« Introducing the Jones Family | Main | Training the Dog » Baxter Jones

A

s always, click on any picture to see a larger version.

Jim and I have wanted a dog for a long time. We both really like dogs. The only reason we never got one is because we lived in smallish apartments with no yard, and we knew we wanted a medium-sized dog or larger, and we just felt like there wasn't enough space for that. So we decided to wait until we bought a house with a yard. Every time we visited one of our friends or family members who owned a dog, I was kind of sad, but I knew my day would come soon. People seem to think it's weird that we own cats and we wanted to own a dog too -- I guess most people think you have to be either a cat-lover or a dog-lover, which I don't get. I like animals, period. Cows, horses, pigs, dogs, cats, even birds and fish. I love my cats very much, but I wanted a dog too, because I knew owning a dog would be a different experience. Although Roxanne is a lot like a dog, I'm finding. She's very attached to me, outgoing, seeks out affection all of the time, doesn't get spooked like most cats. So I guess getting her was good practice.

As most of you know, we bought a house in March. We wanted to give the cats a little time to settle in before getting a dog, because we didn't want to totally upset their worlds. As time went on, I decided that I'd like to wait until August to get a dog. I'm done with teaching until September, so I have more time to devote to getting the dog acclimated. I started doing research online and I found an organization that puts dogs from shelters and rescue organizations into foster care while they wait for adoption. I thought this sounded like a perfect situation for us. We could pick a dog that had been in a foster home with cats, and that way we would know that the dog wouldn't try to eat the cats or something. Plus, most of these foster care dogs were better socialized, housebroken, spayed or neutered, and had learned a few commands. I felt pretty strongly about getting a dog from a shelter or rescue organization rather than buying from a breeder. I can totally understand people's reasons for buying from a breeder -- you have a much better idea of what kind of temperament you're going to get, what size the dog will end up, etc. It's just that for me, the pros of saving an abandoned dog was greater than the pros of getting a dog from a breeder. I also wasn't married to the idea of getting a puppy. I would take one if there was one available, but I was willing to look at slightly older dogs too.

So then last week, there was a dog on the foster care website named Tucker. He looked like a good dog, and he lived with cats. I e-mailed back and forth with the lady who runs the organization and found out that he was 18 months old and lived in Painted Post, which is about two and a half hours away. We set up an appointment to meet him on Saturday, and if all went well, he would come home with us. Like I could meet a dog and not take him home. How sad would that be? Luckily, Tucker seemed to like us right away. We weren't sure if it would be confusing to him if we changed his name, but he is already responding to it, so his name is now Baxter. I don't think he had the name Tucker for very long -- maybe only the week that he was in foster care. Anyway, we piled Baxter into the car and headed home. Baxter really, really, really wanted to be in the front seat with us, but that wasn't going to happen. About halfway home, we got off the highway and found a back road, then let him exercise and use the facilities so to speak. After that, he settled in and was great the whole way home.

Once we got home, we let him play around in the fenced-in back yard for a while to get his ya-yas out. Then we let him onto the porch, where the cats could see him through the sliding glass door. They all checked each other out, so we let Baxter inside on a leash. He's doing okay with the cats. He's very interested in them, but he doesn't try to hurt them. If they run, he will chase them though, and they are starting to figure that out. Mia immediately arched her back and hissed, and took a swipe at his nose (but didn't connect). I think she's establishing boundaries. But all of the cats have places high up where they can go to get away from him if they need to. We've been working on the "Leave It" command so that he won't bother them, and that works sometimes too.

Baxter seems to like us, and seems to be having a good time. At first, he was very sluggish and didn't eat or anything. We talked to our friend Justin, a dog trainer, and he said that Baxter was probably just nervous to do anything, for fear he would do anything wrong, and described it as "the honeymoon period." Sure enough, he's gotten more active as time has gone on. He also didn't understand the concept of treats (he would put them in his mouth, carry them around, then drop them) or toys (ignored them). Justin said that's pretty common in shelter dogs, and Baxter was in a shelter for three months before entering foster care. Anyway, in the past few days, he's come out of his shell a bit more, which is both good and bad. I don't know much about training, but I've been working with him on SIT and walking on a leash properly. He does well unless he gets distracted by other people or animals, so obviously I need to work on getting him to pay attention to me when I ask for his attention. We're going to take an obedience class as soon as I can get a recommendation from my vet -- Mary also suggested one that I'm going to look into. As a first-time dog owner, I could really use the expert advice. Of course, everyone has a different training philosophy and I've already gotten tons of conflicting advice, but I'm just going to try to do what feels right and comfortable to me, as long as it works.

Anyway, so we love Baxter and I think Baxter loves us. He definitely loves Jim. He keeps coming up to him and leaning against his legs, or putting his head in Jim's lap. I think he loves me too. He is a very sweet dog, and eager to please. We think he's a Husky/Lab mix -- he's got a Husky's coloring and mouth, and a Lab's big hard head and ears. You can expect a lot more pictures/stories in the weeks to come! But I promise it won't be all about him. I do have a wedding coming up as well!