A very sad tale..the end of our journey

I want to make this the last post I have for this blog.

Odinn has passed away.  He was almost 5 months old.

Odinn was having severe seizures, which caused him to lash out violently when they were over.  This ranged from short seizures that could last minutes to a couple second seizures.  His worst physical one was several months ago when he collapsed on the floor, and lay rigid and convulsing.  Screaming while doing so.  After that, they turned into mini seizures that would then progress into aggression.

His outbursts were coming more and more as time progressed, and our vet told us that the damage had already been done to his brain and was irreversible.  Even with medication, he would remain unpredictable because of the previous damage.  Odinn bit our children several times, and the injuries ranged from scratches to full out deep punctures.  For little kids this damage can cause horrible damage, not only physcially but mentally as well.

On a tuesday afternoon, I was bathing him, and he went into one of his fits when I was drying him after his bath.  He snarled, his lip curled, and he lunged at me, and I drew up my arm to protect my face in instinct.  He actually latched onto, and "locked" his jaws onto my arm.  I felt his teeth hit my bone, sending jolts of pain and agony that would last months, and will most likely continue to have damage to my nerves and cause brachial pain.  I had several very deep punctures.  It bled a lot, very deep, almost purple.  I knew then that his "episodes" had then become beyond very dangerous.  Had he attacked one of the kids with that much force, I would probably have had to take them to the hospital.  Understand that I have very small, petite children and Odinn was almost 50 lbs at 17 weeks old. 

I am not writing this to portray what a horrible dog odinn was, but only to give example as to his sickness and to show why we made the decision we did to have Odinn euthanised.  If you have been following this blog, you would know what a wonderful dog Odinn actually was, when he wasn't in this states of mind.  Hopefully this will let more people understand why we did this.  We had him euthanised in our home, and held him till he passed.  I think home euthanasia is definitely the least traumatizing for all involved and it allowed him to pass in a familiar environment.

Odinn was a wonderful dog other than his illness.  He was sweet and loving when stable and we miss him very much.  I am not sure of what cause his illness, nor was the vet, although he mentioned inbreeding and perhaps the cross breeding of the breeds mixed could have been a cause.  When we got Odinn he was also very sick, so who knows what he truly had. 

We are beyond heartbroken, words cannot express the deep sorrow we feel everyday, and hopefully writing this will help me to console and repress some of my feelings in these words, as I keep telling myself we did the right thing......

We love you and miss you baby Odinn and you will forever be in our hearts.

RIP our love puppy.  May Elysian Fields provide you with enough room to romp.

15 Weeks

So here we are at 15 weeks and we have a monster on our hands.  Growth wise, he grows everyday and sometimes I don't think he's going to get that big, and then my husband kindly reminds me that he is still just a baby.  Since I see Odinn everyday maybe I don't see the growth.  It isn't until I see pictures that it lets me notice his size.  He's 28 lbs now, up 6 lbs from last week.  But he's not fat, just long and lanky.  I wanted to post a comparison picture. 

9 weeks and 15 weeks.  Although I think it's hard to see because of the way he's laying, he takes up most of the bed now.

So Odinn is just a monster puppy, still has some serious dominance and biting issues.  I'm sure a lot of it is pent up energy related, but he injured himself a couple weeks ago so I haven't been taking him on his walks.  But he is the kind of dog that I can throw his sock monkey down the hall for 20 minutes for a game of fetch and he's pooped out.  Which works out.  But living in an apartment with him is like living with an exercise-holic.  Ever had a roommate that was always on the elliptical and if it was too bad to go outside they drove you nuts by constantly wandering and running around the house?  Yea..it's like that.  When he gets out of control he goes and gets a timeout in his kennel, but only for serious infractions, like when he bites. 

Is there a sports car mixed with my Volkswagen?!

Sometimes I think there may be an active breed thrown in his mix, just because he seems to be a lot more hyper than the breed mixes he's "supposed" to be, but maybe he'll grow out of it.  I'm thinking I'd like to get one of those DNA test next week done where they take a cell sample from the cheek and scientist are able to determine the dog breeds of your mix.  I think they sound awesome and I definitely want to get it done, but then at the same time they are pricey and it seems sometimes the results may be messed up because one of the best companies keeps putting up a pic of a golden retriever every time they mention a Labrador Retriever.  So..a company that determines dog breeds that doesn't know it's dog breeds?..Hmm....scandalous!

My dog is a clumsy oaf!

Speaking of his injury, I have no clue how he did it, but it was horrid.  He ran into a wall, fell screaming for seriously 15 minutes, and then limped for 2 weeks straight.  I think he smacked his leg right in the growth plate into the corner of the wall.  I know what you're thinking..."your dog ran into...a  wall?"  Yea, I know, he doesn't sound like the sharpest tool in the shed lol, but he is I assure you.  Somedays he is a lot more clumsy and oaf-ish than normal.  When this happened it was one of his akward walking days and he was moving around like a horse that just had horseshoes put on, except a horse who didn't know his left leg from his right leg.  Odinn is a clumsy dog.

All in all, things haven't been too exciting and nothing huge happened in these last couple weeks.  I started going to night classes for veterinary technician so that's fun.  Odinn does pretty good when I'm gone, but he's very attached to us, since dogs are social pack animals, so he has a hard time when any of the pack leave,  but he's getting better.

My, my look at that big face!  His jowls are drooping a little bit more, and his legs are still long and huge.  But he always has that forlorn look on his face.

Ok so again.  Odinn is "supposed to be" a St Bernard/Great Pyrenees mix.

We think he is either:

• St Bernard/Great Dane mix = Saint Dane
• St Bernard/Newfoundland mix = Newfound Saint

Everyone knows we call him our Saint Beast.  

Maybe one day we will know for sure.  But for now, we don't care, but it would be nice to know.  For me it's like this mystery that can't be solved.  When he's older his adult features will come out and make it easier for us to tell.

12 Weeks and akward

So here we are at the 12 weeks! 

And how is Odinn?

Well, I guess he's just a normal, bratty, obnoxious puppy.  He jumps, he pounces on the kids, he bites, he's mouthy, he steals my food, he chases the cat, etc..  He an annoying teenager!

Odinn on his lovely new bed, a very gracious gift from a woman whom had just lost her St.Bernard.  We were honored to accept her gift.

And the way he looks, it's all wonky!  His legs are long, his body lanky, but his head is kind of boxy and his body is chubby and lean.  It's the awkward growing phase for a giant breed puppy.  It'll last a while, can last up to a year.  His tail has actually gotten longer!  And his jowls are forming, yes the little drool pockets from whence the drool will leak from.  It's kind of cute honestly.  In a .."oh you're so cute with your big drooly cheeks but please don't drool on me ewwww" kind of way.  :)


Kennel training..

Kennel training is a good thing! 

Let me tell you a tale of woe.....

We used to have a dog before Odinn.  He was a mini aussie.  23 pounds of pent up, insane, bouncing off the wall energy.  Mix up that insane aussie personality with a bad past.  He spent his first 4 months of life in a kennel with a backyard breeder and came to us emotional scarred.  We took him everywhere with us. Bad idea, bad, bad!  He ended up having separation anxiety so severe that he would literally injure himself trying to tear his way out of the kennel.  In the end, we had to rehome our dog because he was too emotionally damaged from his previous home and his energy level was a horrible match for us.  Do I regret getting this dog?  No I don't because I'm glad we were able to get him out of the horrible situation he was in and I found him a wonderful new home.  A new home where he belongs.  Now he lives on a ranch chasing chickens and ponies with another aussie to terrorize all day.  He is happy.  But I do feel sorrow and a sense of great loss and mourning, because he was a member of the family.  A crazy, screwed up family member, but he was like our fuzzy child.

Moral of the story?...
If I had done things differently, I would've worked harder on kennel training with him and would not have given in to emotion when he whined in his kennel.  This is the moment you fail at kennel training.  The instant you open the door for the whining, panicking dog in the kennel to comfort him, you have failed.  And you must start all over.

I have worked in a lot of kennels and dog daycare facilities and I've seen much worse cases.  This one dog I used to care for would literally scale a Prefiert kennel (looks like this), which is 7-8 feet high, and leap out into the unknown just to escape the confines of his imagined prison.  A couple times I had thought he'd broken a leg, hip, something. 

Odinn digs chewing on his duckie and sleeping on his beds when we're not home.  But only because he's comfortable doing so.

I cannot stress enough the importance of training your dog to love his kennel, his den, and feel comfortable in it and not feel like its the end of his doggy universe when you're gone.

There are many different ways to kennel train, but basically here are the most important steps I can think of:

• Start Early.  The younger the better so there aren't ingrained feelings set in a dogs mind that are negative towards being alone or associated with a  kennel.
• Make it Positive.  Make a dog love his den, lots of treats to get in there and don't shut them in right away.  Let them explore their kennel and have it somewhere safe to them, like your bedroom.  Odinn already had a kennel fear when we got him, so perhaps he had this engrained already.  So we're still working on this.  We're hoping his new, bigger kennel will be more den-like for him.
• Don't make it a big deal!  If you freak out or act uncomfortable before you leave, your dog will feel it.  He'll be wondering why you're freaking out and in turn will freak out himself wondering why when you leave to go anywhere why he should be frightened and freaked out.  It's a vicious cycle.  It's simple.  Put the dog in the kennel, non chalantly, and walk away.
• Don't make it a big deal when you come home.  Yes it's great to see your dog, but just act normal, let them out, bring them out to potty, and when they come inside and calm down, that is the time you pet them and give them attention.

Leaving Odinn home alone now is getting better.  He gets locked in his kennel when we aren't around to supervise him because it keeps our house safe from damage and piddling and also keeps him safe.  He doesn't whine much anymore and sleeps the whole time.  He has never had an accident in the kennel. *knock on wood*  I know he has the bodily control now.  He grew out of his kennel quickly though.  We had a medium kennel and he was so uncomfortable in there.  I went on Craigslist and found a lovely XL kennel for 10 dollars!  Madness.  For those who don't know, XL kennels run 100+ dollars.  Great deal and I think he enjoys it as much as I enjoyed the bargain.

The kids love to help make his kennel comfy with their favorite things.

Kids <3 Pets!

I'd also like to note how important is is to make the dog a big deal with the kids.  It's their dog too, and they will grow up with him and eventually tell him goodbye one day in the future, but in reality he's my puppy.  My kids are 3 and 5 and take turns feeding him, and they get him water, they help me take him outside to potty, they help me groom him.  My kids are included in all aspects of pet care.  They watch me when I vaccinate and clip nails.  When they are older, I will teach them how to groom.

We have a huge plethora of species in our home and the kids are involved in every single aspect of every species.  The ones that can technically be dangerous, like our tarantulas, are not handled by anyone at all and I would never let the kids near them, but the kids can help me put crickets in a container that I then use to feed them.  Or they can hand me water to water the animals.  My son loves helping me spray down the monitor enclosure.  They help me by handing me bedding for the snake or help me water the geckos.

When breeding rats, our kids were involved in helping us raise the babies.  In the end, they kept one of the babies.

Nothing teaches a child responsibility like having a pet.  But, only if the adult is willing to care for it.  You CANNOT get a child an animal and expect them to know what to do, how to clean the cage, feed it, water it, etc..  You should never let an animal die because it's "teaching the kids a lesson".  I seriously have known people that do this.  I think this is bullshit and not only cruel for the animal, but also horridly cruel and emotionally abusive behavior towards the child.


Training and change of work...

His training has been going good.  I have decided not to train him as a PSD but just have him as an ESA (emotional service animal) instead.  I'm not really at that point where I need a service dog in public because my husband normally goes out with me, and the thought of going anywhere with my kids, who are a handful, and a 100+lb service animal to juggle together, well it's kind of unappealing to me. 

I can still train him to do things for me at home, but right now we are focusing on manners.  I want him to sit nicely when pet, and the mouthing needs to stop!  Still working on the hard bitey mouthing. 

Dominance is Evil!  >.<

Dominant puppies seem like the epitome of all evil at times lol.  Odinn is so dominant.  If I had a litter to choose from I would've picked a low energy dog, but since Odinn was a gift, I had no idea of his personality.  Not like I'd trade him for another dog, we love him to death and he is a great member of our family.  The kids adore him and he's very protective of them, which is normal of his breed.  So that is good. 

What I wanted in a dog...

I wanted a good watchdog and great family dog.  To us he will be the perfect dog, he will love you and be excited to see strangers, will be loving and loyal to his family and their friends, but in the end if someone tries to hurt you he will take them out to protect his family.  Although I know this will be his personality in the end, unless I shape him to be this way, he may not turn out this way.  His dominance makes training and manners a little more challenging, but nothing I can't handle.

Holy cow look at those legs, and his jowls! Ha ha.

Potty training is a success!  
No more accidents in the house at all.  He goes outside and rings a bell I've hung on the door to alert us when he needs to go outside.  Whoo hoo!  Easy peasy.  He is the easiest dog I've ever had with potty training.  Maybe it's due to our bringing him outside every 20 minutes till he got it, and just being very diligent on potty times, and I'm sure it helps, but some dogs just don't get it, but he did. 

SO how do we train our puppy with house training?  

Well, we live in an apartment, a very dog friendly one at that, so there are many areas around with potty stations and poop baggies around the complex.  However, there are several dog aggressive dogs around here, which I learnt quickly the first night I took Odinn out the night we got him.  I brought him outside and someone else let their dog go after Odinn.  There are leash laws for a reason idiots!  Geesh, poor thing.  It not only traumatized me, but Odinn as well. 

So I decided to train Odinn off our patio.  Thank goodness we live on the bottom floor.  I have a corner setup for him and some newspaper, which once soiled is placed into a trashcan which is emptied when needed and disinfected weekly.  Disinfection is important if you do this, not only for your family's health and the health of your dog, but also for common courtesy for your neighbors.  There is a woman upstairs that I know lets her dogs go outside on their balcony and I can tell, it smells bad.  Not good for health of anyone.

Speaking of disinfectant.
I like to use Odoban.  I used to work with it a lot in kennels and I love the smell of the stuff.  I get it at Home depot, Lowes, or Costco for 9.98 a gallon and it lasts forever.  I got a gallon over a month ago, and I'm not even halfway though it yet.  It's very concentrated, kills germs, disinfects, and I use it for everything.  I scrub the patio with it once a week.  But I also use it on my bathrooms, kitchen, etc..and I love using it in my carpet steam cleaner.  Smells soooo good.

I caught him mid-pee ha ha.

Back to potty time...

We have a simple setup.  It's a concrete patio tilted slightly, so the pee runs off the patio so I make sure to dump a gallon of water to dilute the urine on the grass below.  I have newpaper on the patio.  I used to cover the entire patio with newspaper, especially when Odinn was sick, but over time I have removed sections of it, and now I have a smaller section he goes on.  He only goes on the paper.  If he slips up and goes on the patio, I add more paper, till he stays on the paper again.  I would like to eventually use puppy pads, but not until he is only using one square of paper.  But by that time we'll probably have a yard, so we won't need it anymore.

The process of bell training...

There is a little bell on the door he learned to use.  I decided instead of literally training him to ring the bell with his nose, I would slowly let him learn it on his own.  Once he learned where he was supposed to go potty, he started alerting us when he had to go out and we praised him every single time for alerting us.  This started as sitting by the door, then it was whining, then it was clawing at the door.  Once he did this all the time, and became persistent about us opening the door I added the bell.  I then would open the door for him even if he didn't hit the bell, but if he hit the bell he'd get super praise and petting for touching the bell.  Then it turned into I would ignore his other alerts and would only open the door once he would ring the bell.  He learns quick, so this worked well for us.  I prefer this natural learning process as opposed to him nose touching and us treating him until he gets it.  I feel he has better understood the process by learning this way.  Now when we move in a couple months I will hang this bell on the door to the backyard and he will know where to go.  :)  Voila!  Although now when he really has to go, he shakes the heck out of that bell, grabs it and goes crazy lol.  It's like whoa alright hang on I'm coming already geesh!

A job well done!  Yay Odinn!!

*Odinn Loves his monkey* Toys! Glorious toys!

Odinn loves his new toy.  A baby sock monkey.  Since he has a horrid habit of ripping the sole and heel out of every sock we have within seconds, we thought he may like his own sock to chew on, but he doesn't wanna chew on it, he's rather snuggle with it.  So, whatever, guess we just have to keep all socks picked up.

Odinn and Rocko his sock monkey.  The kids named the sock monkey after a character in a book series called Rocko and Socko, about two sock monkey brothers.  I thought this was cute.  :)

Although he figured out that these tall plastic containers around the house contain these socks and other objects of clothing, so it's like his own personal playground.  At least teaching him to take off my socks will be fairly easy lol.

When choosing a toy for your puppy or dog, it's always important to find something they like.  Not every dog likes squeaky toys, rope toys, rubber, etc..  For example, Odinn is terrified of squeakers.

The key to finding a successful toy that will entertain your dog is to figure out what sort of texture he likes to chew on. 

Odinn loves fabric like socks and towels.  So rope toys, fleece chews, and stuffed animals he loves.  But teaching him to differenciate between his toys and the kids' toys takes a bit of teaching and a lot of patience.

It's all about redirection.  If he's chewing on something he shouldn't, we take that away and offer him his toys.  We don't fuss at him, I want him to think toys are fun not scary.  I like to bring him over to his spot, an area with a blanket by my desk, and have him sit there to play with his toys.  Now he knows that this spot, his spot, is the best place to mellow out and munch and chew on his toys and chews.

Yay dog treats!

Now I have never had a dog before that doesn't like chews, rawhides, etc..  So it was weird trying to figure out how to get him to chew on something.  Why would I care if he eats a chewie or not?  Because having something for him to chew, that he is supposed to chew on, is good not only for his teething but also good for his emotional state and keeps him busy.  But I couldn't get him to chew anything.  Nor could I find anything he liked!  This was weird.

The great people at Wag n Wash spent probably about 30 minutes with him opening every bag of treats they had.  From cow trachea, to leg bones, to lamb lungs, this pup didn't want anything.  It wasn't until we went over to their bakery counter that we finally found something he liked.  Something he really liked.  They had just baked some Turkey Loaf and Liver brownie, so we got one loaf of each and went home.  I want to throw a huge KUDOS to Wag n Wash (woodmen location) for their fabulous customer service!


Smart toys!

Smart toys are great.  They were mostly made to entertain those dogs that have severe seperation anxiety in hopes of entertaining a dog long enough to make them forget why they were freaking out in the first place.  But then we figured out it's very important to provide enrichment for a dog, whether or not they had separation anxiety because toys are fun!  Sometimes they work and other times they don't.  Some dogs are crazy smart and do very well with these toys, and other dogs are..well...dumb as a tack or something because they can never quite get the point of these toys.  Maybe they are too smart to be bothered with these toys because they insult their intelligence lol, I have no clue, just throwing that theory out there.

I got one of those "thinking" toys where you stuff treats in and he has to learn to move it around to get the treats to come out of the spaces in the toy.  This took him a total of 1/2 a day to figure out.  I give him the toy now and he kicks it across the house knocking all the treats out along the way in a tidy little path of yummies.  Lol, cheater!  He also is very vocal when he plays with it becoming very whiney and loud when it doesn't dispense treats anymore.  Kind of an annoying habit of his.

He is too good at this game, time for a tougher "smart toy."

The kind of toy I got has a top and bottom and it screws together so you can determine how big or small the space is, and it's easy to clean since you can take it apart.  I love it.  I was able to start it rather large so he could figure it out and slowly close up the spaces as he got smarter.  Now I have it completely closed with a tiny gap and he still manages to get out all the treats in less than 2 minutes.  Dang, now i have to figure something else out lol.

I would love to smear some peanut butter in his toy so it would last longer, but Odinn doesn't like peanut butter!  I know he's a freak.  I don't know any dog that doesn't like peanut butter.  I bet if I smeared liver in there he'd love it, liver and turkey to him are like crack.  But ew, I don't wanna smear liver in there.  Although I'm determined to learn how to bake my own turkey and liver loaf for him.  They make great training treats as well.

The other thing I had to figure out was rawhides.  Some people think rawhides are bad and others think they are ok.  I think they are ok in moderation.  Dogs that tend to die from ingestion of rawhides are the ones where their owners give them an entire bag in a day to entertain them because they don't want to deal with them otherwise.  Odinn didn't like rawhides because he couldn't figure out what to do with them.  My solution?  I boiled all my plain rawhides in chicken broth. (all organic and free range thank you very much)  All of a sudden it's a delicious treat and something nice to gnaw on and makes his mouth feel so much better.  Darn those puppy teeth!  Problem solved.  Now he knows what they are for.

Chicken Broth Rawhide:

• Bring chicken broth to a boil.
• Throw in enough rawhides for the broth to cover them
• Let them boil in the broth for 20 minutes.  
• Take them out to cool on a rack or some paper towels.  They will curl and soften up a lot.
• Keep refrigerated.

Odinn is doing a lot better with the biting.  I have been using redirecting touch with a " Tssh" sound to tell him to stop and it has been working like a charm.  The biting and mouthing has pretty much completely stopped.

Although I have been learning a lot about positive training which doesn't involve any sort of correction at all, but not sure if it works for me or not since Odinn is so stubborn.

Odinn says "Look over there!  Is that a great website!?"

Here are some links for this blogging day:

Some great toys for "smart thinking"

Busy Buddy Twist and Treat
This is the toy Odinn has right now, it's a great beginner think toy.

Busy Buddy Tug a Jug toy
This is a very tough thinking toy, the next one we'll most likely going to get.

The infamous Kong
The all purpose think toy.  My favorite thing to do with these is to smear peanut butter inside and freeze it.  Provides a great time for your dog.

Dog Training!  Some good links for dog training I like:

When it comes to dog training, I like to find methods of training that work for me.  This normally involves incorporating several techniques into one big slew of random techniques.  I never, ever use negative punishment or force when it comes to training or everyday teaching.  A scared dog is not a trained dog.


Kiko Pup!
This woman is awesome!  I love her method of positive training and clicker techniques.  She also does a lot of things for fun. And it helps that her dogs are cute too.

Ceasar Milan, The Dog Whisperer
Love him!  Great trainer and dog behaviorist.

Odinn's True Purpose revealed..

So I guess I shouldn't beat around the bush in case anyone ask..  

Odinn is not only a pet for us, he is going to be trained for service work.  So this blog should also help me in documenting his training and progress throughout this progress.  I'm not going to go into detail about what Odinn will exactly be trained to do until the time comes, but also I don't feel the need to disclose that information because it's no one's business but my own.  But for giving a slight hint as to his near future he will be doing medical alert work and brace work.


Anyhoo, today we started some more training with Odinn.  So far we're doing really, really well on SIT.

See that determination in his eyes?  He wants food, bad.

 

 

A very good sit with a hand signal.  And no, I don't hand signal with food in my hand like that but how else was I supposed to take a picture and hand signal at the same time? Lol.

We've begun working on DOWN, although he has a tough time focusing.  Odinn is VERY food driven.  He likes food.  A lot.  Did  I mention he likes food?!  You get the idea.  He gets so focused on the food and not the job he's asked to do that he begins to focus on where the food went.  

He's doing a good down, but wanders off looking for the food.

 I think his brain goes something like this: 
"Sit.  Ok I'm supposed to sit...sit..sit..gimme the food come on...come on...oh yea.. Sit, I'm supposed to be sitting....ok did she just move the food into the other hand?!  Wait..what was I doing again?  Oh yea sit...sit...sit..FOOOOD!"


I like to teach verbal cues first, then once he knows the word and the sound/tone of the task, I add a hand signal to it.  This becomes easier when I don't have to give him a treat every time he does it right.  I never treat for "good try", this just confuses your dog.  I like to use a clicker until he gets what I'm asking of him.  Once he realizes his butt on the floor means "sit" then I can stop clicking.  Because he gets it.


I think Odinn is very smart, too smart for his own good sometimes, but he gets so easily frustrated that I can see I have my hands full training him.  

Why are you training your own service dog?  

I have decided to train my own service dog for several reasons.

• It's cheaper than having one raised and trained outside your home.  Not to mention I don't have to deal with the paperwork and whatnot with service dog training groups.
• An OT (or owner trained) service dog will be more bonded and in tune with its owner right away.  Service dogs brought from outside the home can take months to settle and bond with their partners.
• I get to train him to do exactly what I want him to do, and I know how to tell him to get me things since I've trained him to do it.  I don't have to learn what I have to ask him to do because I already know.

 I'm sure there are more reasons, but the number one reason?  Because I prefer to train my own dog, that's why.  I know exactly what I'm getting, know my dog's past, his peeves, his likes/dislikes, his strengths and weaknesses, and I'll know what kind of treats can get him to do anything.  :)


I also love the fact that while Odinn is learning to bond with me and help me function, he is also becoming a beloved member of our family, especially with my kids.


Socialization and Good Manners

Soon I'll need to start bringing him out in public to socialize him, but honestly until he knows all his obedience training effortlessly and can pass a CGC, or Canine Good Citizen test, he shouldn't be allowed into public places until he is ready.  By bringing him into a business or place where he could possibly act inappropriately or heaven forbid have an accident in a store, I am putting a bad light and example on the service dog community.  As soon as I decide to put a vest on my dog and start training him publicly I become an ambassador to all the other service dog teams out there, and I won't let them down.


Odinn has a long way to go before he is ready to go out.  He is still very easily excitable and still very, very mouthy.  Anytime I try to pet him, I get this:

Ack the biting never ceases with this alligator dog!

So until I can get him to stop that, he's not going out.  I won't have him nipping at strangers or children.  He doesn't with my kids because I keep him leashed at my side most of the day and won't let him rough house with our kids.  But once the husband comes home he gets all the energy outlet he needs because Odinn is a huge outlet for that after work stress for the husband.  Part of why we have Odinn.  Good stress relief for sure.  


So my goals for the week are:

• Have the mouthing stop or at least be significantly decreased.
• Sit and Down are known strictly with hand signals.

For the end, I wanted to make a video of training with Odinn, let's see how he does.  (And for the record, I really need like a little camera or something with a tripod, the camera is not cutting it lol.)  With my kids, and tv, and noise he normally has a lot of distractions.  So I think it's actually pretty good for training him since he can learn to do what he needs to do with distractions.

Sharp puppy teeth of doom

Ow, bad puppy!  Ow...Ow...

What's that?  Oh that is the sound of teaching a puppy bite inhibition.  What is this you say?  Well a puppy learns from its mother how to use its mouth to explore its environment and how to play politely with its siblings and future playmates.  But if a puppy is taken away from its mother too soon, it does not learn this and it's up to us, its human parents, to teach him how to play nicely.

Odinn is stubborn, as hell.  Bite..Ow...Bite..Ow..etc etc etc... 

I have the POWER!

I have never had a dog this young before, or this stubborn lol, so this is kind of new to me.  But I have something powerful, something everyone has..the power of the internet!  I have done lots of research and reading and watching lots of movies and videos on puppy raising and specific training techniques.  Some are bad and some are good, it is up to me and my logical mind and some common sense and compassion to realize what is good training and what is bad..

Training  video on correcting puppy for biting by popping it in the jaw?...Bad...

Training video and reading materials on yelping when puppy bites to teach him he's hurting you, using his own natural built in instincts.....Good!

Since I started the yelping training a couple days ago, it's been working.  Odinn is still mouthy, which is normal since dogs explore with their mouths, but he is no longer hurting me anymore, and if he gets too excited, I Yelp OW and stop playing with him.  Then he sulks off and goes to lay down in the corner all butt hurt, lol.  But he's learning. 

Bite inhibition is so important.  A dog will always explore things with its mouth but a puppy will grow out of mouthing everything, but if it doesn't learn this important skill its mouth can become very dangerous.  Once a puppy loses those puppy teeth and has adult teeth, the teeth aren't what are going to hurt you, it's that jaw power that can break your skin, cause lacerations, injury, crushed bones, etc...  The larger the dog the worse the injury.  This is why bite inhibition is SO important.  Especially if you have children or if your dog will ever be around children.

A random note now about fashion..

I'm not talking about dressing Odinn up in cute clothes, he's too big for that lol.  Although you bet if he was smaller and single coated I would get him some cute clothes for sure.  But I'm talking about collars.  One of the most important "accessories" for a dog.  Not only does it label your dog as "owned" and "taken" to strangers, a collar can hold ID information to help you dog find its way home.  Collars are also fun because there are so many different ones. 

We learned a valuable lesson...  We wanted to get Odinn a nice "tough" collar.  A black leather spiked collar.  Now although it looked adorable on him and made him look like a toughie, man those sharp things are pokey.  I can't hug my dog and anytime he leaned on me it felt like a prodding needle or something.  So needless to say we're sticking to flat collars.  But it was interesting to learn.  I never would've thought a spiked collar would hurt me lol.  Who would've thought?  Duh lol.

Here's a new thought...

I just can't let this breed thing go.  I don't know why, maybe because it's a mystery to me and trying to figure out Odinn's true identity is searing a burning hole through my mind.  Another breed mix idea came to my mind today as I was perusing hybrid breed sites and speaking with another dog savvy friend of mine.

Saint Dane = Saint Bernard x Great Dane

Sounds posposterous?!  I think not. 

The very exact markings he has on the face resemble the markings of a harlequin great dane, and the freckles are unmistakingly saint bernard. 

He is slightly fluffy, but not too fluffy, an example of a smooth coated breed with a thick coated breed mix.  He has the build of a larger dog, but everyday is growing and getting taller with longer legs and he has huge growth plates. 

He has a thick head of a Saint bernard but the body build of a dane, not as thin and lanky, but with both breeds together it would make sense that his body build would have to meet halfway there.

So that is my thought on that.  I'm convinced now after seeing many pup pictures of the same mix that look exactly like Odinn, that this the mix he is.  Case Closed, for now.  Although he'll still be our Saint Beast to us.

The Beginning of Odinn's Journey

We received Odinn on Christmas Eve.  An xmas present of sorts.

I have wanted another dog for a long time, but had yet to find a good match.

Odinn is a black and white fuzzy mess of a puppy.  He is going to be a large dog, a giant in fact.  Although we are still atempting to figure out his breed mix, we know he is a St. Bernard mix.

This is Odinn the night we got him.  We choose the name Odinn for him to represent his vast size and greatness that he will one day be, but also his kind and gentle nature.

Here are some ideas of breed combos so far, and the names I've come up with:

• Saint Pyrenees = Saint Bernard x Great Pyrenees
• Newfound Saint = Saint Bernard x Newfoundland
• Landseer = a type of Newfie mix, a black and white one.  This is actually purebred, but it's a thought.

And the winner of the breed matching?...He's a mutt!
But for the purpose of calling him something Robert, my husband, has come up with the perfect breed for him:

Saint Beast!


His health is in jeopardy!

Now, Odinn seemed really healthy when we got him, maybe because he just slept.  A LOT!  He is always sleeping.  Maybe it's a giant breed thing.  But as soon as we got him home, he started throwing up..and throwing up...and...you get the point..  I think I counted about 5-6 cups of food of some sort.  It was very strong, almost like a cat food, or maybe it was some really crappy dog food like gravy train or Ol'Roy, who knows, but this lil boy was sick...as a dog...if you don't mind the pun. 

Once he finally stopped throwing up, the diarrhea began.  Horrible poops, the "Hershey squirts" as I like to call it.  For a puppy though, he had good manners, never in the house did he have an accident.  He whined to go outside, GOOD BOY!  Thank god for my parents and their endless supply of newspaper!  It's called going green people, recycle and reuse!  Geesh, man was he sick.  It stopped resembling poop after the first two movements, then it was just water after that.  But even as sick as he was, he drank plenty so he was never dehydrated. 

**Quick Note and Disclaimer**
I'm sure you've already figured this out, but I'm going to talk about poop every now and then.  If it grosses you out don't read it.  Poop is a major part of life, everyone does it, and it's a major indicator of health in all living organisms.  It's poop.  I have kids and animals and have worked with animals for a long time, poop is so just poop to me now.  Get over it!  Thank you....

Moving on..

We tried feeding Odinn, but he didn't want anything.  Because I've worked with animals for so long I have several medical tricks up my sleeve.  All this stuff is common sense and second nature to me but only because I've been doing it for so long.  

Let's discuss what to do in case your dog has diarrhea:

• Fasting: you can fast a dog from it's food for 24 hours to help it's stomach and digestive tract to relax.  Sometimes the intestinal tract gets so irritated and inflamed that it's best to let it rest.
• Rice:  putting rice in your dog's food allows the rice to absorb the access liquid within the intestines and help firm up the stool.
• Pumpkin:  all natural pumpkin, not canned pumpkin.  I cannot emphasize that enough.  Canned pumpkin has sugars and additives in it for pie filling.  Natural pumpkin is the actual vegetable, but you can get regular canned pumpkin.  Organic is best in my opinion, but non organic is fine too.  Something about pumpkin helps a dog to feel better because it helps to settle the stomach and it helps to firm up the poops.
• Immodium Anti Diarrheal:  I am NOT a Vet, but a vet will tell you the same thing.  If you've tried everything else and if all else fails and you're concerned about the health of your dog, 1 Imodium pill will help.  No more than that.  Hide it in some cheese or throat jam it if you can do that, most dogs won't take the pill by itself.

Ok, another thing, when I'm talking about Diarrhea I mean full on Diarrhea.  Soft stools and loose stools are different than full blown diarrhea.  You don't take the steps I listed above when your dog has loose poops, you only do this when they are sick.  Odinn had diarrhea; it was watery, painful, and resembled poop in no way or form.

So after seeing these things, let's think about what we did for poor Odinn:

• First if your dog has diarrhea, you fast them, no food for 24 hours.  But...this is a puppy..can't do that.  Not providing food for a young puppy can be detrimental and possibly fatal...
• Second rice.  Ok did the rice thing.  I throw rice into a bowl and he just looks at it and goes back to sleep...Crud!  What do I do if he won't eat.....Make it taste good?  Yes!  I mixed in some chicken broth, all organic and free range thank you very much, and he liked that.  But it is a double edged sword.  The rice will help but the broth may make him have more poops.  Well Dangit!  So much for that...Next step..
• Third, got some canned pumpkin.  They say most dogs don't like pumpkin.  Well tell Odinn that cause he looooooves it!  Ate a bunch of it and it seemed to help a bit, but he still had diarrhea.

On the fourth day of some serisouly bad diarrhea, I decided to give Odinn an Immodium.  It helped but it wasn't perfect.  I fed him nothing but rice and cooked chicken and that helped too.  Fasting wasn't an option and because of how sick he was, he was losing weight, but still hydrated.  I got him dewormed and got his first set of shots.  And yes I do vaccinate my own animals.  I do everything I can for them myself, other than rabies, when I can.

Why not take him to the vet?!
Yes, good question.  Why didn't I bring him to the vet?  Because it was the holidays and no one was open other than emergency clinics and I'm not going to pay an emergency vet more than my own kid's doctor for advice and medication I already have and know.  So that's why.


I decided to start feeding him normal food, because even though he was having diarrhea, he wasn't acting sick anymore.  He was happy, playful, mouthy, chewing everything and just acting like a normal puppy.  I figure that even though his poop is gross, I will feed him so he will gain weight and get the calories he needs.  Especially being a large breed puppy I couldn't afford to skimp on the calories because there could be long term consequences if he wasn't growing properly.  Before I started feeding him normal he was getting really thin, and I could feel his hip bones.  It was pretty scary.

After almost a week of diarrhea I decided to accept the fact that Odinn is just going to have really, really loose poop, he's just one of "those" dogs that has it.  It's been 2 weeks since we've had Odinn now and he is still Mr.Loosey Poopy but he is healthy and growing.  So just one of those things.  He's been cleared in health otherwise, there is nothing wrong with him.

Training!

Odinn is crazy smart!  He is learning very well and takes direction well.  But when he is done, he's done.  He starts getting frustrated with something and he starts being all barky and loud and whiny.  It's like geesh dog, geesh alright already. 

Leash training is going ok, he likes to chew the leash so that's something new I haven't trained with a dog before.  He is also very sensitive with his throat, so I would like to get an Easy Walk harness for him, but since he is going to grow so much I'd hate to keep up sizing every time he gets a growth spurt lol.  No fun.

Housetraining is going fairly well.  He always poops outside.  He has had one accident but that was my fault, I was not paying attention to his cues and he wandered off.  He has a piddling problem we're working on, but this means I have to take him outside every 12m or so.  I had a belly band on him for a while, one I made because I didn't want to spend 25 dollars on something like that.

Odinn's belly band:

This basically is a safeguard for me so he doesn't piddle around the house until he "gets it" with the whole potty training thing.  He rarely needs it now.  But say if I had to bring him to someone's house or something, I know he won't have an accident in someone's house with this.  It's a strip of fleece with velcro on it, and it fits snugly around his penis and I put either a pad or pantyliner in there so if he does have an accident it gets absorbed. 

Plus with all the extra fleece fabric I had, I made a bunch of Fleecy Chews, as I like to call them.  Basically I take a strip of fleece, stretch it out so you get the pull out of it, and then I either put knots along it the whole length or I braid a couple strips together.  Dogs love it!  I have yet to see a dog who doesn't like these.  Maybe I should make some.  My plan is to make a bunch to give to the rescues and shelters.

All in all, Odinn is a great puppy.  His personality and energy level is perfect for our family and great with our kids.  Although he does the normal annoying puppy things he is getting better and I think he is actually a lot younger than we first thought.  Supposedly he is 10 weeks old, but he may in truth only be 5 or 6 weeks old.

Well sorry for the long winded blog but wanted to get you up to date with the entire beginning.  Lots more blogging to come.