To some, a Doberman is too much dog. Abby loves Atlas, but wants a smaller companion dog. Meet Loki, our black and tan tri-color French bulldog.
We made plans to eventually add a Frenchie to our family roughly a year ago, during the dead middle of the pandemic. Since the Frenchie will be my wife’s baby, she did the primary research. The book that helped her prepare was “French Bulldogs – Owners Guide from Puppy to Old Age. Buying, Caring For, Grooming, Health, Training and Understanding Your Frenchie.” Our original color preferences were fawn or pied, but luck came to us and brought us a gorgeous jet black and tan tri-colored male Frenchie! He look like a tiny version of Atlas. We named our newest family member Loki, a fitting name for such a cute feisty little dog with attitude!
Puppy Pick-up Day
The decision to acquire a Frenchie so quickly was half impulsive and half luck. The breeder we’ve been talking to will not have the colors we want until well into 2022. While we maintain loyalty to our breeders, we were also determined to get a Frenchie puppy by the first quarter of 2022. This prompted us to explore other Frenchie breeders in the AKC Marketplace. After a communicating with a few SoCal Frenchie breeders, we found one in northeast Los Angeles county that has a black and tan tri-color French bulldog puppy available for immediate pickup. We talked to the breeder and asked questions, we exchanged text and Instagram messages and then confirmed our commitment to pick up the puppy the following day. And in less than 12 hours, we have a new member in our family.
The trip to pick up Loki wasn’t as far or drawn out as Atlas, so the puppy pick up day was less thought out. The drive was 79 miles from our location, roughly an hour and a half. Loki was 16 weeks / 4 months old when we picked him up, a little over a month older than Atlas on his puppy pick up day.
The good thing about this is Loki is fully vaccinated minus the rabies shot and is semi potty trained. He is trained to pee and defecate on a puppy pad, which we can work with. Loki will receive vaccination for rabies and canine influenza, then register him with our city just as we did with Atlas. Afterwards, we’ll enroll him at Dogtopia for doggy daycare and boarding as needed.
Introducing Loki to Atlas
Atlas is no stranger to other dogs. After all, he has spent many nights boarding at Dogtopia. He also spent just as many days there for doggy daycare, playing with many other dogs of all breed and size. Atlas took an immediate liking of Loki and a prolonged, slow introduction as recommended by many sites was not necessary.
Loki spooked Atlas out at first, but he remained very curious and inquisitive of him. He kept sniffing at him and did not show any sign of aggression at all. Loki’s initial reaction to Atlas is equally the same. He started sniffing Atlas and eventually began chasing after him!
Before we knew it, they were chasing each other by the end of the second day. On the third day, Atlas gradually let down his guard and allowed Loki to climb all over him. He didn’t mind Loki taking a nap next to him on his K9 Ballistic outdoor bed.
Training Loki, Our Black and Tan French Bulldog
Loki knows how to use doggy pads, but was never trained to use a crate. For his crate, we are using Atlas’ old puppy crate for now. Once he becomes accustomed to crate dwelling, we will upgrade his crate to a Revol collapsible dog crate by Diggs. From our experience with Atlas’ crate training, only a clean pee pad will occupy Loki’s crate tray. We will add a Snooze Crate Pad, also by Diggs, once Loki is about 6 months old or can hold his bladder for at least 6 hours.
Basic Commands Training
I’ve learned a lot when I first trained Atlas. The first order of business is to train Loki his name followed by the five essential and important commands: “come,” “sit”, “wait”, “leave it” and “drop it.” Since Loki is a puppy, his attention span will be extremely short and that means limiting training sessions to no more than 5 minutes each. After the first day of training, Loki responds to his name also understood the command “come.”
I immediately started Loki with potty training. This is a little tricky for Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays since I can only visit Loki during my lunch break. And by the time I get to him, he usually peed in his crate. Thursdays, Fridays and the weekend are no issues since either of us will be home to continue the training.
The First Few Nights
As expected, Loki cried for nearly 3 hours during the first night due to separation anxiety. He also peed and defecated in his crate at around 12 midnight. We tag teamed to clean the crate tray and gave Loki a shampoo bath.
The second night however, he only cried for twenty minutes before going to bed. We took him out twice in the middle of the night at 1:00 AM and at 3:00 AM. He defecated at 6:30 AM in the backyard and didn’t do so again until 5:30 PM.
Feeding Schedule
To stabilize Loki’s digestive system and encourage predictable bowel movements, we assigned him a strict feeding schedule. Loki eats at the same time as Atlas. His breakfast is at 8:00 AM and his dinner is at 5:30 PM. He is currently eating ¾ cup of Royal Canin French Bulldog Puppy Breed Specific dry dog food twice a day. We may eventually introduce raw canine diet to Loki but we will wait until he is a little older.
We will be adding another Doberman in 2023 to complete the pack. It will be another West Coast Doberman puppy, red and female this time around. We hope to acquire this new puppy in the fourth quarter of 2022 before relocating out of SoCal in 2023.