Dogs and Meat and Kefir (brief video of my new 5wks puppy!)

(PJ) #1

I know zip about dogs. Loved one at 16 my aunt had spent lots of time with it walking me (…). Mix of doberman, black lab and rottweiler, he looked like the hound from hell and sounded like a freight train. And I loved him so much I couldn’t stand it.

Never lived anywhere I could have a dog in my life – I’m 55. Now I own my little house in Nowhere, OK (USA).

Apparently my son in law who is seldom home and has a 1.5 year old maniac toddler in potty training, brought home a puppy – way too young to be away from its mom yet – and didn’t think his wife would mind adding a zillion more potty issues per day, or the issue that neither toddler nor dog were safe from the other. After some degree of mutual meltdown, I hear something outside, go out on the porch, and he drops the dog on my porch and leaves.

So… I guess now I have a dog. It’s 5 weeks old. It’s called a Queensland Blue Heeler. I’ve been wanting to get vastly more exercise and from reading about these dogs apparently that’s gotta happen. I’ve been frantically skimming all I can about training etc.

A friend bought me some stuff on loan like a big crate and harness and leash. Another friend sent me money as a gift just to spend on the dog. Wow nice people in my life right! So what could have been a huge drama did not become one.

I have 3 cats in the living room/porch… 1 cat in the bedroom/back yard… 1 cat in the garage… and 1 cat that is mostly outside, in the garage in winter or bad weather. So far he’s only met the three in the front room and porch.

They are appalled and slightly disgusted, hahaha. But they can get away from him – he’s in more danger from them probably, right now – he needs to be socialized to them very intently so he won’t chase them later because he’s a herding dog. He’ll chase everything that seems to move, without training.

He is the cutest thing ever. My heart grew 3 sizes and broke it’s grinch box.

Meanwhile I looked on amazon for food besides dry puppy food and it turns out there’s lots of fermented cow and goat milk. Well heck I have a jar of fresh kefir on my counter! So I have been soaking the hard food in that to make it soft, at suggestion of friend, and he seems to love that.

With the funds a friend sent, I bought some basics I felt were needed, and… a car seat. I’ll take him everywhere, so while he’s a puppy people will stop and pet him and he’ll get socialized to strangers.

Just got directions from a friend about meat and dogs…

Boy he sure got lucky landing with someone who lives on meat as the vast majority of my food intake. I may be a first time clueless dog owner with a demanding not-good-for-first-timers breed, but he will eat well!!

I haven’t named him yet and have no ideas, weirdly!

Ad-hoc worst-perspective lol video of him from today:

PJ

(Cheryl Meyers) #2

squeee! he is so cute!

(Bob M) #3

Those are cute. I had never heard of them:

Not too big, either.

Where I live (CT, US), puppies are tough to find. Especially anti-allergy kind, which we would need.

(Anthony) #4

That’s wonderful and I’m really happy for you. I got “my” first dog a couple years ago and thoroughly enjoy him. He’s really become quite a hobby.

If you can swing it and find a good trainer locally I strongly recommend a couple classes with him. It’s great for your bond and also socializing them, as well as giving you access to a trainor to ask about behavioral questions if you have any.

#5

He looks awesome! We go with Blue Buffalo Freedom which is a grain free pretty clean food as far as commercial dog food goes. Like people, lots of dogs don’t do well with grains, ours (Boxer/Lab mix) bloats and gets the craps otherwise. Also, in many cases puppy food can be a scam just FYI, not all, some have more of certain nutrients and stuff, but as a whole… they’re all dogs and you can pay a lot more for puppy food.

(PJ) #6

Thanks you guys. After days of speed reading and 1.5x speed watching info about this breed, I am going to try and rehome him – now while he is tiny and super adorable. I don’t think an old woman in a small house with cats is his ideal and I so want him to have a great life (and us too). But I got him into a better situation than he had, and I love having his adorable self for a short time!

Now that I spent too much of my (and 2 other peoples’) money on stuff for a medium sized dog though (which he will be eventually), I want a dog. I love labs and they tend to be real good with kids and cats (I have a grandson) but I am more a ‘rescue’ than buy sort, especially adults and seniors who (it’s so sad!!) it seems like nobody wants. Either way the puppy will get a good home, and I will get a dog who hopefully will love going places in the van with me (I already bought a dog seat for the passenger seat lol) and walking with me, and I have a backyard we can play ball and frisbee in… that would be great.

Chomsky, as he was briefly named by someone else, is sure adorable in the meantime though!

(Polly) #7

He is adorable. I hope you can find him an ideal home.

(Anthony) #8

He’s adorable and I’m sure you’ll have no issues finding him a suitable home. Also good on you for objectively assessing your ability provide the home the pup needs. Be just as aware when looking at rescues, many of those dogs have issues of their own and even “easy” breeds can require the dedication of very experienced owners/trainer’s to work through their issues–if they can be worked through. Puppies are blank slates, adults can have baggage.

(Jane) #9

He is so cute!

I would never get a puppy again - too much work to housebreak and too many messes to clean up. I always had cats and to potty train them you pick them up, set them in the litter box and voila - trained.

I love my dog but it took 2 years to get her calmed down and being a hanging-out dog. She has strong herding and guarding instincts in her genetics (Great Pyr) and still terrorizes one of my cats - the littlest one. She leaves the other two alone. Even a shock collar didn’t totally break her of this. I don’t use it anymore because at 90-100 lbs she ignores it, even on the highest setting. Most of the time I just used the beep, and sometimes vibrate mode.

We still cannot have company over for dinner because she is too hyper. Maybe in another 6 months. We will board her over New Year’s since we are hosting the neighborhood NYE party this year.

ETA: Oops - didn’t realizing I was responding to a 5-month old thread. Hope you found a good home for him!

(PJ) #10

I gave him to a woman who works at a nearby vet’s office and who places ‘working dogs’ with ranchers.

I took in a four year old half-lab half-beagle hard luck case who’d been in foster all his life. Has no idea what a ball is, has the strangest eating habits I’ve ever heard of, no idea what leash walking is, and not even ‘sit’. So my first-ever-dog has been interesting (and slightly exhausting) but he is learning and I am learning and he deserved a good home.

Honestly if I had it to do again I probably would not add him to the family, because it’s like having a toddler for the rest of my life my God dogs are nothing like cats, however, as an older woman living alone with the cats, having a dog is probably a good thing. Now if I could just get his prey instinct down with the kitten – I still cannot let them be together, he goes nuts and dives at it even when it’s in my arms and I’m yelling no!! – this would be much better. He’s so great with the other cats and he is not strongly prey driven given his breeds (and he shows more of the beagle), I guess it’s just that it’s so small and despite baths has such fleas (so, smell of blood). I’m hoping as the kitty Jet gets bigger – and since he’s a boy, hopefully more fierce – it will mellow some. Sigh.

PJ

(Jane) #11

Thanks for the update. I agree you having a dog is good living by yourself. Back before COVID when I travelled so much I worried about my husband here by himself since we are so isolated. No sightline neighbors and no police - just a county sherrif. So we got a dog. She is fiercely protective but won’t do us much good at night since we put her in a crate to sleep. But our sleep in more important and I could get to her in a flash to let her out as long as we weren’t surprosed in our sleep.

Good luck with your pupper. They do take a lot of time and patience but they also give back much love.