My RSS Feed

Buying a Dog

user@domain.com — 2011-06-19T15:40:00-04:00

 
 
So, on June 18 we drove to, Charleston, WV to look at a dog.  The distance is about 360 miles from Columbia, MD.  This is about a 6-1/2 hour drive.

The object was to buy a puppy.  We spoke to the owner of "Ashlaur Shelties" - and she showed us the one Sheltie that she had left.  The puppy was very cute (aren't they all).  We bought it.
We then got back in the car and drove 360 miles back to Columbia.  It wasn't a pleasant day, but we are very pleased with the dog.  Ashlaur had named the dog Mystique but we changed it to Ginger.



Training the Ginger
user@domain.com — 2011-07-05T15:39:00-04:00


We are still training our new dog, "Ginger" what she can and cannot do.  She was born on April 9 of this year and, hence, is not exactly an adult - even in dog years.  She is a very friendly dog, and like most puppies is quite curious.
Her friends include absolutely everyone in the human race as well as the three dogs in our cul-de-sac.
Since life is full of choices, we wanted to be sure that Ginger was able to cope.  So far, she knows: "Ginger, come or don't come".  She makes her choice and sticks with it.
Another thing she is good at is: "Ginger, don't pee on the rug unless you want to."  She handles that pretty well, too.



Raising a Monster (Part 2)
user@domain.com — 2011-07-07T15:36:55-04:00



Until we are satisfied that little Ginger is completely house broken, we have a number of small fences that we can put in doorways. We have used these for dogs that we have had in the past - and they work well.

In the case of Ginger - well, not so well. In a very short amount of time, she figured out that if she grabbed the fence with her teeth she could pull it back into the room - and then escape. For a day, we tried just not using the fence and closing the door instead. This was not satisfactory. So, we are now simply training her to not touch the fence. Good luck with that!



Raising a Monster (Part 1)
user@domain.com — 2011-07-06T15:23:00-04:00


So, the question is: have we created a monster?  Yesterday, Ginger was playing with her favorite adult dog, Buddy.  They were running around the yard when Ginger attempted to jump over Buddy.  She is never successful and usually crashes into Buddy's side - which Buddy ignores.   Well, this time, on the other side of Buddy was our sign warning that we have a burglar alarm (which, I am sure, strikes fear into the hearts of bad people wherever they may be).
Buddy got out of the way of the jump, so, our Ginger hit the sign.  The picture shows the results.  What did Ginger do?  She kept running.  No yelp.  No stopping.  No acknowledgement as to what she had done.