Kai has been with us for one week now. He is settling in to a routine and is figuring out what is allowed and what isn't. I remind myself constantly about inner peace and the fruits of the
spirit and that things are only things. And that Kai is learning and
learning fast and I need to be patient.
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| "Play?" |
Jack mostly doesn't want to play with Kai. Kai is much faster and has far more energy than Jack. Plus, Kai isn't neutered and Jack has had enough of that. Me too. Next week, Kai is off to the vet. Even before we got Kai, Jack was only good for about three stick throws and a ten minute scamper before he was ready to flop down and pant. He is like Gimli from Lord of the Rings: he is a natural sprinter and very dangerous over short distances. Kai is more of a long distance runner and can hurdle right over Jack's back.
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| Kai is a beautiful dog; If I lived a different life, I would show him |
In one week, Kai chewed up the Bumbo baby seat and two camp chairs and pretty
much ruined my porch experience for the rest of the season. I'll buy better porch chairs next spring. He also broke two screen doors-one that was too big for any door on our house and another that was already broken by Shane. Inside, he
tries to chew up baby dolls because he loves the hard arms and legs and
floppy bodies. He came to us loving to chew up sticks, and I didn't have a problem with that until he started chewing up Lincoln Logs. He also loves cardboard and can't tell the difference between that and books. This might be the first time ever that there are no books on the floor. He also likes to get into the box I'm supposed to send back to the school district to get out the paintbrushes (yes, the school wants their paintbrushes back) and as long as he doesn't chew up the Kingfisher encyclopedias, paintbrushes are fine. Compared to what Mina chewed up as a puppy, this really isn't
bad.
We still don't let him off leash out of the fenced area, mostly because he still wants to chase the chickens. It took a long time to train Mina to not kill them when she caught them, but by the time she died she knew to chase them out of the carport and then leave them. Every day we take Kai out on the long leash and work at desensitizing him to chickens. He is
so good on a leash. Once the chickens are all locked up in the yard, we let him off and he runs and runs and runs around the chicken yard and wears himself out. After that he takes a nice long nap. I'm sure he will kill at least one chicken, but I'll just tie it around his neck and leave it for a day. It worked for Jack.
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| I made that toy for him; it has all the shake-ability of the rope toy without the concussion to small children |
Kai stopped having accidents in the house two nights ago and has learned to come get Mark when he needs to go out. I was calling the dog Kaibo for awhile (and for those who don't have sons going to Boy Scout camp, a kybo is an outhouse). Now I just need to figure out a gate system that will keep him out of the kids' bedrooms at night, but allow him into ours. Baby gates are cheap and plentiful, so I'm thinking I'll pick up a few more of those. And install them high enough that he can't jump over the top...or crawl underneath them! Dobermans are beautiful jumpers.
Someone told Daniel that dogs don't see color, so he wanted to know what his shirt looked like to Kai. I took the picture above to show him and Daniel laughed and laughed. Kai listens to the kids! This morning, Kai was up on the recliner (what is it with dobies and sleeping on the furniture?) and Daniel turned from his breakfast and commanded, "Kai! Off!" and Kai hopped right down.
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| "Come on, Jack. Get up and play!" |
Kai has been a great distraction for me. This time of year I tend to get cranky and anxious for the school district to get their act together and send me my school materials. If school starts September 3rd, then by golly, I want my materials by then! We switched school districts this year and I'm having to get used to a whole new way of ordering curriculum. But school is a post for later this week...
