Meet Henry.

I picked up my sweet puppy in central Minnesota and drove him home late Friday night. It turns out he enjoys audiobooks and is a good little traveler.


We've been busy this Memorial Day Weekend with potty training, crates, chewing, getting used to a halter and leash, going for short walks, and lots of sniffing and exploring. I think my little guppy is adjusting quite nicely. He's met a few neighbors and is a big fan of my sister. He likes to listen to me read aloud and he's a is soothed by country music and talk radio. Also, by default, this little cubby is a Bears fan.

Would a dog by any other name...

...still bark the same?

Here are a few of the names I've considered. At one point I'd narrowed it to
Henry
Scooter
Rocky

However, this last week I tried one more time to find a few so I would have the just right name...
I've narrowed to the following:

Rocky

Henry

Scooter

Cubby

Bear

Barkley

I'm hoping when I meet my lil guy, I'll just know.

Countdown.

'Til the end of school? Sure.
But even more importantly, 'til I get my dog.
Yep, I decided on a breed. And a breeder. And now I just need to decide on a name.

This is my little guy at 4 weeks. He'll be 13 weeks old when I get to bring him home.

Through this journey I've learned a few things about breeders and breeds, gender, and training. Now, I get to put it all to the test. I've loaded up on puppy gear and yet, I feel like I'm cramming for some test.


I am wanting to read as much puppy training stuff as possible before he comes home. I suspect, in the end, we'll just figure it out together.

Here are the two training books I've spent the most time reading:
The Other End of the Leash by Patricia B. McConnell
The Art of Raising a Puppy by The Monks of New Skete

Mission Accomplished

 I decided last fall this was something I should do and after some persuading I suckered some of my colleagues into joining me. I figured a marathon wasn't too much if we divided the work by four.
Then I planned to do a lot of training so I'd be ready.

 

Here we are post race --Our team name "That's What She Said."

I ran the second leg -- 7 miles.  It wasn't a "fast" run, but it was done without stopping to walk which was all I really wanted.

Instead of months of training I will admit we spent most of our time designing these dandy shirts and building our playlists. I did two races before this one -- The Frozen Feat and The Diva Dash. Both were 5ks in which I beat my time here by running faster but walking part of it too. I really want to be able to both run faster and not wear myself out so much that I have to walk. That's for the next race, I think.