New shots of our expecting girl

Our sweet little Great Dane puppies will be here in two weeks and a day or so. And while Heidi’s milk bags are growing, as is her appetite, she is still looking great.

Still playful

For some reason, this afternoon she was in a mood to roll around in the grass. She’s so sweet. Gave me a good shot of those crazy milk bags though 🙂

 

Rolling around in the grass

And here is just a shot of her smiling at me. She rarely shows off her tongue. I guess it is really a normal size. I always assumed it was tiny since she never uses it, unlike Odie.

Heidi smiling up at me

 

 

Puppies are coming

Our babies are of age. And while we were planning on waiting one more cycle before letting it happen, Odie had other ideas. So…

Our sweet little man

AND

Heidi Bug

Are going to be having a bunch of these:

Now for the stats:

Heidi is a AKC papered Great Dane. She is 32″ tall and weighs about 115 lbs (before puppy weight). As you can see, she is a reverse brindle (dark brindle). She plays hard and cuddles hard.

Odie is 75% Great Dane and 25% pitbull. His mom was 50/50, and his dad is a papered Great Dane. He got his color (blue) from his mom. She had a bunch of fawn (like their dad) babies and only a couple blue ones. He is about the same height as Heidi, maybe an inch or so shorter. He is very lean and muscular, but still only weighs in about 110 lbs. He’s the emotional protector, and of course always looking to play. When not bugging Heidi to play with him, he can be found laying up-side-down with his tail wagging. He is a big sweet goofball.

Puppies should be here around the 24th of October. And ready to go to their new homes right around Christmas time. Talk about an awesome gift. However, please don’t be that guy that gets a puppy when your significant other has no idea about it and turns out to not want it. That would break the hearts of the sweet pups. Also, both mom and dad have been checked by vets on a regular basis. They both have good hips and no health issues.

And for more doggy enjoyment, here is a few random pictures of them for you:

Just chillin

Like I said, he’s the goofball

Love to play

Lovin on each other

Did I mention he’s a goofball?

Odie project 52 week 36

This weekend we took Odie and Heidi with us to the track pretty much all weekend. Saturday we had garage owner appreciation day along with the American Rock Sports Challenge race. Sunday was karting test & tune. The Porsche shop a few garages down had their dog with them. IIRC, his name is Jax. And I believe they said he is about a year and a half old is all. So about twice Odie’s age, but not an old dog at all. We all gave them some time to get to know each other and play around without any adult intervention. I got a few cool pictures of them playing

Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports

Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports

Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports

Odie at Miller Motorsports

Heidi (I just noticed she doesn’t have her own tag on here yet) was sleeping while Odie and Jax were having their fun. She was all tuckered out from watching the ARSC earlier. Here she is trying to come down those big ‘ol bleachers on her own:

Heidi on the bleachers

Heidi is up to 23 lbs. Odie is the same height and weight as he has been the last few weeks. Heidi is now 12 weeks old, and Odie is 42 weeks.

They are super sweet together. I am so glad we got Heidi. They both love each other so much. They eat together, sleep together, play together. They even pee together. #2 is still on separate schedules though 🙂 One perfect example of how sweet Odie is to Heidi: I was playing frisbee with Odie. He could see Heidi watching and wanting to be part of it, but not having the courage to get in his lane of traffic. So Odie catches the frisbee, carries it over to Heidi bends down and hold it by her mouth so she can hold on. Then he brought it over to me like a good boy. And did the same thing on the next few throws. It’s like he was not only trying to let her participate, but also trying to teach her how to play. It was soooo cute.

Odie and Heidi sleeping

Every now and then I have to lock Odie up in the house just so I can get pictures of her playing by herself. Otherwise she won’t leave his side long enough to get good pictures.

Heidi on the prowl

That innocent face

Heidi has no idea Timber is mad

We have an announcement.

We have been leaving Odie out while at work. He has been doing well, but not great. And when I get home he always acts like he did something wrong. Even when he didn’t. I think he is getting bored or lonely. So I got reading about dogs in pairs and it appears Great Danes do very well in pairs. It sounded like most breeds do better with playmates. But Danes seemed to be one of them that respond exceptionally well to it. So after a couple weeks of searching and visiting multiple litters, we found one we liked. She is a full Great Dane, not a mix like Odie. She is super sweet, and  only 9 weeks old. She weighs 12.8 lbs. Her mom is a very pretty light brindle and her dad is a large dark brindle. She gets her coloring from her dad. She was born on Sunday July 1st. She is AKC registered. A couple of her litter-mates were a cool blue brindle. But she is the one we liked even though we prefer the blue color. She just seemed like the sweetest of the bunch.

So, without further delay: World, meet Heidi…

Heidi at 9 weeks old. Her first night at home.

Heidi at 9 weeks old. First night at home.

BTW, Heidi got her name because so far, her entire existence at our house has been either sleeping or hiding from Odie. He loves her and is so curious about her. But he is a big clumsy puppy still and that tail has caught her across the face, so she tries to stay clear of it. Odie allows her to eat from his dish, sleep in his kennel, and love on his owners without ever acting poorly. He’s so sweet. I can’t wait until she is big enough for us to leave them both out all day.

Odie Project 52 Week 25

Odie is now 31 weeks old. He is 79 lbs and 27″ tall. He has confiscated my boy’s soccer ball as his own.

I am terrible at taking pictures of moving targets. But I really like the muscle tone in this one (as always, click for bigger version):

BTW, I forgot to mention how amazing Odie was on our week long trip to Yellowstone. He only needed to be on leash in the park itself, and that was mainly for his safety. He had fun playing around but never strayed too far. And whenever the kids were off by themselves around the campsite, he stuck around them to keep them safe. Tat is until he turned into an old man and wouldn’t leave the campsite at all from his tired old bones hurting. Anyway, I was very impressed. He’s  great.

Odie Project 52 Week 23

OK here is Odie at our camp site. First he thought it might be fun to go play in the river with the kids…

Rivers look fun

But then he realized the water in the middle got pretty stinking cold:

Holy crap it’s cold!

He is 29 weeks old in this picture & about 26.5″ tall.

Odie Project 52 Week 11

Odie is now 17 weeks old. He is up to 42.6 lbs. His mite issue appears to be nearly fully healed. He’s growing up to be a gorgeous little puppy. And he is looking more and more Great Dane.

Odie Project 52 Week 10

Odie is now 16 weeks old today. He is right at 40 lbs. The mites, I think are gone. You can see his bald spots left from the mites in both of these pictures.

I love this first picture, he looks so busted. I can just hear a big dumb goofy voice slowly saying “I’m sooorry daddy…”

And here I was playing with some funky photo editing. I kind of like the look, but to a pro, I am sure it looks terrible. And I just don’t care 😛

That’s it for this update. My little Great Dane puppy is growing like a weed. And he is getting even sweeter with age.

Odie Project 52 Week 8

Weekly update: Odie is 14 weeks old today. He weighs 34.4 lbs. I did not measure his height, but it has not appeared to change much.

Today I have 2 pictures of little Odie. Here is the Project 52 shot of him:

He really likes my Ikea gaming chair. But as you can see, he is a bit big for it.

Now for the main update on this little guy. I made an appointment at the vet last week for shots and a general inspection. Soonest they could get him in was Saturday. Around Thursday or so, we started to notice some bald spots developing on his forehead. At the vet, he got his shots, including the rabies shot, and I asked the vet about the bald spots. He scraped them and looked at them under the microscope. Turns out Odie has Demodex Mites. The vet gave me some Goodwinol creme to put on the spots to kill the mites and said if it gets worse we need to switch to an oral medication. He did not have the oral stuff in stock, so we are trying the creme. Well, now just 2 days later, he has probably 12 bald spots starting to develop. And the first 2 are looking worse than ever. This morning they were swollen with clear liquid oozing from them. He seems happy as ever, but is looking pretty bad. The vet said they should have the oral stuff in this afternoon. Poor guy. I feel so bad for him.

Here is a shot of his bald spots taken Saturday night. They were still not looking too bad here. Now they are red and crusty and much larger.

Odie Project 52 Week 7

Odie got his first visit to an off-leash dog park today. He loved all the people ad other dogs. Even the few mean ones, he had no idea they were not playing. The only time I had a hard time getting him to follow me was when some douche brought their kid on a big wheel that is afraid of dogs. She screamed non-stop and something about the sound of the big wheel “tires” on the ground drove Odie crazy. Yeah, bring your 3 year old that is afraid of dogs to a dog park, great idea. And Odie was not trying to even get near her. He was running away from the sound of her big wheel.  Anyway, Odie had a blast, and got to drink from a nice cold river, and play with a bunch of other dogs of all sizes. It was good.

Odie will be 13 weeks old tomorrow. He is just under 17″ tall. He weighs 30.2 lbs. I think I am going to try and get him into the vet this week to see if he needs more shots and get a general check-up.

Here is a picture of him at the dog park, as always, click for larger version: