When your almost twelve year old daughter begs you, ruthlessly, about having her own puppy and you repeatedly tell her NO WAY IN HELL and then eventually cave in, make sure you don't get her a
puppy puppy.
Get a dog with a little age under it's belt.
There are plenty of people out there who want puppies because they are all cute. But trust me, you will be glad you got one a little older... One that is more like six months old and less three months old.
Why? Well because it is much easier.
I
was going to type make sure the dog can actually hear you...
I was but I don't want to create any prejudice against getting a deaf dog.
Even if you get one unknowingly.
Why? Because so far having a deaf dog is really no different than having one that can hear.
I am not kidding.
Except, well, it can't hear you.
I actually think that he is a more mellow puppy dog than any of the other dogs at his age.
And people, this doggie is
not mellow.
Not even a little.
He is a bouncer off-er of the walls, a ball of the energy, a runner, a chaser, a picker, a grinner, a lover and a sinner, he plays his music in the suuuuuunnnnn, a joker and a smoker and a midnight toker, he sure don't want to hurt no ooooonnnne... ok, well not really all of those things but don't you just love that song?
What I'm trying to say is that Blue Moose?
Has spunk, pizzazz and moxie darn it.
But more importantly, this little... er big ball of energy has a really sweet heart.
He is a good dog.
He doesn't have shit for manners yet nor does he obey hand signal commands and he still cries when he gets put to bed at night and he tears shit up in the yard, but he's a sweetie pie.
And I am pretty glad we got him because we will love him and teach him and appreciate him.
Even if he can't hear it.
Labels: Blue Moose
So apparently the lady who sent me the picture of the puppy and I had a misunderstanding on the whole age thing...
I heard "three months" and saw the picture and thought I was getting a puppy. Apparently she had already owned the dog for three months and she said she got him when he was three months old which would make him more like six months old.
His age doesn't bother me. In fact, I wanted a dog that was old enough to hold his pee from bedtime until morning. I consider that particular ability to be a good one.
I was a little concerned about how it would all fly once I got the little dude home.
When I went to meet the person who was getting rid of him, it was... well, interesting covers it. She was very obviously one of those people who gets puppy for her kids and when the puppy stops being cute and starts needing to be trained, it's too much work. She openly admitted to a few things that solidified to me that I had made a good choice.
She had moved from a house where she had a back yard to an apartment. This isn't to say that I think that that people who live in apartments shouldn't have dogs. Lots of people who live in apartments are good dog owners. This chic wasn't.
Once she moved into the apartment, the doggie pretty much lived in the kennel. When they were gone, he was crated. At night, he was crated.
She did say she walked him twice a day.
The last thing that really killed me was when she told me "his muzzle is in the bag"... I was like what? He has a muzzle?
She then went on to explain that whenever she did let him out of the kennel in the apartment, she kept him muzzled so he wouldn't chew on things.
Wow. Yeah because puppies shouldn't be allowed to have anything to chew on.
He was absolutely a rude little thing when I arrived, all excited and jumping up on me. And for someone who is being walked twice a day, he has no idea how to behave on a leash. But he is a sweet boy. And just in the hour he spent in the car with me, I already had him obeying my "NO" when he started trying to chew on stuff in the backseat. I redirected him by giving him a bone and he was perfectly content with that. He just wants to break in all those baby teeth.
When we got him home Tucker was in HEAVEN. He and Tucker ran around the yard all afternoon just like ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, there is dog here, he wants to play with me, holy shit, let's run over here, did I show you this part of the yard yet? What's that smell? ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!
Lila was a little less excited since she doesn't like to share Tucker and Chica just smelled him and then looked at me like really? You couldn't have gotten another plant instead? At least we know when you get a plant that it will be gone in a few months. And then she walked back inside and climbed under the blankets on my bed where she resigned herself again to this life where she has to deal with other canine animals. Oh, the horror.
Fairy, who works at a Vet Clinic, was there yesterday afternoon and she said that she doesn't think he is six months old, maybe three or four and that he is going to be BIG. We will take him in to get shots and neutered next week and get all the info we can from our vet. The lady said his mother is full blooded husky and the dad was a border collie but Fairy says no. She says the husky is there but that he looks like he's crossed with a shepherd.
The girls of course love him. Technically, he is Amanda's dog. And if she is actually as responsible as she wants to be, then he will stay that way.
I don't think it should be too hard for her since he came in last night, went straight into his crate by her bed and went to sleep and we never heard a peep out of him all night long. Tucker wore his ass out.
His name? Well, they had named him "Moo" because he looks like a cow with his spots, she said. So we wanted to keep the name similar to the one he already had although I personally don't think it would have made any difference as I truly don't think he knew his own name at all. Amanda named him Blue. Noah calls him Moose. So his official doggie name? Blue Moose.
Labels: Amanda, Blue Moose, Chica, Lila, Noah, Tucker
