Trucker, We Love You

Trucker is officially part of our family, if there was ever any doubt.  He is calming down and it really hasn't taken that long.  He came into our family five weeks ago, tomorrow. 

Someone told me the other day that everything takes time and everything is new to him.  I believe we were talking about the Invisible Fence.  We still don't have him trained on it.  I was lamenting this fact, when she said "everything is new, his food, his bed, his routine, everything."  And she is spot on.  How would I adjust if you picked me up and plucked me down into a new family, new town, new routine, new food, new place to sleep?  I can tell you this I would do a lot more crying than this little dog has done.

As far as behavior goes, he is doing really well.  When he gets bored or if he hasn't had a super long walk in a couple of days he will start retrieving things for me.  But he has actually been very good of late.  He is such a gentlemen when meeting new people.  He sits immediately.  Except for my neighbor who he jumps up on.  I think it is because he smells her Newfoundland whom he is dying to meet.

So everything is going good and the other day I stopped by Pet Smart and bought some more food, some treats, and a Nylabone.  All perfectly reasonable purchases for a dog owner.  Trucker has a stuffed pig that after five weeks, finally started have his stuffing pulled out.  So I decided that surely Trucker could have a chew treat.  With Trooper we never would have bought him an edible bone, he would have devoured it in five minutes and for one that is expensive, but also a bit dangerous on his tummy, at the very least stinky (doggy gas is yucky).  But Trooper also tore up everything immediately.  He really didn't have a ton of toys because he shredded them in literally five minutes.  The only toys we could give him were food puzzles (like a Kong or a food ball) and he also had a Galileo Nylabone that I believe may have been made out of concrete. 

So I bring this seven inch bone home, it is supposed to be chicken flavor.  I avoid duck flavored things and rawhide because they are known to make Golden's gassy.  Around 3:00 PM when Trucker is perking up from his midday nap, right around the time he starts barking at passersby.  Perfect timing.  Except for the fact that Jac has just asked to finish his Valentines.  So I hand the bone to Trucker, he promptly carries it into the living room where there is carpet and better leverage; then head back to get Jac set up.

Five minutes (okay to be honest this could have been longer, but really no more than ten minutes) pass and I say something like "ooh, I need to go check on Trucker with that bone."  So I hustle in there and there he is smiling, no bone.  I scan the room quickly, no bone.  I look out in the foyer, no bone.  I recruit Jac's help to find it.  Jac of course knows where to look, under the furninture.  We are on our hands and knees, then I start moving furniture just in case it has sunk down into the floor and I can't actually see it when I am level with the floor.  NO BONE!

Then we widen our perimeter.  We look in his crate, we look under every piece of furniture in the house, we look upstairs, we look everywhere we can think of, NO BONE.

I go and retrieve the package out of the trash.  It says that you should supervise, well good to know.  I call the vet in a panic.  Surely a seven inch bone couldn't be ingested in five (maybe ten) minutes, even if it was chicken flavor.  After a few minutes of waiting I find out, no harm, no foul.  He will be fine.  Maybe some gas, yuk and potentially an upset tummy, vomit and diarreah.  I am prepared for that now, because of course this is  my fault.  My punishment will be to clean up what ever comes my way.  But, he must have a stomach of steel because he is no worse for wear, you would have never known that he ate the biggest bone on the planet in five (ten) minutes.

Trucker Week 1

Trucker seems to be adapting very well to his new home and family.  He is very good with kids and if I could just train him to not only pick up their toys but to also put them away, we would be in business.  This is one of his bad habits, but really for a stray he is doing great. 

He also tends to bark, but generally it is when he is afraid (loud plow trucks last night) or when he wants to meet another dog or person.  So we are working on that, encouraging him when he looks out the window with no barking and tell him 'no' when he does bark.  Sometimes you have to distract him if the neighbors dog is out in the yard.  We will continue to work on this. 

He has had several accomplishments.  He now can walk up and down the stairs, yay!  He has dropped on command a couple of times.  He almost knows 'down'.  He is getting really good with 'stay' and 'come'.  He definitely knows his name.  He shies from the beeping invisible fence.  He walks very well on leash and Jeff says that he seems to be trained to 'heal'.  He hasn't attempted to get on the couch or the counter for two days (we have only had him six).  He now can pee in the backyard, he seemed to only want to pee on walks which is tough. 

I felt really bad about saying this last night, but he seems to be more well-behaved than Trooper.  Trooper was really good, but some of his bad habits we were never able to conquer.  He was a freak when you walked by other dogs and even got away from  me a couple of times which was scary.  We constantly had to worry about him running away.  He would eat anything on the counter (I am sure Trucker would also), and even lit the stove once when I forgot and left brownies on the back burner.  He didn't burn down the house or light himself on fire, but he did melt a perfectly good teapot.  Trooper jumped and was aggressive on meeting new people and dogs, and I hate to say it, but he was a humper.  Trooper also ripped to shreds any toy we gave him within minutes.  He would swallow whole most of them, even raw hides or toys supposedly made for aggressive chewers.  The only toy we could really give him was a Galileo Nylabone and that was basically concrete.  Oh, but I miss him..

Jeff is worried that if he is too good and when he gets older he 'won't have any personality'.  Au contraire, my friend, in personality he is not lacking!  I took him out in the snow and ran around with him, fun!  I can't wait to let him off leash in the backyard.  He is going to have so much fun terrorizing the squirrels, birds and cats that come into our yard.  Birds I like, but I could do without the squirrels, I won't comment on the cats.   He needs some neighborhood dogs to play with on a regular basis.  There are a few dogs in our extended family who he will be around several times a year, but he probably needs to have some doggy dates to keep up his socialization. 

I am now able to recognize that Trucker is a dog.  He is not my child.  He is most certainly a part of my family, but he ranks well below Jac and Mia.  I think with Trooper I always projected my human feelings on to him.  For instance, if he was begging I thought I would hurt his feelings if I didn't give him something.  That is just crazy.  If anything he would respect me more and consider me alpha if I didn't hand over the biscuit!  Poor Trucker, he is getting the raw end of the deal with a more mature dog owner.  But hopefully this means we can let him off leash in the backyard soon and he will be able to go to more doggie friendly places than Trooper.  In the end he will not miss the biscuits, or the hamburger or the cheese or the carrots that Trooper used to love.

I will give you another update soon.

Things I Learned Today

Jac went back to preschool today.  When he got into the car, I asked him how his day was.  He looked at me very seriously and said, "I didn't learn anything new today".  Well, I sure did.  Here are the things I learned today.

Two parents is always better than one.  Jeff went back to work today and I am sad, because my patience was gone by 9:30. 

A dog that barks a lot is really annoying.  A dog that barks at a person walking by is understandable.  A dog that barks at a tiny, little squirrel across the street in the neighbors yard is a little obsessive.  A dog that barks at his reflection is just silly.  (This is something we are going to have to work on.)

I still have it.  When required I can still sprint with the best of them.  When new doggie is escaping out the back of the yard because he ran out the door during a confusing, too many kids not enough adults moment the adrenaline kicks in and there I go.  Although I may feel that little sprint in the morning.  No dogs or children were hurt during this little event, and no adults had to spend too much time outside in crazy cold weather without a coat or gloves.

One other thing I learned today was that there are at least three little girls who have told Jac they want to marry him.  Here is an email I received from my friend regarding her little girl who no longer goes to school with Jac but is still very good friends with him.  We have regular playdates and have gotten quite close.

So you may (or may not) find this funny.


As soon as we got home this afternoon, Jane (I have changed her name for the purpose of this blog) said she wanted to write Jac a note. She started on her own but then asked how to spell words like: marry, person, know, playdates...

The final letter reads: Jac do you know that you can marry a person you have playdates with? Love, Jane

I assumed that she had overheard our conversation about her wanting to marry her daddy and that's what triggered the note. But then during bath time tonight she told the rest of the story: Supposedly Jac told her that both Makayla and Becca wanted to marry him. And in her little mind she wanted to make it clear to Jac that he didn't have to marry a girl from his preschool that he could marry a 'person' that he has playdates with.

Poor Jac, he has all kinds of Type A girls wanting to marry him!
 
I also learned that true to his father's nature, my little boy doesn't tell me much of what goes on at school.  This isn't terribly surprising.  I am sure that by the time he is 12 I will have learned some tricks to get the information I require.
 
Trucker update:  Trucker is doing well.  He did try a little escape today, but no harm.  He needs more excercise and we are going to get him trained on the Invisible Fence as soon as possible.  He likes to bark and gets a bit obsessive about it, but if you can distract him it is fine.  I am not sure what do about this because of all the bad habits Trooper had, this was not one of them.  He still loves to pick up the kids things, so we will continue to work on what toys are his.  He is great at Sitting, we are working on Stay, Come and Down.  He almost knows his name, I think in a week or so he will have it down.  We go to the vet on Thursday to make sure what is what and get his stiches out.  I also want to know how much weight she wants him to gain.  Jeff thinks he is 63 pounds I think he is more like 56 pounds. 
 
He can only make it to about 8PM before he passes out.  He gets all sleepy looking and can barely stand up.  He will put his head on your lap or by your hand and close his eyes and just stand there.  He is an early bird and has been carried to bed twice now.

Trucker Finds a Home

Well, we are officially dog owner's again.  We brought home Trucker today from the rescue group and are thrilled.  I know you are now wondering what happened to Casey and Tia.  Casey was a big girl, she had lots of energy and never really mellowed out while we were there.  She was very sweet, but while we were petting her she picked up two or three things in the room and took off with them. She will make a great dog for people who either have older kids or no kids such that they have more time to focus only on Casey. 

Tia is a sweetheart.  After spending about 30 minutes with her I was sold this morning. Jeff, not so much.  He thought she was too laid back.  Tia and Trucker came in together as strays and they were friends of some sort.  We will never know if they met along the way or if they were in the same house or even if they were brother and sister.  I do wonder if Trucker will miss Tia and whether or not she is lonely tonight.

There were two families at the rescue looking at Tia and Casey, so that made me feel better about the situation.  We wish we could take care of them all.  There was also a sweet senior girl there whom we loved.  But we don't need two dogs at this point in our lives, but maybe someday.

After meeting Trucker, Jeff was in love.  Trucker is a bit goofy but mellowed pretty quickly.  He was very interested in checking out the room he was in but he wasn't constantly being naughty.  He definitely wanted to greet every person and dog that came into the room.  He was really good with the kids right off the bat and wasn't jumping up or in their faces.  He is a Golden, so by definition he is large but he isn't huge like Casey. 

After almost two hours at the rescue, we agreed on Trucker and were able to load him up and bring him home this morning.  So far he has paced around for several hours, barked one time at a mysterious noise in the back yard (I think he may be a bird chaser), cleaned the floor in the kitchen, tried to steal two shoes, tried to steal several kids toys, tried to counter surf once, tried to get on the couch twice, asked to play ball several times, gone on two REALLY cold walks, gotten freaked out about the stairs and tried to find the hidden passageway behind the stairs and finally he has taken a couple of well deserved naps.  He seemed thirsty, but often dogs drink when they are nervous.  He has been good about pottying outside with no accidents so far, but he hasn't asked to go out yet either.  His manners seem very good for a guy who lived on the streets for awhile.  He doesn't beg (what dog doesn't beg?).  He hasn't jumped up on the kids or us even one time.  He hasn't been very vocal at all, but that could be nerves also.  When he does get something in his mouth he allows you to take it out easily.  He walks very nicely on a leash.  He sits well, although doesn't know any other commands.  And so far he doesn't seem to be a licker.  (Sorry Bentley, he may give you a run for your money on the perfect dog award.)

He is super thin, probably 50ish pounds, Jeff said approximately 63, but I don't think he is that big.  He is tall, around the same size as Trooper but blonder.  He actually reminds us a lot of Trooper.  He has a few expressions that are the same and is the same body type. 

I know it will take a while to figure out his true personality.  But we already love him and he seems too good to be true.  I know that he will be naughty and more than likely it will be because I failed to do something for him.  I am kind of excited to get to say "Mother Trucker"! when he does something really naughty, because that makes me giggle.  But we have already joked that our "third child" may become the easy one really quick (there have been a few tantrums this evening as Jac and Mia seem to be worn out from the days activities). 

Hopefully we will all sleep well tonight.

Christmas

We had an amazing blessed Christmas. The kids were full of wonder and joy. Here is a play by play.

Christmas Eve day - My parents and sister arrived along with a dusting of snow. The sky was a steely gray and all of a sudden it felt like the dead of winter. Thanks to Jeff's dad we had a roaring fire with some lovely wood that he had brought us a week ago. Jac and Mia were wonderfully entertained by Aunt Daphne and Papa and Gee Gee. They played chase games and generally showed off for an hour or so. We had our traditional Christmas Eve fare for dinner, which are appetizers. I made meatballs and seared tuna and we had a veggie tray and a meat and cheese plate. Followed up by some Christmas cookies and chocolate, everyone was well fed.

Christmas morning - It took awhile to get the kids to bed, of course. I remember it being impossible to fall asleep on Christmas Eve as a kid. Amazingly enough, we all slept in on Christmas until 8:00 am, which is absolutely unheard of. It was lovely and eventually I had to whisper in Jac's ear, "do you think Santa came last night"? That roused him, he was going to go straight downstairs but I told him to wake up Mia.

The two of them carefully walked downstairs, unsure of themselves. They came into the "cars" room (we call our front living room the cars room) and saw all of the presents. They were a bit overwhelmed. They got over that pretty quickly and wanted to dig into gifts. We all got into it and it went pretty quickly. There wasn't a huge amount of coaxing in order to get them to open their presents. They got hung up on a couple that they wanted to check out, I believe Jeff had to read one of the new books to Mia before she would move on. All in all, it was a wonderful morning.

Jeff and I went to noon mass and it was wonderful. We were able to find a seat easily and the contemporary band made the music beautiful. The snow was falling pretty fast while we were out but not enough to accumulate. For Christmas dinner, we had ham and cheesecake for dessert our Carey family tradition.

All in all we had a fantastic time with our family and a wonderful Christmas. We are so blessed to be able to provide what we do for our family and it is overwhelming at times to realize that many are not this blessed.

Over the weekend we were able to spend a couple of days with Jeff's family also. We had some very interesting conversations that I will be thinking about for awhile. We exchanged gifts and ate well. Jac and Mia love playing with their cousins and try and keep up with all the older kids. I do hope that your Christmas was wonderful as well.

Update - We got our electric fence fixed yesterday for a very reasonable amount. Our collar works and I got a quick lesson on how to train for the fence. Jeff talked to the manager at the rescue group and he asked if we would be interested in taking Casey for the weekend, as her foster family is out of town for the weekend and she will be boarding at the rescue. We of course are very interested and so will probably have a furry guest for the weekend! She does have to go back to the rescue next week to finish her heartworm treatment and we will still need to have a home visit. But all in all things are falling into place very quickly. They would like to see Casey with us as she is a good fit for our family. I have a feeling that after the weekend we will all be madly in love with Casey.

Update on the Pet Situation

I'm back! It was a wonderful holiday and so much fun and love was given and received. It was nice to see most of our family and spend a lot of quality time talking and playing games. We can talk about all of that later. Right now, here is an update on where we stand with the dog situation that I wrote about before Christmas.

Jeff and I tend to procrastinate, or at least it may look like procrastination from an outsider looking in. However, once a decision has been made we both go forward full force. On our way to Christmas at Jeff's family we stopped at a Golden Retriever Rescue and met a few dogs. We were able to see one dog in particular that we were interested in, Casey. Here is a picture of her. Casey is a young female, probably less than two years old, they think she was probably someone's pet but they never claimed her. She came in heart worm positive and is still receiving treatment. Casey is a wiggly girl who has a wonderful thick blond coat and is just happy to see people. She was great with the kids, and it was nice to see they weren't scared of her at all. Although they did learn quickly to stay away from the tail, it can be pretty weapon like when Casey gets excited.

The first think we have to do for the rescue group is address our fence. We have an electric fence that is broken, so the company is coming out to fix it this afternoon (although now it is snowing, not sure how that works). Then the rescue has to do a home visit and make sure we aren't running a puppy mill here. We have been through all of this before, it may seem crazy to non dog people, or even non rescue people. But these dogs have been through so much and the rescue group's objective is to find them a forever home where they will be indoors and part of the family. The group wants to find homes for these dogs, but their goal is to improve the situation of the dog and ensure a good fit. For instance, they would never give us a 90 lb boy who has so much energy and muscle and needs a five mile run every day. With a four year old and a three year old, it just doesn't make sense, and they understand that the likelihood of the dog and the family being happy depends on how well suited we are for each other, versus does the dog look cute online or whether or not we always wanted a boy, etc etc. Our wishes are important but not nearly as important as the needs of the dog. If only all decisions we made in life were so well thought through with an advocate on the other end.

So after today we should have a working fence, cross your fingers. And luckily the previous owner's left all of the collars for the device so we don't even need to purchase those. Then over the weekend we will head to the rescue again to get a home visit scheduled. I hope to meet Tia also while we are there this weekend. Here is her picture. My only concern is that we will fall in love with both and end up with two Goldens. (We do have two electric fence collars!)

Ten Reasons Why We Need A Dog

There are many projects on The Carey "to do" list for 2010. But none so important as the "get a dog" item. Our first and last dog as a family was Trooper. Anyone who ever met Trooper loved him, he was amazing. He was protective and goofy; he played and was like a puppy even when he got older. He was naughty and hysterical when caught doing something wrong. He was our first furry friend and Jac still recites his name when talking about "our family"; Daddy, Mommy, Jac, Mia and Trooper. I so miss having Trooper in our family. Trooper died in April of 2008 and it officially is time to continue the dog legacy in the Carey household.

Here are ten reasons why we need a dog.

1. I don't walk barefoot in my house unless I have just swept. A dog would help with the serious crumb situation. I understand there will be hair, but at least hair is soft and doesn't stick to your feet in way that makes me want to put on a pair of socks.

2. Some friends of our recently had a break-in, information that I truly did not need to know. (I have nightmares and cannot watch horror movies, or really even scarey thrillers. So a real life horror story is bad news.) A dog is an excellent alarm system and will set my REM back on track.

3. I need a real reason to go out in this frigid weather. I would prefer to bundle up in 13 layers of clothes and blankets in front of the fire, but a dog would get my booty outside burning those Christmas cookie calories.

4. There is always someone to greet you when you come home. I love the crazy tail waggers and all the ways they like to greet me. Nothing lifts your spirits than pulling into the driveway and seeing a wet nose pressed up against the glass!

5. Dogs help reduce the risk of my children developing allergies. I think Jac is well on his way to having allergies, if he isn't already there. According to this article in USA Today having a dog in the house with young children helps boost their immune system and reduce seasonal allergies.

6. The scientists at NewScientist say that a dog is "superior" to a cat. Not trying to rile all of you cat lovers out there (sorry Teresa), but the fine scientists have proven it is true!

7. There are so many pets who have been given up by their owners simply because they cannot afford them in these tough economic times. I can give a pet a forever home and I should!

8. Mia was only 18 months when Trooper died and doesn't really remember him. I want her to have a pet to remember.

9. I need a dog to snuggle with when Jeff is out of town. The first business trip Jeff took after we got Trooper turned me into a "my dog will never sleep with me" girl to a "come here boy, come here boy - it's okay you can come up" kinda girl.

10. But the biggest reason why we need a dog, is just love. You really can't get enough love for you or your family!