Betel has had a massive attack of the crazies this evening. For almost an hour he's been racing around like a maniac. Odin has been remarkably chill about it, but he tried to play and got a dead-on smack on Betel's backbone, and after my yelp, has been laying low again.
Betel seems to have more energy and is louder and more mouthy than puppy-Odin, but I could just be remembering Odin's puppy days incorrectly. Betel also carries his tail up in the air a lot, when he's happy or interested in something. Odin's tail tends to be sticking straight out behind him in a lot of the photos, so maybe it's not so different.
Betel's food consumption has gone way up. I think we might be at almost 3 cups a day now. And amazingly, another day without an accident. It's probably accidental.
One reason we got Betel is because Odin is getting old. He went in for his senior exam, and while his blood was excellent, his heart is enlarged on one side and he has a murmur. The vet said it is a "Category 2" heart condition, and when he moves into 3, we'll put him on medication and send him to a specialist. I couldn't find much on the web about it, but it seems like most dogs die within 6 months - 1 year after they're diagnosed. The heart medication just slows the process down some, but has side effects. Odin definitely seems tired faster and can't play as long. I think he's probably also developing a fairly serious case of arthritis. I'm afraid that I'm responsible for his bone tumor when he was a puppy. I was reading in a Dane book about how you shouldn't feed eggs, cottage cheese, or yogurt because they mess up the calcium ratio, and the big dogs grow so fast you have to be really careful about it. I think I made him too heavy and too big too fast with all the additives.
But I digress ... Odin has some pep left in him, a pup might keep him active, and he'll help train the puppy to have a personality sort of like him. So it's Odin's present to me, in addition to the 7 (and hopefully more) years. The reason we decided to get two was to make it not so hard on Odin (they'll play with each other is the assumption, and Odin can join in when he's in the mood), and that way I don't have to go through the puppy period again in another year or two. Since puppy-hood is about two years, with staggered Danes, you would basically always be dealing with puppy antics.
Here's the daily schedule, then I'll post some more pictures.
1 am - bathroom
4 am - bathroom
6:30 am - wake up, bathroom, play 15 minutes, eat a little, pass out
7 am - wake up for real, eat, play, bathroom
8:15 am - load everyone into car, go to work, sleep in crate in parking garage
11:30 am - lunch - play time
1 pm - back into car
4:30 pm - break, play time
5 pm - back into car
7 pm - play time - either at barn or home with kevin, dinner
usually a nap in here
10:30 pm - bed time
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