New slides #32 – #37 of Lil Linus from yesterday. 🙂 All that snow is so cold and hard on his tender little tootsies yet he loves to go out!

I brought Lil Linus with me when I worked on Monday at the Vet’s and had him examined etc. He now weighs 53.24 pounds(24.2Kgs) and the Vet agrees with me on the collapsed pasterns plus his hips. He was more resistive and uncomfortable when the left hip, knee etc. was flexed and rotated over the right. We will monitor as he grows older and do X-Rays when he is neutered. Due to his vaccines haven been given at such a young age; we just boostered him tonight and will wait another 3 weeks before the rabies is given. I brought in a fecal sample to be tested to see how we are doing with his de-worming. He was so much better in the car and settled down best when he was allowed on the passenger side seat with his head in my lap or resting touching my side! He still is nervous about driving anywhere and did not realise we were actually home until he was walking up the steps and you should have seen how much he changed! He was so happy and relieved to know that he was now back home! At the hospital; he continued to charm everyone and was not happy about being in a pen by himself yet he needs to learn that his own company is ok too. 🙂 He settled down after awhile and we brought him out on several occasions to mingle and socialise. He had the opportunity to meet and play with a Golden Retriever Puppy yet when that puppy began to bark at him; he barked back and was scared and then hid behind me. He was much more interested in the humans around him than any of the dogs. I gave him the ‘shhhh’ command and he listened! YAY! He will need a lot more outside(yes, we have 17 other dogs but he needs others)the home with other dog interaction. Not being 100% comfortable in his environment, he did not pee outside and had two accidents in his pen instead; which is ok. That will come. When he come home, he could not greet all the dogs fast enough and did not know who to play with first. I also discussed with the Vet about his ‘resourcing’ and that this is going to be a huge thing for us to work on for to see such a thing in a 15 week old pup is something else. She agreed and many stated just how much he is in the right place for him to overcome all that he has to. His heart, eyes, ears, teeth and body looked good and while thin; he is putting on the weight and should continue to blossom. I was just so thrilled by the kisses he continues to shower upon me more and more as when we first picked him up; he would only feel comfortable giving them to Sean. Lil Linus’s vet bills tonight was just over $150.00 and if anyone would like to help us by sponsoring him, donating toys, a new collar(he came with a choke collar that not only was not the best for a puppy but was too small and quite hard to get off and he is now wearing Mudslide’s old feminine one! 😳 ) I know that not only would we be so appreciative of the assistance yet I know that Lil Linus would too; especially if he had a collar meant for the manly boy he is! His next vet visit shall not be for another month but I will bring him in when I go into work to continue to expose him to different things.

BHRR’s Lil Linus – DEAF Male Young(3+ months) Harlequin Great Dane, born December 7th, 2007 and weighed 50.16 pounds(22.8 KGs) on March 18th, 2008. We picked him up in Montreal, Quebec in the evening of Saturday March 15th as he was at risk of being pts. He is not neutered at this time and not yet fully utd on vaccines. I will be bringing him in this week to give him boosters(his first vaccines and second were at such a young age that we will not give him his rabies until he is closer to 5 months)and I am currently de-worming him and he is now on Sentinel. He will be neutered in a few months time. His vision is also normal for a SN’s and DOGGLES is a good recommendation to help protect him in the sun and snow. We are working on crate training and for the most part; Linus will give me about 4.5 hours a night in a stretch before ‘squeaking’ to come out! 😛 He really likes BHRR’s Abbi’s crate the best and can often be found lying in there with or without her. I am not sure if it is because it is located in the sunroom where my computer is or not for he likes to be ‘around’ me. We have learnt so much about Linus in the one week he has been here. The night we brought Linus home; he just walked right up the stairs and into the house as if he owned the place! The next thing he did was put his front feet up on the kitchen counter and look for ‘yummies!’ He had no problems about making himself at home. Linus has come a long way with touching for he did not like to be touched too much when he arrived; especially around the head. If he was unsure, he would come up to you and let you give him a quick pat and that was all he needed to move on WHICH is great for we do not believe in ‘babying’ and ‘enabling’ the dogs. We teach them safe and calming words plus signals and touches and just move forward after they are done in a situation that might make a dog uncomfortable. By the first 24 hours; Linus had been integrated with 15 of the 17 other dogs here. Mazda and Cherokee preferred to stay snoozing in the recreation room which is fine as they play QUITE rough at times! LOL Linus LOVED KB/JB when he met him! That little tail just would not stop wagging. Linus’s best buds are KB/JB, Soul(WAS there going to be any questions on that one!), Bronson and now also Hamilton. Linus is like Abbi in that he wants to play with the ‘BIG DOGS’ and cannot wait to do so! Unlike Abbi, however; he does not possess the same level of ‘common’ sense and often finds himself in the middle of the action and then being bowled over. Yet, after recovering to the safety be it the front step or a bed; within seconds he is right back out there going at it again! Linus is NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART! His personality is HUGE+. We are also working on doggy boot camp with him(NILIF) as he is resourcing and does not like to share what he believes are high value items. Yes, he is only 3+ months and he has no qualms about taking another dog on(perceived offense yet most often only in his imagination due to his inside insecurities) over something. Linus is required to share his food bowl in addition to the water(which he is fine over) and all toys. He has come a long way in just a week and we need to be on top of things for this is not behavour we wish to see develop in the wrong direction. Will he always be this way; hard to really say at this point; yet we will aim to keep up a management/treatment program and work on his self-confidence ‘build’ up in the right ways FOR as much as he is outwardly ‘full of steam’; inside he is a little puppy that has had to grow up a bit too fast mentally/emotionally(he was bounced around in at least 3 homes before coming to us) and has not been given the right tools to be able to develop the way he should. We are working on the housebreaking and he is no longer trying to ‘hump’ everything around him. AND for clarification sake; humping does not always mean mating or dominant behavour either. It is done often by puppies to build up their self-confidence. He was fairly thin when he arrived and with the de-worming plus homecooking in addition to Canidae; he is growing well. He is collapsed in his pasterns and I have him on Ester C right now. We will also look closer at Linus’s hind end for he is a bit ‘wonky’ back there right now and will do X-Rays if needed when he is neutered to get a better idea of what we are looking at. Linus knows how to ‘sit’ like a pro now and other than that; he has finally picked up ‘no’ and more often than not; likes to ignore you when you use his name(he will look away or walk away)! Housebreaking is coming along………..slowly! He will be outside(he loves outside yet does not want to go out by himself) and does not think about doing anything until he comes in and then well……………. 🙄 He also has ‘destructo’ jaws and anything is fair game to him right now; toys, shoes are a favourite of his; ankles, clothing; you name it! He is going to have very powerful chewing tendencies like our PPSS has and will require many many many Giant Breed and durable toys. YET, the neat thing is that he has not desired to destroy his ‘Tigger’ stuffie. Unfortunately; Hamilton The Newf got a hold of poor Tigger and Tigger has been a little mangled. Linus still wuvs him though! He is taking re-direction well in the replacing of the non-acceptable item with an acceptable one and I will stock up on even more for with his mouth; PPSS and Guinness; we are going to need more toys that can take a beating! Linus is insecure about car rides so I take him often with me just for short jaunts and make sure that I visit Timmie’s or McDonald’s so that he can get a special treatie! When we came home from when I took him to work with me; he went from a little mush in the seat to “OMG! WOW! FOR ME! A TREATIE! MAYBE THE CAR IS NOT SO BAD AFTERALL!’ He is getting better at riding and in time; I am hoping that he is feeling secure enough to know that he is not going to be changing hands to another anytime soon. He is also doing fantabulous with his ‘startle’ reflex from when he first arrived. He has gone from waking up panicked and running away making soft sounds of distress to now if maybe opening up his eyes yet most often stretching and making cute puppy grunts and moving his body so that we can rub his tummy! NOW that is success!!!!! We are always in his mouth, touching feet, ears and tail. He even comes up for special lovings now all on his own!!! NOW, the one thing I have to mention is Linus’s snoring! OMG! I was thinking it was Guinness(our 204 pounds EM) or Sean snoring and in fact it is Linus! HOLY! What is he going to be like when he is an adult! LOL Linus makes a great alarm clock and you can be very reliably assured that at 7:00 AM everyday; he is up and at it; raring to go! A long update to be sure but it has been a very big and busy week for Linus.