Cooper aka Tasmanian Devil

Cooper at the breeders house.. just after he had a bath.

Cooper and his momma Remi

Cute little shit! I wish it wasnt blurry, otherwise it would be a perfect pic

This little guy is Derek's pride & joy!

We picked up Cooper on Saturday and he reminds me of the Tasmanian Devil for a couple reasons.. 1) He spins around when he is excited, he'll be walking/bouncing along and then just do these circles out of excitement and when he is ready to poo, he does what the breeder calls the "Boykin Spin".. he runs around looking for the perfect place and when he's almost ready to do his poo business, he does about 5 or 6 360-spins! It is really funny..2) He is a little devil child! This dog does not know the meaning of "relax" unless he is in his crate. Outside his crate, he just is non-stop from one toy to another, then to your toes, your shoes, jeans, hands, face, furniture, cords.. His attention span on any one item is about 20 seconds max and then he's off and running to the next thing that grabs his attention. He spends a lot of time in his crate because this pup also is a constant pee'er.

We take him outside, he pees.. then we bring him in and he plays around for a few minutes and NO exaggeration, 5 minutes later he will spin around and run off out of reach and squat! GRRR.. that is frustrating, Cooper has already had more accidents in 1 day than Ellie had in 1 month! I dont think he is emptying his bladder when he goes outside, obviously! I am really hoping within a week he will start to act normal with his peeing, he really should be able to go 45 minutes at this point, heck he'll lay/sleep in his crate for well over an hour. I think it's just the change, the stress and excitement of his new life.

Ellie took to him immediately! It was amazing.. No screaming or fear whatsoever. I am sooo proud of our little girl, she is intrigued by him, wants to play and he tries, but he's still a bit wobbly. But I know within a couple weeks, all hell will break loose and we'll have dogs flying around the house! :) Ellie is a bit sensitive though and we have to be careful because when we say "NO" to Cooper, she hunkers down and comes over as if to say "I'm sorry, what did I do?" She's being very cute and we keep confirming to her and petting her tons telling her what a Good Girl she is!! Where is Russell you ask?? Well he's hanging out on a chair or attempting to play ball with us, basically just ignoring the fact that we now have a new pup in the house! He really could care less, shows no interest... Which is fine, in time he will bond and play with Cooper, but for now we are happy to just love him and let him know he's still a Good Boy too.

I planned a 2nd doggy play date at our house on Sunday, probably should have avoided less chaos with the new pup, but Ellie still needs the work. We kept Cooper in the crate while all the dogs ran around. Basically just Sarge, Skye and Jake came to visit and Ellie only screamed a couple times, she took to the dogs much quicker and really was interested but not quite ready to play with them. We are slowly creating a social dog.. did I mention SLOWLY! :)

Saturday night was terrible.. OMG! We went to bed around 11, Cooper is in his own crate at Derek's head level and Cooper woke up 6 times between 11pm and 8am.. Derek took him out 5 times and I did it once, the good thing is he did pee every time and then after only a few seconds of whining would go right back to sleep. We pulled his water at 6pm on Sunday, poor guy kept licking the porch steps after we took his water away from him, but it paid off because we were in bed at 10 Sunday night and he didnt wake up til 2:20!! and then he woke up again when Derek got up at about 5:45. What a relief... I dont know how long Derek would have handled 5 wake-ups per night if that had continued.. Since this is Dereks dog and he wants to create a very strong bond, Derek does 85% of the work. After just 1.5 days I can already see the bond developing. When Derek takes him out to potty and Cooper does his business, he immediately runs to Derek for praise. When I take him out, after he does his business I change my voice, tell him Good Boy in a sweat tone and he just ignores me, heads off to explore..

I feel bad that he spends so much time in a crate right now, but I keep telling myself its only short term until he learns to not potty every 5 minutes! It really makes me see how easy it was with Ellie, I am just amazed at the difference between them. She would potty outside, come in and play for a short while, lay down and sleep and wouldnt have to go back outside to potty for another 30-45 minutes.. Not Cooper.. I have YET to see him actually stop! He has not worn himself out and just laid down to sleep, he is cookoo crazy when he gets in the house. I suppose if we let him run around pissing all over for an hour, he might actually lay down and crash... for now we will be playing out on the deck a lot, us bundled up in warm clothes. That way he and Ellie can be pups, he cant destroy anything, he'll have his toys out there and if he potties on the deck.. who cares! :) During the day he is out in the garage in a big kennel where he will stay until he is really bonded to Derek and he is ready to hang with Russell & Ellie in the front yard.

I am convinced that 90% of the reason Derek wants him in the garage kennel is for bonding reasons and so Cooper does not escape or get into trouble in the yard while we are away, he is an explorer... but I think 10% of it is that he is afraid some eagle or hawk will come down and take his precious pride and joy! :) I laugh internally because I can see the contradiction between Ellie and Cooper.. Oh I see.. its okay for Ellie to explore and get into something and get taken by birds, but Cooper.. oh no! :) LOLOL

I know.. its all about dogs! But we do have other exciting news... We had wanted to "get away" for Thanksgiving this year and thought about flying to AZ to spend it with Bob/Nouna.. but we just could not figure out how to make that work with 2 horses, 1 spoiled rotten dog and 2 pups. So after some thinking and contemplating, we decided to fly them here instead! Yeah, we dont get to get-away but it is just not feasible at this time.. the sacrifices we make for our children! :) So we are super excited to have them with us for an entire week and some of Derek's family will actually be coming to our house for Thanksgiving this year.. We will be crowded but cozy in our home.. I think I need to borrow a table or two! lol We have never hosted an event/dinner with Derek's family.. ever. So this is exciting to be able to plan this, I just hope I can find time to get the house spotless, while trying to train Ellie (who is doing great by the way with our obedience training) and also dealing with Cooper.