Ferdinand's Big Day Out

A while back, before Derek and I decided we were getting Ferdinand, we decided we were going to go to Wrestlemania with our friends, Toyia and Mike.  It's in Miami and it's next week, so we decided now was the best time to introduce Ferdinand to Lily, my parents Old English Sheepdog.  Ferdinand will be staying with my parents during the week we are gone, and we wanted him to be comfortable with being around Lily.  My grandparents live down the road from my parents, and they have a Carin Terrier, the Toto dog from "The Wizard of Oz," named Honey Bear.  We assume that Honey Bear may be over at one point, so we figured we would also introduce Ferdinand to Honey.

The day started with us giving Ferdinand his Heartgard medicine.

These ones were given to us by Lynn, the breeder, and then by the first vet we went to see.  Each chewie is good for a month.  Ferdinand had no idea what to do with it.  If you saw the video of him trying to figure out what to do with the carrot, this was very similar.  It took a while for him to chew it all up, but he seemed to enjoy it.

This particular Heartgard came in a "puppy kit" so it came with coupons and an ID tag.

The ID tag is similar to the AKC tag.  If you register the ID number to the Heartgard site that they provide, if your dog gets lost, they will scan that number to find you.  It's pretty cool.  

Since Ferdinand is microchipped and has his AKC registration on his colar, I think he's pretty safe.

After giving him his medicine and packing a bag for him, we decided to hit the road.  Generally, Ferdinand is a quiet car rider, but he likes to move around a lot and chew my car up, even with his chew toys sitting right next to him.  Since there was two of us I figured the ride may be better.  We haven't decided yet if he would need a crate for the car or one of those harness things that click into your seatbelt.  We were kinda hoping he would just sit there like our other dogs did.  For now, he's still small enough that he could still sit in the box we brought him home in.  Well, that didn't go over with him too well.

Reluctantly, I let him sit on my lap.  He stopped barking and was trying to fall asleep, he just couldn't get comfortable.  Finally, he found comfort on the floor.

Of course, he can't go anywhere without his frog.

We made the trip to Greensburg in no time.  He did great in the car.  He wasn't bad like he was the last time I had him in the car.  We pulled up to my parents house and we decided it would be best to let Lily and Ferdinand meet outside where they could run and Lily wouldn't feel like he was intruding on her space right away.  Ferdinand was nervous around Lily.  Honestly, Lily is like a small horse, galloping and jumping and sprinting all the time, she is the sweetest dog, just crazy.  My only concern was Ferdinand being stepped on.  Lily was awesome with him.  She came running up to him, sniffed him and ran away to get her ball, which is an old soccer ball.  She kept playing with my sister, Gabby, and then she'd come over to smell Ferdinand.  

She was a lot more gentle than I thought she was going to be.  She would lay down so that Ferdinand would come over to her, but then she would get super excited and want to play right away.

For the first bit Ferdinand was scared and would hide near anyone.  He was particularly fond of Gabby.

Or my dad.

But then he got brave and when Lily would leave him alone, he would go looking for her in the yard.

Once he got comfortable, which took all of 5 minutes, he was down in the yard letting Lily roughhouse him.  Then he would let her know when enough was enough by either growling, barking or nipping at her.  He never hurt her and she never hurt him, they just felt each other out.

After they played for a while, Ferd got super tired.  I took him in the house and let him nap while my sister painted my toenails.  She thought it was the perfect moment to paint Ferdinand's nails.  

After he woke up, and before we had dinner, we decided to take him to my Grandparent's house to meet Honey Bear.  

Ferdinand was a lot more confident around Honey Bear, probably because Honey Bear was more his size. I would say that Honey Bear was a little more nervous around Ferdinand than Ferdinand was around Honey Bear.  

My Granddad and Grandma had a lot of fun watching Ferdinand and Honey Bear play together.  

Something that my Mom and Grandma taught their dogs to do was to ring a bell on their door when they needed to go to the bathroom.  My Grandma gave me a cow bell that my high school football team sells.  Ferdinand ended up taking that, new food bowls (old ones that Honey outgrew),  and a few of Honey Bear's toys that she no longer played with.  

All Ferdinand has to do is hit it and that will let us know when he needs to go out.  That's if he feels like doing it.  To make him learn that he is to use it, every time we take him out, we would use his head or foot to knock the bell.  He associates going outside with making the bell make noise.  

Once we got back to my parents house, my mom said that my neighbors wanted to meet Ferdinand.  Growing up, my next door neighbors had 2 boys, Chad and Josh.  Chad was the oldest, he was quite a bit older than me.  Josh was only a few years older than me.  Basically when I was 5, they were in late middle school / early high school.  Anyways, Chad was visiting home with his two sons, dogs and wife.  It had been at least 10 years since I had last seen him, and he still looked the same.  His two boys were adorable.  Sam, the oldest boy, is 3-years-old and wanted to see the puppy.  Here are the pictures of them together.

Ferdinand was awesome with Sam and Sam was good with Ferd.  This was the first time that Ferdinand had met a small child since we had gotten him.  He sat down and let Sam poke and play with him.  It was almost like he knew he had to be gentle.  He didn't even try to nip at him once.  I was so happy that he was being so good.  

When we walked down to the house, it was time for dinner.  Ferd wasn't that interested in eating his food, and Lily wasn't interested in eating his food either, which will be good for when we go to Wrestlemainia.  For the most part, Ferdinand slept under Derek's chair or my dad's chair.

  After dinner, while we were still sitting at the table, Ferd and Lily decided to play under the table.  

Lily loved having Ferdinand over.

They loved each other so much, that Ferdinand gave Lily kisses before we left.

Of course, my Dad had to give Ferdinand kisses too.

All-in-all, Ferdinand's big trip out was awesome.  He was a good dog and seemed to handle the car, meeting new people and dogs very well.  

P.S. This is the first time I've used the gift that I got Derek for his birthday.  On March 12, Derek turned 29-years-old, and I got him a 27-inch iMac.  Using it to upload these pictures and videos is awesome!

Happy Saint Patricks Day!

For everyone out there, especially the Irish....

 HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!!!

(In case you can't read the t-shirt, it says, "RUB ME FOR LUCK!")

Ferdinand Visits Point Breeze Veterinary!

Today was Ferdinand's visit to the Point Breeze Veterinary Clinic in Pittsburgh, PA.  On the way to the vet, Ferdinand was a monster.  He normally sits in his box with his frog and bone like a nice dog, not today.  He wanted to only bite me, the arm rest and try to eat his box.  He was just awful.  

When we got to the vets office, it was a typical Pittsburgh atmosphere -- no grass, just sidewalk.  Ferdinand had no idea what to do or where to go the bathroom at.  After a 50 minute car trip, I figured he had to go, but as he reluctantly walked down the sidewalk, he had no motivation to go pee.

When we walked into the vet we were greeted by Tank, the vet's bulldog.  He came running at us and Ferdinand freaked out.  He tried to back out of the door and peed a little.  Everyone was laughing.  They rangled Tank back into the back room and I took Ferd outside to try and pee.  Of course, he didn't want to go at all.  I will say this, Tank is huge, but so adorable.  We came back in and everyone was so welcoming.  The receptionists each came over to play with and hold Ferdinand.  They loved him.  All of the vets and vet tech also came out saying how adorable he was and that they had been waiting for him.  Their waiting room was large and open, and we didn't have to wait long to be seen by a vet.

When the vet tech took us in the room to start the exam I couldn't listen very well because Ferd was biting at my feet.  She opened another door which led to the common area for the vets and the vet came in and picked him up and just scooped him out of the room.  He looked like he was in love with her.  After the vet tech and I talked a bit about having a puppy the vet brought Ferd back in.  The vet did the exam and was so wonderful and caring.  She spent a lot of time checking his ears, eyes and butt.  They made him so comfortable by bringing out a rope toy to play with.  He took his medicine easily and he didn't even notice getting his shots.

After Ferdinand finished with his check-up they let him go back to the common room to get his picture taken for his file.  They also let Tank in.  Tank came bolting over to me and almost took me out.  Here is a few pictures of him and Ferd greeting each other.

Here is a video of their meeting

Tank was so well behaved and was so gentle with Ferdinand that Ferdinand quickly stopped being a scardey-cat.



As a matter of fact, when Tank was being told to sit and stay, Ferdinand would circle him trying to taunt him and get Tank to chase him.  Here is a video of that.

Tank was a very good example of the training that Point Breeze offers on Sundays.  I definitely think that we will be taking Ferdinand there for his puppy training.

The vet said Ferdinand will get pretty big.  Here's a picture of Ferd sitting next to Tank.  Tank is about 55 pounds and 2 years old.  Ferdinand is 9 weeks and 14 pounds.

Just recently, my parents were visiting and Ferdinand started humping for the first time.  Well, when Ferd was playing with Tank, he started air humping him.  The vet informed me that was Ferdinand's way of asserting dominance.

All in all, it was the best vet experience that I've ever had.  Ferdinand seemed to fit right in with them.  I can't thank them enough for being a wonderful vet experience.  If anyone would like to go to them, here's their website.

Point Breeze Vet

The couple who recommended us to Lynn, the breeder, recommended us to this vet.  Although the vet is a drive away, it was well worth it.  So, thank you Erin Warner and Jim Britt, and of course, Zamboni, for the recommendation.  Speaking of Zamboni, today is his birthday.  So Ferdinand wanted to wish him a very Happy 1st Birthday!

My Grandmother got Derek and I these chair as a late Christmas present.  She had them custom made by a guy she knows.  It is made for kids, but since we don't have "real" kids yet, we figure it would be good for our furry kids.  It also came with a matching Pittsburgh Penguins footrest.  

Ferdinand will be going back to the vet in 3 weeks for his next round of shots.  He can't wait to go back and see Tank and the wonderful vets again.

Ferdinand's First Month with us!

We decided that we were going to take a picture of Ferdinand once a month to track the progress of his growth and at some point, we will put the pictures into a video to see how quickly and how much he has grown.

Here are his front view and side view:

Things have been going very good with housetraining Ferdinand.  He lets us know when he needs to go out by going to the door and grabbing one of our shoes or barking.  Hopefully, someday soon, we will do my mom's trick of tying a bell to a string so he can hit it with his head or paw when he needs to go out, but since he likes to play with the cats toys that hang from the doorknobs or from the drawers of our tv stand, it may not work.  

He has also taken a liking to playing outside and just watching the neighborhood.  He loves the sunlight and loves to watch the robins that are nesting in our front tree.  

Because he has been teething a lot and likes to use our feet or pant legs, we read in the book, "Bulldogs for Dummies" that we could give him a raw carrot to chew on.  He loves them, but at first wasn't sure what it was.  Here is a video of him figuring out what to do with it.

Here is a random video of Derek teasing Ferdinand.

We've been letting Ferdinand sleep with us at night and he has been doing pretty good about it.  Every once in a while, he decides that he just can't get comfy.  This is the result.

Housetraining a Gremlin

For the first two weeks of having Ferdinand, he was doing great of having very few accidents when we weren't home and having no accidents when we were home.  But last Thursday and Friday he was downright awful.  I came home at lunch to let him out, earlier than normal and he had a huge accident.  He was awful the entire time I was home and then peed on the floor again after I took him out.  I came home from work a few hours later and he not only peed again, but he rolled in it.  I put him in the tub while I cleaned up his mess and then bathed him, which he loved.  After drying him off, he went into the kitchen and shit on the floor.  I could have killed him.

Friday was very similar, only no rolling in his own pee and no shitting on the floor.  However, that night, I went to bed at around 10:30pm and I let Ferd come sleep with me in the bed.  When Derek came to bed, he didn't put Ferd in his bed, which was fine because he had no problems sleeping with us before, other than one time falling off the bed.  3:30am rolled around and I wake up with the feeling of a wet bed and a dog eating my hair.  I woke up and dropped the biggest F-bomb ever.  Derek said Ferd woke him up, but he didn't take him out.  I didn't know who I was more angry with.  The dog who practically peed on me or my husband for letting it happen.  Luckily, we had a "pet" mattress protector on our Sleep Number bed and it didn't go through to the mattress part.

The next day, Ferdinand was back to normal and he's been normal since.  He lets us know when he has to go, hasn't had any accidents and his biting or "teething" has lessened.  When he's awake, he does this mini-bark thing but sounds more like a Gremlin.  It's hilarious.

Here is a video of him making the Gremlin sound.  Mind you, I am not hurting him.  In fact, I'm hardly touching him.  And it's funny because he makes this noise and acts like I'm killing him, yet he comes over and sleeps on his back on my lap.  He's gotta love it

.

He's been getting along with Dexter and Doakes so much better.  He chases them around and I think they love it.  They even all take naps together....well, in the same room.

They start off watching him sleep with his frog.

Ferdinand decided to move to the cats bed that's on the floor.  So, they just stayed up there.  It would have been smarter if one of them would have slept in his bed.  haha

Ferdinand tends to chase Dexter the most.  She will get right up to him and he will head-butt her or nip at her tail.  If she walks by and he ignores her, she makes sure she does something to get his attention.  Although they get along, there are times where she doesn't want anything to do with him.  She always keeps an eye on him.

All in all, although he's had some set backs, he seems to be doing well with the house training.