Thursday, August 13, 2009

Monday, August 10, 2009

Getting treats

The monsters getting treats.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Update on Ruckus

Wanted to share a few pictures of Ruckus. He is 5 1/2 months old now and weighs 70 lbs. I also wanted to let you guys know that DH stole him from me!!! He was supposed to be my mother's day present, but he is DH's spoiled baby! If DH wakes up in the middle of the night, he will go get Ruckus out of his cage so he can pet him. He spoils him, feeds him right from the counter. and if anything gets destroyed DH says "he is just a baby" Dh calls him Little Baby Ruckus or Sweet Baby Ruckus.

First I have to confess that I do not call him Ruckus. I lovingly call him $hithead. Like when I look out and see he has eaten yet another one of my new perennials, or when he body slams himself against the back door to get in. Or when he chewed a hole in my carpet. Or when peed on the couch. I could go on and on. I adore him though and I call him that in a very loving manner.

He is pretty much house broken as long as we let him out regularly (thank you peas for your advice) otherwise he will sneak downstairs and pee on the ceramic tile at the bottom of the steps.

Sadie has apparently decided that she is done raising him and will only play with him occasionally. He will beg Bella to play and if she refuses he will just chew on her and force her to play the "lets chew on each others face" game. I just don't understand how that can be enjoyable for them.

DH might have to get a 2nd job to pay the food bill. Sadie and Bella get 4 cups of food each per day. Ruckus eats 4 cups at a meal and gets this 3-5 times a day. My vet said to feed him as many times a day as he wants, just to allow an hour or two between feedings and as long as he isn't fat. He is growing so fast and expends so much energy, he needs it.

I'm not sure if you can tell in the pics or not, but he isn't fixed. It is recommended that you wait until a Dane is 8 months old to fix them or it can affect their growth. Also, he has an undescended testicle and the vet said they have to open him up and find it or it could turn cancerous. We have decided that since he will already be opened up, we are going to have his stomach tacked so that we won't have to worry about him ever getting bloat.

He is the sweetest, goofiest, most loving dog I have ever met. I love him so much and I just don't know what I will do if something happens to him.

I only have 2 complaints. 1. He pees when he gets excited. He will either pee in one spot, or he will run around leaving a wiggly stream on the carpet behind him. Vet says he should grow out of that by the time he is 6 months old, I will freak if he doesn't.

#2. I swear his paws weigh about 10 lbs each. DH usually gets up before I do and Ruckus loves to run in and jump up on the side of the bed...you know ... where my face is? It is like getting punched in the face with his ginormous paws. Again, I mutter $hithead and then get up.

I also want to really get him his AKC CGC certificate so that he can become a therapy dog. We have just started to research that.

dogs

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Friday, August 7, 2009