I was kind of wishing I had a picture of him in full sunlight, like today, because you could really see how bright he is, but I don't,and it's cloudy and raining now. (Which is wonderful! It's 61 degrees and has been drizzling all day! We need it!)
I'll have to get another one soon to really show off his coloring.
Yes, more like that! That captures more of the brightness in his coat. He's a bit redder like this in certain light (like just now, looking at him, I thought, oh, he looks browner in here, but redder outside!) Your version captures it pretty well!
Time for a Leo update! His first summer and fall has been eventful. You'll see in these pics that he's lightened up considerably. He's had a lot of fun with his dog friends, Oskar and Bel (though now as he is firmly in adolescence, Bel is getting quite tired of having his nose permanently attached to her butt!). He's had a puppy class and an agility class and is doing more agility and obedience training too. He LOVES agility, and is super fast!
In June, my mother came and visited from Alaska, so we all went for a leisurely walk along the Jemez river. Leo enjoyed the river, though he's not a huge water dog:
And though he's quite capable of going up and down stairs himself now, and even was then, he was quite resistant to going to bed all through the summer, so this is how he often was escorted up at night:
We had a very scary thing happen, though in the early fall. Leo was bit by a rattlesnake, which was in the garage. The snake got him in the face:
It was super scary. Within 10 minutes he was starting to fall over from the venom. The e-vet is 40 minutes away, and they recommended I find a closer vet. Ours (3 mins away) was out of town. I found another close vet, though, and got him in. He was already starting to pass out, and his face was swelling. We asked for the anti-venin, which was $600 (!) and they gave it to him. Apparently, anti-venin is not always needed or used (and it can be rough on dogs), but given his age, we decided we wanted it. The pics above and below are from about 36 hours later, so the swelling had gone down considerably. He spent about that long in the vet and then came home. We feel like the anti-venin was worth it--the recovery time is much longer for dogs that don't get it.
(And as for the snake, dead, though if you've ever heard stories about people getting bit by "dead" rattlers, I believe it. U. killed the snake with a shovel, mostly decapitating it. We left to take Leo to the vet. 4 hours later, got home, and the snake was STILL moving and rattling! it is quite dead now, though, and I have that sucker's skin and rattles).
But as we said, he recovered quickly, thankfully, and got on with life.
Leo, like many Kai, has some odd sleeping positions:
Once he hit six months though, adolescence hit. We'd been pretty lackadaisical with "Puppy proofing" because he was such a good puppy, and because Oskar, our last puppy, never got into anything. Well, that changed. As the big teeth started coming in, Leo got into EVERYTHING. He's still in that phase now. So that means the cords you see him laying near in the pic above, suddenly became very alluring to him. We've had to put some things up, like the cords, but he's a stealthy guy, and he knows to scope things out, then wait til we're not in the room. And he can climb. So this means a trip to the bathroom may give him the opportunity to climb onto the table and grab, say, the phone, or a camera or glasses (yes, all things he's chewed....he loves to chew plastic). Yesterday he seemed to discover, oh, they COOK FOOD in the kitchen, and it might be on those counters. There was an unfortunate incident with some pancake batter.
He's also lightened up considerably, as you can see in this photo:
And in spite of the fact that he is constantly sniffing, licking or humping Bel, they are still pretty good buds:
He's still good friends with Oskar too, and doesn't seem to mind that sometimes Oskar grabs him by the neck and drags him around the yard. We tend to intervene in that, because it looks scary, but apparently it isn't--Leo always runs back for more.
He's also had fun in agility classes, though his first one was just a "fun" class and didn't really teach the essentials. We'll continue, though!
He is so cute!!! His coloring is really nice. Thanks for the update!! Are rattlesnakes prevalent in your area, if so I was at the vet the other day and they had a rattlesnake vaccine...maybe that would be better than spending $600!! A=
Thanks everyone, we're pretty pleased with him. He's just getting some new teeth in now, though, and is a little hellion!
Yeah there are a lot of snakes, though in the 10 years I've lived here, I've only seen two rattlers (one the one that got Leo). My neighbor has lived here longer and said this is the worst year ever for them. (Mostly we don't see them). The vaccine is not terribly useful for us, actually. What it does is give you a longer time to get the vet. So if you're in a remote area, it would be super useful, but you'd still need to get your dog to the vet (and possibly give them the antivenin). Otherwise, not so much. And the antivenin was cheap where we got it--it's $1200 at the e-vet apparently.
I believe dogs can only get the anti-venin once, so we just have to hope Leo never needs again. (I've read that a couple of places, but haven't confirmed it, so that may not be right. But it is very hard on the body and can cause pretty bad allergic reactions. They gave leo beneydryl before giving him the anti-venin).
Oh my gosh!!! @shibamistress I just got chills reading about the snake bite!! I'm SO glad for you guys that he is ok. How scary!! He is absolutely beautiful and looks so happy. What a great looking boy!!
Sounds like quite the eventful summer! I'm glad Leo's doing well and he did lighten up quite a bit. He's really handsome! Great pictures too, I'm looking forward to Ren's future agility classes. I thought Tsune was fast and agile, but man Ren is a little mountain goat and I'm sure Leo is too haha.
I've been lazy about Leo updates because we put so much on Facebook, but I think it's time for some Leo pics!
Greetings from Leo, who is a very silly boy indeed:
He's also learning to use his agility skills for badness:
Though this pic is a couple of weeks old, I watched him jump up on the table yesterday. He used to climb up onto chairs then get on the table,but now he just springs up their from the floor. It's kind of astounding--not only that he can do it, but that he does it, because none of the other dogs even thought about doing it!
He enjoys playing with Oskar, even when Oskar uses him as a chew toy:
Sometimes he tries to get the others to play, and sometimes they are not impressed:
And some more (I wasn't sure how many pics I could put in one post!)
We have learned that like his littermate, Goro, he does not like wearing his harness, and will freeze as soon as put I it on (and this continues no matter which harness he wears or how much fun he has on his outing)
He's getting to be a quite handsome, mature looking boy:
He had a bath on Christmas Eve, and it was exhausting!
I'm totally in love with this dog. He does things I never imagined a dog doing (climbing up bookcases, jumping on the table, and yesterday I caught him not countersurfing, but trying to spring up onto the counter entirely!) and sometimes I'm at a loss on how to dissuade him from doing these things: the "ahh-ahh-ahh" sound does nothing for him! And he's persistent as can be, so while I can distract him temporarily, he'll go right back to what he was trying to do when he gets a chance!
But he's smart as can be, and super sweet, and just the best dog....I'm crazy about him, and so glad we finally got a Kai Ken!
Comments
I'll have to get another one soon to really show off his coloring.
Lighter? Darker? Redder? Browner? I can try again, even though I'm not very good with photoshop.
In June, my mother came and visited from Alaska, so we all went for a leisurely walk along the Jemez river. Leo enjoyed the river, though he's not a huge water dog:
And though he's quite capable of going up and down stairs himself now, and even was then, he was quite resistant to going to bed all through the summer, so this is how he often was escorted up at night:
We had a very scary thing happen, though in the early fall. Leo was bit by a rattlesnake, which was in the garage. The snake got him in the face:
It was super scary. Within 10 minutes he was starting to fall over from the venom. The e-vet is 40 minutes away, and they recommended I find a closer vet. Ours (3 mins away) was out of town. I found another close vet, though, and got him in. He was already starting to pass out, and his face was swelling. We asked for the anti-venin, which was $600 (!) and they gave it to him. Apparently, anti-venin is not always needed or used (and it can be rough on dogs), but given his age, we decided we wanted it. The pics above and below are from about 36 hours later, so the swelling had gone down considerably. He spent about that long in the vet and then came home. We feel like the anti-venin was worth it--the recovery time is much longer for dogs that don't get it.
(And as for the snake, dead, though if you've ever heard stories about people getting bit by "dead" rattlers, I believe it. U. killed the snake with a shovel, mostly decapitating it. We left to take Leo to the vet. 4 hours later, got home, and the snake was STILL moving and rattling! it is quite dead now, though, and I have that sucker's skin and rattles).
More in the next post!
Leo, like many Kai, has some odd sleeping positions:
Once he hit six months though, adolescence hit. We'd been pretty lackadaisical with "Puppy proofing" because he was such a good puppy, and because Oskar, our last puppy, never got into anything. Well, that changed. As the big teeth started coming in, Leo got into EVERYTHING. He's still in that phase now. So that means the cords you see him laying near in the pic above, suddenly became very alluring to him. We've had to put some things up, like the cords, but he's a stealthy guy, and he knows to scope things out, then wait til we're not in the room. And he can climb. So this means a trip to the bathroom may give him the opportunity to climb onto the table and grab, say, the phone, or a camera or glasses (yes, all things he's chewed....he loves to chew plastic). Yesterday he seemed to discover, oh, they COOK FOOD in the kitchen, and it might be on those counters. There was an unfortunate incident with some pancake batter.
He's also lightened up considerably, as you can see in this photo:
And in spite of the fact that he is constantly sniffing, licking or humping Bel, they are still pretty good buds:
He's still good friends with Oskar too, and doesn't seem to mind that sometimes Oskar grabs him by the neck and drags him around the yard. We tend to intervene in that, because it looks scary, but apparently it isn't--Leo always runs back for more.
He's also had fun in agility classes, though his first one was just a "fun" class and didn't really teach the essentials. We'll continue, though!
He loves it!
I am so glad he recovered from the snake bite pretty quickly! I can imagine how scary that must of been!
I love his silly sleeping positions, too!
Yeah there are a lot of snakes, though in the 10 years I've lived here, I've only seen two rattlers (one the one that got Leo). My neighbor has lived here longer and said this is the worst year ever for them. (Mostly we don't see them). The vaccine is not terribly useful for us, actually. What it does is give you a longer time to get the vet. So if you're in a remote area, it would be super useful, but you'd still need to get your dog to the vet (and possibly give them the antivenin). Otherwise, not so much. And the antivenin was cheap where we got it--it's $1200 at the e-vet apparently.
I believe dogs can only get the anti-venin once, so we just have to hope Leo never needs again. (I've read that a couple of places, but haven't confirmed it, so that may not be right. But it is very hard on the body and can cause pretty bad allergic reactions. They gave leo beneydryl before giving him the anti-venin).
He is absolutely beautiful and looks so happy. What a great looking boy!!
Greetings from Leo, who is a very silly boy indeed:
He's also learning to use his agility skills for badness:
Though this pic is a couple of weeks old, I watched him jump up on the table yesterday. He used to climb up onto chairs then get on the table,but now he just springs up their from the floor. It's kind of astounding--not only that he can do it, but that he does it, because none of the other dogs even thought about doing it!
He enjoys playing with Oskar, even when Oskar uses him as a chew toy:
Sometimes he tries to get the others to play, and sometimes they are not impressed:
We have learned that like his littermate, Goro, he does not like wearing his harness, and will freeze as soon as put I it on (and this continues no matter which harness he wears or how much fun he has on his outing)
He's getting to be a quite handsome, mature looking boy:
He had a bath on Christmas Eve, and it was exhausting!
I'm totally in love with this dog. He does things I never imagined a dog doing (climbing up bookcases, jumping on the table, and yesterday I caught him not countersurfing, but trying to spring up onto the counter entirely!) and sometimes I'm at a loss on how to dissuade him from doing these things: the "ahh-ahh-ahh" sound does nothing for him! And he's persistent as can be, so while I can distract him temporarily, he'll go right back to what he was trying to do when he gets a chance!
But he's smart as can be, and super sweet, and just the best dog....I'm crazy about him, and so glad we finally got a Kai Ken!
Very nice tail on that boy, too...
He's grown a lot.
You have the ruffwear harness! Ive been really wanting to get one for Toki but havent got around to it.
Great pictures