July 2nd, 2014 - 13 Weeks old, 33 lbs and how I sort my photos

Today's Date - June 23rd, 2014

 

Over the years I have taken hundreds of pictures of our dogs and cats.  I categorized them in several files that makes perfect sense to me and burned to several DVDs.

 

I created one called, "The Boys" which are all pictures of Parker and Gunther together.

 

 

 

Then I had "The Kids" which were all the pictures of Parker, Rosie, Ginger and Emma.  I called it "The Kids" because all the pictures had Parker a male with one, two or all three females.

 

 

 

 

After Parker passed away I created another file called, "The Girls" which are all the pictures of Rosie, Ginger and Emma.

 

 

 

 

I can find any photo I want within minutes and even created one for our cats called, "The Cats" which is all the pictures that I had taken of Squirt and Webster together.

 

 

 

I don't remember when I came about the idea of creating files to organize all the pictures but I can honestly say it's made it a lot easier to find any particular one.

 

Now that we have Rosie (female) and Emmett (male) I needed to come up with a description for them.  I couldn't use "The Kids" because that represents Parker, Rosie, Emma and Ginger.

It took several days to come up with something specifically for them and in the end, I came up with something very easy and created a file called, "The Kidz".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some people might think I just created a lot of extra work for myself but in the end, I know where all my pictures are filed.

 

The Boys - All pictures of Parker and Gunther together

 

The Kids - All pictures with Parker, Rosie, Emma and Ginger

                          

The Girls - All pictures of Rosie, Emma and Ginger

 

The Cats - All pictures of Squirt and Webster together

 The Kidz - All pictures of Rosie and Emmett together

 

 

  Today's Date - June 26th, 2014

 



Last night, two incredible things happened that amused me.  The first, while taking Emmett outside for his last potty break, he saw our shadows out on the garage door, because of the position of the moon.  He barked, growled, his hair went up his back and he definitely was not sure of what he saw and acted accordingly.

 

I was impressed by this just for the fact he's only 12.5 weeks old and is already showing signs of being an incredible watch dog.

 

The second incident happened after getting back inside, thanks to the Transverse Myelitis I tripped and fell going into the kitchen.  It scared the hell out of poor Emmett and he ran away from me and I could hear the terror and fear in his yelping. 

 

I naturally started to cry, I don't know why I do, I didn't hurt myself but I think because I never see it coming and due to the nerve damage I can't feel pain it just scares me really bad.  I guess I expect to be hurt and then realize that I'm okay. 

 

I was only stretched out on the floor for a minute before Emmett spun around, ran back to me and promptly sat on my back.  He was concerned about me and started licking my face.  I was relieved that I was alright and very proud of Emmett for reacting to my fall.

 

When I broke my fibula, I felt it snap and it hurt for all of a minute.  It hurt to stand on it but as long as I didn't move, I didn't feel any pain or throbbing of any kind.

 

 

 

 

 

 While training a neighbor's dog by the name of Hutch, I fell in a hole in his yard that had been covered by leaves and didn't know I hurt my toe until 3 days later.  I know it must sound strange and there's no name for it, it's something I call, "Delayed Pain".

 

I can tell by a fall whether I should be in pain or not and act accordingly.

 

 

 

 

 

Today, I started truly training Emmett.  I am rewarding him for sitting still while I attach and remove his leash and by the way I need to buy a real  dog size adjustable collar.  The collar that he's wearing now, he's worn since he was 6 weeks old and still has room to be enlarged but I question whether it's  strong enough to support his weight.  His neck is a lot larger and muscular now and he weighed 30 pounds last Saturday when he turned 12 weeks old and I always look forward to weighing him every Saturday to see  how much he's grown.

 

I think he looks really good with a red collar and might order him and Rosie new collars on-line with their names and our phones numbers on them.

 

I've been working with the "sit" command for a couple of weeks and he knows it 80% of the time.  He could easily be mistaken for a much older pup because of how big he's grown and I need to keep remembering that he's still very much a baby.

 

His testicles are half the size of 2 marbles which looks really odd for such a large puppy.

 

Anyway, today, I started teaching the "recall" command and using doggy treats as the reward.  Like many dogs before him, he seems to learn a lot faster when using food and I definitely have all of his attention. 

 

I need to check all the local Veterinarians and see if any of them have any real experience working with Great Danes or large breed dogs.  I read a post on Facebook today from a lady who just had her Great Dane spayed and it died.  It's temperature dropped three degrees and the Vet kept it over night as a precaution and it had a heart attack.  The Vet and his staff tried in vain to revive the dog and were unable to do so. 

 

The Veterinarians charge by weight and even that doesn't bother me, I just want what's the least painful to Emmett.  Heaven forbid he gets a whiff of a female in heat at a young age, it's something he will remember when he's much older and neutered.  I do not intend to be dragged all over the city of Madison by a half crazed Dane trying to prove his manhood.

 

I have never heard of any dog dying from being spayed or neutered and am going to do a lot more research about it.  I read many Great Dane owners don't neuter their Danes until they're full grown so the dogs can grow as large as possible.

 

I did find a large breed Veterinarian out on County Line Road and their office visits are $50, they  have boarding and have a doctor who is well known for his orthopedic surgeries.  I will probably switch Vets after Emmett finishes up with his puppy shots.

 

Today's Date - June 28rd, 2014



 

Today, Emmett is 13 weeks old and weighs 33 pounds.  He only gained 3 pounds this week but he's grown in height and is noticeably taller.  I was somewhat concerned and decided to ask the Great Dane Lover's Facebook group to see what some of the other owners and breeders might say.

I posted, "Do Great Dane puppies gain weight one week, then the next week grow taller with little weight gain?"  a lot of people responded to my post and all said yes, there is no rhyme or reason to it. 
 

Late last night when I took Emmett outside for his last potty break, he noticed the crickets chirping.

Even I have to admit they were a lot louder than normal and his reaction to it was comical.  He stepped outside and froze, the hair on his back went up, then he growled, gave 3 sharp barks and scrambled back inside through my legs.  I ended up attaching a leash to him and walked him around the yard to do his business trying to impress on my very impressible 13 week old that he was safe.  I think not being able to see what made the loud noise spooked him a bit.  Just another memorable moment to laugh about years from now.

The other night while loading the dryer, Emmett reached in, grabbed a sock and had a serious case of the zoomies. For the life of me I couldn't catch him as he ran circles around me keeping just out of reach but close enough that I could see sparkle in his eyes. When I finally did corner him I won the tug-a-war but he beat me back to the dryer and grabbed another sock.

Woke up this morning, went to the dryer to get some underwear that I washed just before going to bed last night only to have Emmett grab it from me and run out the back door.  Naturally, my elderly neighbor was outside tending to his garden. While I might of appeared upset, I was laughing so hard on the inside that my ribs hurt.