Neutered puppy

Harley came through his surgery with no problems. When I got there to pick him up though they asked me if he was part hound dog. I guess he had been howling a lot. He was awake and full of energy when I picked him up. On the drive home he settled down and mostly slept through the afternoon. He has surgical glue on the outside skin and sutures on the inside to hold everything together. He won't have to go back to get sutures removed. I got an e-collar from the vet but I'm going to do my best to keep it off of him. He doesn't like it all and goes crazy when I try to put it on him. I'm afraid he'll rupture the surgical site with his antics. So I'm just going to keep an eye on him and keep him from licking himself. I have to check him every day to make sure that the wound is not getting infected. I have pain medicine for him starting today and ending on Saturday. I'm hoping that it will keep him settled down.

It's only 5:30am and Harley and I are already up. He slept so much yesterday that he wanted out of his kennel at 5am this morning. Before I picked him up yesterday, I stopped at the natural pet store and got him a new bag of puppy chow and a bison bone. The bone is keeping him busy and away from his wound. He's been jumping up though. He doesn't seem to be in much pain at all. I'll probably wait to give him his pain medicine until later in the morning. Hopefully it will help him to sleep. I'll take a nap while he is sleeping.

He has to "rest" for the next 7 to 10 days. I think that's going to be difficult to do. He has so much energy, as usual. I'm just glad that he is doing okay and came through the surgery successfully. I was hoping he'd sleep in late today but I got the exact opposite of that. Oh well, I can always sleep later. I'm going to try and get a picture of his surgery if I can to post on the blog. We'll have to see how that goes though.

He's content chewing on his bison bone right now. I'd rather be sleeping. I am feeling better today but still not 100%. I am sure that Harley will keep me busy today. Please pray that he heals quickly and that there are no complications. Thanks.

Getting neutered

I woke up feeling sick this morning (congestion, cough, sneezing) so I'm not feeling up to blogging much. I did want to say that I took Harley to his extra puppy class yesterday and he did so well. We were doing off leash stuff and he was being very cooperative. It was a fun class. Tomorrow he goes in to get neutered. I'll pick him up around 2pm. Yeah, I'm not feeling well so that's it for now.

Doggy daycare went well

Harley and I are home. It was so empty around here while he was gone but now it's happy again. Ela said that he played from 8am til 12pm non stop. Nap time is from 12-2pm so he was in his kennel then. Apparently he has a LOT of energy. He seemed very happy to see me. I just gave him his Kibble Nibble because he didn't each much this morning and he missed lunch. Now he's chewing on his bison bone. He slept on the ride home as I thought he would. I'm hoping he'll sleep a bit this afternoon. I'm going to try to work it out so he can go to daycare one day a week. He really needs to be around other dogs more. Ela said that he had a great time playing with a chocolate lab and a rottie mix. They both are bigger than Harley. They were quick friends. He did potty in his kennel during nap time but I'm not too worried about that. Ela said he can definitely come back. I'm glad it worked out okay. I'm just glad to have him home.

Doggy daycare today

I took Harley to doggy daycare this morning. He's still there now. He went in without any problem. He seemed happy to be there. I'm going to pick him up around 2:30pm. I really miss having him here. It feels so lonely without him. If he did okay, I'll bring him to doggy daycare every other week while Maria is here cleaning the house. I also set up his appointment for neutering and the microchip. He'll go in the morning of the 20th of October and I'll pick him up around 2pm that same afternoon. Gosh, it just feels so empty here without Harley. I can't wait to pick him up. I am going to try and enjoy this time though. I haven't had time to myself for quite a while now. It's not all that it's cracked up to be though. It's boring without Harley. It will give me time to pick up the yard though. I'll get to that in a little bit. I hope Harley has a good time and is tired when he gets home from having such a fun day.

All is well

I've been distracted by some other things lately and haven't had a chance to blog. but I'm back on track today. Harley is getting so big. I'm going to take him over to PetsMart this week to weigh him. I'm sure he's gained more weight since our last visit to the vet (he was about 27 pounds then). Not too much has been going on around here. We did take Harley for a ride yesterday over to Garden of the Gods. We took the Jeep. He's able to stick his head out the window when he rides in the Jeep. He loves doing that. He looks so handsome when he's standing on the door, hanging out the window. I'll get a picture of him doing that the next time we go out for a drive.

Harley has been going into his kennel by himself at night to go to sleep. It's nice that he doesn't mind spending the night in his kennel. He's still sleeping through the night. He doesn't wake up until about 7am and sometimes he sleeps through until 8am. He's been pretty well behaved lately. He still has his 10 minutes of terror each day, but it's getting less intense. Today I went to the natural pet store and got 3 Buff Bites (bison shin bones) and 3 bags of Zukes for training. He's chewing on a Buff Bite right now. I also ordered more raw bison bones. They'll get here Wednesday. As long as he has interesting things to chew on he doesn't chew on things that he shouldn't.

He's able to get up on the couch and David's chair. I make him get right off though. He licks the leather and paws at the seat cushions of the couch so I can't let him stay up there. He's also taking a running start and jumping up into David's lap. He almost knocked David over in his chair. He's also figured out how to work the Tug-a-Jug. He pushes the rope thing in and then pulls it out. He gets kibble every time. He sure is smart.

Tomorrow will be Harley's first time at doggy daycare. I'm going to drop him off in the morning because I have a doctor's appointment and the cleaning lady is coming to clean the house. He'll be better off at daycare. I'm sure he'll have a good time too. It will be good for him to be around bigger dogs. I'm going to let him stay until afternoon time (after 2pm). He'll be very tired when he gets home.

I sent an email to the vet today asking if he'll be old enough to get neutered the week of October 19th. He'll be 19-20 weeks old then. I would like to do it then because he'll have two weeks off from training. I can't believe it's time for him to get neutered! He'll also get his microchip then. I'll feel so much better once he has the chip. After those things are done I'll send for his city license. he'll have four tags on his collar all together. I hope it doesn't weigh him down too much. lol

The GSP's

I was just sitting here thinking that if I had put in the time with the GSP's that I've put in with Harley that maybe it would have worked out. Hindsight is 20/20 though. They still would have been high energy dogs and I'm not sure that I could have given them enough to keep them busy. I think about Skooter, Moped, Huxley and Blitz all the time. I still miss them even though I'm so happy with Harley. I'm just so grateful that Kris helped us to get them more suitable homes. The GSP is still my most favorite breed but I will probably never own one again. I say probably because I know there is a chance that I would consider taking in a senior GSP down the road. It's not really on my radar at this point though. I still check the RM GSP site to see the dogs. I want anyone who is capable of owning a GSP to know abut the site so they can adopt a dog that needs a forever home. Kris does such unselfish work at the Rescue. She has saved many GSP's and found them wonderful homes, including my four. There is a special place in Heaven for people like Kris.

Harley is pretty mellow right now. He's playing with his Kong Tails toy. He loves that toy. It's going to be weird not having class on Sunday. I'm going to take advantage of it and enjoy the day. We might take Harley with us on a long ride. I think he would do okay. He'd probably sleep most of the drive anyway. David has to work tomorrow so I won't have him here for backup with Harley. Might be a good day then to get things done around the house (laundry, dishes, straightening up). I'll just have to put Harley in his kennel while I put laundry away so he doesn't steal our socks! I'm trying to break him of that behavior but it's not easy. He just loves playing keep away with socks. I thought about giving him his own sock but then I'm afraid that I would be encouraging the very behavior that I want to stop. He bit the tip of the nose off of his stuffed duck so I had to take it away for now. I'm going to pull out just enough stuffing that he can't get to it and then give it back to him. I might try doing that with his pheasant too.

It looks like the wind has calmed down. It's really beautiful out there today. I need to get Harley some new bison bones (the Buff Bites and the raw, meaty bones). He's pretty much chewed everything off of the ones he has. And just for general health reasons I want to switch them out. Maybe I'll stop at the natural pet store today and pick up two Buff Bites (they are bison shin bones). I'll have to put in an online order for the raw bones. He seems to like those the most.

I'm going to go for now. I have to leave here in 45 minutes and I want to take Harley out for another walk before I go.

Today's 1st walk

Today is trash day so I had to make sure that the backyard was completely picked up. It took just a few minutes to get it all done. After cleaning the backyard, Harley and I walked around the cul de sac. He did really well. He's figuring out the walking thing. Most of the time he is loose leash, which is what I want. He is enjoying today because it's a beautiful, cool fall day. I think that he enjoys the cooler weather more than the summer weather because his coat is black. He gets excited when he goes outside and the weather is nippy. He's been a pretty good puppy this morning. He even let me take a morning nap after I took my medicine, which included allergy medicine this morning. I have to leave in about an hour an 10 minutes for my appointment with Marianne. David should be home by 3pm. After my appointment with Marianne, I'm going to take the Jeep up to the Valvoline place and get the rear differential fluid changed out (there's ATF in there now instead of gear oil). I'm going to try to take Harley for another walk before I go to my appointment and then walk him again when I get home. Walking him really calms him down. He's much better behaved in the house when I've taken him out for a walk.