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16.9.11

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

8.9.11

I am the Birthday Boy

Today is my Birthday ! I'm 1 !


I have decided that everyone should wear a special Birthday Hat in the house - including myself - so what do you think ? Am I not a very handsome Birthday Boy ?

side view

Even the cats had to wear one, and my brother Nounet did not really seem to enjoy it that much :

Poupette did enjoy it though :

That's the reason why I love Poupette so much, she's always up for some fun !

And guess what ??!! My humans had a surprise for me !!

a home baked cake !!!

Oh dear, smells good !


can I eat it now ?

only one slice ? but I'm a great dane and I'm hungry!!

Great thing with birthday is that you also get presents ! I got a cool blue frisbee, and lots of yummies !!

Here is a video of the pawty :


Hope you liked it !



Love,

Lincoln

Note from my humans : Can't believe Lincoln is already one. Time goes by so quickly... Since we got him when he was 2 months old, our lives have been totally changed. He made our days a little bit stressful sometimes, but mostly, he made our days even more exciting, surprising, funny, happy !

He was the cutest pup when we first got him and we immediately fell in love with each others. We spend huge amount of time with him (some people would say too much time), playing, teaching him new things. He has clearly become a very big part of our lives ! Though everything is not always perfect (teenage stage, uh!!), he really is a great dog, a great Great Dane !!

We also wanted to thanks everyone of you for everything, helping us when we are a little bit confused, visiting our blog regularly and commenting our posts and pictures ! Lincoln sure really loves you... and so do we !

2.9.11

New place, new home, new adventures

Bonjour my furiends,

Sorry I did not come to post more often on my blog as I promised on my last post. Summer has been very busy also and we had so much things to do that when we had some peace and quiet we spent it together doing others things than being on the computer. But I did think about you my furiends all the time and I missed you.
I hope you are all well, it will take me some time but I will come and visit your blogs maybe today or tomorrow.
So you must be wondering what kept us so busy away from blog world ? Well, my humans who are still students were given the opportunity to go to another University and move to .... Bordeaux ! I'm not sure you've heard about Bordeaux but maybe your humans have... ask them about wine and you'll see!
So we had to get all organized as it was a big move from North to South. But I'm so glad we're here now, Bordeaux is beautiful ! But arghhh please... it's SO hot over here !
Also, I'm not very proud to tell you this but I have been a bit of a VERY VERY trouble boy again and caused lots and lots of worries to my humans. But they say they will come to tell you about it later.

Last pictures of me taken at my old flat :






Talk to you soon,
Lots of love,

Lincoln