(no subject)
I got a dog. It's a long story, and here it is.
I've been doggie-obsessed for several months now. It got particularly bad shortly after I heard that my brother and his girlfriend had gotten a cute little black and white puppy, about three months ago. That, and I knew a few friends in my situation (graduate school, apartment living, etc) who recently got dogs. I thought to myself 'If they can, so can I!' and so I did my thing, which is research like crazy. I'm not the type to jump into a 15 year commitment without obsessing for awhile, so I obsessed. And obsessed. It got to the point where I was scouring petfinder.com every day and visiting shelters 2-3 times a week. I had a few breeds I was interested in, but mostly I was looking for a temperament and age group that would be able to put up with my living situation and schedule... blah blah blah, after talking with EVERYONE I see on a daily basis (+some) about this idea, I decided it would probably be too hard to manage, and maybe not very fair to the pup, to get a dog before I move to Georgia in August. I decided to wait.
Then my brother's girlfriend calls me about a week ago, I think it was something like 8 am on thursday morning. She says that the couple they are living with is abusing their dog, so they're moving out in a hurry. And they can't keep their dog. They offered her to me.
Of course I took her! How could I not? I got her last Sunday. She's a 5 month old Australian Shepherd and Golden Lab mix. You can pick the golden out of her eyes, but everything else says mutt - with a definite aussie influence, foremost the smarts. However, she's going to be a handful. My brother told me that even when they first got her, before the abuse, she was painfully shy and submissive. She doesn't bite, or even growl, but she's fearful of people she doesn't know. She LOVES other dogs though, and now that she trusts me, she's a barrel of kisses. In fact, she's taken to following me from room to room, lying at my feet, etc.
Needless to say, I'm freakishly happy, but still obsessed. Now, it's anything and everything about shy dogs and/or obedience, which I hear can help boost confidence (and, well, it's nice anyway). I've made a private appointment with a shy/fearful specialist trainer and I'm reading everything I can get my hands on. It will be hard, because a lot of the techniques are against human nature (don't soothe her when she's scared? don't push her to greet strangers?) buuuut, she's family now.
I'm working on getting a better photo, but my camera battery just died. So is life.
I've been doggie-obsessed for several months now. It got particularly bad shortly after I heard that my brother and his girlfriend had gotten a cute little black and white puppy, about three months ago. That, and I knew a few friends in my situation (graduate school, apartment living, etc) who recently got dogs. I thought to myself 'If they can, so can I!' and so I did my thing, which is research like crazy. I'm not the type to jump into a 15 year commitment without obsessing for awhile, so I obsessed. And obsessed. It got to the point where I was scouring petfinder.com every day and visiting shelters 2-3 times a week. I had a few breeds I was interested in, but mostly I was looking for a temperament and age group that would be able to put up with my living situation and schedule... blah blah blah, after talking with EVERYONE I see on a daily basis (+some) about this idea, I decided it would probably be too hard to manage, and maybe not very fair to the pup, to get a dog before I move to Georgia in August. I decided to wait.
Then my brother's girlfriend calls me about a week ago, I think it was something like 8 am on thursday morning. She says that the couple they are living with is abusing their dog, so they're moving out in a hurry. And they can't keep their dog. They offered her to me.
Of course I took her! How could I not? I got her last Sunday. She's a 5 month old Australian Shepherd and Golden Lab mix. You can pick the golden out of her eyes, but everything else says mutt - with a definite aussie influence, foremost the smarts. However, she's going to be a handful. My brother told me that even when they first got her, before the abuse, she was painfully shy and submissive. She doesn't bite, or even growl, but she's fearful of people she doesn't know. She LOVES other dogs though, and now that she trusts me, she's a barrel of kisses. In fact, she's taken to following me from room to room, lying at my feet, etc.
Needless to say, I'm freakishly happy, but still obsessed. Now, it's anything and everything about shy dogs and/or obedience, which I hear can help boost confidence (and, well, it's nice anyway). I've made a private appointment with a shy/fearful specialist trainer and I'm reading everything I can get my hands on. It will be hard, because a lot of the techniques are against human nature (don't soothe her when she's scared? don't push her to greet strangers?) buuuut, she's family now.
I'm working on getting a better photo, but my camera battery just died. So is life.