Our dear old German Shorthair finally crossed the rainbow bridge. We had to euthanize him a little more than two weeks ago. He had stopped eating, showed zero interest in things he used to love, and was withering away right before our eyes. He passed at the end of his sixteenth year.
And you know what? I'm at peace with it. He lived a long and good life. He had a lot of fun. He pointed a lot of birds, ran for miles and miles with people he loved, and enjoyed outings at the beach and trips to the woods for hiking. He had a really good run.
A few days after his passing, I began the search. Our next dog.
No puppy can replace a deceased pet, but it's more pleasant to laugh at a puppy than to weep for a loved and departed pet. On Monday, we drove to Illinois to purchase and pick up our wonderful new dog, a 17-month-old male Brittany puppy named Toby. It's Thursday, meaning we've had him for approximately three days (the Monday doesn't count as we were on the road til late in the evening).
In that time, he's stolen a stick of butter off the counter, made off with a tub of spinach dip, dunked his nose in an unguarded glass of milk then dribbled it all across the kitchen, tore into our laundry basket, nearly overturned a table in a wild dash to catch an imaginary chipmunk, overturned a few bowls of water, dug a hole in a garden pot (again trying to catch the elusive chipmunks), and just now flipped over the bird bath. Plus tracked a boatload of dirt in on muddy paws.
I typed all of that while laughing, might I add, at his silly puppy antics.
Over the years people have asked me advice about puppies from time to time and I always warn them that puppies can be a major headache. If you want a pristine home and have no sense of humor, you have zero right to a puppy. I'm sure plenty of puppies wind up in shelters because puppies do stupid puppy things. And yes, even at 17 months of age, Toby is a puppy. A really big puppy, but a gangling pup nonetheless. He makes mistakes. He can't help it, he's learning. And he's smart as a whip...it won't be long until he's a reliable, sane adult.
But until then...he's a puppy.
Sometimes I think people forget that puppies aren't just cute, cuddly balls of fluff. They are thinking, feeling creatures that, like babies, do silly and even downright absurd things. And they want entertainment. They want to have fun! Until they know what is and is not appropriate fun stuff to do, they will probably do a veritable cornucopia of absurd, dumb puppy shenanigans.
I'm not saying, don't train your dogs. By all means, when you catch your puppy doing naughty things, correct them appropriately! Naughty puppies often grow into wise adults with proper schooling. But don't get angry. Getting angry is probably the worst thing you can do.
Angry people who get inappropriately angry at silly puppy stuff often make skittish, mentally damaged adult dogs.
Right now our Toby knows the word "No" and respects it, but he doesn't fear it. A moment ago, as I sat here typing, he tried to stick his nose in a bowl of popcorn. I casually said "No" and he removed the nose. I gave him one of his cow knuckles instead and told him he's a good boy. He didn't flinch or shy away when told "No." I didn't need to yell, I didn't need to be angry. And it wasn't the end of the world for him. He was denied popcorn but got something he'd rather have anyways. It's a win-win!!!
Likewise, please don't yell at your dogs when they've done something wrong but you didn't catch them in the act. When we discovered the plant pot digging, it was already over. So we laughed about it and I took pictures to post on my Facebook. Nobody yelled at the dog because it was done. Over with.
News flash: puppies don't remember things the way humans do. Yelling at Toby after the fact would have only conveyed to him that his humans are randomly angry and mean. He wouldn't have connected the punishment to the crime in any way!
For some reason this myth persists, even when all empirical evidence shows that dogs don't make those associations. It's even worse for people who are housebreaking a puppy...somehow, people still sometimes believe that you should rub a puppy's nose in urine to "teach them a lesson" when you find a puddle on the floor.
Another news flash: this merely tells puppy that his or her human is a psycho and a sadist.
Furthermore, if your dog pees in the house, it isn't your dog's fault. I promise you, if your dog pees in the house, it's the fault of the humans who weren't supervising well enough or who didn't let puppy out often enough.
Fortunately for us, Toby is past the puppy housebreaking thing. But we also supervise the heck out of him right now, because this is a new house and accidents CAN happen!!!
In short, if you are getting a puppy, don't expect it to be all rainbows and sunshine. Puppies do puppy things. They chew on stuff, they play with stuff, they dig and romp and do stupid puppy stuff. If you can't handle that, don't get a puppy!!! It is perfectly acceptable to get an adult...but if you are buying a dog it may cost more, and appropriately so.
Sorry for the disjointed blog, I'm currently the one supervising our rambunctious charge. He has such joie de vivre and is so full of mischief! It's fun and refreshing. If it was anything but, then it would be wrong of us to have this puppy.
Pardon me, I have to go pry the dog out of a flower pot again!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment