What a busy couple of weeks this has been! In addition to our regular weekly to do list, we have spent a ton of time getting ready for our new puppy. There are books to read:
And more things to buy than I ever imagined! He needed bowls, toys, beds, a crate (I found a huge one on craigslist for a great deal), a leash, collar, brush, treats, poop scooping supplies....the list seems to go on and on. We also bought some baby gates (again off of craigslist) to keep him from having free run of the house, and to hopefully keep him out of too much trouble:
We installed them about a week before we picked up the puppy so everyone could get used to them. Porter is still small enough to walk through them, as you can see above, and Harlow figured out how to jump over them. We tried to think of everything, but it turns out the one thing I should have done was more laundry....
On Sunday we all piled into the car at 9am for the 3 hour drive to our breeders house in Graham, Washington. We made a few stops along the way, so we got up there about 12:30. We went straight to meet the puppies, and they were even cuter than we thought they would be!
Of the 12 puppies in this litter only 6 were left, and they all wanted to come out and play:
We took our puppy out to play in the grass, and I think we all immediately fell for the little guy. We also got to meet his mom, and his full brother from a previous litter, Riddick. He was a gorgeous dog and the breeder said that our little guy was going to look quite a bit like him. He was a big boy, weighing in at 90+ pounds at a year and a half, and they said he still had some filling out to do. They said we could expect our puppy to be about the same as Riddick, with really dark coloring and 90 - 100 pounds at maturity. It was really neat to meet all the dogs, and to see what kind of temperament and personality we can expect.
Our puppies parents are from working German lines, meaning they are imported directly from breeders in Germany who follow strict guidelines for which dogs can be bred, and which cant. Dogs that are allowed to be bred must pass tests to prove their confirmation to the breed standard, as well as hold a working degree in Schutzhund. Schutzhund originated in Germany as a test for German Shepherd dog breeders to use to evaluate and pick only the best dogs for their breeding programs. In Germany, no German Shepherd dog can be bred without holding a Schutzhund title, and our breeder holds to that same standard here in the States. Our puppies mom holds a level 2 title in Schutzhund, and his dad holds a level 3, the highest possible title. All nice to know, and its neat that he comes from such accomplished parents, but to us the most important thing is that we are getting a puppy with a proven temperament and high trainability, which we felt was really important for our family dog.
The kids and Matthew stayed outside with the puppy, while I went inside to fill out paperwork, and get his AKC information and titling paperwork. Then it was back into the car for the long car ride home. We had brought a kennel, but decided that it would be much easier (and quieter) for the puppy to ride in comfort:
It took us much longer to get home than it had to get up there, mostly because we stopped every 45 minutes or so to let him go potty. Along the way, we debated names back and forth until we finally decided on one - Ruger. It wasn't my first choice, but the kids and Matthew loved it, so Ruger it is!
We got him home and fed him right away, since it had been about 7 hours since he had eaten. He wolfed his food down like it had been closer to 7 days since he had eaten, while Porter watched him and tried to figure out what to make of him:
After he stuffed himself silly, he waddled over to his bed to rest:
He looks SO teeny on his bed, but in just a years time, this bed will probably be too small for him!
Puppy cuteness...and look at the size of those paws!
Ruger slept well until it was time to go into his crate when we went to bed. This is where the fun (haha) began. We had read a lot about crate training before we got him, and decided to use one because we wanted a place that he could feel safe in, and somewhere to keep him out of trouble when we have to leave the house. I had read that the first few nights of having a puppy home are the hardest, while the puppy tries to adjust going from sleeping in a pack with his litter mates, to sleeping all alone. It was so hard to listen to him cry, we felt really bad for him. :(
After about 10 minutes of working himself into a tizzy of crying and whining, he fell asleep and we settled in for the night. Which turned out to be a very, very long one. At 2am I woke up to the sound of Ruger throwing up, and from then until 6am I was up about every 20 minutes with him, cleaning the out his kennel, taking him outside, taking him in the kitchen for water, and then back to bed where he would cry until fell asleep, only to wake up a few minutes later and throw up again. It was an awful night. This was just part of the stack of laundry waiting for me at 7am....I think we were down to just 2 clean towels and no clean blankets in the whole house:
Yuck. In the morning he seemed to be feeling a little better...until he ate his breakfast. Then it was back to throwing up, and throughout the day he just couldn't seem to stop. I called the breeder in the morning, and she said she thought that it was due to the stress of moving, and such a long car ride to get home. She suggested we wait it out, but at about 3 in the afternoon Ruger was still throwing up and starting to act very lethargic. So I took him to our vets, where they recommended admitting him for a couple hours worth of IV meds, 2 shots to help stop the vomiting and 2 prescriptions that would help heal his stomach and throat, which were completely raw from throwing up so much. Definitely not the way we had envisioned our first day with him. The vet said it was probably nerves, but that it could also be Parvo, or an obstruction in his bowels. Yikes! By the time the vet was ready to admit him, he was so lethargic that he was just laying on the exam table not moving. I nudged him, and then shook him a little because honestly, he looked like he was dying. He didn't budge, and when he opened his eyes they sort of rolled back in his head. Of course him looking so awful had me in tears and I spent the next couple of hours worrying myself sick.
When I picked him up from the vet he was a little bit better. He could open his eyes and keep his head up, and they said that he had been able to keep a few tablespoons of food down. I got a card that let me buy him special prescription food, and instructions to feed him 2 tablespoons every hour for the next 24 hours. Which meant no sleep the second night we had him either, but at that point I would have done whatever it took to get him better. Funny how quickly you can become attached to little guys like him!
I am happy to say that as I write this on our third day home, he is feeling much better. I can tell that he isn't 100% yet, and the vet said that will take about a week, but he is on the road to recovery and that has us all thrilled. We sure love this little guy, and are so excited to have him home and part of our family!
And more things to buy than I ever imagined! He needed bowls, toys, beds, a crate (I found a huge one on craigslist for a great deal), a leash, collar, brush, treats, poop scooping supplies....the list seems to go on and on. We also bought some baby gates (again off of craigslist) to keep him from having free run of the house, and to hopefully keep him out of too much trouble:
We installed them about a week before we picked up the puppy so everyone could get used to them. Porter is still small enough to walk through them, as you can see above, and Harlow figured out how to jump over them. We tried to think of everything, but it turns out the one thing I should have done was more laundry....
On Sunday we all piled into the car at 9am for the 3 hour drive to our breeders house in Graham, Washington. We made a few stops along the way, so we got up there about 12:30. We went straight to meet the puppies, and they were even cuter than we thought they would be!
Of the 12 puppies in this litter only 6 were left, and they all wanted to come out and play:
We took our puppy out to play in the grass, and I think we all immediately fell for the little guy. We also got to meet his mom, and his full brother from a previous litter, Riddick. He was a gorgeous dog and the breeder said that our little guy was going to look quite a bit like him. He was a big boy, weighing in at 90+ pounds at a year and a half, and they said he still had some filling out to do. They said we could expect our puppy to be about the same as Riddick, with really dark coloring and 90 - 100 pounds at maturity. It was really neat to meet all the dogs, and to see what kind of temperament and personality we can expect.
Our puppies parents are from working German lines, meaning they are imported directly from breeders in Germany who follow strict guidelines for which dogs can be bred, and which cant. Dogs that are allowed to be bred must pass tests to prove their confirmation to the breed standard, as well as hold a working degree in Schutzhund. Schutzhund originated in Germany as a test for German Shepherd dog breeders to use to evaluate and pick only the best dogs for their breeding programs. In Germany, no German Shepherd dog can be bred without holding a Schutzhund title, and our breeder holds to that same standard here in the States. Our puppies mom holds a level 2 title in Schutzhund, and his dad holds a level 3, the highest possible title. All nice to know, and its neat that he comes from such accomplished parents, but to us the most important thing is that we are getting a puppy with a proven temperament and high trainability, which we felt was really important for our family dog.
The kids and Matthew stayed outside with the puppy, while I went inside to fill out paperwork, and get his AKC information and titling paperwork. Then it was back into the car for the long car ride home. We had brought a kennel, but decided that it would be much easier (and quieter) for the puppy to ride in comfort:
It took us much longer to get home than it had to get up there, mostly because we stopped every 45 minutes or so to let him go potty. Along the way, we debated names back and forth until we finally decided on one - Ruger. It wasn't my first choice, but the kids and Matthew loved it, so Ruger it is!
We got him home and fed him right away, since it had been about 7 hours since he had eaten. He wolfed his food down like it had been closer to 7 days since he had eaten, while Porter watched him and tried to figure out what to make of him:
After he stuffed himself silly, he waddled over to his bed to rest:
He looks SO teeny on his bed, but in just a years time, this bed will probably be too small for him!
Puppy cuteness...and look at the size of those paws!
Ruger slept well until it was time to go into his crate when we went to bed. This is where the fun (haha) began. We had read a lot about crate training before we got him, and decided to use one because we wanted a place that he could feel safe in, and somewhere to keep him out of trouble when we have to leave the house. I had read that the first few nights of having a puppy home are the hardest, while the puppy tries to adjust going from sleeping in a pack with his litter mates, to sleeping all alone. It was so hard to listen to him cry, we felt really bad for him. :(
After about 10 minutes of working himself into a tizzy of crying and whining, he fell asleep and we settled in for the night. Which turned out to be a very, very long one. At 2am I woke up to the sound of Ruger throwing up, and from then until 6am I was up about every 20 minutes with him, cleaning the out his kennel, taking him outside, taking him in the kitchen for water, and then back to bed where he would cry until fell asleep, only to wake up a few minutes later and throw up again. It was an awful night. This was just part of the stack of laundry waiting for me at 7am....I think we were down to just 2 clean towels and no clean blankets in the whole house:
Yuck. In the morning he seemed to be feeling a little better...until he ate his breakfast. Then it was back to throwing up, and throughout the day he just couldn't seem to stop. I called the breeder in the morning, and she said she thought that it was due to the stress of moving, and such a long car ride to get home. She suggested we wait it out, but at about 3 in the afternoon Ruger was still throwing up and starting to act very lethargic. So I took him to our vets, where they recommended admitting him for a couple hours worth of IV meds, 2 shots to help stop the vomiting and 2 prescriptions that would help heal his stomach and throat, which were completely raw from throwing up so much. Definitely not the way we had envisioned our first day with him. The vet said it was probably nerves, but that it could also be Parvo, or an obstruction in his bowels. Yikes! By the time the vet was ready to admit him, he was so lethargic that he was just laying on the exam table not moving. I nudged him, and then shook him a little because honestly, he looked like he was dying. He didn't budge, and when he opened his eyes they sort of rolled back in his head. Of course him looking so awful had me in tears and I spent the next couple of hours worrying myself sick.
When I picked him up from the vet he was a little bit better. He could open his eyes and keep his head up, and they said that he had been able to keep a few tablespoons of food down. I got a card that let me buy him special prescription food, and instructions to feed him 2 tablespoons every hour for the next 24 hours. Which meant no sleep the second night we had him either, but at that point I would have done whatever it took to get him better. Funny how quickly you can become attached to little guys like him!
I am happy to say that as I write this on our third day home, he is feeling much better. I can tell that he isn't 100% yet, and the vet said that will take about a week, but he is on the road to recovery and that has us all thrilled. We sure love this little guy, and are so excited to have him home and part of our family!