Dynamics

Quetesh and Ryker

Welcome Ryker, to the Love household!  At dinner Friday of the week I picked the sweet boy up, my husband noted that 1)  It can be hard to place a large dog 2)  It makes it even harder to place a pitbull 3)  He is a good boy and deserves someone who understands him so we should keep him.  So Ryker is a permanent addition to the family.
We started training last night and it didn't go as excellent as I expected by how he behaves on our runs and walks.  We typically have a slack lead on our walks at home.  He's been an excellent learner outside of distraction-however class was totally different!  MOM, ANOTHER DOG!!!!!!! Resulting in a yanked arm, sore hands and bruises up and down my legs and arms.  By the end he was getting the drift that this was not to be play/socialization time, but learning time.  He had also burned off a ton of energy by then so that also helped.  With the breed, it is very important that I get him to model citizen behavior due to the a-holes that judge them by their looks and media slander.  Growing up with dogs, I NEVER once had one of our pitbulls turn on me, NOT ONCE!  I had a lab turn, a shepherd, a crazy springer spaniel, but never ever the pitbulls.  Actually the pitbull was there to stop the other dogs in all of the situations.  Just making it clear that I was to be left safe.  They never attacked another dog unprovoked, never attacked a smaller animal (actually our last one, Goldie) took care of a litter of baby bunnies we were nursing.  She would get in the box with them and allow them to snuggle up with her.  When we released them to the wild, she would watch them and keep the other animals away from them.  Oh, what a vicious dog she was.  Ryker's first vet appointment was pretty uneventful besides learning he had a very, very minor case of heartworms, hookworms, and whipworms.  Otherwise, the guy is in great shape and had probably gained 15 pounds since I picked him up.  He's getting to a good weight now and eats about what he should for his age. Now we will be increasing muscle mass (hear that arms and hands!) which will be all the more reason for him to be well trained.

Ryker has fit in well at our house.  He's a puppy and wants to play right now. It's hard to get him to understand that Quetesh is old and fragile and Priya just won't have it.  We spend as much time as possible with him doing what I call intelligent play.  By this I mean using playing as a way to learn commands and to learn to control himself.  He does very well.  I like to start as early as possible with training of my dogs.  With Ryker, I've missed out on at least 7 months of training, but he's a smart guy and this will not take very long to get him caught up.  Training a pup definitely takes away from the obsession of TTC.  Nothing like being absolutely worn out and in need of a smidgen of down time to get you beyond the obsession.  We didn't get home till 9 last night, and usually I'm in bed by 8:30 so that should give you an idea of how tired I was when I crashed at 10:15-still smelling like hot dogs.  Ryker was also pooped so at least it wasn't just me!  I've been spotting the past couple of days, and had some terrible cramps this morning when I leaned up to pull the light switch.  I test this weekend (Sunday) if I have have not started by then.  Time will tell...  The worst is trying to not stare at charts.  I know we have to be getting close, I mean can this really continue this way?  I know it can, but will it?  There is no way to know the answers to these questions until life answers them for us.  What we can do now is love life, and prepare for the future (and train a puppy).