Goodbye Cone of Shame!

Its been so long since I last updated! So sorry. First things first, Don got neutered on the 6th of January. We dropped him off at Guide Dogs the night before, and he had his operation early the next morning. Everything went well. He weighed in at 61.5 lbs! When we picked him up, he was on medicine that made him completely zonked out, and he didn't even seem to recognize me. He was wearing a huge cone (he's got a massive head) and the kennel staff said that he absolutely refused to walk with it on. This was a slight problem. So, I ended up taking his cone off, and having him walk to the car with just his gentle leader on.

When we got home he slept, and slept, and slept some more. He was petrified of moving with his cone on, and would stand in one spot and whine until it came off. He even refused to eat and drink with it on, which really surprised me. Thankfully, he had no interest in licking his suture, so he rarely had to wear it around the house. The big problem was sleeping with his cone of shame. The first night, he slept upstairs in his crate. But, at two in the morning, I was awakened by a whining, screaming puppy. When I got upstairs, I found him sitting up- in the exact same position I'd seen him in when I went to bed. He was so scared of moving with the cone on, that he hadn't figured out how to lay down. The poor guy! I managed to get him into a down position, and he immediately fell back asleep.

The next morning, I let him out of his crate and he flopped right down on the hardwood floor and slept for hours. I couldn't even wake him up to eat breakfast. That night, I let him sleep on his dog bed on tie-down and he seemed more comfortable. Whenever he woke up whining, I would help him move back into a down position, and he'd fall asleep. The next two weeks past very slowly like this, but they are now over! Hurray! Goodbye cone of shame!

Don taking a deep snooze the day my mom and I picked him up from Guide Dogs. I propped his head up on a soft pillow to make it a bit more comfortable for him.

Bedtime! Don was very tired for about a week after his surgery, as he was taking pills that would keep him calm. I must say, it was quite nice to have such a calm dog around the house. Staying at the kennels seemed to mess up his schedule though (he had an accident in the house the first night at home). Don didn't seem to mind that his goughnut was on his head- he's not a big fan of this toy. Entirely Pets was having a free shipping sale this weekend, so I bought him a bacon scented souper bone and one of the giant galileo bones. We will see if he likes them when they arrive!

Just another shot of Don sleeping. I love his giant face and muzzle. He still has the puppy wrinkles.

Don's been on lots of exciting outings this weekend as I try to get his schedule and house manners back on track after his surgery. I'll cover our more recent adventures in the next post.