This, my friends, is Gus. Gus is our four month old German Shorthaired Pointer. He's a gorgeous boy with a solid liver colored coat and a white blaze down his chest. We went and got him over the weekend; so now he's part of our family.
This was not my idea. Let me make this clear. My husband is the one who has been looking at dogs for months on end, hoping to run across the right one. And Gus happened to be the right one. So.......this is our "Christmas present" to eachother. (even though I wasn't quite as excited about getting another dog as the hub was.) I am not totally proficient at taking care of myself, much less an energetic puppy. And the process of trying to housebreak him......dear Lord! Gus has become my full-time job. The hub goes off to work and I spend the day trying to figure out when this little guy wants to poop and pee.
I will say that he is a very smart dog (thank God), and that he is quite obedient already. But there is only so many times you can clean pee up off of your floor before you hit your breaking point. I am reading Cesar's Way by Cesar Millan right now and we also have a training book specific to GSPs, but anyone who can offer any tips on housebreaking would be a lifesaver. Gus is such a good dog; I don't want to ruin his opportunity to be a well trained, well adjusted member of our pack. I am getting some massive practice in patience.
So now you know what I have been up to. It's hard to think about blogging (or anything else for that matter) with a puppy in the house. A piece of jewelry would have been so much easier to take care of! Haha.
I'll be back with some more posts soon. I have a few subjects that I am eager to talk about.
xoxo
5 comments:
Gus is gorgeous!! Look at that beautiful face.
It's funny, I was just thinking about your old dog and how long ago that seems. They're hard work, but they do bring a lot of pleasure to your life.
As for house training, we had a few mishaps with Woody too. I don't know if there is any magic formula other than persistence. It paid off because he hasn't gone inside for ages now (touch wood!).
The biggest problems we have now though are keeping him off the furniture (he thinks he's human) and pulling like a maniac when we take him for a walk. He's going to obedience school in January so hopefully that will make a world of difference.
I'm sure the hard work with Gus will pay off. He really does have a lovely face. Just don't leave your underwear/bras/shoes/anything laying around so he can't take them out into the backyard ...
crate train. since it sounds like you can be around during the day, he's not gonna freak out and bark all day because you're there. and you can take him out every hour or two to and let him go to the bathroom. when they're young, they can't be in the crate more than a few hours or they will soil the crate, but if you can take him out and reward going outside...and then he can go in his crate when people come over so he's not an asshole at the door. or when you leave the house so he doesn't chew your stuff. we were unable to crate train when we got a puppy because we got too many noise complaints from the barking, but when he was older and calmer the crate training was a savior. now my ex's new girlfriend gets to reap the rewards of a dog i martyred myself training. but oh how i wished i could stay home with the dog like it seems you are because it would have made all of the training much easier. apologies if this comment is duplicate, not sure if computer ate the earlier one. i still haven't blogged about all i suffered because of dogs although i keep thinking i should.
Thanks guys. The crate just came in the mail yesterday and Gus is still getting used to it. He slept in it last night with the door open and I put him up for a few hours today while I ran errands and he did great. Cesar's book has been super helpful in figuring out how to be the alpha leaders of the house. But I'm putting in a LOT of time exercising him so he doesn't get anxious. He is seriously a full time job. But I think he just may be worth it. ;)
Oh my goodness!!! That is the sweetest looking Gus I ever did see:))
(and the cutest Christmas gift ever!!)
:)
I will be no help in giving advice. My dogs live outside and I have no idea what they do all day;))
Ahh, so darling! Congratulations in the puppy, my friend!
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