February Update

Well, February was an awful month for us.  And it has taken me a bit of time to be able to talk about it...but it started on February 2nd when we had our sitter come over so we could go to dinner with family.  Gretchen had been escaping her crate lately, so we decided to leave her in our bedroom with the door locked while the sitter was watching the kids. When the sitter arrived the kids were so excited, they were chanting her name as we all went to the front door, and I couldn't help but grin at their excitement...I didn't realize while this was happening, Liam took a detor to our bedroom to let Dad know that she was here.  That is when Gretchen got out, and she went strait for the stranger at the door, lunged and bit her!  It was awful.  I pulled her off as fast as I could, and expected to see blood everywhere.  But, thankfully the sitter was wearing a thick sweat shirt and Gretchen did not break the skin.  She did however leave bite marks, which we hope will not end up being permanent scars.  After this horrible incident, we realized that we just can not risk that ever happening again.  We have always been so careful, but now that we have young kids that do not know any better, we have lost control over the situation.  So after 2 weeks of agonizing over the decision, we ended up euthanizing our sweet Gretchen....she truly was a sweet and loving dog, but sadly she had a switch in her brain that just would never be right.

                                                   RIP Grettie

The day after we had her put down, we decided to go to a pet adoption at the Petco in Draper.  The house just was not right without a dog roaming around, and we wanted to get out of the house, just to get our mind off of it.  We had no intention of bringing a dog home unless we found just the right one, and we just happened upon a dog 'that looked like Gretchen, but doesn't bite other people'.  That is the exact description that the kids decided upon for our next dog.  Our intentions were just to look, and we had done just that.  We walked a mellow pit/shepherd male mix, and I got the info of the foster mom.  We were just about to leave after we browsed the rest of the dogs, when we saw this dog resembling Gretchen, but quite a bit smaller.  We were surprised to find out that he was available for adoption.  He was quite calm, and very sweet and handsome.  We took him for a walk, and decided we would like to have a trial week, which the rescue group offered.  In hind sight, we realize we were just not in our right mind to be making this decision!!  A few days after we got him, he stopped eating, and started throwing up.  Then he was back to normal for a couple of days, and we figured it may have been the change in food.  Then he stopped eating again, and throwing up strange red stuff, and then had dark tarry stool, which really worried us and the rescue group.  They had me take him to the emergency vet on a Sunday night about 11 pm.  They gave him some meds, and then the next morning I brought him to their vet in Murray.  He stayed there for 2 nights!  We were quite concerned about what would happen to him.  They could not figure out what was wrong?!  It really seemed serious to the point of us talking about having him cremated if he didn't make it.  Then after being there a couple of days, they told us he had 'intestinal distress', and he was OK to come home.  He has been fine since, thankfully, but he has also been showing some other behavioral issues over the last couple weeks.  We are hoping this is just young puppy behavior, and not something that is part of his breed, which we are told is an Australian Shepherd mix.  He definitely has something else in him, and we have been talking about getting a DNA test, for fun, but also so we know what we are dealing with as far as training and such.  So his bad things have been destroying two of his dog beds, and barking at the kids playing on the other side of the fence.  He needs a ton of walks and activities that keep him busy during the day or he will not settle down at night, and then becomes destructive.  He is getting neutered today, and then our next step is some serious behavioral training.  That being said, he is a super sweet dog, very gentle and good with the kids.  The kids can pet him, and he is very calm when they do, which is something Gretchen could never do.  She loved them, but was always very spazzy around them.  She always jumped in their faces, and whined when they were around us.  Dipper loves playing fetch too.  We talked about wanting our next dog to play fetch, and he does and then some!  He is also good around other dogs, he is mostly quiet unless he's barking outside.  And best of all he does not bite strangers, which is a relief and extremely wonderful considering our last dog.  

So his name...we all agreed on 'Dipper'.  The kids have been watching a new Disney show called 'Gravity Falls'.  There are 2 kids on there named 'Mabel' and 'Dipper'.  I had originally mentioned that Mabel would be a cute name for a dog, since we always have had female dogs in the past.  But, the dog we chose was not female, so we thought of going with Dipper.  It is kinda ironic too that one of his ears flops over, so it is pretty fitting.  About 2 days after we had been calling him 'Dipper', I remembered the name I wanted to give our next dog, 'Béla'...I tried it out, and ran it by the kids, but no dice...they were pretty firm with the name 'Dipper'.  Since he has been so active lately we have talked of getting him a 'Mabel' to play with.  We are unsure though, having another big dog is a lot of work, but our thought is maybe they could play and burn off their energy together, and take some of the heat off of us.  He currently is getting on average 3 good walks a day, and some play time in the yard, and even then he may still be active at bedtime!! 

So anyway, that has been the last month and a half.  Our work out schedule went by the way side for the past month or so because of all the new changes in combination with everyone being sick.  But, with all our walking Dipper, we have at least been somewhat active still.  We look forward to warmer weather, and hanging out in the yard more this year.