Let’s welcome Artemis, a red female European Doberman from West Coast Doberman, to the pack!
As indicated in the previous post, we placed a deposit for Artemis late April for a November or December pickup. That time has finally arrived Veteran’s Day last Friday, November 11, 2022. But first, a little bit about Artemis. She was born to Momba and Sophia’s litter on September 7, 2022. She’s only 9 weeks old, 3 weeks younger than Atlas at his pick up day, and her size definitely shows. She weighs about 11 lbs. and is visually scrawnier compared to Atlas when he was a puppy. However at such a young age, she is far advance than Atlas and Loki as far as intelligence goes. As of this writing, she hasn’t had an accident in her crate (except the first night at our home). And she can hold her bladder as long as 5 hours!
Pick Up and Return Trip
I drove up to San Jose mid-morning from Los Angeles on 11/11/2022 and picked her up the next morning. I brought Atlas with me so he can revisit the ranch where he called home during his first 12 weeks. The pick up process went smoothly and took about an hour. Tony, the owner of WCD and I chatted for about 45 minutes while he prepared to send off Artemis. The return trip took about 6 hours with two rest and gas stops. Unlike Atlas, Artemis urinated at both stops as soon as I took her out of her car seat. Even on the return trip, she was already holding her bladder for as long as she could.
The First Night and Separation Anxiety
We were anticipating Artemis to go through separation anxiety, it’s a given. But after going through it twice, with Atlas and Loki, we thought we were prepared. Essentially, we were, and we slept through the crying and whining all night. But we were not prepared to learn that amongst the three canines, her separation anxiety was by far the worst. She cried and whined the minute she arrived.
When we crated her, she vehemently and repeatedly chewed on the crate and whined and cried simultaneously. She did this all night and through the first half of the following day. Atlas only cried (he did not chew his crate) for about 7 hours straight, until he lost his voice. Loki cried for about 4-5 hours straight. Artemis? She cried for about 15 hours straight and without losing her voice. She did much better the second night and only cried for about 20-30 minutes top.
On the 3rd night, she did not cry at all and learned to like her crate. While she was crying during her first two nights with us, we noticed that Loki slept by her crate. It appears that he was trying to calm her down with his presence. Atlas, on the other hand, picks up his chew toy and drops it in front of her to welcome her. We trained our pack well and I am very proud of them.
Overnight Schedule
Unlike Atlas and Loki, I did not have to set overnight alarms to take Artemis out to urinate. I actually did for the second night, but quickly learned that it was not necessary. Artemis would whine and scratch her crate, asking to be let out. And because of this, she has had zero accidents since we brought her home (again, except for the first night).
First Night
In the first night, Artemis had separation anxiety non-stop for 15 hours straight and urinated in her crate twice overnight.
Second Night
From my observation, she had to go out approximately every 3 hours in the middle of the night.
Third Night
On the 3rd night, she slept through the entire night after her last visit to the backyard at 1:30 AM until I woke up at 6 AM to take her out. No overnight accident.
Fourth Night
Again, on the 4th night, Artemis slept through most of the night without any interruptions.
Fifth Night
On the fifth night, Artemis slept through the night with zero accidents. She slept at 11:30 PM all through the night without any anxiety and cried at 7:00 AM to ask to go outside.
Like Atlas, I’ll be keeping track of Artemis’ weekly growth rate as well as her visual appearance. I’ll be updating both the European Doberman Growth Chart and Doberman Lifespan Through Photos pages every Sunday for about 40 weeks.