{30july2010: staycation part 2}

If you missed it, you can read part 1 of our staycation here.

For the second half of the day we all hung out in the sun (drinking).  

As empty beer cans were tossed to the side, Darwin  remembered her fondness for beer and thought she'd make sure the cans were really empty.

{that one's good, let me check this one}



{don't mind me... i'm just moving these cans around}
 
  
   
It was funny watching her make her way around and checking out all the empty cans... until she decided to try and get in the cans...
  
We quickly took them away from her, but not before she managed to cut her lip a tiny bit.   
More kayaking was done as the dogs looked on.
 
 
 
   
Then we tried out some badminton!  Note, trying to hold a drink in your hand while playing a racket sport is very hard!  Having two dogs trying to get the shuttlecock doesn't help much either.
  
  
There was so much activity all day long and Darwin wanted to be a part of it ALL.  She was so tired and delirious barking at everything going on, but couldn't get herself to just sit and relax so we eventually got her into the house and onto the couch for a nap.
   
What was supposed to be a nap turned into an early bed time and she missed a great sunset!
   
  
  


The next morning we had to get up early to catch the ferry back to Seattle so we could meet up with my good friend who was visiting from DC.  It was a short little staycation, but a beautiful one filled with lots of laughs. 

{91 days old}

Park time... Trolley Hill Park a short walk from home.

 

{14oct 2009: George}

Any Seattle or Pacific Northwest folks that read this blog?  A Great Dane needs a new home (no, not Darwin).  Received this forwarded email from a friend today.  Email me if you're interested or know someone who is and I can pass on his contact information. 

It saddens me to do this but I am looking for a home for my 3 year old (apx) Brindle Great Dane, he is pretty healthy (though long walks are hard on his hips), has a great disposition and is an all-around good dog.

He came to my family almost two years ago through a rescue program I work with, when we got him he was 100lbs, way underweight for his size, we nursed him back to health and he is now about 140lbs.

During this time my son fell in love with him and we took him into our home; unfortunately a recent divorce means he doesn’t get the attention he deserves so my son and I are looking to find him a better place.

Contrary to popular beliefs Danes do not need lots of space, George loves to just lay around and go for short walks, the key to his happiness is time with his owner, kids in the home would be wonderful too.

Let me know if you’re interested, we can go from there.

Ryan

If we had a bigger place Darwin would totally have George as a brother... if we had a bigger place and more money Darwin would have lots of brothers and sisters.  Okay, maybe not a lot, but at least a brother dog, and maybe a brother and sister kitty.  :)

{14Oct 2009: naughty naughty}

Moose's mom pointed out that I've only posted the cute/good side of Darwin and have yet to post anything naughty she's done.  Believe me, while she's definitely not a horror puppy, she's had her share of moments, though of course I didn't get photographs of those incidents. 

At the point of back tracking that I'm at (71 days) she was a pretty good puppy. She still had her potty accidents in the office if we weren't careful at taking her downstairs often enough, but didn't have many at home (it's easier to run outside, than wait for an elevator to get out). And she wasn't too big of a chewer or destroyer... take that back, she liked to chew on the drawer knobs in the kitchen, but not much else.

Then we come to her being maybe 4-5 months old. One afternoon, we're getting the house ready for friends to come over, I think it was the 4th of July. We had taken her out to potty, then were cleaning up and I had just changed the sheets and made the bed. A few minutes later, we go into the bedroom (where she's not allowed) and she had jumped on the bed and peed on it! She peed on the bed!!! Of course we couldn't hit her or rub her nose in it, it was partly our fault for not watching her more carefully, and leaving the bedroom accessible. So we begrudgingly clean it up and change the sheets, again.
A few days later, she does the same thing! Though this time we catch her in the act and she gets a big scolding... so much so she runs and hides behind Jason's turn tables and is scared to come out. We quickly apologize for being so mad, and nicely tell her that's not good (like she understands what we're saying).  We couldn't figure out why she would do that... it seems so cat like.

A month or so after those incidents, Jason and I decide to leave her at home one night so we can go watch Harry Potter and have a date night. She had been having runny stool all day, but we didn't think much of it. She had outgrown the crates we had borrowed from friends by then so we were using a baby gate and keeping her in the kitchen. We get home from the movie, and the first thing we notice is the smell. Then we see it... diarrhea in the entry way, a small trail to the bathroom... and the baby gate knocked over. She is so scared of the baby gate (it's fallen enough times that the noise of it hitting the floor scares her) that she must've really had to go. It was impressive that she did it right at the door, and funny enough, in Jason's hiking boot that was out. hehehe. We couldn't be mad, cause she wasn't feeling well, and at least most of it was on the tile floor and not the carpet. Poor thing.

The most recent incident was just this past weekend while we were out of town. She was at Tom's house staying with her doggy parents. They let the dogs on the furniture, and Darwin was infatuated with her dad, Atlas, and wouldn't leave his side. So when he went to bed in one of the boys rooms, she went with him, and during the night tore up one of his books. She's never done that at our house, so we were horrified when we heard about it.

I'm sure there will be more bad dog moments in the future... and we don't look forward to them. :)

{71 days old}

Darwin can be so goofy sometimes.

 

{68 days old}

I don't remember how it started, but one day we decided to give Darwin an apple as a snack.  And boy did she love it.

I think it was the fun of rolling it around on the floor, and then being able to bite pieces out of it.

It was funny, if you got too close to her, she'd think you were trying to take her apple away and pick it up and go somewhere else.

She'd eat the whole thing and then we would point out the little crumbs and pieces she left strewn over the floor, and she'd eat up all the little bits too.
She still loves her apples.  She's a nut for apples.  She's now tall enough to see what's on the counters and can see when we have apples.  If she sees one, she'll stand in front of it, and whine and carry on til we give her one.  I tried to have Jason cut one up for her one night, as she was being well behaved lying on her bed as we ate dinner.  So he went to the kitchen and as soon as it was cut in half, she jumped up and was at the counter waiting for her treat.  We now spell it out, a-p-p-l-e if we talk about it in front of her, because once she hears the word she thinks she's getting one.


Anyway, later this day we went over to our friend's apartment and Darwin and Friday got some play time.  I don't think Friday really liked Darwin playing with her toys... I don't think Friday really wanted to play tug with Darwin, but Darwin really wanted to play with  Friday!

{66 days old}

Day two of puppy kindergarten.  A new puppy was there, a little french bulldog boy, Louie.  He and Darwin hit it off!  She was much better playing with him than she was at the first kindergarten class.

They were so cute playing together!  We call Louie Darwin's first boyfriend.  

{65 days old}

The fun thing about having a small(ish) puppy, is you can dress them up in ridiculous things.  Monday morning, I was working at my desk, when I turned around and this is what Darwin was wearing:

Tom had found this lovely ensamble over the weekend, and managed to sneak it on her without me noticing.  
She was not too thrilled about it.

{Stop laughing at me!!! Get this off!!!}

Great danes, puppy or not, were not meant to wear little ballerina outfits.  She was so muscular, she looked like a football player wearing a dress.

Her tantrum with the dress on was her biting at the carpet.  

{64 days old}

***We're back.  Sorry for the absence.  Quick weekend trip to the mid-west for Jason's sister's wedding.  Darwin got to spend the weekend at her doggy mom and dads. She loves it there.***

Since Darwin didn't get much time with Misty, her mom, and didn't get that socialization time, and correction from her mom or siblings, and since she's our first puppy, I decided we should take her to puppy kindergarten for her sake and ours.  After some research I picked out paws 4 training with Susan Oshie.  We started out with a 6 week course, once a week, but after the first class we saw that Darwin needed more socialization time with young  puppies, and went up to two classes a week. 
{Darwin getting to know Milkshake, the chocolate lab, and an older puppy}

It was a good mix of us learning how to train her basic commands and play time for the puppies.  At first Darwin was unsure of the new environment and all the new puppies, but was quick to pick up some things and learned that lots of treats were involved in coming to class.
When we got home, Darwin got a treat of some cherry tomatoes (she loves her fruits).

And then she passed out for the night.  And boy what a snorer!

{57 days old}

Spring in Seattle is beautiful!  Flowers are blooming, the sun's out, the air is crisp and cool.  It was one of the first nice spring days, and we decided we'd take Darwin out to enjoy it.  We met up with some friends at Green Lake had a picnic and sat around the lake. 

Being 8 weeks old, we couldn't walk her around the whole lake, or even half of it really, but we made it part way around and found a nice patch of grass to sit in.  I can't even count how many people would stop to ask if she was a weimaraner.  Actually we still get that question sometimes. 
{"Aren't I majestic?"}

{"Can we go home yeeeeet?"}

It wasn't very long til she fell asleep in the grass.

So we left, and spent some more time in the sun on the roof deck, where she decided she needed another nap.

Such a hard life being a puppy.

{8 weeks old}

When I first moved to Seattle, I furnished my apartment with everything IKEA for the most part.  One of the things I got because I thought it was so cute was a hedgehog air cushion.  When we got Darwin, she LOVED this thing.  It was just deflated enough that she would climb all over it, and we would push down on a side and she'd roll off and attack it.

We've since gotten rid of it, but for a while it was such an entertaining toy!

{55 days old}

The first captured on film stuck lip!  This is one of my most favorite pictures of her when Darwin was small.  I love the stuck lip face!  Cracks me up all the time!

 

{54 days old}

At our first vet visit we were told we should start getting Darwin used to brushing her teeth.  So we bought a tube of poultry flavored pet toothpaste, and gave it a try.
She moved and it ended up on her nose instead.

We haven't been very good about keeping up with the teeth brushing, and probably should get back in that habit.

{04oct2009: marymoor dane days}

Sundays at Marymoor there are weekly great dane meet ups... the group is Marymoor Danes.  We started bringing Darwin out as soon as she got all her shots, and we've got to meet alot of danes in the area.  Its great.   The group is usually there between 10-2 on Sunday's... people walk through the park and if we run into each other we all walk the park together taking breaks and letting the dogs play.
{Georgia, George, Lucy, Sirus, Hagrid, Turkish, Frankie, and Teshua's back}

Today there were quite a few... I think the group got up to at least 10-15 at one point.  And there were a few more walking the park on their own.

There are currently big piles of wood chips throughout the park, waiting to be spread this coming weekend, that Darwin loves to climb.

{George Frankie a friend and Darwin playing king or queen of the hill}

{Darwin friend and Frankie playing on the hill}

A new blue boy showed up at the park today, Turkish.  He's a big 10 month old boy.
{Sirus Darwin almost 8mos and Turkish 10mos}

He's still intact, so there were a few scuffles between him and some of the other males in the group, but all in all everyone had a good time.  It's always fun to meet new danes.
{Darwin on her hill at the end of the day}

It's nice to be part of the Yahoo group of Marymoor Danes, because with us being newbie dane owners we always have a lot of questions.  And any questions we may have about Darwin we can send a message to the group and usually get a good number of responses that can help us out.  It's been a great help.