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!!