Saturday, June 24, 2006

Happy Harry

Harry is now a member of our little family. Right now, I'm too tired and sweaty to take pictures of him, but soon enough I will. Once I've rested and eaten and showered and feel human again.

He REALLY surprised me. He isn't half as spaztic and hyper as I espected and he made absolutely no attempt to chase my cat. In fact, I think she hurt Harry's feelings. She tried to attack him twice, and Harry is now afraid of her. My cat is extremely small, most people think she is a kitten, and she has no front claws and very few remaining teeth. Yeah... real prize fighter. lol But, Harry is a gentle sort. He also loves to run and play, much like any dog.

He is supposedly already house trained, but he already disproved that. It was right after Sheba ambushed him and chased him off. I led him right into it, accidentally, so perhaps he was just upset. He loves the pen that we picked up from Dad's today. It's huge. I think it's about 8 foot by 10 foot. He especially loves smelling EVERYTHING by the side of the road on our walks, though (as one would espect from a Harrier). He wont be in the pen often, though. Only as much as he wants to be, probably. He does well indoors, even locked up in the bathroom (we tested that earlier today for about 8 minutes and he was very good). He's in there again, now, and I will probably leave him in there for 15 minutes this time. I just want him to learn that lock-up and relax time is ok, that he can count on me to come back to him.

His temperment is surprisingly great, although he isn't much into toys. He has no real training, though. And since we are starting with a dog who has probably had a youth devoid of intelligent interaction/training time, it may be a real challenge to train him. We experimented a little today, mostly to see how quick he'd pick up on things, and it looks like it will at least start out quite slow. But, once he gets the idea of training time in general, and that I am wanting him to think, it may get easier from there.

How do these posts always end up so long?

Short version: I got my dog. :) He seems to like Stephen and I and his new home. I still think it would have been MUCH easier to get a puppy and start him off right from the beginning, but that's ok. Stephen doesn't really like puppies, and I know they can be a huge hassle.

1 Comments:

Blogger Carl V. Anderson said...

Puppies are indeed a HUGE hassle! Glad you got your dog!!!

1:40 PM  

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