Week 6 - Garth's first day home

LEFT: Robin & Fred   RIGHT: Me & Garth

My mother-in-law Robin accompanied me to pickup Garth from his foster home.  She was adopting the runt of the litter, a sweetheart named Fred.  Fred and Garth were polar opposites.  Fred would snuggle up in your arms, and gladly pose for pictures with his new family.  Garth just wanted to play, and showed no interest in holding still for anyone.

Garth was not only more rambunctious, but more brave and outgoing in general.  Poor little Fred cried all the way home, while Garth seemed content to explore his crate.  I was happy that Garth took well to the car, because we are a travelling family and car-riding is a must.  When we arrived home, Garth pulled forward on his leash, exploring his new backyard.  Fred sniffed a little, but preferred to stay near Robins feet or preferably in her arms.

Given my observation of their little personalities thus far, I assumed that my independent little pup would do fine on his first night away from his family.  I was so very wrong.  Any puppy, no matter how adventurous, will cry on the first night home. I prepared his crate with warm blankets and chew toys, waited for him to get sleepy, and gently laid him down.  To my disappointment, the whimpering began almost immediately.  Fred on the other hand, who was sleeping in the guest room with Robin, didn’t utter a peep.  I had been feeling confident that my puppy had won the adapt-to-new-surroundings race, but now Karma was giving me a reality check.

Sleeping Cutie

Garth cried all night, and that’s no exaggeration.  He half howled, half barked incessantly every minute of every hour.  I took him outside to do his business every two hours throughout the night, hoping to keep him comfortable.  (This, by the way, is why I recommend getting a puppy when the weather is nice.  Not the week before Christmas, like we did.)  The next morning, the entire household struggled to get out of bed; all of us completely sleep deprived.

“Fred was so quiet! How did that happen?” I asked my mother-in-law who then confessed to letting Fred sleep in bed with her. She immediately followed up by asking if she could do some laundry, because they had a little accident. I will say that Garth rarely had a potty accident, and I accredit that entirely to the wonder of crate training. On his second night home, I decided to only take him out twice no matter how much he cried. (After all, he was going to cry anyways.) This system worked much better and with each day the crying subsided more and more

LESSON: If you plan on using a crate, which I highly recommend, start using it day one and don't give in to a crying pup!

Garth’s first day home was a long one.  At 6 weeks old, I took him outside every hour to potty.  This ate up a lot of our day, but he did sleep about 30-45 minutes out of every hour.  The perk was that I could get things done while he slept, but the caveat was that I really couldn’t leave the house. 

Garth's first meal at home.

That first week was very rough on me, and I constantly thought, “What did I get myself into? This is way too much commitment!”  The lack of sleep definitely contributed negatively to my emotional well being. The fact that I couldn’t take a shower without running the puppy outside immediately after (wet hair and all) didn’t help.  I certainly couldn’t leave long enough to go to the grocery store or see a movie.  It was a demanding schedule, but he only had one potty accident during that first week home.

Looking back, I miss the days when he would fall asleep in my lap. They are so sweet and little, even Garth who isn’t much of a snuggler. I knew a puppy would be hard work, but I wasn’t prepared to commit 100% of my energy that first week.  But that’s what it takes in the beginning… 100% and then some.

0 - 6 Weeks

Garth's dog-mommy and litter-mates, only a couple weeks old.

A litter of six puppies had just been born to a malnourished Weimaraner, who had only recently been rescued. As a shelter volunteer myself, my heart went out to this little canine family. We could only assume that the father was the black lab who had also been rescued from the same abusive home.  (The one black pup was a good indicator!)

We chose Garth, who was the only pup with milk-chocolate brown fur.  At the time, he hadn't even opened his little eyes yet and couldn't do anything but snuggle.  If only those days lasted longer!

Garth @ 3 weeks old

In retrospect, we did a "bad" thing by choosing a pup based purely on appearance.  The babies had no personality at that point, so the selection was really a lottery in regard to temperament.  Six weeks later, Garth grew to be the largest and most rambunctious of the litter.

LESSON: If circumstances allow, wait to choose your puppy until about 4-5 weeks of age or older.  This will let their personalities develop first.

At three weeks, we got a hint of Garth's beautiful blue puppy eyes.  Many puppies have blue eyes as babies, but we secretly hoped that he inherited that famous Weimaraner eye color from his mom. We visited Garth once a week while he was still with his litter-mates.  The changes from week-to-week were amazing.  We got to see the clumsy pups learn to walk, eat solid food, and play with each other.  They even tried to play with a 9 month old pit bull being fostered there, who was amazingly gentle with them.

All of the "experts" recommend leaving a puppy with his doggy-family as long as possible, for socialization purposes and to learn life lessons.  Although they are weaned at 6 weeks, waiting until 8 weeks of age (or more) is better.  Unfortunately for Garth, his options at 6 weeks old were to come home with us or move into a metal cage in a shelter.  So we decided he was better off with his human-mommy than no mommy at all, and on December 13th we brought him home.

The Decision to Get a Puppy

Before the chew toys, the crate, the leash and collar, my husband and I had several debates over whether or not to get a dog.  I am admittedly one of those people who would like to adopt every animal on the street, but fortunately my husband helps to keep my animal hoarding tenancies at bay.  In fact, the puppy would only be our second pet.

I recently said this, in regard to the decision to adopt a pup:

For the longest time I had two voices on the issue.  The first voice, my inner animal lover, said, “You’ll be saving a life and getting years of fulfilling companionship.”  The second and more practical voice countered with, “Only when you buy a house with a reasonable yard.  No, that’s not big enough, wait until the next house and try again.”  So when we moved into our second home, the animal-lover said, “Okay, now we can get a puppy.  I’ve met your criteria.”  To which the voice of reason said, “That yard is sufficient, but now you are working very long hours. This isn’t the time to get a puppy.”  It was true, I was commuting nearly four hours on top of managing a heavy workload. And then everything changed.

My husband’s job relocation allowed me to quit my demanding job and move into a home on a 3 acre lot.  The voice of reason had run out of excuses, and the more passive animal-lover said, “It’s time!” When the local animal shelter posted newborn Labrador-Weimaraner puppies, I knew the stars had truly aligned.  (Source: Home Ec Engineer)

And so we decided to add one more to our little family.  I was excited, my husband was supportive, and the cat was apprehensive at best.  This is my record of the many experiences, emotions, and lessons learned while raising our dog.