my puppy...

I wasn't blogging at the time of the new addition to our family. 

So I thought I would share the story of Rufus McFly!

(the day we picked him up)

A little history: 

I have always wanted a dog. Growing up I wouldn't leave my parents 

alone about wanting a dog. 

Every year at Christmas, they would get me a stuffed animal dog. 

Which was wonderful, but not exactly what I wanted.

{I always dreamt of waking up on Christmas morning to a golden retriever in my stocking}

Matty's family got a dog when he was just in his twenties. 

He is a dog person through and through. 

How it happened: 

We had been talking about dogs for over a year. 

Our discussions revolved around what breed would we get, puppy vs older dog etc.

Obviously I fought for a golden, Matty wanted a husky. 

We started looking at other breeds, seriously considering Bernese Mountain dogs. 

We started looking at breeder websites, and adoption websites. 

We watched Ceasar Milan on Saturday mornings just to get our dog fill. 

{yes, we are nerds}

I forget who sent the email first - but we started looking at some pictures of puppies on an adoption website (petfinder.ca)

They were adorable, I wish I had a picture. 

We started seriously considering it, and thought what is the harm in applying?!

So we did. 

Three days later we brought Mr. Rufus McFly home with us!

About Rufus McFly

He was (around) 8 weeks when we brought him home. 

He was clumsy and couldn't make it up the stairs because he was too small!

He weighed about 10lbs and was so soft. 

He is a sheppard, lab, collie cross. 

And he is just the sweetest dog. 

We think he is just over a year now.

He weighs about 70lbs. 

He is a mixture between being super hyper (especially when we go somewhere new or we have company - he LOVES meeting people and dogs) and a suck (usually after he has had lots of exercise and is rather tired)

He has been a brilliant addition to our family. 

xo.a

training day 2.

puppy school tonight. 

last week we worked on: 

• eye contact - he is getting better but still a little slow to look from the hand that gives the treat, to the eyes
• touch - he is VERY good at this and learned really quickly
• doggie zen - he is also good at this, although sometimes army crawls along the ground to get closer to the treat...not what we want for training purposes, but hilarious to watch

this week we learned: 

• loose leash walking - this is exactly what i need, as rufus pulls on the leash a lot of the time. we started with reward rufus moving when our legs move...so take one step - when he moves towards the leg, reward. we did that walking backwards, then sideways and eventually walking forward. this will be (what i think) our biggest challenge, but hopefully biggest reward with much better walks. 
• tug - how to play tug properly. we let him play, even tease him a little, then ask him to drop the toy and give him a treat. also make him wait patiently before he gets the toy back.
• sit and down - rufus is very good at sit, so we are working on down. this is standard, do the hand motion, reward when he does it. the next stage is to do that for a bit and then do nothing and see if he does down on his own. 

xo.a