Click above for more detailed photo
I am still getting used to having a dog in the house. I’ve grown to love it - it’s very fun to come home to a dog with a tail that wags with excitement. We’ve also experienced a breakthrough this week. One night as we were getting ready for bed, I looked at Sadie and said, “Crate.” I couldn’t believe my eyes when she quickly pranced over to her crate, got inside and then looked at me with a face that clearly said, “Okay. Treat please.”
Oh the feeling of saying a command and having your dog obey. Nothing like it.
So I’m actually really enjoying it. Except for the hair. She really didn’t shed when we first brought her home - but now it’s all over. Everywhere. All the corners are filled with it. It’s gross (but not quite as gross as Sadie’s burps recently). Last week we decided to just take a lint brush to the carpet in our living room. And you get the photo above.
Disgusting.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
a couple of tips.
they won’t shed in the winter. just make it to the fall and you’re good.
buy a cheap shedding brush and do it every other day or once a day. don’t buy a brush. but an actual shedding blade. works wonders.
and ask for a dyson vacuum for christmas. it’s the most amazing gift we’ve ever gotten. we found it on woot for about half of what they normally were one time. and if you don’t want to splurge, wait until you end up with a hair in your mouth. you’ll think again.
Dude - thanks for the tips. Tell me more about this Dyson vacuum? Model, name, etc? We have a HORRIBLE vacuum that doesn’t do squat.
haha… i just want to point out what you said a few months ago:
hehe.
and yea - i agree with josh - buy a shedding blade.
You know, when I first glanced at the photo, I thought it was a Jackson Pollack art piece. It could probably pass for a nice “mixed media” composition? :)
Adam,
She may be burping because she is eating too quickly. Try this…take a large bowl and put a smaller bowl upside down inside it. Then, put her food “around” the inverted bowl. She will eat more slowly. If, after a couple of days this helps-that was the problem. My Leroy eats like this every day-DUDE he’s a hog!
Man, frame it, it looks like an early Jackson Pollock piece.
The other thing you can do to slow down eating is to give her her meals in a Kong. Get a couple of the big ones (If you don’t have some already — you probably do, esp. since your crate-training her. Kongs and crate seem to go together.) You could also switch her to a raw diet … Google it. That will actually cut down on her burbs AND her shedding … high-quality food will do that whereas kibble tends to lead to a less-than-healthy coat and gassiness.
And there you have reason #47 as to why dogs are a lovely way to experience ALL the aspects of parenting without the full responsibility. 47a. They are cute. Even when they are not (and not all kids are cute–beloved children of God, yes, but cute, no…), God implants something in parents that make them think that even the ugliest kid is actually rather cute. 47b. They are messy. But your love for them is so overwhelming that you not only learn to clean up their miss, but you learn to overlook their mess. 47c. They are sometimes obedient–but don’t get used to it. Shadow was like that as a puppy, but now she’s a year and a half…she’s learned that life is about more than treats, and that basically her good life goes on whether she does what we ask her to or not. Much like a teenager. 47d. They are gross beyond all measure at times–seriously. And after enduring three boys for all these years, the strange thing is that much of what I used to call gross, I now think much of it is just as funny or fascinating as they do!
The difference, really, is minimal. If you put a kid in a crate every night, or left him in one while you went about your own business each day, you’d be arrested.
Not sure what yours and Sarah’s hopes are about parenting, but a year in the Village and now a dog…if and when the day comes, you will be much better prepared, my friend. :-)