HHHHHHHeeeeeeeerrrrrreeeee'sss Joey!
Sorry for the long post, but I'm a proud daddy!
Well, its been months in the waiting, but the time has finally come and gone and aside from feeling like I got hit by a truck due to all the emotion, I couldn't be happier! Here are a bunch of pics and videos for everyone to enjoy:
Joey at 2 weeks:
Joey at 3 weeks:
Joey at five weeks (my favorite so far):
Joey at six weeks:
Today was pickup day. I wanted Lucy to be as tired as possible. In addition to our normal hour walk in the morning and 20 minute walk in the evening yesterday, we also took three hours worth of walks with Barbara and her pups. Then, this morning, we took a two hour walk around town and upon arriving at the breeder's house, before going in, I took Lucy on a 40 minute walk around the neighborhood. She was pooooooped.
The introduction with Joey couldn't have gone better if I had planned it! Joey was put in an exercise pen and I brought Lucy up on leash. I stopped a few feet away, and she and Joey met along the fence:
They sniffed and walked together for a few seconds. No sign of aggresion or fear from either one of them. After a minute or two, I went into the pen and Lucy was handed to me. It was amazingly well!
Joey didn't seem to be happy with his collar at all (not that I was, it had ribbon flowers on it):
The drive home was relatively uneventful. When we got here, I wanted Joey to go to the bathroom before I took him inside. I put him on a flex-leash and coaxed him into taking his first steps on leash:
He didn't pee, but I brought him in after a few minutes. I put him on the floor at first, but he didn't seem to like it. So I put him up on the couch with his towel and he instantly got comfortable. Lucy soon joined him:
And they napped a few inches apart for almost half an hour (while I sat on the floor!):
He hasn't eaten or drank any water yet, but I figure he's just stressed. I'm hoping he'll be ready for both by tomorrow before we leave for Atlanta.
He's quite the lover. He wants to be with his blanket or crawling/sleeping on me. Lucy isn't thrilled yet, but she's dealing as good as I could have hoped. She doesn't want affection from me if he's near me. Right now, he's sleeping under my arm and she's curled up between my feet on the ottoman.
All in all, I'd say this has been as good a first day as I could have possibly hoped for. Now I just need to relax, get some sleep, and drive 14 or more hours tomorrow. Ugggg.
Comments
Just FYI, the first 4 pics don't show up...TEASE!
The video and other pics of them both napping on the couche is awesome! Im really happy thay they're getting along well so far. He is SOOOOOOOO ADORABLE!!! Congrats on your new little buddy! I can't wait to see him grow!
So adorable!!
He is so cute! Sounds like things went REALLY well... I mean they are already sleeping by each other... that is so great! Congrats!
He has the cutest face!
Really cute boy.
They're already sleeping next to each other! We only managed that with Nyx and Kuma yesterday!
Congrats Dave!
Great, Dave!!! Very happy for you and Lucy and Joey!! I think it went really well!
He's soo cute, congrats!!!
Congrats on your new pup. It's so nice that they are off to a great start together.
(looking back, this is along post, sorry.)
Things are going really really well. It seems that Joey's timidness is melting away by the minute!
Saturday night, we went to bed around 11:30. Right before that, I took the pups out and Lucy did her business as she normally does. Joey kinda sat back and observed and then awkwardly trotted away and peed and pooed. Yay! Off to bed we went.
Alarm goes off at 6:00, snooze, 6:15, snooze, wake up at 7, not a peep out of Joey. I took him out immediately and he did both again. Yay Joey! I put him back in his crate so I could take Lucy for her walk and he cried while we got ready to leave. After we got back, I put food down for the two of them. Lucy, as has come to be her MO when other dogs are around, scarfed down her food in what seemed like 10 seconds while Joey stumbled around to try to get into position to eat his food. I had to sit between them since Lucy wanted to go steal Joey's food once she was done. Once I calmed her down, he ate about a 1/3 of what I put out for him and drank some water. More progress, yay!
Anyway, skipping a lot of details, I surprised my parents by waiting around until they got back from their trip at 8:30. I was on the floor playing with Lucy and Joey was in his customary position in my lap. As soon as the opened the door, Lucy ran off to greet them, and Joey climbed up my chest to sit on my shoulder like a parrot (he's sleeping up there as I type this message
Both him and Lucy were champs! Joey only got bored and started biting his crate once. Lucy didn't protest being in the back accept when I tried to feed Joey his lunch in the front. At first, when we stopped to take a break, Lucy would run off and do her own thing like she always does and Joey would run around me feet and between my legs. With each successive stop, Joey become more and more confident and started venturing off on his own.
At his lunch stop around 1:00pm, two bus loads of young kids stopped in the rest stop we were in and saw Lucy in the back of the car. They wanted to pet her so I opened the windows and picked up Joey. Of course they all instantly redirected their attention to him. He was pretty scared, shaking the whole time, but he let everyone pet him. And Lucy got lots of attention too!
Finally, at our last stop around midnight, Joey knew the drill. After pulling him out of his crate (when in it, he fights to stay in, but when out, he fights when I try to put him in) he ran off following Lucy and immediately peed and pooed. More progress, yay Joey! We finally got home at 1:30am.
So....four days, 1909.5 miles, five tanks of gas, three fast food meals, a great play session with two Akitas, and ONE NEW PUPPY later I arrived back home. Exhausted, all I wanted to do was sleep, but I had to unpack the car and settle Joey in. While Lucy did her obligatory inspection of the house, I cuddled with Joey on the couch until he calmed down a bit. Lucy joined us a few minutes later and curled up against me. Then I put him in his play pen while I brought stuff in from the car.
Around 1:45, I noticed Lucy was interested in Joey through from outside the play pen, so I climbed in with her and sat down. At first, they were both very cautious. Lucy jumped at him a few times and he just hit the ground and didn't move. Then, after a few minutes, he turned the corner. All of a sudden, he erupted into this bombardment of flailing paws, wagging tail, waving (yes, he waves too!!!!!), and high pitched play bark/growls. Lucy waited her turn, and when paused, she lunged bark/growled back and the play began!
Anyway, skipping a lot more, I managed to get 5.5 hours of sleep last night, Joey has had zero accidents (man I hope I didn't just jinx myself!), and they are getting along great. Lucy was much less tolerant of him during feeding time, so I fed him in his play pen and Lucy in the kitchen. We're going to have to work on that. Now, Lucy is sleeping on the far end of the couch and Joey is sleeping on the top of the couch right behind my head.
I'm so in love!
I'm very happy for you guys!! Glad they're getting along and they already played together, that's so good!
Good luck on the accidents, hope neither you or I jinxed it!
Wow. What a weekend you've had! I'm so happy Joey is doing so well.
As far as the feeding goes. I remember we fed Mika and Keigo in two different areas of the house for a week or two. Until I felt they were more comfortable with one another and not at all threatened (ie. Mika thinking Keigo was going to eat her food and vice versa).
Keigo was older and from a shelter, so you'll have a different experience, but it took Keigo about a month to get really comfortable. He didn't play with Mika much in that month and he was a bit timid (more so than now). But after that month went by and he felt like he was a permanent part of our pack, he became the dog you met. Playful, vocal and oh, so sweet.
BTW. I started teaching the dogs to crawl like Lucy. Keigo totally got it today!! Mika sort of got it yesterday - she scooted up towards the treat. Keigo actually picked up paws. I'm so excited. I have to get more treats. Gosh, it was easier than I thought. It took me FOREVER to teach Keigo down. FOREVER.
To be fair, Mika learned in a day or two. So it might have felt like forever, but it was definitely more than a few weeks with Keigo. Teaching him to catch a treat was super easy too.
I'm not too worried about the food thing. Lucy did much better at it when her male Jack Russel friend was staying with us than the female Shiba that stayed. I think she'll settle in very quickly....lunch for Joey was *almost* a non-event for her.
Way to go the crawl Barbara! That one was pretty easy for Lucy too. It took a little while to get her to crawl from far away, but she was a champ.
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I have very high hopes for them to become really good friends. They have been playing a lot with Joey in his pen and Lucy outside. I've given them a few short play sessions when they are both in the pen together and I'm either standing right outside or sitting in it with them. They have done better when I'm sitting there, but all of them have gone really well. After Joey's afternoon pee break, I turned on the TV cause I'm still cracked out from my drive yesterday and they both snuggled up against each other and me and napped for an hour.
Today has been even better than yesterday. Joey even climbed up the stairs on his own just now! The quiet little puppy I had two days ago is becoming a loud, playful, and outgoing little monster!!!!
Last night, the poor guy cried for at least 40 minutes when we went to bed. I had some friends over to meet and play with Joey and after they left the three of us fell asleep on the couch. Lucy against my legs and Joey on my chest. When I woke up, we went out and then went to bed. I put him in his crate and he started whining like crazy, jumping up and hitting his head on the top of the crate and pawing at the sides. From there, it turned into this awful crying/howling/whining combination. Lucy jumped down to make sure he was alright and then got back into bed. I don't know if I finally fell asleep when he stopped crying or if he stopped after I fell asleep, but I felt so bad for him that I even started crying a little bit. It took every ounce of will power I had to not take him out of the crate and cuddle him. I hope that doesn't continue for too long cause it breaks my heart.
He was allowed to graze food when he was at the breeder, but due to Lucy I'm trying to put him on a schedule. At first, he showed little interest in his food when I put it down. Now, he's at least walking over and eating a little bit when I put it down. Not very much though. I usually put 1/2 a cup down and he eats about 1/8 of that. I'm sure he needs to eat more than that. Any suggestions on getting him to eat more?
You should probably just try to feed him a lot of times each day. Put him in his crate (or somewhere away from Lucy) with his food for a few minutes and see if he nibbles some more.
Mika was like that in the crate. I think it helped fuel her separation anxiety. Though the whining and crying could have been the result of her separation anxiety. God bless you. I wasn't able to resist taking her up to bed with us.
Try wet food.
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to try feeding him four times a day for a week or two to see if he eats more. We've got our first checkup at the vet tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll get all sorts of tips then.
Here is a little spam from my pack....
A big yawn from the little man:
Lucy letting Joey know he shouldn't crawl underneath her (which he loves to do, especially when on a leash):
Joey tugging on the string pull to my hoodie:
A little snuggling:
And finally, the happy and tired pack together:
You guys are destined to be one really happy family.
I am so happy for you!