1 month with our sweet boy

Well we've now had Hudson for a month and it seems like he's been here forever. He's very attached to me and Will, follows us everywhere, even to the bathroom! He's crate trained, and I think he actually LIKES his crate, all I have to do is say "house" and he'll go in. He's potty trained now, and rings his potty bell when he needs to go out or he'll stand right by the door until we let him out. He loves going to the dog park and going for walks. He loves playing fetch, chase, keep away and especially tug with daddy. He is recovering VERY well from his neutering, you wouldn't even think he had had anything done! We are hoping that the "deflated balloon" that resulted from the procedure will shrink down though. He has gained almost 10 pounds since he's been with us. He weighed 56lbs when we got him and he's about 65 lbs now! His skin condition has cleared up and he's had no further problems with it, he just has to be on a flea preventative to keep the allergy at bay. He tolerates grooming pretty well, including getting his teeth brushed and nails clipped. He's very used to his feeding schedule and knows exactly when it's time to eat. All in all we're thrilled with him in our lives and we think he is very happy as well. We're going on our first trip with him tomorrow. We taking a 3.5 hour drive to my hometown to spend the day and Hudson HATES the car. We're going to give him Dramamine at the advice of our vet to try and help calm his tummy and nerves, it's his first long car ride and I'm a little anxious about it, but I'll update how he does.

My boy did fine

I received a call from the vet's office saying Hudson did just fine and woke up from anesthesia. We can pick him up tomorrow after 10. I never imagined I'd miss him so much! It is simply not the same around here without him and I don 't think I'll ever be able to be without a Weimaraner ever again.

Well, I dropped him off at the vet

And he didn't like it one bit! When the vet tried to put the slip leash on him he nipped at her a little bit! And I had to walk with him to the back because he was putting on the brakes. Poor thing I hope he isn't mad at me.

We're on our way

I'm getting ready to bring my sweet boy to the vet for his neutering and I'm so sad. I know he's wondering why he didn't get fed this morning. Well I'll update on here when I call them later to see how he's doing.

Surgery tomorrow

Hudson is being neutered tomorrow :( so we took him to the dog park today for some playtime since he will have to stay over night at the vet. He did exceptional today and actually played with a couple of dogs. He LOVES the dog park, but doesn't play with the dogs there all that often, he just kind of sniffs them, but today he ran around and romped with one little dog in particular. It made me so happy. Our boy's personality shines through more and more every day. He gets especially excited when it's feeding time and he actually jumps around like our Pomeranians did when I was growing up. He has also been pretty consistent with the potty bell and rings it often! We are pretty excited about that. He really is a wonderful dog and we're so happy to have him. Now if I can just make it through tomorrow I'll be fine, I don't want to leave my boy at the vet over night!!

Coming out of his shell

So Mr. Hudson is coming out of his shell. He is so playful these days! He has a particular interest in my shoes and when he's feeling playful, the ornery little sticker will grab any shoe he can find and run with it and shake it back and forth in his mouth. I have tons of shoes too so he doesn't have to look very hard to find one. We actually found him chewing on one of them and I was upset, but I was able to salvage it and now I know to keep my shoes put up. He is also very interested in the kitties and desperately wants to play with them. He stands by them and wags his tail and sometimes makes little whining sounds to try to get them to play, but of course they won't play with him. Eventually we'd like to get Hudson a playmate, but that will be way in the future.

Weims make great homemade bread!

Hudson LOVES this video clip and thinks you will too!

Happy Birthday to my Mom!!

Today is my mom's birthday and Hudson has a very special message for his Nana!!

Hudson's weekend

Hudson has some pretty good weekends around here. On Saturday he went to the dog park, and since he is so afraid of riding in the car, mommy rode in the back with him the whole way and he did much better! No hyperventilating or throwing up! We were pretty happy. Then Saturday evening Mr. Hudson played with his toys. He likes to hide stuff in his bed, but don't let the bed fool you, he spends most of his time on the couch with us! On Sunday he got to go on a nice long walk, and anytime we walk with him somewhere we've never walked before, this boy has to smell EVERYTHING! Hudson has also demonstrated his pointing skills this weekend! It's so cute I'm going to have to get a picture! Also Hudson's seroma on his back seems to finally be getting smaller. All in all good weekend for Mr. Hudson.

Happy Valentine's day.

Wanna be my Valentine?

Car sick doggy

So apparently we have a doggy who gets carsick. Not only does he get carsick, but he hyperventilates and fights us tooth and nail to even get IN the car. :( This makes me sad for our poor doggy because when he's in the car he just looks miserable and petrified. The only time he has to get in the car is when we go to the dog park and when he has to go to the vet. He loves the dog park and doesn't seem to mind the vet, so he must just hate riding in cars, not the RESULT of riding in the car. I've tried to bring a treat to give him when he gets in the car, but he won't eat them, and that's really saying something because this boy LOVES treats. He has thrown up on my car twice now, and he just looks soooooo sad afterwards. Poor thing. I'm going to do some research to try to figure out how to make the car not so bad for him because we're going to Clarksville on the 28th and it's about a 3.5 hour drive. The vet told us we could give him dramamine so we'll try that and see what happens. Let's hope he doesn't throw up in the car again..or worse. Yikes.

Potty Bell

Hudson's potty bell embroidered with his name.

When Hudson came to us, he was not house trained because he had been a predominantly outside dog at his previous home. Well we changed that pretty fast! At the advice of someone on the weimaraner addicts forum, I got Hudson a potty bell to hang on the back door. Every time we take him out we show him the bells and ring them and I always say "Let's go potty!" in my really high voice. Well on 2.10.09 Hudson rang the potty bell all by himself to let us know he needed to go outside. Me and Will were sitting drinking our morning coffee and we heard the bells, we were so excited, he was standing by the door waiting for us!! He got lots of praise. He also did it this morning, AND he hasn't had an accident in the house for over a week, this dog is sooooo smart. :) Ok I'm a little bias, but still.....

Unplanned vet visit

A few days ago I found a lump under Hudson's skin near where he received his shot for tapeworms, I didn't think anything of it since I know a small lump at he site of an injection is normal and usually goes away. Well over a time period of a few days this lump grew substantially in size and it seemed like every time I looked at him after not seeing him for a few hours, it had grown even bigger! We decided to go to the vet this afternoon since it was growing so fast. The vet eased our fear when he told us Hudson had developed a Seroma at the site of the injection. A seroma is a pocket of serous fluid (separated from the blood) caused by an insult to the skin of some sort, in his case the injection. They can also occur as a result of surgery. It will go away on it's own, we just have to watch for signs of infection. We were so relieved because of course I was thinking it was a tumor of some sort. On another happy note, Hudson now weighs 61.2 pounds, so he's gained just about 5 lbs which is a little less than 10% of his body weight. The vet was also impressed at how good his skin was looking. It's amazing how much me and Will have fallen in love with this boy in just 2.5 weeks.

Anatomy of a Weimy Yawn

Teaching Hudson New tricks

We are in the process of teaching Hudson some tricks. He came to us knowing how to sit VERY well, he always does it on command. We are now teaching him to shake hands and lay down. He is now shaking more than half the time, and he laid down 2 times in a row for me this evening. Every time he does it I squeal with delight. He must wonder what the heck is going on. I also think he is VERY close to ringing the potty bell. Tonight twice I found him standing by the back door when he needed to go out, it's only a matter of time before he's nudging that bell with his nose. Every time we take him out we ring his bell before opening the door, so he'll get it soon. Hudson has also been getting 1 tablespoon of olive oil a day in his food to help with his coat. The patchy areas are now starting to grow back, but the process is slow.

Hudson's first trip to the DOG PARK!!!

We took Hudson to Shelby Farms dog park today. Let me start off by saying this dog park is AWESOME!! It's 13 acres with 3 ponds and plenty of beautiful scenery. We met with some other Weimaraners and their owners. There were probably about 8 or so other Weims there for Hudson to play with. Hudson did AMAZING!!! He was sooooo well behaved. He interacted well with both dogs and people. Hudson also went into the water!! I wasn't sure if he would do it, but we threw a stick in the water and he went after it! He really really enjoyed himself and we are going to start taking him to the park at least once a week, but I liked it so much we may go more than that. I loved the oppurtunity to talk with other owners and let Hudson have some fun.

My boy is getting FAT!

Haha not really, but today for the first time I looked at him and could notice some meat on his bones! That makes me happy. Me and Huddy had a good day hanging out on the couch until Will got home, then we went for a nice walk, it was much warmer today! (45 degrees) So my boy's ears didn't get ice cold. Hudson also let me know twice today that he needed to go out and he's getting better about doing his business alone, without me or Will right beside him in the yard. That gets old when it's super cold out and/or raining. I attempted to take some pics of Hudson today, but he was very interested in what daddy was doing.

watching dad go into the house

My boy is lookin so good

He spotted a squirrel and REALLY wanted it.

LOVE this one

Goodies for Hudson

I'm an ebay addict, and today I scored a dog car harness (we'll be traveling this month and Hudson is terrible about sitting still in the car, plus I'd like to keep him safe), a doggy coat (my boy gets cold in the sub-freezing temps!), a Wubba Kong toy, a Bad cuz toy, and a new kong with ziggies treats. I can't wait until they come! Also I was very excited today when Hudson whined by the back door to let me know he needed to go out, he went right out and peed! I noticed a foul odor coming from Hudson's mouth today :( Not just normal doggy breath, it smelled ROTten. I looked at his teeth and they just don't look right, they look broken and one has a dark spot in the middle, not sure if that's the root or not, but I'm having the vet look at it when we take him to get his ear rechecked.

Hudson's favorite toy

I wanted to post about the best toy of all time. Well at least to my boy it is. LOL. I figured out early on that he LOVES tennis balls, but the first ones we got he flattened in about two seconds. Well I found some tennis balls at Petco that are made by the Kong company. They are larger then a regular tennis ball which is better for his big mouth AND they make an extremely irritating squeeky sound when you squeeze them. Bad for mommy's ears, but Hudson thinks he's died and gone to heaven. He gets that ball in his mouth and squeezes it with a big giddy goofy grin on his face. They also come two in a pack! Also so far he hasn't been able to put a hole in it. He loves this thing. (Mommy and Daddy like it too!)


*Also on a funny side note, on our walk today 3 tiny Chihuahuas came running out of a yard at Hudson. They wanted to play! The one that got closest to him was wagging it's tiny tail and being all cute. LOL. I think Hudson thought they were squirrels. :)

My Good Boy

Every morning Will gets up with Hudson and he leaves before I do, so I put him in his house before I go to class. I leave at about 7:00 am and all I have to say is "Hudson get in your house" and he goes in the crate all by himself. Well this morning I walked into the front room where his crate is and he was already in it!! He is SUCH a good boy. He also is getting used to his daily walks. We go at right around 4-4:30 in the afternoon after Will gets off, well at about that time he stands by the front door waiting! He is so cute.

1 week with Hudson

Our boy in his new bed.

Our boy has been with us for one week, and the progress we've seen with him is astounding. He is 95% potty trained and we got his bell for the back door yesterday. We are going to attempt to train him to make the bell ring when he needs to go out. More on that later. He has gained some weight and we can no longer see his ribs. He still needs to gain some more though. His skin condition is resolving as well and is no longer red and inflamed. His coat even looks better! It's becoming more shiny and smooth and soft. We're still treating the ear infection, but I can only imagine it's getting better. He also gets really happy when me or Will comes home and wags his cute little tail. His tail is wagging more each day. We're working on teaching him to shake and lay down, he has done shake about 5 times, but only does it when HE wants to. He always sits like a good boy though. We LOVE this dog and are so blessed to have him in our lives.