait her out. Sooner or later she would have to go. Sure enough, she started to get fidgety, then fussed a bit. I watched her out of the corner of my eye, ready to jump in all ninja-like with my "go outside! go outside!" as soon as she squatted and then effusive praise.

Instead she continued to cry and then went and flopped down in her crate with a grumbling growl of frustration. False alarm then, I guessed. But no, she was out and pacing within a few minutes. I watched and waited again. Nothing. I knew she had to potty; she knew she had to go potty. And still nothing.

It was about this time, I made a post in dogsintraining on LJ: "GUYZ WAT DO I DOOO?" As usual everyone had great suggestions, but it wasn't until silverblaidd said, "dude, ur bein stoopidz" that I woke up and stopped trying to force her to un-housetrain herself so I could housetrain her over again. I scooped Ellie up, 2 and a half hours after she should have had to go potty, and took her outside. Where she piddled as soon as her wee paws touched the grass. No accidents today.

Kane was an excitement pee'er and a bit of a dirty dog, so I think that's what threw me off with Ellie. If Kane had to go and I didn't make it home in time, he went in his crate, no sweat. Even if he did make it until I got home, the second I approached the crate to let him out, he started peeing because he was so excited to see me, lol.

So …

My puppy house-trained herself on the second day home, and I feel useless.

Day One: Settling In ....

Today started off with good omens: I woke up to a brilliant sunrise for the first time in what seems like forever (at least 4 days of rain off and on and ~7 days of overcast skies) and my current favorite song playing on the radio.

Kane and I did our usual morning play routine (which involves him being a doofus and rubbing his body all over the comforter to generate static and shocking us both) and then I hopped out of bed, let him outside, and fed him when he got back in to give him time to digest before he had to go in his crate. I can set my clock to his peeing/pooping schedule; usually ~45 minutes to an hour.

While I was getting ready, Mom stopped by and said she had decided to come with me to "make sure I was doing the right thing". In other words, after I showed her a picture of Peeps and her littermates yesterday, she couldn't resist seeing them in person. :-) It's very hard to turn your nose up to fluffy puppy cuteness, no matter how crazy you think your daughter is for having two dogs.

I put Kane in his crate and off we went. On the way down, mom asked questions about which puppy I was getting, about the mother and father, about Mary (the breeder) and seemed to be a lot more optimistic and "in" to me getting a new puppy than she was last week when she said she refused to step foot in the house with "that puppy". When I wasn't answering her many questions (she isn't a dog person, so I had to explain a lot of things to her), I was running over the handful of names I'd been thinking about for the past month or so.

I decided against Puck because while it was a cute name, I thought about all the situations I'd be saying her name and what if I had to call her from across a field and someone misheard me and thought I was saying something else? Ultimately, I also ruled out Remi. I just didn't like the sound of it; it was a little too boyish for me. So, that left Artemis (Arty) and Ellie, and then I also added Phoebe and Melody back on to the list.

We pulled in to Mary's drive at 10am on the dot.

The Puppy Lands ....

Tomorrow!

I get up bright and early at 730am to drive two hours to get Peeps (the name Mary, her breeder, gave her while with the litter).

I've got everything ready for her arrival. Her expen and crate are set up in the living room, where I'll be crashing on the couch with Kane until Peeps can hold it through the night. The clicker and treats are bagged and waiting, and holy cow am I super excited to be able to clicker train a puppy from the very beginning!! Kane is okay with it, but he has a tendency to get "stuck" on certain cues that he's gotten treats for before. Hopefully with Peeps I'll be able to get her used to shaping and being creative and thoughtful with the cues she offers, instead of poor Kane whose default mode is to look at me to tell him what to do and/or lure him into the cue. Not that Kane cares as long as he gets the treat. :-)

I'm pretty sure Kane knows Something Is Up. He's been very persistent about getting attention from me the last couple of nights, constantly bringing me toys to play with.

I've got some last few tweaks to make to this blog and then it'll be up and running. Right now I've got it planned to make a post a day for the first week and then we'll see. I've got tomorrow through the following Saturday off to get a head start on crate-/house-training and then it's back to work.

I don't even know what I'm going to name Peeps! I've got a few I've been tossing around, but they aren't concrete and there could be a dark horse: Puck, Ellie, Artemis (Arty), and Remi.

Here's a picture of the little trouble-maker: