Dash

A few months ago Ryan brought home a 3 month old black lab we named Dash. Growing up as a kid, we only had a cat, so we didn't really know what to expect.

The first few weeks were both very difficult as well as amazing to have a little puppy to play with! The first bit of potty training took a bit; for those of you who have owned puppies will know that if you are able, try to take them out every hour or two and reward them when you see pee come out with a "good boy" and a pat on the head. It took a few weeks but he finally learned!

The next lesson; no biting!
This one was more difficult, I can't imagine what teething feels like (because its been about 26 years since I have teethed and have no recollection of it) and although I feel bad for the pup, my few possesions are important to me.
We found the trick is to have a bunch of different toys available in all shapes / sizes / textures and noises. And his attention span to each toy lasted nearly as long as the toy itself (if we got 10 mins out of some of them, consider it an accomplishment).
The next problem; leaving him at home while we were both at work. Not only do you feel horrible doing it -- you are equally terrified of what you may find (or what you may not find in existence any longer) once you get home.
This is when we were still living in our TINY basement apartment in Abbotsford, so we put baby gates up, and kept him in the kitchen, sometimes for 8 hours a day.
The first time, we learned that you can't leave the garbage out, even for 20 minutes, if we aren't in the room. The second time, we learned that all cupboards must be secured; only a few screwdrivers met their demise, along with some of my recipe books.
After this, I thought we had it figured out, until you're in a rush one morning and forget to put the garbage away (me) and Ryan came home to torn garbage everywhere, our newly bought large pack of toilet tissue, among other things. I can tell you Ryan was not happy with me and his revenge was to text me "At emergency with Dash; vet has to pump his stomache because he ate the garbage you left out and he was whining and moaning when I got home". I nearly was sick when I read that text, then he said "i'm joking, don't do it again though." Total asshole, that brother of mine.

So then you have a new routine set in place; check baby gates, check counters, check cupboards, check doors, check garbages (now you need an extra 15 minutes just to get out of the door in the mornings). Once I feel the place is in order, I leave and finally think I'm safe.
That night I get home, and instead of opening the door, I smartly peered through the window to see glass smashed EVERYWHERE and a brown liquid with dumbo staring at me wagging his stupid tail. Turns out he jumped up on the counter and tried to eat the coffee pot. So i'm in heels, panicking, and of course he is totally oblivious to the extremely thin and dangerous glass everywhere, and he's jumping up on and around me (while peeing) so I boot him outside and deal with the disaster zone.

After that, we don't have anymore issue's, but you have to be careful what you leave laying around (socks, gloves, pillows, etc).
Now we are living in Langley and we have crate trained him. I felt awful about this at first, but now its his "safe zone". He sleeps in it at night and day and he also has this super cute habit of putting himself in there if he gets yelled at, or when we return from the dog park and he's covered in mud, he has learned that he HATES baths so instead of taking a bath, he will go to his pen and dry off. Clever lad!

Every day he's growing and learning and its so adorable! He has recently learned what my different outfits mean. If I put on my jacket, its "Dash Time" and he gets super excited and jumps around because he knows we are going to the dog park. If I slip on my heels, he can be laying anywhere in the room and he knows i'm going to work so he just walks on into his pen and lays down. He's only 8 months and already so smart!

I am so happy Ryan brought him into the family, I honestly couldn't imagine my life without him. He takes away sadness, stress and anger (even when you're angry with him....you just can't stay angry, one look at his sorry face and he's forgiven instantly), and if I have had a long rough day at work all it takes is for him to greet me with his "night toy" when I walk in the door at 3am. He reserves his blue donut chew toy for his greetings, weird habit, but cute nonetheless!