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Puppies' Diary - February.
This page was last updated: 2004-02-27
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15. February - 15. March 2002
This page tells you the story of the month, Fuji lived with us as a single dog.
15th of February, 2002 -
Fuji's arrival.
20th of February, 2002 - the first days in his
new home.
24th of February, 2002 - snowstorm, sunshine
and walks on the beach.
1st of March, 2002 - a little new Houdini?
4th of March, 2002 - having friends over, still
breaking out (or should it say "breaking in"?)
9th of March, 2002 - bad weather, early mornings,
more and more confident
13th of March, 2002 - last story about Fuji as
"a single child"
Today Fuji landed in Copenhagen Airport
after a long journey from Japan to Denmark. After even longer hours in the
Airport for veterinary check, and custom clearance, he finally got here around 1
P.M. with Dennis, who picked him up.
It was a little, tired puppy that looked out of the crate... Tired of
travelling, tired of being handled by new people over again, simply just
tired... And boy was he joyful, when we let him out of the crate... Never
did I see a puppy run and run and run so much, just being happy for being
"released".....
After getting something to eat, he was introduced to Ikiru and Tora, both
accepting him - though maybe not necessarily happy for this addition to our
family. But both of them played a little with him, and after investigating his
new home for a couple of hours, he settled down and fell a sleep.
Aren't puppies
just cute, when they are a silently asleep...?
Tomorrow, Monica will visit us from Sweden to see her new dog, I am sure, she
will be very content and satisfied with her new little boy.
*******
It is very hard to believe that the little fellow has already
been with us for 5 days now. He has settled down with us very easily, being a
confident, outgoing and happy little guy, he hasn't had many problems adjusting
to our "ways" - except for the time difference between Japan and
Denmark that means that he is very active at night... This wouldn't be much of a
problem, as I am a typical "B" person myself, if it wasn't for my job,
which means that I have to get up in the mornings... But I hope to be able to
"turn" him around over a few more days.
He is also getting along quite well with Ikiru and Tora. Ikiru more or less
ignores him most of the time, if she isn't "telling" him about the
limits for his behaviour in her presence... Tora is still being far too patient
with Fuji, though he seems to be enjoying his new role as "big
brother", and also wants to play with Fuji in between, he is also very much
annoyed, as Fuji is really provoking him from time to time. Fortunately, Tora
has started to set some limits for, what he will accept from Fuji - and he on
the other hand is beginning to understand, that Tora really means business. So, I
think in a couple of days, they will have found out how they are going to
behave towards each other.
No doubt, that Fuji is considering Tora to be his great idol, sneaking to lay
down as close to Tora as possible without upsetting him too much, trying to
invite him to plays and so on... And when I return from my walks with Ikiru and
Tora, Fuji is very happy to see me and Ikiru, but he is even happier for seeing
Tora.
I brought him to "Fakse" (small city near by) today to see, how he would react to cars, people, other dogs etc. - and he was being curious, as he was supposed to - but not frightened or anxious at all, so he really seems to have a wonderful temperament.
*******
The past few days has the weather been changing from snowstorm to beautiful, but cold sunshine, to rainstorm, to more cold sunshine... Only constant thing has been the wind that has been blowing quite hard... I don't know, which of these weather-situations Fuji has already met in Japan, but he has taken the changes without much notice... Of course - like any other dog - he found the snow to be very funny to play in... And the rain was a bit too wet to be a pleasant experience, I guess.. But besides this, he is still doing very well, still being playful and annoying to Tora. But ever more "respectful" to Ikiru, I think he has learned his lesson not to disturb her in her sleep and things like that.. He and Tora are playing every day - sometimes I have the impression that Tora is only playing, because Fuji won't leave him alone... But other times there is no doubt that Tora too thinks it is a bit of fun to play with the little guy... Though, when he is "hit" by one of the "Akita-attacks" (running around like crazy), Fuji suddenly thinks he (Tora) is a bit too wild.... Today we had a long walk on the beach, and Fuji thought it was very funny - but also a bit cold and wet to dip his toes in the water... As Ikiru, as usual, went out till the water reached her belly, Fuji first intended to follow her... But as he discovered how wet and cold the water was - he stopped, when it reached a few cm up his legs... Also the seashells were very funny to chew in and play with, so the little guy had lots of funny experiences. And it was actually quite cute to watch him, as he wasn't walking so much with us, as he was walking with Tora... Trying not to loose sight of him for as much as a second, which was actually quite a job for such a little dog, as Tora is running quite much around, when he is off leash at the beach...
The only situation, where he is a bit less outgoing, is when he is meeting new people... We have had a number of people coming over the past few days, and he is a bit "reserved", when they try to approach him... I think, he still remember being handled by a lot of different people on his journey here, and maybe is a bit afraid that someone is going to take him away again... I am sure, in a couple of weeks he will be more relaxed and confident also about this, and I hope he will eventually become just as happy for driving, as Tora is... Right now, he still seems a bit sceptical about going for a drive - as if he expects the journey to be a loooong one again. So, when he finds out that we most of the time are only going for 15 min. drives, he will hopefully come to enjoy that too....
*******
This week has been giving Fuji new experiences... I have been
back to work, so they have had to stay home for a couple of hours a day....
Normally Ikiru and Tora have free run of the hall, the kitchen and the living
room. But because of the cables and furniture - and to prevent Tora from being
bothered too much by Fuji - we decided to let Fuji be in the hall and kitchen,
separated by a baby gate from the living room, where Ikiru and Tora then could
have a chance to relax without him to worry about.... Or so we thought....
But every day, when we got home, he had managed to get into the living room, and
so we found him happily wagging his tail next to Tora next to Ikiru, welcoming
us when we came in... Hmm, we tried putting the crate up in front of the gate...
He managed to move it just enough to be able to crawl under the gate.... We
tried to put an extra metal net on the gate with smaller masks - but he still
managed to sneak under... So, now we have probably more or less decided to let
him be together with the other two, and let them have access to the whole house
again... Only, when his little girlfriend arrives in a couple of weeks, we will
try to separate them again, hoping that he will be more willing to stay in the kitchen, when
he has got some company. The next puppy will be some weeks younger than Fuji, and so
the risk for the cables and the furniture will be somewhat greater, so we will
definitely keep them in the kitchen then - or if that doesn't work, they can be
in the garden during the day... Just hope spring has started then...
Beside his abilities as "mini Houdini", he is doing very well. Has settled in now, is getting used to our ways... Only "thing", is that he is still more focused on Tora than on us, when we are doing things with him... As he is not supposed to stay here, I am not sure, if I am going to change that, so that he will focus more on me, when we are out. Of course, we should bond - but the bonds should not become too tight, as he will be leaving again "soon".
Today, he had his rabies shot, so in 120 days from today, it will be time for testing his rabies titers to see if he is ready to go "home" to Sweden, so now you can start counting the days Monica....
*******
On Saturday we were at the beach together with Ann and Gamba
and Kotei (read more about Gamba and Kotei at the page about guest
dogs of the house). The purpose of our trip was to do some tracking with the
four "old" dogs, and Fuji came along just for socialisation and having
fun.
We started out in fairly good weather and laid out the tracks, then walked a
short round at the beach with all 5 dogs. And Fuji had a wonderful time,
carrying the robe of Kotei's "long leash" around... He was pulled over
a couple of times, when Kotei took off too fast and pulled him over, but that
didn't seem to bother him a lot.
Then, at the way back to the cars, it started to RAIN.. Not just a little rain,
no real rain that makes one wet. But we carried on, and Gamba and Kotei did
there tracking in heavy rain. But then it started to snow - real wet snow, and
so Ikiru and Tora had to do their tracking in about 5 cm of snow... Sometimes
you ask yourself, why you do these kind of things, just for the sake of the
dogs....
Anyway, we were impressed so easily Fuji was accepted in the group, especially
by Gamba and Kotei, who didn't meet him before. When we walked at the beach, you
wouldn't have thought for one second that this wasn't a group of dog living
together all the time. And Fuji also seem to understand that these two dogs
somehow "were part of our group", so he didn't take much notice of
them, when first he had said hello.
A good thing that came out of this trip, and which I found out, when I took them to the local beach this afternoon was, that he now seems to have realised that driving in the car can be fun... He was in and out again so many times on Saturday that it probably made him realise, there was no need to be worried that we were going to "send him back again".
And his new title as "mini Houdini" is still very much suitable.. We tried a few things over the weekend, and today to make him stay in the kitchen.. But no way is he going to stay there of his own free will, so now we will let him be together with Ikiru and Tora till the next pup arrives, and then see, if this will help him accept that he has to stay in the kitchen.
*******
Oh, this week has been hard... Hard on me, I mean... Used to get to bet late at night, and getting up equally late in the mornings, as I have been for a couple of years now, it was quite hard to start on a new job on Monday morning, having to get up at 6 O'clock to walk Ikiru and Tora and feed the dogs and the horses, before I go to work... I was a bit anxious to see, what the dogs would think of getting up this early (and to bed earlier, than they have been used to)... As expected, Fuji thought it was a bit strange, but being a hungry little guy, he thought it to be ok, as it meant that he had his breakfast way earlier, than in the first two weeks he was here... Ikiru on the other hand thought I was completely out of my mind, as I woke her up about 7 O'clock for our morning walk... But, thankfully the weather was beautiful at least on the first morning, which sort of compensated the early hour for her...
The rest of the week we used to get into some sort of daily order with my new hours... The weather, unfortunately did not co-operate, as it has been rainy, and windy and wet, but we have sort it out somehow anyway. In the morning, Dennis spends about 15-20 min with Fuji in the garden, playing with him and assuring that he does his business, before they are to be alone at home. During this time, I walk Ikiru and Tora, and this actually means that Fuji is not alone at home in the mornings at all anymore. When the little girl arrives, we think they can play with each other this time instead, but the first days Dennis will be with them to assure that Fuji isn't to hard on his little girlfriend (she will be around 10 weeks, when she arrives, and Fuji will be about 18 weeks).
Then, when I come home in the afternoon it looks like, they have been sleeping most of the time, I have been gone... We now leave Fuji with the other two - so far without any "accidents" in the living room, so he is a clever little guy. And when I come home then, he seems to have a lot of energy, so he is a bit hard on poor Tora.. Especially because the weather has been awful, so he couldn't be outside to burn of some of his energy. He has been with us on our evening walks, as they are not as long as our morning walks, and so he has had a chance to meet the world. On Thursday, the weather was a bit better again, and so I walked him alone without the "backing group" of Ikiru and Tora... Being out on his own, he is a little more attentive to things around us - but he doesn't seem afraid, only "sceptical" in a healthy way. For instance, as we passed the practising room of the local scholar band, he stopped and listened, wondering where that noise came from (I totally agree with him that the drummer in the band still needed lot of practising!). He said hello to the Cocker Spaniel and the Bernese Sennendog from further down the street as if this was something he does every day, no barking, no snarling just a friendly wagging tail. On Friday (my day off) we had a beautiful walk on the beach, as the sun was shining again... It is quite funny to watch the little guy trying to keep up with Tora, who on this day was being very joyful and ran around like crazy... No need to say that Fuji was TIRED, when we came back home again.
Today we had some friends over for a cup of coffee, and Fuji was much more relaxed, than a few weeks ago, and just wanted to say hello to them - and had a great fun chasing their son around in the garden, which wasn't actually very nice, as he was a bit afraid of the dogs.
All in all I think that Fuji has settled in very well in the three weeks, he has been with us now. The few "issues" he had in the beginning, are now gone, so I think they can be related to the flight and all the handling by strange people in the two days of his journey. Actually, he seems to be a rather stable and strong minded little Akita dog, I am glad, Ikiru is around to help me teach him that he isn't the Centre of the Universe, and has to accept an occasional "no"!
*******
Hmm, this will be the last paragraph about Fuji as "a single child" in the house. On Friday we will all go to Hamm in Germany for the 25th anniversary of the German Akita Club. Seminar, big dinner on Saturday and a dog show with 150 Akitas participating on Sunday. Meeting old and new friends - I really look forward to this weekend.
Monica will meet us here on Friday, and then Fuji will be travelling with her and her dogs. This has been agreed from before Fuji came here, and I also believe that Monica is looking forward to spending a weekend with her "little guy". We are driving together to Hamm in two cars, and so Fuji will be meeting us (and most important: Tora) several times on the way down. It will be interesting to see, how he will be doing without Tora for those two days.
When we return, we will bring the little female Akita that is going to Norway with us home, and so Fuji will have one more dog to terrorise besides Tora (or will both of the two puppies join up in bothering my far too kind boy?), and Ikiru will have one more dog to look after. I am wondering a bit, if she is going to react differently towards a female puppy, than she has reacted to Fuji - but all of this only the time will show.
Fuji is still doing very well - and growing too.. Haven't weighed him for some time now, but he seems to be growing at a steady pace as he should. He is a quite compact puppy, not fat but with a very solid body. Quite a handsome little fellow, he is.. These days, he is changing teeth, but even then he is eating very good, not being picky about his food. He is getting half BARF / half kibble, and seems to be doing fine on this. He is also starting to loose the puppy coat, and I am looking forward to seeing his colour, when he is finished changing.
Till next week, when there will be another little dog to tell you about.
*******
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