The Dog

A fellow blogger was talking about her desire to get a puppy as a big reward for her weight loss, and it turns out she wants the same kind of dog that I have, so I thought I would put a few pics of my dog on here.  Partly for her to see, and partly because I’ve mentioned this animal her before, so why not. 

Thar she be, folks.  She’s a purebred German Shepherd ands he just happens to be white.  I don’t know anything about her parents because I got her from a German Shepherd rescue as an adult.  I know a LOT about her previous owners, though.  They had a dog and lost it.  A couple of months later, they got this dog as a puppy.  Then the wife got pregnant and they kept the dog in the garage full time (poor dog).  Finally, they just took her to the pound.  When her time was up there and she was to be put down at the end of the day, the German Shepherd rescue pulled her out.  They keep all their dogs for a minimum of 3 weeks before they are put up for adoption so they can get a good feel for their temperament and health.  2 weeks after they made her available, we decided to look for a dog and found her on their website.  It was love at first sight, people!

We quickly made arrangements to get her into our family.  The rescue was easy and pleasant to work with, and before I knew it, we had a dog!

She has been a great addition to our family.  She loves my kids.  If we go to the park and they all split up to play in different areas, she is constantly checking on them.  She’ll go from one to the other the whole time, making sure they are okay.  One time this summer at the park, my oldest was stung but an insect and he screamed (he’s 7).  I had been sitting on a bench and I got up and ran toward him but guess who got there first?  If we go for a walk and they’re on their bikes or something and they get too far ahead of us, she starts to get jittery.  She doesn’t like it when she can’t keep an eye on her people.

Not that she can’t be left alone.  When we all leave the house to go places, she just settles down and sleeps.  I know because I’m a nerd and I wanted to know what she does when we’re gone so I video taped her lol.

She is ultra smart.  I have been taking her to classes and we do some trick training at home.   She can learn a new trick in a single 5 minute session if it’s a simple one.  She isn’t allowed in the upper floor of my house or the basement, and we only had to tell her no once.

I could really go on and on about all the good things about her, but the main thing is that she fit into my #1 main criteria for a dog.  Our dog had to be EXCELLENT with children.  I have 3 of those, and they are young and inexperienced with dogs.  I am committed to making sure my kids behave properly around our dog, but I wanted to make sure we started out with a dog that likes kids.  I would say she qualifies as a great family dog, wouldn’t you?

I won’t even go into what a great watch dog she is. 

So anyway, that’s my dog.  We are nice to her.  We walk her probably 6 days a week although usually it’s Hubster that does it.  We feed her pricey grain-free food.  We play fetch with her a lot.  She is indoors 99% of the time, only goes outside to do business and then right back in.  We have clear boundaries and expectations of her (like the whole no going upstairs thing…she doesn’t need to go up there and the reason I don’t want her up there is so I don’t have to vacuum the entire house daily, she has the run of the kitchen, dining room, living room, and family room.  No need to mess around in the bedrooms upstairs).  She may have had a rocky start, but I think she landed in an okay home in the end.