Thor and Loki making adjustments

The following entry was recreated from an email sent out 6/18/04.

We've been talking about it [getting another Bernese Mountain Dog] for several months now. We decided to send off an application early last week, and everything moved quickly from there.

Loki is adjusting to Thor. They haven't played together yet, but I think it'll happen any time. Loki did try to iniatiate play on Monday, but Thor was a little overwhelmed, I think. He's been shy around new people, but we think he's starting to come around and act more confident. We started puppy preschool Wednesday night. He's on the older side for the group, but he needs the play and socialization and confidence building.

Thor has had no accidents in the house at all, but up until last night we had yet to get a full nights sleep. Somewhere around 4 a.m. (give or take) he would start to make a lot of noise. Either he was lonely or hungry or needed to play. If we took him outside, he usually just laid in the grass. Some mornings we could get him back to bed. Other mornings Loki and I slept on the dining room floor getting occassionally trampled on by clumsy puppy feet.

Last night we tried a new strategy and let him have the run of our bedroom instead of confining him to a pen, and it worked perfectly. He slept soundly all night. Figures.

Loki went to Doggie Daycare Wednesday and they said that they thought she seemed a little depressed, or tired, or missing the puppy, not sure which. She stuck around the humans alot and didn't play nearly as much as she normally does. Hopefully, this will pass. We keep trying to make her feel special, and as the week goes on, she seems to be getting better. We're taking her back to class tonight for some refresher work and for some quality one-on-one time.