New Adventures

How to put into words the last 24-48 hours......

Saturday morning, dawned with not a little bit of apprehension on my part. The excitement of getting a new puppy had started to wear off, (oddly enough, BEFORE the puppy came) and the realization of the commitment I was once again, getting myself into was starting to hit home.

"What am I doing?" 

"What if this dog doesn't fit into my house well.. again?"

"What if he's super antagonistic towards the dachshunds?" 

What if, what if, what if, what if. 

Those things can be detrimental to ones mind at times. So I pushed all that aside, and went to take the dogs out to potty.

Instagram Photos of Xander in Big Lots and panting happily at my parents house

I'd picked up Xander from his raiser on Friday night, as I wanted some company on the way down to Asheville.. but really I wanted an excuse to see him/them as it has been a while. Xander was EXTREMELY excited to see me, and gave me his special "I'm-so-excited-i-might-burst-out-of-my-skin" greeting, which his raisers tell me, is exclusive to me.  

We headed out around 8:18AM and I began the long trip, with Xander snoozing in the back. We made great time, and had some time to run a couple of errands before we headed to the meeting. Xander, having calmed down from his excitement the day before, did reasonably well as we traipsed through Home Depot, and picked up some blankets from Goodwill. 


By this point, we had about 15 minutes before the meeting started, and so we went on to the place we were to meet. 


I took no pictures. 
I fail as a blogger. 


As we know, puppy meetings can be quite hectic, and my first glimpses of David came in spurts, as I tend to focus solely on the dog I'm handling, as it prevents.. being unexpectedly jerked...grins. 

Head Shot of Sable and White, David and his floppy left ear :)

I'm quickly discovering, that collies tend to "talk" when they are excited, so when the group separated for this particular outing, (to get the dogs un-focused from each other) we always knew where Dave was. Hehe.


About 30 minutes in, my area coordinator had us switch dogs, and I got to handle David for the first time. I knew I was going to need to focus on me for a bit so we did some "Doggie Zen" for a few minutes, before moving away from the group, so we could get to know each other. 


We stopped and talk to people for a bit, then went on a practiced an abbreviated version of "Look at That", having him look towards the thing that was causing him great excitement, and rewarding him for looking back at me, with no reaction. He QUICKLY picked up this game, and we were able to successfully approach the "exciting thing" with no verbal reaction from him. 

By the time we made it back to our group, it was time to leave. One of the raiser had volunteer us to come to her house to for our "good-bye" celebration for Elvis, 16 month old, Labrador who is leaving us in about a week. 


The dogs were, of course, delighted at a rare opportunity to play with each other, and happily ran, and bounced, and rolled around. We quickly realized David + 3 THICK labs was not going to work out, so he got to hang out with the humans. Something he didn't seem to mind at all. 


Before we left, we did allow him and Xander to interact a bit, just to get the last "wiggles" out before placing them in the same car together. 


With David in the front, and Xander in the back, we headed home... 

Instagram photos of David through the day Saturday + Sunday. Sleeping, and looking at me.

Three hours + one friends house later, we again attempted to head back to Tennessee and this time, was successful. By this time, I wanted nothing more than to go home, and crawl into bed, I was so tired .. but Xander still needed to go home, so we stopped there and let Julie F. and their other dog Yoda meet David, and play a bit before heading home. 


The Dachshund + Collie introduction went reasonably well, and we introduced David to his new abode. He was thrilled with my vast toy selection (which will dramatically increase sometime this week.. no I don't spoil my dogs a bit!) and couldn't decided which toy to play with first. 

Then I got the phone call. 


"When are you bringing him over?" 


My sister Autumn, had wanted to come with me to pick him, but things didn't work out and so put me under orders to bring him by the house, as soon as I got back into Tennessee. 


Had I mentioned how exhausted I was at that point, not to mention David? 


Somehow, I summoned the strength to make one.more.trip. out of the house to allow my family to meet him. 


I could tell David was reaching his limit, as after a cursory check of the house, a sniffing of the people, mastering his wariness of these strange stair thingys, feeling proud of himself for mastering said stairs, and going up and down them at least 10 times in a row, (gasp) he went to the door and sat down. 


I feel ya bud. I really do. 

Another head shot of David, but with more of his body in the photo. He looks so solemn with his  narrow face and eyes. 

For a dog whose had an extremely busy day, not to mention week.. I was impressed with his stamina. I was watching carefully, and didn't notice any signs of stress in him, throughout the day! Excitement definitely, but no major signs of stress. 


Sunday, he relaxed most of the day while I was involved with, church and church related activities, though we did debut him in between services, and let him meet the locals. :) [I live beside my church so before we get all concerned...hehe] 


After service, my friends convinced me to go out to eat with them, and to bring David with me. 
To be honest, I didn't want to take him, as I knew he'd been crate for the last three hours, and probably wouldn't be on his best behavior, but not knowing how long we'd be gone, I really didn't want to leave him either. 

David, looks away from the camera showing off his long nose

Puppy Raiser Guilt. Text book example. 


But, I acquiesed, as I'd majorly failed to get my puppy last year into restaurants much, and didn't want to repeat the same with David. 


It was an experience, and one I probably won't repeat in this situation. [where the pup has been resting for a period of time BEFORE the outing..etc..tired puppies? Good puppies. Not so tired puppies? ......] 


These are the lies I tell myself. 


Eventally I was able to use both my hands to eat my food, needless to say we're going to make an effort to hit up more eateries in the future. :) 


After another trip to my visit my family, who had visitors, which cause much excitement in the mind of David. We headed home. 


What a day.