I will never forget the day my husband called me from the bank. I had about 5 seconds to be in my heart. Big question… “I just bumped into so and so and wanted to know if we would be interested in adopting a Lab/Retriever Mix puppy?” Umm, OK that sounds good. You see we got married and moved into a new house and started getting a dog. I knew I always wanted a Golden Retriever but my husband always wanted a German Shepherd. I told my husband that I really don’t want German Shepard. Although I knew they were good dogs I was a little afraid. SO We met in Retriever but I wasn’t expecting a call so soon. We didn’t want to miss this opportunity so we jumped on it. We had to wait 7 weeks before they could take the puppy from its mother and I think that’s when I had time to really prepare myself for this new adventure. I have never had a pet before other than fish that jumped out of the tank at night. I had a lot to learn and I was nervous. My husband has had many dogs before so I trusted that he knew what he was doing.
My husband picked up the puppy in our new home the same day. What an experience. I highly recommend that you do not do this. Certainly not useful. Although at the time a similar view. The puppy was so small my husband could carry it with one hand. Try it now, it weighs 115 pounds! Back to the story. I had no idea what I had in store. We set up the puppy’s cage and waited for him to stay still. No. One hated the cage from day one. Scream and scream and cry some more. He shook the cage himself, and tried to gnaw it to get out. But this is actually one way that we potty train know them. One day when I came home from work, I actually got back in the car and drove to the nearest shopping center. I just can’t afford it. I didn’t even get out of the car. He just sat in the car and cried. What did we do? This was supposed to be great. Why am I so miserable? The puppy did not stop crying for a second. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep for weeks. If someone had told me how much work a puppy would be, I would never have agreed to get one.
After a few months of really regretting our decision, things finally started to calm down. He stopped crying all the time and was potty trained. We could take him out of the cage and then they seemed to help. But then another new problem began. He started gnawing on our new furniture that we just bought for our house. I’m ready to lose my temper and let this dog go. I could accept it. Well, we figured out why he was chewing on things. He didn’t want to when we closed the front door. He liked to see what was going on outside. As soon as we closed the door, he was about to enter. As soon as we opened the doors to stop. Oh wow.
Thankfully, everything started to get better as he got older. He stopped, reminiscing with himself. I guess it has matured and grown out of the chewing phase. I have to say that he is now turning 6 this summer and that he is an amazing dog. It’s amazing for my son’s 2 year born. My son pulls his tail, sits on him, hides him in his eyes, nose, ears, …and Cozmo (my dog) lets him alone. Even my other dog sits on top of it and lets it out. Such a dog is naturborn.
But it needs practice. It’s important to get around outside and get some fresh air. Although he can hardly walk. He walks quite a lot. Even my husband has a difficult job walking. We tried to hire a trainer but it didn’t really work. We just spent a lot of money for nothing. We love our dog so much. Although looking back at those puppies years ago, I’m not so sure I’d do it again.
