Taaa Daaa! We got a dog. It took a few trips to the shelter and the meeting of many of the dogs until we found the perfect one for us. She's an eight week old mutt, supposedly Alsatian (German Shepherd) mix, but she looks like she's got a lot of Chow Chow thrown in. Not sure how big she'll get, her paws aren't huge but I think her breeding is. No name yet, any suggestions? I was rather in favor of Jerry Garcia, even though she's a she. Today I like Strawberry. She sleeps a lot, bites and chews a lot and likes to dance. Sounds like a personals ad. We're getting the hang of toilet training (when she wakes up, take her outside first thing!) and I like to make sure she has lots of cuddle time. Which turns into wrestle time. I'm a first-time dog owner, will the wrestle time be a problem in the future when she gets big? She does know I'm boss.
She's young and it's not easy to take a photo of her, so here's a video. She's enjoying life until Carlos Gardel comes on the stereo. Then she gets kind of nervous. She didn't like the Rolling Stones either. But she does like Cantinflas movies.
What I like about her is that she seems to be gregarious and chill at the same time. She's a happy puppy and I look forward to making sure she is well-socialized with the world around her. I did not grow up around dogs and through friends and family met a lot who were not so well socialized. It terrified me to have even small dogs jump up on me and I didn't like the licking doggy breath.
When my husband and I started dating I found out that he was a dog man. I didn't necessarily want a dog in my life, but I realized that I really liked all the friends dogs I had gotten to know in my adult life. Since the man I married was so pro-dog I followed my motto. I investigated this Dog World for myself. This meant not thinking about things as I did when I was a little kid and getting knocked over by the neighbor's dog, but educating myself and deciding what I felt about dogs today. I read up on dog breeds and training techniques. My friend Sam turned me on to Dog Whisperer. I watched a lot of Dog Whisperer.
My best education and therapy came from visiting the shelters. I went to there just to walk through the halls of dogs and get comfortable around all the barking. They could bark all they wanted, but they were caged and could not touch me. This was kind of like my therapy. My favorite was the Lacy St. shelter. Through my visits do you know what I found out? Like a baby's cry, there are different types of dog barks. I had previously heard only two: "Angry snarly barks" and "Barking because I can't shut up" barks. After taking the time to understand dog-ness I could hear not only those angry mean barks, but also happy excited barks, nervous and uncomfortable barks, "I see a strange person/new dog" barks, all sorts of barks. Some shelter dogs will be pretty quiet when one first walks up to their cage, and then will start to bark because they are uncomfortable being stared at. With those dogs, I have noticed they are pretty cool animals, and will politely back off and not mess with them. I met really nice dogs that I didn't take home because I realized they were a little too excited, or too powerful of an animal for me. I also met very helpful shelter workers and volunteers who helped to bring me from a dog-scared girl to a happy dog-loving woman. I know I now have my dog, but I may still visit the shelter for my happy therapy time. Well, watching my puppy try to kill rocks is pretty good therapy too. :)
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