The Dog Days

Wow, we've been quite busy here, so time for an update! Just a little side note from all the four legged, furry chaos, this past weekend was my 21st birthday :) The house was full when Nate and Mal came down to spend the weekend with me, and boy was that lots of fun! Kinda hectic since Mal is such a big guy, and all Dean wants to do is torture the living hell out of him, but we made it work. Lots of fetch outside, aka Mal fetching and Dean running after him, trying to herd him or mouth anywhere he can reach.Thankfully Dean doesn't have the endurance his big brother has yet.

As far as training goes, we've been working on reinforcing his basics, sometimes the pup thinks listening is a choice, but treats are mandatory. Noooooope! So we're doing random obedience drills now on walks and when we make a trip to the dog park as well. I've got my arsenal of string cheese and super smelly salmon Zuke's alongside my trusty clicker. As far as building foundation behaviors, we're starting with a fussing position by working against a wall. So far, just position, click, and treat. I haven't decided on what finish I want him to learn by default. So far I'm leaning towards the left finish, or a flip finish. To reinforce his rear end awareness, I'm going to start doing some perch work. His rear drive could use some work I've noticed, and it will help with his growing puppy coordination I'm sure.

So that's all for now, I'll update with some photos later too. Adios!

Playing Catch Up

So its been well over a month since I last updated, so I'm going to try to pump out a few posts today and tomorrow before Nate and Mal arrive to celebrate my 21st birthday weekend~

(I also promised a few people that I'd update for their reading pleasure as well.)

Here's a quick tl;dr in advance though.

-Training going well, hit a stall with vacation and whatnot
- Went on vacation to Disney World with my family as a gift from my mom
- Dean went on vacation with his dad and brother while I was away. Threw up on the way there, was a brat for a day, but settled nicely and became super rambunctious right away.
- Came home and went to pick up Dean a day later. Almost cried at how sweet and happy he was to see me.
- Wound up spending a few more days with Nate and his family than planned (like... Almost an entire week) and really enjoyed it. Saw his niece's dance recital and also spent some time with her over the weekend before leaving.
- Oh yea, did some driving while I was out there too.
- Came home Sunday night, pup was overjoyed to be home, but had vomited in the car again so he had to be bathed right away. He was not happy.
- Typical schedule from there on out. Sleep, wake up and eat, walk, come home and sleep (for Dean, not me), do laundry, clean a bit, walk some more, get ready and go to work. Come home from work, walk, sleep.

Now more recently, yesterday recently, pup is done his basic immunizations, so even more socialization and exposure will be happening. Today we even went to the dog park. This is all I have time for at the moment, but I'll update on more specific things during my break I think, photos included.

Reflections 05-02-12

Just looking back on this past week, I'd like to share some things that have happened. I've nothing better to do on the bus to work anyway.


We've been stopped by a woman on our walk who immediately whipped out her camera. She wanted one photo of Dean, and then another photo with him. She said specifically "My face has to be in it." and then proceeded to take an awfully angled MySpace-esq photo. I almost died a little because a) I'm a part time photographer at work and b) you should never put your save that close to a dog without asking the owner. I told her that immediately and she said she wouldn't have minded getting bit because "He's just too cute." Needless to say that will never happen again, even though Dean was a perfect little gentleman. I'm setting him up for success, and that most definitely wasn't part of the plan.

On Saturday we decided to go to the local pet store and pick up some stuff. My mother, Dean and I all walked together since its not too far from our home. Perks of living in a big city I suppose. So, we stopped at the Wawa down the street for coffees first and took turns standing outside the store with the dog. He was excellent, sat and laid calmly for me, and stood waiting with mom while I was inside. He's my velcro dog alright. When I came outside there was a man questioning my mother about him, and I was happy to see she really pays attention when I go on my dog ramblings, she answered all the questions she was able to. Proud of her and my boy! When we resumed walking we were stopped another few blocks down by a group of men holding some kind of flea market and passing out information on a local church.

The local church men were very nice, complimenting Dean and myself, but one other man was quite overbearing. He claimed to have Shepherds his entire life before moving to a small breed, and immediately started lecturing me on how to train my dog. I wasn't very happy, but I merely smiled and agreed for the sake of being able to go on our way as soon as possible. Well, that plan backfired and we were stuck there for 20-30 mins. He even fished out his wallet and showed us a photo of his last Shepherd who he claimed to be 130 lbs and looked like a wolf. Well, the dog had Shepherd ears, but that was it really. Not wanting to be rude, I complimented his dog, because it really was a beautiful creature, just definitely not PB as he insisted.

To round out all of our short stories, Sunday night we had a little more surprising run in while walking home from my aunt's house. Up the street from my house I had Dean in a sit to get ready to cross the street. Now he was being a little finicky and wanting to go go go even though there were a few cars driving by that I wanted to wait for. As the last car goes and we're ready to cross, a man comes out of the bar behind us and starts asking all kinds of enthusiastic questions. He also went on to say how a German Shepherd changed his life when he was in a boys home at a young age. This was probably my favorite interaction all week, just a few minutes kneeling and petting Dean, who was fantastically behaved I might add, and chatting about the pure devotion, intelligence, and love that comes from these dogs. We were quickly on our way then and Dean was happy to be home, and we turned in for the night soon after that.

What an exciting week!

Busy Busy

Having gone so long without a dog, never less a puppy, things have been quick to change. For the better of course. Right now Dean and I are enjoying my early afternoon break. We're munching on some carrots and I have the Keurig heating up for a cup of coffee. Soon we'll head out for a walk, I'm hoping to run in to some of the few other Shepherds I know live around here.

Here's a quick run down of how the past week has been.

Training? It's going really well! Dean's sits are solid, and we're working on his downs. Well, his patience with downs really. Little guy is so eager about the food rewards that he gets ahead of himself sometimes, but I'm taking it slow with him and being very patient myself, so we'll get there. I've also started teaching him to touch when I ask for it. Surprisingly I feel like it's helping with his bite inhibition. Perhaps teaching to gently bump when I ask him to makes it easier to understand gentle touch gets rewarded and rough housing doesn't? Who knows!

Socialization is going well too. We take frequent walks, and although they take forever with such a stud muffin like him in tow, all the greetings and stops are very educational for him. Whenever people come up to us and ask to meet him Dean gets very excited. After only a week and a half of walking and greeting, he's down to one attempted jump before he calms himself and goes willingly in to a sit. Only then are people allowed to greet him, and I think it's really clicking.

 However, we're still working on greeting dogs, specifically the smaller ones that are all over my neighborhood. Most people don't seem willing to stop when they see my huge pup getting excited,, tail wagging all over the place and jumping to meet their tiny ones. It's a shame really, he's polite when he meets other dogs, especially little ones, he just gets over eager to sniff and automatically thinks other dogs = play time. It's okay, he's still a baby, so we have time to work on it, and work on it we will.

Tuesday we went to the vet! We walked since it was so close, and as soon as we walked through the door the entire office was in love! Baby was pretty good too, other than accidentally yanking the clip board out of my hand while I was filling out our new patient information. He's much better behaved at the vet than Mal though I'll say, even when he was a pup. He let the tech's take his weight without any fuss, and when we went back to the exam room he was great. Puttered about sniffing every nook and cranny, greeted the nurse happily, and the vet as well. I swear, Dean is happy with any attention he gets. The exam itself went well, he squirmed a bit but other than that, he lets himself be handled easily. Thank goodness! The doctor said he was extremely healthy, perfect weight even though he's a huge monster for 10 weeks, ears and eyes look good, and his teeth are perfect, great bite conformation for when his adult teeth come in. He even took his shot like a champ. Needless to say I was very happy and proud of my pup!

Overall it's been an eventful week, lots of places to go, people to see, and playing to be done. I have some posting around to do in my spare time between finals and Dean time though, I'm torn on his coat. I initially thought he would be short stock coat, but he's getting fluffier by the day and I'm starting to see some crimping behind his ears. No extreme fluff inside the ears though. Mom was a coatie when I went to pick him up, but I'm not sure about dad since I haven't met him and haven't had the chance to do some digging. Stinky needs a bath this weekend from all the rain we've been having too, so I'm going to pick up a rake and see just how fluffy he is after a good thorough brushing and bath.

Launch!

Hello all! Welcome to our blog, my name is Devon, and I've been in my wonderful pup Dean's life for almost a week now. It's been awfully busy for us both, especially since I'm juggling school/finals with full time puppy care, but we're both doing great if I do say so myself.

So what's been going on with us?

Well! We spent our first day and a half together at daddy's house! Daddy being my boyfriend, Nate, whom I currently live separate from. Dean got to play with his big brother Mal, our two year old black Lab we got when we lived in Arizona.The boys hit it off right away, and Mal got Dean out of his timid stage right away, bounding around the gigantic yard together as Nate lobbed one of those super over sized tennis balls around for them. For such a small guy Dean really has some spunk to him though, he sure as hell tried to carry that big thing back to us whenever Mal would let him get his mouth on it that big hog.

Mal wasn't the only one hitting it off with Dean though, boyfriend's niece really loved him too! There was lots of puppy kisses and petting going on, with tons and tons of butt wiggling of course. I was really happy that everyone fell in love with him right away, but more importantly, he fell in love with them. I feel so lucky to have such a great pup, he's calm, watchful, and extremely stable, but still filled with that great puppy energy and raring to learn.

The best part about Sunday had to be bringing him home to Philadelphia and my family though. Everyone had their reservations, even when they saw his puppy pictures. All of that flew right out the window though when I brought him in to my aunt's house, I could practically see them melt right then and there, they were completely gone and smitten by the time they laid their hands in to his fluffy, plush coat. Now they're all disappointed if we don't come by every other night to socialize Dean and my aunt's bichon, Sydney, together.

I don't want to make this post too long, so I'll wrap it up here. Basically I'm head over heels in love with this great little guy, he's just what I needed to keep me from missing my boyfriend terribly all the time. He's smart, super cuddly and loving, and trusts me enough to do anything I ask him if I just give him enough guidance. His first walk in the city was amazing, I expected some hesitancy in the least, but there was absolutely none! Dean took everything in exceptionally, and when something caught his interest, he merely sat down and observed it. I can't even describe how proud I am of him!

Sitting in my food bowl at Daddy's house.

Mommy really tires me out every day, I sleep so well each night!

We'll try to update daily with photos and updates on our training adventures, but things might be slow with my finals coming up and our family trip to Disney World in May. We'll try our best!