Day 59 - (Tuesday - boring-est day ever):
This morning Finster woke me up at 638am (not too bad). It sucked because it was too late to go back to bed. We did the usual routine.

At work Finster slept for a while. At 10 I had a meeting and forgot to take Finster out. My meeting was for 2 hours so I was a little worried because he is used to going out at 1030. He did fine, no complaints.

We proceeded through the rest of the work day as planned. Seeing that this post is so boring, check this out, you must watch the video, it is amazing!

Today must be the day for videos, I put a Finster video up on Google videos here. Pretty funny stuff, he's trying to get some food out of a cement tube.

Day 58 - (Monday - No dog day):
Today Finster stayed at home with mom. Apparently the day went ok. Finster spent a good deal of the day sleeping. E reported that Finster was clingy and wanted to sit on her lap all day :) I forgot to report that I Sunday Finster had 2 accidents. Both of which I'm going to chalk up to it being 5 degrees outside. Finster is not a fan of going outside. The first time Finster peed right at the door.

For lunch I went to UofR to take some shots for EA, I posted my favorite for the day. The UofR campus is stunning, and the clouds today were nice and puffy, perfect for photography.

When I got home I played with Finster until dinner, then worked on store stuff in the basement with the puppy. For dinner Finster rang the bell to go out, so I let him out to pee. Then 5 minutes later he rang again. I ignored this one thinking "wtc he just went out!". Well he went pee in the basement because I didn't let him out. At around 9 I came up and edited the EA pictures for submission. At 10pm I went back down and hung out with the dog until 11 when I put him to bed.

Day 57 - (Sunday One small step for Finster, one huge leap for dogkind):
Sunday we stayed home and worked for most of the day. I woke up (to silence) at around 7 and let Finster out, then I went back to bed, as did Finster, until 9. Then I got up and fed and played with him for a while. At around 10 or 11 I started working on my paper. I finished this up and submitted it around lunch. Finster is starting to learn his upstairs limitations. He now comes up to the top of the stairs and watches us. Occasionally, if we aren't watching he will run into the kitchen/livingroom. He knows he isn't supposed to so it's always with his tail between his legs. 90% of the time he just stands on the top step watching, it's pretty cute.

The afternoon was spent with E and I cleaning out the mess that is our junkroom. All the while Finster slept. He woke up around 5 and E and I played with him a bunch. We played some hide-n-seek, which he enjoys, probably because he gets food out of the deal. For dinner Finster watched us eat from the top step of the basement stairs, such a good doggy. We started giving him some carrots which he greatly enjoys!

After dinner Finster went back down stairs and slept for about 2 hours while I played some WOW and E read some. At around 930 I went to check on Finster and he was sitting patiently at the top of the stairs ;) E and I went back down to play with him until 10pm.

At 10 we went back up to watch some Seinfeld, Finster stayed in the basement playing for like 4 minutes and then came up the stairs again to the top. He couldn't see us, but he just sat there at the top of the stairs. Before we started the show I had the bright idea to put Finster in the entry way on the linoleum and see if he would stay there. We don't want him upstairs on the carpet because he drips still and the carpet would quickly become a smelly urine rag and because E has a strong dislike of dog hair. So, on the entry way linoleum he went with a big towel to lay on and a bone to chew on. After I carried him to the linoleum and had him sit/stay he ventured to the carpet once, and I replaced him then he settled down and chewed. After about 10 minutes he tried again by putting his two paws on the carpet. I said "Finster" and he backed up so that he wasn't touching the carpet! Amazing! We made it through 2 Seinfelds = 1 hour with Finster staying on the entry way. Granted he was entertained by his bone, but I think he knew what the deal was. Such a good dog!

What a big head, probably from all the compliments :) 

Finster's got a big ole nose, oh ya! 

Man, it doesn't look like they are joking around. No animals were harmed in the making of this photograph. 

Day 56 - (Saturday - Houdini dog):
WOOOT! Finster slept through the night. I woke up at 7am to let him out to pee. He wasn't barking, I am just used to this schedule I guess. When I went down there Finster was lying in the kitty bed but the odd thing was the side door to his crate was wide open. I don't just mean cracked, I mean it was open by 2 feet. The silly dog didn't get out and terrorize the basement, or go upstairs and eat the furniture, no, laid in his crate like a good magician :) After I let him out I went back to bed for an hour or so. Then I got up and played with him as usual. At 11 I had to go to Monroe for new tires and a NYS inspection. I took Finster with me because I wanted to tire him out. The plan for the day was to leave him in the car between 1pm and 3pm so I wanted to make sure he was dead tired during this time. While the car was being services I took him for about a 3 mile walk from Monroe to the Oatka creek near the library. When we got back to Monroe an hour later the car still wasn't ready so I took Finster inside to wait. He was fine, I found some crap in my pocket for him to play with/destroy. After about 30 minutes of waiting /playing Finster went over to the entrance rug and laid down, I guess me tiring him out worked :). When my car was done I took Finster out to the car and he fell asleep immediately.

He slept until 330 straight through. At 330 he was still sleeping but I woke him up to let him pee and to introduce him to some of Erica's friends at the store.

After the store we went to my sister's to visit with my parents, and Finster's birthing human parents, Steve -n- Lisa. They both admitted that Finster was the greatest dog that they had ever known, and quite possibly the greatest dog ever born. They raved about how smart and handsome he is and how they can barely go on without him in their house; they miss him so much that it breaks my heart. The world really isn't fair!

Finster and Cocoa exhausted themselves completely, and Finster got a good deal of attention from the nieces, nephew and cousins. I think he got 76 sit/lay down/roll over commands within a 10 second period after I gave the kids some dog food :)

Then we went to Finster's grandma and grandpa Caldwells. Finster slept, as usual at their house. Then home and to bed again. I put the kitty bed in there with him again tonight.

Day 55 - (Friday - tgif)
This morning Finster woke me up at 515am, that's getting a bit old. I took him out to pee and then back in. He started barking again at 615am. This one got ignored, I knew he didn't have to pee so I called his bluff. Man, owning a dog is such a mind game, it's almost like being married :) He barked for like 10 minutes and then calmed down. He didn't bark again for the rest of the morning. I got up at 7 and played like usual. The "get your Frisbee" command didn't work too well this morning. He would get it only if I tied a steak to the back of the Frisbee and stood over it with a big neon arrow pointing at it. He attempted again to catch the Frisbee again, but seeing that he is as agile as a hippo, this proved fruitless. It, again, amounted to him blocking the airborne Frisbee with his head/face area, good try though. The ride in is always a competition with sleep. Finster tends to fall asleep half way through the 30 minute ride in to work. I try to keep him awake so he sleeps well at work. So just when he is about to fall asleep I whip out a nugget of dog food and get him to stand up again. Eventually he gets bored of this and just tries to get the food laying down. I usually lose the battle as we are pulling into work; he gets pretty upset when I wake him up to go in. :)

The lunch walk was cool, Finster, Bill, CA and I went to Walmart and then Bill Greys. Finster and I stayed outside during the Walmart portion; we walked around the parking lot a bunch. We also practiced sitting near the entrance. He did great. He sat there and watched people walk by, he was good for the people that ignored him, but if someone said, "ahh look at the puppy" he started going nuts. All-in-all the Walmart experiment went pretty well.

The afternoon went pretty smoothly, and for the evening we went to Bill's house for the baby shower that E missed. This was an interesting experience, Finster loved exploring, eating the bird treats on the floor (take note), and terrorizing the conure, Kiwi. Finster loves playing with Bill, mainly because Bill gives him lots of attention and plays rough with him. Finster and Kiwi first met with Finster in his crate. Kiwi was a little nervous, which is to be expected. Nothing too exciting happened. Then we let Finster out of the crate and we tried to introduce them by holding on to Finster and Bill put Kiwi near Finster. Finster always got excited and made Kiwi fly, which caused Finster to chase him. We did this a few times but Finster just got too excited, I got too nervous, and I think Kiwi thought we were nuts. I didn't want a bird casualty on my hands. After Bill and I played with Finster for a while I put him in his crate to settle down. After about an hour or so of being in there Finster tossed his dinner. This pretty much ended the night. I cleaned out his crate and we left a little bit after that.

I put Finster in his crate when we got home and decided to put in the kitty bed for him to sleep on thinking he might sleep through the night.

Finster and Cocoa in action! 

Day 54 - Thursday (Woot sleep):
This morning Finster slept until 615am! Getting closer to 7am. I truly think that he is just barking because he has to pee really bad, not because he wants to get out of his crate. My reasoning is because after I take him out to pee I put him right back in his crate (no playing is allowed at this hour) he just goes back to sleep. I would think if he was barking to get out of his crate he would continue barking after I re-crate him. This morning I did another sit/stay while tossing food on the floor! He stayed until I told him to come, he didn't even flinch at the food :) We also did a 1/2 roll over. He gets so excited when I tell him to roll over, it cracks me up, he barks and bites at my rotating finger as I give him the roll over signal.

For lunch Finster and I went to the park and he got to play with a lab/boxer mix. :) He loved it and got all wet and muddy. Oscar wasn't being submissive like Cocoa was but he wasn't super aggressive either. They just jumped and bit each other for about 20 minutes while I talked to the owner. Good times, now Finster is tired out and sleeping.

After work I stopped by Ames St. bridge again to get some (forbidden) night shots again. I finally found a good vantage point and I think I got some decent shots finally. Finster did his job by sitting patiently in the car. When we got home we played until dinner. I started teaching him to "get his Frisbee" and he caught on a little. He got it a few times on his own, but must of the time he only knew what I wanted him to get if I was standing over the Frisbee and kicking it lightly. Also, he made a few attempts at catching the Frisbee. To the untrained eye it probably looked more like him jumping up and running his head into the Frisbee, but to me it looked like he was trying to catch it. After dinner E and I went grocery shopping :(. When we got home E and I played with Finster a bit more. Then he settled down and slept on E's lap; ahh the 40lbs lap dog, soon to be the 100lbs lap dog.

Day 53 - Wednesday (Work work):
Up again at 545am with the barking. Fast forward to work, the 1030 walk got postponed until 11 because someone slept in. Bill and Chris went with us on our lunch walk, which was cool. He did decent with the loose leash walking, better than he used to with guests. We also had a visitor join us at the 4pm walk. It was a nice day out so I guess some peeps wanted to get outside. After work we went to Plymouth ave. to do some photography and then to the store to visit with Erica (open until 8). Then home at 9ish to do some more paperwork for the store. I finally finished with a 2 month backlog of book invoices, arg. When I was done with that I went to the basement to watch the dog whisperer with Finster. Not a very eventful day. Finster hasn't had an indoor accident in quite some time now, so I'd say he is completely housebroken.

Day 52 - Tuesday (Back to work):
Finster woke up barking again at 545am to go pee. The work day was pretty uneventful. We went according to the schedule. At 330 Ron, one of my co-workers offered to babysit for a while. He took Finster over to his office. He gave me a call about 3 minutes into the affair and told me to get over there quick. Finster found a little black plastic cap and had it in his mouth and Ron didn't know how to get it out. I fished it out and then took him back to his crate :) Ron had had enough, he said it was worse than a kid. Thank God for crate training! At 530 I played with Finster a bit in my office. At around 6 we went for a walk around the office park. I was meeting Erica at 7 for some dinner so I wanted to tire Finster out so he would sleep in the car while we were eating. We went down to the Crystal Barn plaza and there was a kids karate class going on. It was funny, Finster just sat and watched them for about 5 minutes. For a while he was pulling on the leash to try to get at them through the glass somehow but eventually he calmed down. He loves people, especially kids. The evening sucked! When Erica got home we did paperwork for the store for most of the night and Finster sat patiently in the basement :( such a good dog.

Day 51 - Monday (Day off for President's day):
Today was another suck of a day. I spent the morning finishing up my paper, I can't wait until this BS is over. We had a meeting with our accountant from 330-430 so Finster was in his crate from around 3-6pm. Erica, me and Finster played a ton when we got home. We played pickle in the middle with him. He got so worked up he was barking at his ball when he couldn't get it :) Funny stuff. Then Erica and I watched some Dog Whisperer, what a cool show! That guy has some control over dogs, it's amazing! I've started incorporating some of his techniques with Finster. For example when Finster grabs something he isn't supposed to have I stand over him in a dominant position, which, amazingly makes him drop it. This shows him that I am the dominant one. Interestingly enough, since I've starting being more dominant he has stopped humping me :) I'm not sure if I have mentioned this yet, but Finster has learned "roll over" now too. He doesn't make it all the way over, only to his back, but that's just a matter of time. It's funny because when I tell him to roll over (when he's in a lay position) he gets excited and barks at my hand signal :0 Another note, over the weekend I put Finster on his carpet and had him sit/stay while I went upstairs and took some chicken out of the freezer! He was still sitting when I came back, so cool!

Today I looked up Kidney failure on the internet. If that is what is causing the dripping problem the outlook isn't good. The options are kidney transplant, or euthanasia! He has to go back at the start of March for blood tests. His dripping problem is still there :( Luckily he hasn't shown any other signs that would indicate kidney failure (vomiting, lack of appetite, etc). The symptoms that do match are excess drinking of water and excess production of urine. Finster always acts like he is starving for water, which might be the case seeing that he only gets 1 liter a day (vets orders). On the plus side Finster has fattened right up. I think he is about the perfect weight now (40lbs!) you can still see the outline of his ribs, but they don't stick out like they used to. I'm giving him 4 cups of food a day now.

Day 50 - Sunday (Going home):
Fun day. We went home at around noon. We first went to my in-laws where Finster sat in the basement for about 3 hours with the occasional walk and run outside. Then at 4 we went to my sister's house to play with Finster's aunt Cocoa. This went great! Cocoa is such a good lab. She is probably 70 lbs and she plays wonderfully with Finster. They tired themselves out so bad they could barely stand. Cocoa spent most of her time on her back while they bit at each other. It was so funny, I love watching them play. After an hour or so of playing we went to my parents. Finster was so exhausted at this point he didn't really play much with Tilly and Fred, which I think was fine by them. They haven't warmed to Finster yet. Fred is very aggressive towards him and Tilly just runs from him. They are much better outside, Fred and Tilly run and Finster tries catching them. Sunday night Finster pretty much slept all night, I love going to see Cocoa :)

Day 49 - Saturday (Home and working on paper):
Saturday sucked... Finster, naturally, wakes up at the same time as on a weekday so getting up "early" sucks. He is sleeping around 7 hours now before he barks to go out. I'll probably let him get away with it for a little bit longer until I know his bladder can hold it longer. I had 10/15 pages done on my paper, so I sat in the basement with Finster and wrote the whole day. I ended up with 16 pages and I still wasn't done writing everything. At around 430 my sis-in-law came over with her pooch Sparky. The last Finster/Sparky meeting didn't go down so well, so I was hoping this one would. Finster started out a little standoffish and remained that way for most of the night. He occaisonally barked and tried playing with Sparks but Spark was having very little of it. They did run together a bit outside, and they would take treats in the sitting position for as long as my food held out. While I was out getting pizza Sparky made Finster cry like a little baby again, the report was that Finster actually had tears in his eyes :). It will be interesting to see what happens when Finster is 100lbs. My guess is he will still be a baby but we will see. Sparky ended up in the crate and Finster on his runner (he stayed on the opposite side of the room) while we ate dinner/chatted. The rest of the evening was uneventful.

Day 48 - Friday (Fun work day):
Friday was a pretty cool day. We had product day at work so we had webcast presentations pretty much all day. We also go some free Dino BBQ for lunch which always makes me happy. Finster got to attend his first conference call meeting in our conference room with like 8 other people. Boy did he get excited, so many people. I kept him on his leash of course and held him right next to me so he wasn't terrorizing the countryside. He calmed down after about 5 minutes of trying to get attention. The meeting was a bust anyways, someone on the conference call put it on hold so we got this annoying ringing for the whole thing. It was 30 minutes of trying to kick the person off who had us on hold. The rest of the day was a pretty typical work day. After work I wanted to get some photography done. The weather was decent all day, nice puffy white clouds with nice blue sky. The weather held until I got out of the car at the bridge I was assigned to. Then the snow and grey clouds rolled in as I put it in park, I guess I'm just destined to wait until spring.

Day 47 - Thursday (Work as usual):
Today was about as typical of a day as you can get. Finster slept straight through again. Then played, went to work, took the 1030 15 minute walk. At 1230 we took at 45 minute walk, and at 330 took another 15 minute. Finster did great as usual on his leash. On our 330 walk we met another fan in a different office. It's funny how many people watch you when you walk around with a little puppy :). Finster is still dripping as much as before, so there must be a problem. It's a big pain because he continually gets it in his fur and I'm not sure if I should give him a bath more often or not. I've read that you should only bathe labs once a month at the most or they will lose certain oils in their skin which will cause dry skin and flaking. It's tough because the lab book I've read and all the web sites I've been to all assume a healthy dog.

Day 46 - Wednesday (Work Work):
This morning was great! Last night I put his little sleeper in his crate and shortened his crate so it was smaller. He slept longer than I did. Straight through until I came downstairs! Today was nothing special. Schedule as usual. The morning went by without a hitch. Finster is great in the car now. He either looks out the window or sleeps. For lunch Finster just got a 10 minute walk, on the walk an old guy stopped his car (same old guy as about a month ago) and got out and petted Finster. This guy also has a black lab at home, his lab is an 80 pounder and the guy said mines going to be a 100 pounder because of his ginormous paws, woot. After the walk I went and did some photography. I shot the Ames street bridge for EA for about 25 minutes. I'm not happy with any of them. The day was kind of dreary and the surroundings suck. The grass is brown, the snow (what's left of it) is dirty and the buildings around the bridge are run down. The best thing for that bridge is to shoot it at night to hide all the ugly crap. I should go shoot it at like 3 am so I can get in the median without getting hit, that's about the only interesting way to shoot it.
For the 330pm walk Ron and Chris joined us. In front of one of the buildings in our office park a lady came out and started telling me how their office watches me and Finster run through the woods (their office is adjacent to the woods) and they he is a good boy. (chick magnet?) Then she called 2 other ladies out to see him. Finster of course went nuts and tried jumping all over them. Maybe today I'll put forth an effort to stop the madness.
During the evening I had to do some laundry in the basement. I let Finster run the basement while I did laundry. Of course he had his nose in the clothes and picked up a sock or two. Then I got the idea of putting some of his training to use. I pulled him off to the side, about 5 feet from the pile of clothes I was going through and told him to sit/stay. Wouldn't you know, the little guy stayed until I went back to him. Holy crap, I couldn't believe it actually worked while I was doing something interesting (to him at least). This is how I did most of the laundry with Finster off to the side sitting and watching me, what a good little boy. The rest of the evening was uneventful.

Day 45 - Tuesday (Back to work):
Last night I went to bed early, around 10:45 so I could grab an 8 hour night for the first time since I got the dog. He didn't wake me up at all until it was time to get up at 645. I woke up to his barking and went down to let him out. The barking was a result of him peeing all over his crate, argg. He tried I guess. It's so weird, about 3 weeks ago he made it through the night for a week or 2 with no problems. Now he either wakes me up at 4 to go out, or pees in his crate, what gives? I have his crate wide open again, maybe I should shorten it again. I think part of the problem is that he is still dripping so he probably smells urine and doesn't mind peeing in his crate. Although, he seems to mind because he barks his head off after he does it. After the clean up the morning was fine. He actually was good when I put him on his runner for breakfast/shower. He just laid down on his rug and napped.
Finster's lunch walk was phenomenal. He has got the loose leash walking down. He only pulled once the whole time when he saw someone walking towards him. The rest of the time he was right by my side! So cool. He still goes nuts when people give him attention. He would jump all over them if I'd let him. That's one annoying habit that needs to be addressed asap. I need to get to that before he becomes 100lbs :)

Day 44 - Monday (1/2 day at work - sit in the car):
This morning he woke me up at 4am again, but he held it until I got him outside, phew.
Today we took a 1/2 day at work. We had meetings all afternoon for the store. I left work at 1230 and took Finster to the park. We went down the twisty slide together :) The first time Finster was cool and jumped right on. The 2nd time he had reservations and the 3rd time I had to beg him to come down with me. It was pretty funny watching him hold on for dear life. Finster was in the car from 130-3pm then out for a little 5 minute pee, and then back in the car for our 2nd meeting from 4-5. He did great in the car, no problems at all, probably slept most of the time. Then we went home and had our usual evening. He can pull off an around the world lay/stay now. That's where I tell him to lay/stay and then walk all the way around the basement back to him.

Day 43 - Sunday (Bad habits and Going home):
Arrg, Finster woke me up at 5am again this morning. I would let him sit there and bark but I would rather get up than have to clean his crate. He went pee and such and then I went back to bed. He woke me up again at 730 barking so I let him out again. He didn't pee as much this time so I think he just wanted to get out, I should have called his bluff. At 830 he started barking again and I just let him this time, there was no way he had to go out again. I got up around 9 after he stopped barking. I let him out and then put him on the runner while I ate breakfast. Then I played with him a bunch. He will get his ball now on the "Get your ball" command, he actually searches for one now. We also did a "Leave it" lesson. I put 3 of his toys on the floor and 3 things he isn't supposed to have, and put his leash on him. When he went for something of his he got a treat, when he went for something that wasn't he got a leash correction. He had the toughest time with his favorite thing, my wife's glove. After about 10 minutes of me holding him back from the glove he finally got it. Whether it will stick or not, I don't know.

Day 42 - (Saturday - home):


Finster's first typed words in dvorak 1,23 :) he must be a math kind of dog. Today was a pretty normal Saturday. We pretty much just hung out all day. Finster was still pretty tired from playing with Rosco yesterday, so he slept from 1230-330 and I got to write a decent chunk of my paper. Finster is starting to look for his ball on command now. Still no confirmed luck on the "roll over" command.

Day 41 - (Friday - with mom again):
Finster had some problems at like 5am. He woke me up barking because he pee'd in his crate again. Dunno what the problem is, I guess he just had some extra pee left the night before. So, I took out the plastic liner and just put him on the concrete floor. He was good at 7 during our morning play time. I've started doing Lay/Stay with him and he has that pimped. It was pretty easy because he was already so good with Sit/Stay. Also, I started doing "Roll-Over". He did it once out of about 5, but that was it. He will get that soon no doubt. He also gets his ball now on command. He won't seek it out yet, I have to be standing over it pretty much before he realizes what I want.

Apparently, the day at the store went well, this was the comment of the day:
17:03:16) e: can i just tell you that this dog has been SO GOOD today
(17:03:27) buffyblice: good, that makes me happy
(17:03:32) e: hes such a good dog
(17:03:33) e: my god
(17:03:35) buffyblice: i know
That's about the best compliment he can get from a tough critic :)

Friday night we went to a friends house who have a 9 month old beagle. Finster was slightly bigger than Rosco, and was certainly the dominant male. Rosco got a couple of licks in but overall he had his tail between his legs, poor little guy. It was a barkfest all night. Most of the time they stood within 3 feet of each other and just barked. It was somewhat amusing, somewhat annoying after 5 minutes of it. They played much better outside because Rosco is faster than Finster so he could get away from him. Inside Finster kept cornering Rosco and then they would just bark at each other. Finster didn't do so well at the house training, he pee'd in their house 3 times! I guess it didn't help that he cleaned up Rosco's water as soon as he got there. It was a pretty good night overall, they got some quality playing in.

Other interests besides my baby Finster :) My front tripod leg gave out after this shot and my camera nose dived to the pavement. Luckily I only broke the kit lens which can be had for a mere 70$ on ebay. I'll probably just re-buy it I guess.

Slinky Malinki - this is just ridiculous. 

Day 40 - (Thursday - with mom again):
Today I had to leave Finster with mom due to some work obligations. This morning went well, I am starting to teach Finster a new trick. I want him to get a ball when I say "Get your ball". He hasn't gotten it yet, but it shouldn't be too hard to teach him. He still doesn't lay down on the cement, only on his carpet; it's pretty funny.

Day 39 - (Wednesday - work):
Maybe that dripping problem isn't in check. There were no drips this morning, but last night when he was sleeping on the beanbag chair (his favorite) there was some definate leakage. Also, this morning on the way in to work there was some too. :( The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Finster did pretty well loose leash walking. I'm getting more strict with it. If he pulls once I tell him to heel, and if he doesn't loosen the leash I stop for 3 seconds, turn around snap the leash and tell him to heel. Then make a 180 turn to go back in the same direction. This seems to work pretty well, he gets annoyed with it but he will learn that the fastest way to get somewhere is to walk slow with me. He is laying down on command consistantly now.

Action packed! 

How could you not love a face like this? 

The quintessential black lab in fall shot! 

Some more pics, Finster simply looking cute. 

Day 38 - (Tuesday - work):
Woot, I finally got some pictures up. Look down further, I started putting them in with the previous posts but that got to time consuming so I'm just going to lazily throw them in when I get around to it. Nothing really to report this morning, Finster made it all the way through the night with no potty issues. I actually think his dripping problem might be clearing up. He doesn't seem to have as much of a mess in his crate in the morning, or after he is sleeping. Perhaps it is the water diet that he is on. He generally acts like he is starving for water though; diving into mud puddles, licking up every puddle of melted snow in the basement, grabbing mouthfuls of snow while outside, etc. He seems to be fattening up too, his ribs are now barely visible; I have him eating about 4 1/2 cups of food, plus a few treats and an occational bone. This is up from the 1 3/4 cups of food recommended by Purina One bag, nice work stupid bag.
The morning and lunch walk were fantastic. He barely pulled at all, if anything I pulled him most of the time because he stopped to pee. The afternoon walk sucked however. He kept pulling to the side to get to the snow. This water diet sucks for him I think, he has resorted to eating as much snow as possible. He is impossible to stop from eating snow!
In the evening Finster had another accident. I think this ones on me though, I think he went to the door but I wasn't paying attention; I was messing with some wedding photos that I took. On the positive side FINSTER LEARNED "LAY DOWN" FINALLY!!! Woot, he now lays on command! He pretty much only does it on his carpet remnant, the cement is too hard and cold for that baby; but he does lay every time now. I'm such a proud papa. What to teach him next, any recommendations?

Finster staring at passers-by 

Finster loves the big sticks, the bigger the better :) 

Mmm, sticks. 

On the prowl. 

Finster at work on our lunch walk. 

Finster at work, drinking before the lunch workout. 

Day 37 (Monday - home with mom):
Today is my day away from Finster. The morning is as usual. He had an accident this morning that was kind of funny. After his first pee of the day (took like 20 seconds) I took him inside to play, it was too cold out for us to play outside this morning. Then Finster went to the door to go out and I opened it and went out and up 2/7 steps. Finster then just pee'd in the basement :) apparently he couldn't make it up the stairs. He won't start going up the stairs until I'm about 1/2 way up, I guess that's good because it shows that I am the leader, but it's annoying in that I have to walk up 1/2 way then when he comes out I have to go back down to shut the door.

Day 36 (Sunday - Church/school work):
Sunday was a fairly typical Sunday. We woke up and played with Finster until 1045am when we went to Church. Finster got crated from 1045 until 2pm, which went fine. Then I took him out and played with him for about an hour. Then just let him run the basement while I started on my 15 page paper. I ended up putting him on his runner and then his crate so I wasn't interrupted so often by checking what he was up to. I pounded out 5 pages by the time Erica got home from her trade show at around 5pm. Then we played with Finster for a while longer. I started putting food under tupperware dishes. He figured out how to flip them in about 30 seconds, so now he is always checking under them for food. There were no accidents today, he went to the door to go out about 20 times, and no crate accidents. Finster now goes up the stairs and tries to get upstairs. He has managed to make it up and through the door a few times. We have to keep that door shut now :) When we brought Finster home we bought him a little floor mat/carpet for him to sit on in the basement. He loves sitting on it to chew on stuff. In the past month he has also chewed on it quite a bit, it's all rags now. It wasn't a good choice to let him chew on the carpet because now he thinks that all carpet is fair game for chewing. To counteract this I have given him a big carpet remnant from our carpet upstairs. He loves getting on it but now whenever he chews on it I divert his attention and/or tell him now. I had to resort to spraying him with the water bottle once to get him to stop. This should be an interest experiment :).

Day 35 (Saturday - Wedding):
Saturday was an unusual Saturday. My Grandma got married so I was at the wedding for most of the day. I was the photographer :). I dropped Finster off at my sister's house and crated him from 11-2pm then took him out for a 5 minute walk and then re-crated until after the reception at around 430pm. All went well, no accidents, but he sure was happy to pee at 430. Then we drove home and he got to play for the rest of the night. He did have one accident in our basement, but went to the door to go out at least 10 times, so he almost has it.

Day 34 (Friday - WTS DOG PST):
Last night I set 3 alarms on my watch to wake up at 3am to let Finster out, I slept through all 3 of them. At 4am I woke up to the Finster alarm (him barking). I went downstairs and sure enough, he had pooped and peed in his crate, wtc. Thursday night I fed him his food/water at 7pm and didn't let him drink any more after that. I took him poop/pee at 11pm before I went to bed. How did he manage more pooh/pee only 5 hours later! This dog is magical. So, I cleaned his crate out and put him back in. At 7am he was barking again and I feared the worst, but luckily he just wanted out. My watch alarm goes off at 6:51am to wake up for the day. I usually snooze it a few times. I think Finster hears the alarm and starts barking. I think he heard the alarms I set for myself around 3. On the ride into work Finster started laying down on the command "Down". He seems to only do it when we are in the car though. I'll try again tonight when we get home. Nope, no dice. He doesn't lay down when at home/outside the car. After work Erica and I went straight home for my Grandma's wedding rehersal. After the rehersal we went back to my sister's house and let Finster play with his aunt Cocoa (Chocolate Lab). At first my brother in-law just held Cocoa while Finster jumped around her and barked. Then the let Cocoa go and play with Finster. Cocoa is probably 80lbs. to Finster's 27lbs. They played really well together. A few times Cocoa got excited and jumped on Finster but most of the time Cocoa was on her back just letting Finster bite at her. It was so cute! I loved watching them go at it. Needless to say Finster slept well that night :).

Day 33 (Thursday - work):
This morning I woke up at 7 to play with Finster and noticed that he pooped and peed in his crate :(. Looks like I'm going to have to get up in the middle of the night again to take him out. A couple possibilities are that I fed and watered him too late (around 830, went to bed at 11). I think he pooped at 7pm and again at 9pm so I figured he was good for the night. So I had to wash up his crate and use the wet wipes to wash him off. I had a Dr. appointment at 845am so he stayed in the car for that. On the way in I noticed that he dripped all over his leg, thank goodness for the pee pad that I have in my car, and the puppy wet wipes. Today for lunch I went to U of R for some photography. It was a beautiful day out for February. I had the sunroof open and was walking around with just a long sleeve shirt on. Finster did pretty good as my photography sidekick. He attracted a bit too much attention though :). There were so many people stopping us to pet him, he was eating it up. He seems to be dripping more in his crate now than ever before. I have to wipe him down now every time he gets out and there is always a little puddle a few drops deep while he is sleeping. I found this on the net and it seems to be Finster's symptoms.

Work stuff: Started playing with NAnt and NDoc, interesting stuff.

Day 32 (Wednesday - work/vet):
Today had a typical start. Up at 7 to play for 30 min, then to work. Finster retrieved across the yard again this morning, it's great! The morning was uneventful except for 1 boredom bark and his hilarious snoring while sleeping. He also has a funny habit of barking in his sleep. It's quiet so it's really funny. It sounds like he's barking with his mouth closed; well I guess he is. On our lunch walk today Finster did pretty good loose leash walking with one exception. He has a problem when we get in front of our office he starts pulling like crazy to get it. It's retarded and annoying because then it takes 10 minutes to go 100 yards. Whenever he pulls I have to stop him, turn him around and then back around again in attempts to stop him from pulling/leading.
The vet appointment was ok, Finster gained 10 lbs in 4 weeks, he is up to 27lbs. George said that it's not a urinary tract infection, which is unfortunate because the alternative is kidney malfunction, or he might be getting too much water. The vet said to give him more food, from 3 cups a day to 3 3/4 cups a day and only 1 liter of water a day. He said that the water seems to be passing right through him and the urine's specific gravity is too high (or too low, can't remember). I started giving Finster the Purina One Large dog breed with his original Development and growth.

Day 31 (Tuesday - back to work):
Finster has developed an annoying habit since I went on my trip. Now he barks in his crate if no one is in the basement with him. I'm not sure how/why this happened. It's difficult to correct because when I am ready for work I can't wait for him to stop barking to leave and when I go down there to get him out he stops barking, and probably thinks that the barking is working. Finster is now retrieving stuff from across the yard. Before he would only retrieve stuff in the basement, or outside if a ball was thrown only a few feet away. Now I can throw balls the length of the yard (about 300 feet) and he will retrieve them :). Today was a pretty typical work day. Afterwards we went to Petsmart and Finster got to go in for the first time. He loved it in there, he got to sniff everything and he got attention from most of the people in the store. He was in his glory.

Day 30 (Monday - day at Grandma's):
Today Erica and I went to Toronto for the day for a Trade Show. We dropped Finster off at my parents for the day. This seems to have went well. There weren't any complaints from my parents. My mom said the Finster barked in his crate when no one was in sight though, so I guess it wasn't a complete success. When we got back Finster was outside with my pa walking around. He was allowed to run around the house and play with Tilly and Fred. That night after we got him home he started throwing up. My dad said that he got into some cat food. He tossed his cookies 3 times and finally started feeling better at around 2am. This sucked! I stayed up with him until he went to sleep incase he puked (funny word) again in his crate.

Day 26-29 Thurs-Sun(Gone to Vermont Snowboarding):
This time away seems to have been a success. Erica and Finster got alone pretty good and Finster was good at the store most of the time, woot. There were a few peeing in the crate incidinces though, and some barking problems. The trip was great, we did lots of boarding and chillin. I won 35$ in poker, and pulled off a 180 off a jump before we left. On Sunday when I got back Finster was sleeping on the sabres beanbag chair. He woke up but could care less that I was home :(. Erica on the other hand was very happy to see me. I'm not sure if she missed me, or if she was sick of babysitting Finster.

Here are some pictures from the trip:
First day, cold!!
MMM food
Me on left
On my knees
Waiting for the peeps
The rest of the crew