Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Teething!

nomming an ice cube
Kai is definitely loosing some teeth!  I noticed yesterday at lunch that he was missing both of his upper front teeth and one bottom fang, in addition to his lower front tooth.  I guess the teeth all decided to start coming out at once!  He did seem more tired than normal yesterday, too... when I opened his crate during lunch, he did his customary strrretch front and back, walked out, and then turned around and went back in.  He's still eating fine, though.  I gave him an ice cube, which he had fun with, and also some old dish rags which I soaked in water, knotted, and froze.

so sleepy, and naked!

Chris took Kai's collar off so that we could give him a good brushing.  I ordered a harness for him, so hopefully that will fit and Kai won't mind it so much.  Kai's puppy collar is getting too small for him, anyway.  I also bought him a martingale collar, but I sort of think he might hate that. 

We will be taking Kai on his first camping trip this weekend.  I really hope it goes ok!  Kai will have to pretty much be on a leash or tie out all weekend, since we can't trust him to hang around on his own.  He's too young to really do any hiking or anything, so this will be an extremely leisurely trip... most likely just hanging around the campsite and the beach.  Should be interesting...

Monday, April 16, 2012

16 Week Old Monster

two monsters
Kai is 16 weeks old!  And after having a good couple of weeks, he more than made up for it yesterday.

All the stuff I had been reading about teething has so far not applied to Kai.  He definitely is missing at least one tooth now (bottom front) and some others look loose.  But he hasn't cried or chewed any more than normal.  Maybe he's not far enough into the teething stage for it to really bother him.  I'm just glad that it hasn't escalated his monster-ing so far!

Saturday was a fun day for Kai.  He got to meet his cousin Ke$ha, a 30ish lb. dog who is still young herself, only about a year and a half old.  Kai and Ke$ha hit it off immediately and had lots of fun running around Ke$ha's big backyard.  We actually left the two dogs alone together for a few hours while we took Ke$ha's parents (Chris's cousin and her husband) rock climbing.  Kai was sad when we finally had to leave.  I think he has a bit of a crush on Ke$ha.  I wish we lived closer to Chris's cousin so that the two dogs could play more often.  It was so fun to see them together.

Ke$ha and Kai



Kai also had his 4-month vet visit on Saturday morning.  He did great, and now that he is fully vaccinated against Parvo, we can start taking him out more without being so paranoid!  His testicles still haven't dropped... the vet said one was right there, waiting to drop, and that the other one is probably right behind it.  We will take Kai back next month to check on that.

Kai and Chris waiting to see the vet
Sunday we had puppy class with Kai.  He was fine for most of the class, but he threw a GIANT tantrum at the end.  We had taken him off his regular leash and put him on a long leash for some training activities, and when we tried to put his regular leash back on he threw a huge fit.  The trainer ended up having to put his leash on, and he bit her in the process... not hard, but he did break skin.  I felt so bad and embarrassed.  The trainer was great with him and gave us some suggestions on how to desensitize him to that.  I also am thinking maybe we should try using a harness instead of a collar for attaching the leash to him.  He just HATES it when we try to mess with anything around his neck.  :(

Sunday evening, we left Kai crated so that he could chill out after his tantrum while we had dinner with Chris's family.  I went for a run when we got back.  After my run, I gave Kai some water, and he was really really thirsty.  He drank two bowls of water.  (We had given him his first heartworm/flea/tick pill that morning... not sure if it was that, or the tantrum, that made him so thirsty.).  A couple of hours later, while we were watching TV, Kai all of a sudden just started peeing right in the middle of the living room, in front of us!  He has never done that before.  I grabbed him and said NO loudly and put him outside.  He definitely was startled, and knew he had been bad.  We cleaned it up and let him back in after about 10 minutes.  And then... about 20 minutes later, he did it AGAIN!  This time, he was lying on his side on the floor in the living room, and he just started peeing as he was lying there.  I looked over and saw him lying there but holding his upper leg up awkwardly, and then Chris was like "he's PEEING again!".  Sigh.  I hope that the two accidents were just from him drinking so much water, rather than being some side effect of the medication.  I looked up the drug, and it didn't list anything like that in the possible side effects.  I was really worried about how he'd do in the crate overnight, but he didn't have any more accidents.  I guess peeing twice in the house pretty much emptied him out.

peaceful, right before the second peeing incident.
Needless to say, Sunday was pretty rough.  I had also had a 3.5 hour rehearsal that morning, and Chris and I had climbed three days in a row, so I was feeling pretty wrecked even before the day began.  And dealing with Kai's tantrum and peeing was pretty exhausting.  I hope today will be better!

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Calm Before the Storm

14.5 weeks handsome
Kai has been pretty good this week... which makes for a less interesting blog, I know, but a calmer home.  He is 14 1/2 weeks old, though, and I know that something traumatic is right around the corner:  teething.  From what I've read, it sounds like 15 weeks is the average age for Shibas to start teething.  He has wanted to chew everything in sight ever since we got him, so I have no idea how him teething will be!

I guess I can say that his ears are officially "up"
 now.  In this photo, they certainly are up.  The tips of the ears, however, still flop much of the time, and I've noticed that his ears tend to flop more when he's tired.  he's looking like a little man these days, although he still has his puppy fur, and definitely his puppy attitude.

Buster cube fun!
I am so happy that Kai finally figured out how to play with his Buster cube!  I bought this toy for him before he even came home, since I had read so many good things about it.  But at 8 weeks old, I guess he wasn't ready to play with it yet.  He was not even a little bit interested in it.  So I put it away until a few days ago, when I decided to try again.  I put some of his kibble in it and gave it to him.  At first, he was trying to get his mouth around it (it's too big for that).  Then he started licking the hole where the kibble gets loaded into.  I showed him how to roll the cube around to get the kibble out.  He got it after a couple of demonstrations, and was fully occupied in getting the rest of the kibble out for the next 20 minutes.  I think it may be his new favorite toy!  (I think it may be MY new favorite toy, too, since he can play with it on his own!)

Monday, April 2, 2012

Trip to Walnut Creek

Kai went on a trip to Walnut Creek this weekend.  He had lots of admirers outside lululemon while I tried on some things :)




He was pretty tuckered out after such a long day.

Chris was tired, too.