A walk with my furiends

Last sunday around 1 p.m we headed off to take the bus. I was kind of wondering what was happening because we don't usually take the bus on sundays.

We were on our own on the bus. That was weird too because there's usually a lot of humans sitting in it !

But where were we going ?

.............. the ride lasted 20 minutes.


When we arrived we were in the countryside. Right away I felt good - I LOVE countryside, it means big walks !!!

Let's go !

And guess what..... ? There was a surprise waiting for me !!!!

My friend Reglisse !

and another surprise:

My friend Ghana !

and wait.... ANOTHER surprise ??

My friend Fabiola !

YAY !!!!!
Fabiola, Reglisse and Ghana are my three very best friends ! We get along very well. Plus, I'm very lucky because I'm the only boy so I have those three ladies just for me .... hehe :-) - and they like me A LOT !

You think Reglisse is so small she must be a follower... well you're wrong because she actually is the leader !!!! We just follow her all the time. And she sure knows how to be respected by Great Danes !

Look at Reglisse's hair - it was not raining - it's just the result of three Dane's slobbers. 

Being with my friends is my favorite thing in the whole wide world.

Oops, my ears!

waiiiit !

We spent a lot of time running  ...

Make some space we're coming !!! 

Ghana is the craziest ! Yes - crazier than me !

Real Great Dane play - ROOOOOAAAR

kisses

We spent the afternoon playing, running, sniffing. We were quite tired at the end of the day! I'm so glad I have friends here in Bordeaux.

time to leave!

We did not take the bus on the way back, I went in the car with Fabiola and Reglisse ! Yep, all three in the same trunk. NIIIIIIICE. 

Anyway, I have to go now :-)

Hope you liked my pictures ! 

Love,

Lincoln

Chronics of a (Not-So-Trouble-Anymore) Boy

Bonjour everyone !

Laura speaking here ! I promised you I'd update you on Lincoln's change of behavior since he was quite trouble a few months ago and you all gave me great advices and helped us a lot !

watching the birds through the window

Well, I'm proud to say Lincoln has almost become a perfect angel ! He is 16 months old now, and when I look back, I remember Lincoln chewing on furnitures, me always stressing out when leaving the house without him, Lincoln being VERY annoying during his walks (he'd start jumping for no reason, running around while he was on-leash...), Lincoln jumping on visitors, and so on.... and well I must say, it has improved a LOT !


First a all, all the detachment work we did (especially with me) has been very hard but working like magic! 
Lincoln's anxiety when we left the house clearly was linked with the fact that I just gave him too much attention, all the time, being too happy to have my first own dog... and I guess it wasn't easy for Lincoln (who's quite an emotional sponge) to deal with it. 
He used to sleep with us in the bedroom - not in the bed (though sometimes he did came in the morning...) and we've decided we'd use our move to Bordeaux to change that habit. He now sleeps in his own room with a baby gate at the door and he did not complain about it even once, not even the first night - he loves it !


We also started to teach him that he has to live his own life without us (not easy with a great dane hehe), and started leaving him from time to time in his room even when we were home (he did start lunging at the beginning, but seeing we did not react, he quickly stopped). 


Big part of the detachment work for me (and the hardest for sure) was also to push him away when he was asking me for cuddles or else - I had to make him earn everything (even just by asking him to shake paws, to sit... ). He used to think I'd let him do anything, now when I say "no, leave me alone" he understands and go away (well, most of the time anyway).


We've also been working with visitors, making him sit and wait until I say the release word. He is now doing great and my mum who had not seen him for 3 months said he had changed a lot :-)

looking good !

What has changed also are the destructions in the house. Well, since middle November there has been none ! We first thought it was because of the pheromone diffuser we put in his room, but then after a couple of months we've decided to remove it and it did not change anything. 


Before, when we were about to leave, Lincoln would start whining, sometimes even barking, or he'd start scratching the floor.... We also worked hard on this point. Fake departures, music on ( so he does not hear all the noises from the neighbors and everything (we live on the ground floor so there's quite a lot of noise ). We also stopped making a fuss of him every time we came back, and continued doing a bit of clicker every time before we leave (even if we're in a hurry and we only have 5 minutes left we still do it! he loves it. )


And now.... he knows when we're leaving, because he goes in his bed (like if he had finally understood that we were going to come home no matter what) ! Every time we come home he's all warm and groggy which makes us believe he just spends all the time sleeping like a baby. 


Lincoln being able to stay home on his own without destroying anything is a big big RELIEF. 


Anyway, I said "I'm proud to say Lincoln has almost become a perfect angel", and used "almost" because YES it's not perfect yet as he still has a problem when we see others dogs on the street ( it's not automatic anymore but still it happens very often) and that's very embarrassing because I know other people think my dog is dangerous or mean when I know he is NOT, I can see he just can't stop himself from acting silly and growling (with excitement). 

playing in the park

Though he is very very well behaved on leash (he walks perfectly next to me) .... he will very often stop (he does not pull on the leash) when he sees a dog (and especially if it's a small dog), raise his ears, and start growling with excitement and sometime start jumping. 


I try to make him walk, heel, sit. Everything. Nothing seems to work. I understand people find it scary (I would if I did not know my dog !)... and it's making me feel like I'm helpless, especially when the behaviorist and one of the trainer told me Lincoln is just like that and there's a chance he won't change on that point ... we've been working a LOT on it, and he's perfect with other dogs when off-leash (he plays really rough, but he is not aggressive), but now I'm starting to feel like we're working on it for nothing because there's not much change even though we work on it EVERY single day. 


Do you have any tips for us ? Any suggestion ? 

thanks for your help !!

But despite this problem we are very very happy. Lincoln is a very loving dog and he is very gentle with humans. He loves to have a good play but also knows when it's time to calm down. He loves to learn new things, still loves his clicker training and he's very good at tricks now - and yes, I must make a video of all the improvements ! 
Tomorrow we're taking him to a playdate with two other great danes and a labrador ! We're going there by bus (Lincoln loves the bus!).
We will post pictures on here !


Thanks to all of you for always leaving us nice comments !! 


PS:  I'm so sorry if I make horrible mistakes in English from time to time ! Please, bear with me. (and I'm sure Lincoln speaks better English than I do ! Hehe )

My New collar

( Hope some of my neighbors understand english! )

Hehe

Love,

Lincoln - the friendly Great Dane

Wordless Wednesday

Going to the Park and Liebster Awards

Every day my humans take me to the park right next to our building. 

When I'm there, I can find big sticks :

... large enough for me

 I can also roll in disgusting things:

... that way I can make myself smell better

I can play with my favorite ball :

Ok I do have a silly face on this one

 I can dig holes:

you never know I could find some kind of treasure

 And also .... I can fly (almost):

very impressive I know

What do you do when you go to the park ? 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And guess what ? I won two Liebster awards !! I was so excited! I wanted to say a huge thank you to Sasha the Great Dane who really IS a princess and who's very pretty! And a big thanks also to Rory and Stella who surely are the cutest dogs in the whole wide world.

Liebster means “dearest” in German. Part of the process of getting this award, is giving it to 5 people of my choice. Here are the RULES:

1. Copy and paste the award on our blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who gave us the award.

3. Pick our five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.

4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs.

So here are the friends I chose:
Jasmine  the Great Dane because she's a black great dane just like me. Plus, I think she is very cute and she love stuffies I think almost as much as I do !! 
Lexi and Jasper the Great Danes because they are my bestest friends on the internet. Lexi is gorgeous and ahem - I think that's a shame we live so far away from each other because I'm sure we'd have make a great couple (but please don't tell her I said so). Jasper is my human's favorite Great Dane (after me) because she says she loves his personnality and his face. I love him too.
Sapphire the Beagle because her human takes the most beautiful pictures and also because Sapphire is a very pretty young lady. Also, she can jump very high and that's VERY impressive!
Branson the Great Dane because he lives on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico and I wish I could join him from time to time and swim in crystal-clear water. 
Yoko the English Pointer because he often leaves me nice comments and I love his sunglasses. He's a cool dude. 

Bark soon,

Lincoln

Me and my handsome self

                                                                What do ya think ?