Weekend Re-Cap (Lots of Photos of Duke)

Lot's of fun stuff this weekend!! Maybe just ONE exciting thing happened. Okay....let's make that two exciting things. :)

Saturday morning Brian, Elyssa and I drove up to Sacramento to meet my older two kiddo's for breakfast at IHOP. We left at about 7 a.m. for our hour and a half long drive. It was nice to have all three kiddos together as we hardly ever get that opportunity! It's either Ashlee and Elyssa; Elyssa and Joseph; Joseph and Ashlee; or something like that.... rarely do I have all three together at one time! (Mostly just Christmas or other major Holidays)

(It was a bittersweet morning however, because Elyssa's dad met us at IHOP to pick her up since she was going to her dad's house, so we all had to say goodbye! )

After we left the restaurant, we headed to Ashlee's house to pick up Duke!! Yay!! Boy was I super excited! We've been waiting for weeks to bring him home!! Woot woot!!

Once we got him home, we played with him for a little bit. He explored the living room, dining room and kitchen. Then I immediately started introducing him to his crate and new bed!

We bought a little Pet Taxi for him, but we were also given a bigger one from my brother-in-law and his wife. (John & Kathy) Some other friends of ours (Bill & Karin) gave us a cushion/bed thingee that goes into the Pet Taxi we got from John and Kathy.

Duke took to his "bed" almost instantly! He loves it!! Can you tell?!?

Throughout the remainder of the day, Duke pretty much slept off and on. Each time he woke up, I immediately took him outside to go potty. He didn't go the first 3 or 4 times I took him out, but later in the evening he went! I was so excited and happy! I praised him and made a big deal out of it so he knows that it was a good thing!!

He didn't eat / drink anything ALL day. It was late evening when I finally was able to get him to eat some of his Puppy Chow. What I did was soak the dry Puppy Chow in some water, and then I rolled one of them on his "placemat" (homemade rug I'm going to use for his feeding area only) and he slowly ate it. I rolled a few more this way, and he ate!! He acted kinda strange at first... pawing at it then backing up. Then when he did pick it up in his mouth, he would walk away and almost hide to eat it, then come back for more. I'm thinking it's because where he was before, he probably had to share his food with his liter mates and almost had to eat it somewhere none of the others would take it away from him. That's just my guess though. Who knows.

I took the opportunity to take tons of pictures of our new "baby" when he was just chilling out. I thought I'd share a few with you guys!

I love this photo below! Amongst all of our numerous Target Bulls-Eye Dogs (Nick and Nora), I squeezed Duke into the line-up. I just HAD to take this photo!!

I couldn't resist!! Isn't it cute?!?


Here's one of Duke with our "Harley" Bulls-Eye Dog. I think that's just about the only thing Duke is bigger than around this place. Seriously....my flip flops are bigger than him!

Our first night home with Duke wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Duke had been going into his crate (bed) on his own and laying down in their whenever he would tire. I don't shut the gate/door on the crate during the day, so he gets used to the fact that he can come and go from the crate. The problem was, if Brian or I would get up from the couch or walk in the living room, he'd come out and follow us.

So, when it was bed time, I told him "Bed" and put him in his crate. He snuggled up in his blankets and got comfortable. I locked the gate/door. I went to bed. AS SOON AS he figured out that nobody was in eyesight, he started his puppy cries. I ignored it. After all, isn't that what you're supposed to do? I was told and I also read online (yes, I did a TON of research) that you're not supposed to go to them when they cry because then they'll think in the future, all they have to do is cry and you'll go to them. Well....Duke would cry and then stop....then cry and then stop. The period in between crying would be at the most... five minutes.... So, what do I do? I don't go and open the gate. Nope. That would be giving in. What I did was this...... I got a pillow and laid down on the floor just to where he could see my head. And viola..he would quiet down and fall asleep. Thank Goodness!!! So I would get up and crawl back into bed.


What felt like maybe oh.... 3 minutes later, (but in reality it was more like an hour) Duke would start to cry again.... so I get up... take him outside to potty; come back in, put him back in his crate, and get down on the floor again. Yeah.. this went about three more times until he finally slept for more than just an hour. (Me crawling into bed only having to get back down on the floor.) Needless to say, it SOUNDS bad, but it wasn't THAT bad. :) I did manage to get a solid 4 hours of sleep from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m.


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And today! Guess what we did this fine Sunday afternoon?!? Well, let me show you what our friends Bill & Karin also gave us....

This CUTE doggie purse! It is so cute and I absolutely LOVE it!! Duke is the perfect size for this purse and he still has room to grow!

So, we decided to take Duke out for his first Sally ride! Yep! That's right!!! We took him out on the Motorcycle! Can I just tell you he enjoyed it completely! I thought he'd cry when he was in the purse with the noise and all, but nope. He was having a blast! In fact, he would peek his little face out of the area I had unzipped while we were riding and he loved the sun shining on him and the wind in his face!!! Here's a photo of him while Daddy was putting gas in Sally.

We rode for maybe 15 minutes or so, then we stopped at this awesome park. Played for about another 15 minutes then rode back home! And let me tell you, both Duke and daddy were POOPED out when we got home!!


That's my Weekend Re-Cap!!! Hope you all had an awesome weekend as well!!