Fall Colours

While waiting for the Turkey to slow cook this colourful Thanksgiving afternoon, Dobie and his family went on an outing to the neighbourhood parks and trails. Here he is, sitting impatiently, waiting for me to get a half decent picture of him:

Hiking through the brush with his Dad:

Dobie the explorer with the whimsical brow:

Uh-oh, Dobie needs a potty break:

King of the hill:

I can always count on him for a paw:

Soaking up the last rays of autumn sun:

Trying to take a nice picture with my small garden but neither of us could help squinting into the sun:

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Bye for now, from Dobie and Family.

My Doberman is not a toy!

I have been bottling up a lot of anger lately. I am furious at how rude some people are when it comes to dog etiquette. Everywhere I take Dobie, some random person who wants to meet him will give my dog a command. I am one rude person away from cursing someone out in public.

Would you tell someone elses kid to go sit down? Or course not! You’ll have an angry parent threatening you to leave their kid alone or they’ll call the police. So what makes you think you can tell my dog to “Sit”? You can’t, period. It’s wrong. He’s not your dog.

1. I don’t know you, how dare you give my dog a command! Even if I did know you, what makes you think I would let you give my dog a command? Ask me first.
2. You are confusing my dog, how dare you presume it is okay to use a hand signal on my dog? I don't want him trained with hand signals!
3. Ask for my permission if you want to see my dog do a “trick”. Even then, you don’t get to give the command. My dog is not a toy!

Cesar Millan is right. He rehabilitates dogs, people are the ones that need training. Maybe other dog owners don’t feel this way because their dog is purely a pet. I want to compete with mine, his training is very important to me. Even so, it’s not right to presume you can tell another person’s dog what to do. End of rant.

Parading the side-walk with his stick

On our walk to the woods last week, Dobie picked up a rotting branch and insisted on bringing it home. He was so proud of his branch, I couldn’t bear to make him “drop it”. So instead, I found him a decent stick which was not rotting and replaced it!

Every day we go outside for a long walk, he picks up his stick from the porch and carries it for the duration of the walk. When we get back, he has to “drop it” and leave it on the porch. We have been in this routine for a week now and I think he is comfortable with the idea that the stick must stay outside. He is reassured that it will be there for him tomorrow.

Some benefits I have noticed from giving him a stick to carry:

- Less distracted, more mindful of not pulling on the leash
- It is obvious when he needs to potty (he drops the stick, goes potty, picks it up again)
- He’s a working breed, seems happy to be employed carrying a stick
- Good practice for carrying other items such as his water bottle

See how happy he is today!

4 months - Little dog big bark

I am so proud of Dobie. His barks are usually quite high pitched when he’s hungry or wants attention. But now I know he’s just being a puppy around us. Yesterday, I heard a big-dog bark from his little puppy body for the first time.

It was 11pm, I had put him to bed in his crate and gone to bed myself. I didn’t know our friend was dropping by to pick up an xbox game. Usually Dobie is very excited and friendly when the doorbell rings because he expects us to welcome in more playmates. He must have known the situation was different since the lights were off and I was upstairs, because when the doorbell rang, he let out a series of protective big-dog barks.

I don’t know how he changed his voice, but the barks were menacingly loud with a low growl. He sounded genuinely frightening. Brandon and I ran downstairs to see what was wrong, and when we got there, he instantly quieted down and waited for us to see who was at the door. When we saw our friend, he sensed that there was no threat and went back to sleep. Even though Dobie was in his crate and couldn’t do anything if it was a break-in, he still warned the ‘intruder’ with his pretend big-dog voice to stay away from our house.

So when people say that dogs don’t have the instinct to protect their homes if they are crated on a regular basis, you can tell them that this is a complete myth. My 4 month old puppy had the good sense and courage to use his big voice. He doesn’t just see the crate as his home, he knows he’s part of the bigger home that Brandon and I belong in. I also learned that even though Dobie has accidents inside the house, chews carpet and wets his crate, he DOES see this as his home and feels the need to protect it. I am extremely proud of my little puppy for being a brave doggy. Good boy Dobie!

Dobie at 4 months of age... *wink*

Ear posting success!

Dobie’s ears have only been posted for 4 weeks and they are standing beautifully! The trick my breeder taught me is to post for at least 3 weeks using a cup first. Then switch to the post. The reason this 2-stage process works well is that the cup helps the base of the ear set. If the cartilage doesn’t harden in an upwards position, the ears won’t stand vertically, parallel to each other.

The methodology is to start by developing a good foundation (base of the ear), ignoring the fact that the cup causes pockets. Pockets are easily removed by stretching the ear up the post. I can testify that these pockets were removed after 1 week of posting. And now, Dobie’s ears stand perfectly. I also did not need to bridge the ears. Since he had pockets and the ears leaned too far inwards, I was happy to see that the posts pointed the ears outwards.

I noticed immediately when I switched to the post that due to his low ear setting, his posts did not stand vertically. They pointed at the 11 and 1 o'clock positions. Some people opt to use a bridge (piece of tape to join the posts) to pull the posts into the vertical position, but the ears could easily lean more to one side. The cup is much more stable, doesn't move around on the puppy's head and ensures that both ears grow straight upwards.

TOTAL POSTING TIME: 3 weeks using a cup + 1 week in posts

Here he is, just shy of 4 months, and I have not posted his ears for 3 weeks:

3 months old

They grow so fast it makes me sad. He still tries to climb on my lap, but he’s too big to curl up on top of my legs now. Dobie is adjusting to settling down on the floor beside me instead. He loves cuddling up for a movie, I think more so than playing fetch (a game he insists we play at least 3 times a day). When we’re playing ball and I sit down on the floor, he thinks it’s his cue to come sit in my lap.

Above: 9 weeks old  /  Below: 12 weeks old

When it comes to learning new commands, he’s awesome. Most definitely the smartest puppy I ever met. You would think that pottying in the crate would be a thing of the past by now, but he still has trouble holding it in the morning and when he feels anxiety in the crate. His natural waking time is around 6am. If I’m not downstairs by 6:15, I’m almost certain to find him crying in a puddle. Then when he sees me, he gets so excited he starts jumping and splashing the puddle to my horror, so all I can do is avoid eye contact with him, don’t say a word, and wait for him to calm down so I can clean him up. I have a feeling his bladder control is not as developed as it should be at 3 months. He only weighs 20 lbs, but the general guideline is that a 3 month old should be closer to 30 lbs. I’ll discuss this with our vet next week when he gets his 3rd set of puppy vaccines.

Here he is at 12 weeks of age, after 3 weeks of posting ears. I’m very pleased with how well his ears are standing after only 3 weeks with the cup. I started putting them in posts this week to straighten the tip of the ears and remove the pockets (which cause the ears to lean inwards).

   

Never enough chew toys

Compared to all my friend’s puppies, Dobie chews the most by far. He can’t help it! Dobermans are known to chew everything they can get their mouths around. But I didn’t expect him to love chewing this much. It doesn’t help that he has a very determined personality. If I don’t let him chew the rug, he’ll sneak back to it when I’m not looking and try to chew it again. Thank goodness for bitter apple spray which deters him instantly, thus providing a correction for chewing an inappropriate item. The best way to distract/correct him is to replace the wrong item with one of his chew toys. Then praise him for chewing one of his toys and not the furniture. His favourites are the linked rings and ‘Mr. Gator’.


Bear stealing a kiss while Dobie naps               Rope toy = WANT


Putting up with his owners                              Mr. Gator, I'm too tired to play now

Pet Insurance

There are many pet insurance providers available and they all offer multiple tiers of coverage. Try to select the plan with the best value that suits your financial needs. The whole point of pet insurance is to ensure your pet receives the care he needs when accidents happen. If you can’t afford to pay the regular veterinary bills, you should not be a dog owner in the first place. That’s something that more people should consider before buying a dog. Insurance companies work because they make money off uneducated people paying for inflated plans that are filled with loopholes. Here are some comparisons for the least expensive plans offered by the top 3 pet insurance providers in Canada:

PetCare - Overpriced, too many exclusions, poor value, insurance has many loop holes to deny you coverage. Take a look at this:

Their least expensive plan is mainly for accident insurance. If you read carefully, you’ll realize that this QuickCare First Aid plan for dogs only covers $1000 for 7 types of accidents. If your accident is not one of the 7 types, they can deny you coverage. Their QuickCare Optimum plan is $38.15 per month but it only covers $1500 first-time illnesses per year.

SPCA Pet Insurance’s Intro Plan - hardly any coverage ($1000 per year) for $35+tax per month?! Ridiculous!

PC Financial’s Value Plan - only covers $2000 for SELECTED illness over the pet’s LIFETIME. How is this good value? Saving $40 a month for 5 years will give me over $2400.

PC Financial’s Accident Plan - $1500 per accident, $100 deductible, no annual limit for $10 a month. For half the price of PetCare’s plan, you get $500 more per accident. Doing the math, $10/month for 10 years is $1200. Just one accident during the lifetime of your pet and this plan is more than paid for. This is the clear winner. This plan works for me in combination with saving for rainy days. Instead of signing on for a $50/month plan, I can save $40/month for illnesses and have accident coverage.

Finally, a pet insurance policy I can live with!

Hurtta jacket for Dobie

As you can see, it is September, I don’t have my puppy yet, but I have already bought him a jacket for the winter months when he grows up.  Over-prepared much?!  It’s okay, it was on sale.

It's more expensive than my daily wear winter jacket but I want Dobie to have the best of the best.  And when it comes to cold weather coats for dogs, Hurtta is the top of the line dog-wear brand.  The Hurtta Pro Winter Jacket is made using Houndtex material which is wear resistant, waterproof, windproof and breathable.  All the seams are taped, similar to my snowboarding jackets to keep moisture out.  Hurtta also sells rain coats, training gear for handlers and safety gear for dogs.

http://www.hurttacollection.com/en/