Why mean puppies? Because of the original "mean puppy" - our dog Mako. When Mako was a puppy he had a colicky hour every night when he'd run around the house as fast as he could. Fortunately he was a little pup back then and not the 50lbs of canine he is now. Also we're thankful he outgrew those tendancies!
People always ask me what kind of dog Mako is - and as you can tell - he's a black dog. He's also a very smart dog. He knows several words (such as kitty cat, hot dog, and meat). We discovered that it really helps for your not-small, occasionally hyper dog to know an assortment of tricks. Mako can sit, lay down, roll over, chase his tail, wave, high five, and beg (sort of).
Mako has also taught me the value of non-verbal communication. He has some strange way of communicating with us that I'm not sure I understand. Sometimes he just comes and looks at me or Rob and you can tell he needs to go outside, or he might give a look that says, "Did you realize that you picked up my dish to keep the baby out of my food yesterday and I haven't eaten in 36 hours?"
I'm also impressed and surprised with the relationship Mako seems to be building with Caleb. He lets Caleb jingle the tags on his collar and sometimes use him as furniture to cruise around. Caleb laughs and smiles when he sees Mako. I think they have some sort of secret pact - I catch Caleb slipping him cheerios from time to time.
Cheerios now...vegetables later.
ReplyDeleteMy husband's parents had a dog when he was born, and that dog adopted him as her own and was so protective of him! If I knew whatever dog we got would be like that with Abby, or at least as tolerant and gentle as Mako is, I'd be more interested in considering getting one. At this point I'm thinking it would be better, though, to wait until Abby (and whatever subsequent kids may come along) is old enough to take responsibility for it--and to know how too treat an animal instead of hoping the animal is okay with being a toy for the kid. :)
ReplyDelete-Alison
blog.alisonstrobel.com
Just based on my experience with dogs, I think Mako is the perfect age for introducing a baby. He is past that nipping, chewing, "unpotty-trained" stage and not old enough to be annoyed at every little change in his surroundings. I've had friends who have gotten a puppy around the same times as they have had a new baby and I pity them. Training a puppy is like having a mini-newborn. They need some supervision and a lot of patience and a little more attention than a grown dog.
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