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!