Christmas is over !

                                     Bonjour my furiends!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and lovely presents !!

I was very lucky to have my grandma coming over (she now lives 8 hours away from me!!). And guess what ???!!

Because I always get cold and got upset tummies, my grandma decided to make a coat for me ! 

It took her some time for the measurements and the fitting but I was very nice and calm and let her do whatever she needed to do. 

Oops, I'm doing the Dobby-ear thing one again !

Anyway, it's realllly warm and I love it ! My humans wanted a black one but Grandma chose the red colour because she said it fits me so well .... we tried to make her understand people were going to notice me even more with a red coat on, but she would not change her mind. Oh, well.... 

 I also look a bit like santa, don't you think ?

I also had two news toys that I love, a purple tug toy and a Christmas stuffie ! I know I'm lucky, but that's also because I do deserve it, I've been a very very good boy lately !

Best news is that I've met a new Great Dane friend !!! She's 8 months old and her name is Ghana. Ghana is a very playful girl, so it is just great !

Running.... 

and running again !

We get along so well, our humans could not even believe it (I'm so rough when I play that usually, even rough doggies don't really like to play with me), but wow!!! Ghana is quite a dog !!! hehe!

See those legs moves !! 

She chased me, slapped me in the face, stole my toys ...  but that's OK because she also gave me BIG great dane kisses !! Oops ! We went to the countryside and ran in the vineyard, it was AWESOME !

She's a real copycat. I drink, she drinks!

Kisses!

We spent 2 hours playing in the fields and then we went to play in her garden while our humans were drinking coffee ( Lincoln kept staring at us through the window, that's funny how he's such an "apartment dog". He'd rather be with us in the house than outside with Ghana who was raised in a house with a huge garden and loves being outside !).

I'm so happy I found a friend that really loves me for who I really am !! I'm sure there are many others that would love me too but here with the boring owners that are always too scared to let their dog play with me, it's not easy to find ! So I guess Ghana is going to become my best friend ! Hurrah ! (Her humans said she was very sad when I left and started whimpering... how cute!)



Love,
Lincoln

Winter is almost here

Hello my furiends,

It is no longer warm outside and winter is getting closer and closer. Three days ago it was still 23°C and my humans were wearing t-shirts outside, and the day before yesterday temperature went down to 5 °C and they had to put big wooly scarves, winter coats and hats! Crazy!

On thursday my humans were going to the restaurant at night so they took me for a big walk around 6.pm (it's already dark outside at this time of the day now), and we walked and walked for something like an hour and a half. It was very cold outside and I guess I did not really like the sudden change of temperature..

I was sick all night, my tummy was really upset and oops... I did the runny poo-poo everywhere in my room. My humans took me outside but I wouldn't do it outside - and everytime they had cleaned it all in the house I started it all over again. I felt so sorry - they were up from 3 am to 7am that night and well I told them they'd better not go back to sleep and make the most of the day ahead- which they did - but then they were quite tired this evening. Haha. They said it was OK, and that it wasn't my fault anyway. My humans are so cool.

They had their breakfast and as a special treat because I wasn't feeling good they made me stay with them on the couch and I even got a blanket :

I think I do look like something terrible just happened to me, 

don't ya ?

Anyway, I am feeling better today so that's good. We called the vet and she said I should have overcooked rice and overcooked carrots instead of my dry food for a day or two and it worked out very well. 


I also went to the vet about a week ago - I had to have my injections done and my ears checked as I always have repetitive otitis - we had to move to another treatment as the last one wasn't working at all on me.


It was the first time I went to this new vet since we've moved here 3 months ago and I did not need to go and see one before. She is very young and so nice! And guess what ? She is going to get a blue baby great dane sometime around January - that makes 3 great danes living in the same area (as there is Fabiola too - if you can remenber, I already told you about her on an earlier post). We are SO going to rock the neighborhood !


The vet also said that I was very well behaved as I let her check everything without even saying anything - ears, teeth, everything! She thinks I'm a bit skinny though for my height, though I DO eat a lot !

Am I really THAT big ?

About my behavior outside, I am still getting better everyday, though we just went through an horrible time - I was scared of everything again. I think that's kind of typical of Great Danes - Fabiola is just the same. You always have to repeat and repeat things - one day I was walking nicely next to the Butcher shop sign on the street and two days later I couldn't go near it like if it was going to attack me or something (you never know with butchers!).

I also started to get scared again at night time during my walks - even though we still have the same routine and I still got to walk every day when it's dark outside, as usual. 


Worst thing is that I started to get scared of the ..... light fitting in my room. It had always been there but all of a sudden it was like I just noticed it and I can tell you I did not like it at all. Was it really there watching me from the beginning? I started to bark at it and would not sleep anywhere near it. My humans had to spend a lot of time with me showing me the light fitting wouldn't hurt either them or me or the cats. Now I'm OK with it... but still keeping an eye on it.

Once again, you never know!


With other dogs during my walks I'm fine as long as they are not too close to me and barking at me or running towards me when I'm on leash (yes, it happened again!).


I bark and growl with excitement which can be scary for people who do not know me but well... it's just who I am for now so my humans are learning to not get too obsessed with what other people may think and they say as long as I sit next to them when it happens and as long as I always obeys to them when they tell me to do something then it is OK. I'm only 14 months old after all !


I still do clicker training and I still love it. I will soon make a video to show you everything I've learned so far. 


I hope you are all OK. I'm now going to check on your blogs to read about the latest news :-)


Have a nice day,


Lincoln

A great Sunday !

Hello my furiends !

A big thank you to all of you who left nice comments on my last post. Hopefully we won't meet this stupid owner again - but as Lucille said, he must be known around here so we might hear about him again. Next time - and thanks to Homer - we will know what to answer :-)

Today I thought I might share some pictures of my playtime and walk with you ! We had so much fun - and I have to say, we are very lucky to have moved here in the South of France. Everything is so beautiful around here! Plus, we live just right next to a giant and beautiful park and it only takes us to cross the road to be there !

But before we go to the park, I always got to play with my ball and my humans and wanted to show you some action shot of myself my human took :

I believe I can flyyyyyyy ..!

Some portraits :

Funny faces :

OOOpps... I look silly.

Anyway, let's go for a walk now...

.......are you coming ?

let's go !

(see, there are pigeons everywhere but I'm walking nicely not even looking at them)

Don't you love the beautiful colors ?

....and the big trees ? See how tall they are - I look so small standing next to them !

My favorite thing in the park is this BIG stick ! Don't you remenber I LOVE sticks ? hehe :

and those painted walls ! There is a message on it;

it reminds people to be nice and gentle with nature :-)

(I love the bird - I think it looks like the ones in the phone game "Angry Birds" - don't you ?)

Anyway - After this big walk, I started to be a little tired ...

Oh dear ...

I do this all the time... I litteraly let myself fall on the floor. It warns my humans I won't go

much further so we'd better start to head home :-) They say it is very funny.

Hope you liked my pictures and had a good time sharing my day with me !

Talk soon,

Love,

Lincoln

Some News

Hello everybudy !

How are you ? I'm so so sorry once again I did not leave many comments on your blogs, though I still read your blogposts quite often !

For me, life is quite good ! I'm well settled in our new place now, and I'm doing great with learning detachment with my human. No more bad suprises for my humans when they come back home since my last post ! No more destroying things - I'm pretty proud of myself !

My humans have put my bed in my room, and a baby gate at the door, so this is were I sleep now and I think I love it very much ! Good thing is that I even go in my room when my humans are here and I want some peace and quiet (they can be noisy sometimes!!).

About the others dogs and the pulling on the leash stuff - well ... it has improved a little. It depends on my mood.

My humans got really scared though because two weeks ago I had to go through a not-so-good experience and they thought I would start hating other dogs or being very scared of them. I explain ;

We were playing in the park just next to our place like we do every days, we were playing football (that's my favorite game!!!) and I had a long leash (because it was 1 pm and it's very busy at this time of the day - and also because dogs are meant to be on leash in this park).

Suddenly, a dog came (it was a husky), all alone, no leash, running towards me. My humans did not know what to do; either leave me free without the leash so I'd be able to meet the dog in a normal doggie way, or either keep me on leash and wait for someone to show up.

As we started to hear his human calling him and as the dog just didn't care for what his humans was yelling, and also because my humans did not know the dog and what reaction it could have because I'm so big, they decided to keep me on leash. They told me to sit, which I did, and the dog came and started sniffing me ( his human was still yelling and nowhere to be seen).

Laura was going to let me go off my leash, when the husky started to touch my nose and so I stood up, and did that thing with my paws trying to touch him - and I can tell you the dog did not like it at all that I stood up and raised my paws - I think he got scared, and by the second he was on me, trying to bite my neck and growling really HARD.

Laura said NO! and SIT ! so I sat but the dog came again and grabbed my neck - again. The dog's human arrived, picked his dog by the collar, looked at us and said to my humans (talking about me) : "Isn't your dog a bit TOO big ? Oh god... ". And he went away. No sorry. Nothing.

My humans say they should have said something to him but they were so shocked they did not even think about openning their mouth.

There was no blood - phewww. But it had made a lot of noise and it was really scary. I did not growl even once, actually, I looked quite like I thought it was a kind of game and reached my ball and started to ask my humans to play again.

Oh dear. My humans looked quite puzzled.

They don't really blame the dog that did that - but they do blame his owner. What's this thing with people - to leave their dog off leash when they're not even able to call their dog back ? Serioulsy ?

I am fine but what if I had answered to this dog ? What if I had growled too and bited him ? Because I am so big they would have said it was my fault, though I was the one sitting and on leash.

It happens all the time here. Out of control - off leash dogs. And I'm not even talking about all those dogs that always bark at me whenever I'm walking on the street - I think others unknown dogs just don't really like me :(

But there is a good news !!

I met a friend here, and guess what... ?!!! She's a great dane! Her name is Fabiola .. and she's very pretty. We are almost neighbours !!

Here is Fabiola. Isn't she pretty ?

That's it for today. Will try to come more often, promise ! My humans will have a week off Uni, so I'm gonna get some time to write to you all.

With lots of love,

Lincoln

Chronics of a Trouble Boy

After reading from Lincoln himself that he had been a little trouble this past weeks you've been asking what he had been up to...!

Well, first of all Lincoln ate the brand new floor we just bought for the new flat (he managed to make a big whole in the middle of the living room and a big one in the hallway -so all of it has to be changed - which is going to cost quite a lot of money especially for us as we're still students) and also started acting crazy on walks.

From time to time, when he sees another doggie (or a pigeon - and only in this cases because otherwise he is very good), he suddently pulls on the leash VERY hard and starts doing his jumping thing he did when he was younger and excited to go for a walk.

Nothing aggressive of course - he just really wants to play - and no matter the size of the dog in front of him - big german shepherds or chihuahuas. Before doing it he starts to raise his ears but keeps walking slowly on our side. Sometimes he will do fine but sometimes (especially during the evening) he will starts to behave badly when we walk past the dog so we both get stressy and of course Lincoln must feel it too ...

He never ever did this with other doggies when we were walking before, he has started it around the beginning of August. One day he was great - the next day we had a completely different dog when walking past other dogs.

Thing is he gets to see other doggies quite often and gets to play with them off leash (not so often since we're here but Anika his labrador friend we already talked about has moved to Bordeaux too), so I don't think (but I could be wrong) that he behaves like this because he is in real need to play with other dogs...

What works best is when we've been playing with the ball outside with him before going to the proper walk and when we've been running a lot so he's tired and does not pay much attention to other doggies (or birds) but it's not a real solution as we won't always be able to make him tired before every walk in doggie-crowded areas like the big forest we have just in front of the building where we now live.

Also, what works well is to tell him to "seat" or to "lie down" or to "shake paws" when he sees a doggie and starts to do his raising ears thing. Everytime we walk past another dog and if Lincoln had been behaving OK then he gets a treat. He also has a DAP (dog appeasing pheromone) collar, and a DAP diffuser in the room he sleeps and is left alone in when we have to leave.

But all this does not always work so we don't really know what else we can do when it doesn't- we meet a lot of other excited doggie in the forest that pull on their leash too when they see other dogs but Lincoln is a huge dog and we just can't let him get away with this kind of behavior as some people or dog might get scared of him and that's obviously not what we want. But he is doing better every day and we are hoping it will stop as quickly as it started. Did it ever happen with any of you?

About his destruction problem we found a behaviorist where we now live and it appears that Lincoln has developed a very special relationship with one of us and clearly he is too emotionally attached to me and didn't properly learn "detachment" and so he finds it very difficult to see me go and leave the house and don't understand why he should have to stay without me.

So we both have a lot of work to do on this point - and we're doing great for now.

He sleeps alone in his room now (he used to sleep in our bedroom...), and I have stopped cuddling him all the time and started ignoring him in some situations like when he comes and asks to play - behaviorist said it is fundamental in our case - and I now make him "earn" everything even playtime or cuddles.

It's been quite hard at the beginning but necessary and I can tell you it's been working AWESOME as Lincoln hasn't done ANYTHING wrong in the house for almost 2 weeks !! We started everything all over again - starting by leaving the house only 2 minutes then 5, 20 mins ! We are now doing 3 hours in a row and everything seems fine. The change in his behavior in the house has been radical ! And I'm very proud of him :) But I can't help feeling guilty and sorry for all the mistakes we (I) made with him - I was so excited to get my very own Great Dane as I had been waiting for it for ages since I was a little girl and I guess I just did not have the "strength" to tell him "no" when I should have..

Let's see how it goes with our going back to uni on Monday and see if all our efforts have really paid off ! We'll keep you posted !

ps : did you notice Lincoln has a grain of rice stuck on his nose on every picture of this post ? haha