Here’s Lookin’ At You, Kid

Ok, ok, I can’t go a minute longer without sharing some news with you guys.

Those of you who follow me on Instagram already know that we had an addition to our family last Thursday evening…meet Bogart!

We call him Bogey.

My long-time readers (and pals) know that this is a day I have waited for for years. Joey and I have wanted to get a dog from the moment we got married, and we finally decided to take the leap. (Year three seems like a good time to get a baby of sorts, right?)

We found him on Craigslist (that’s apparently where I find everything). He belonged to a couple who lived near us who, to put it nicely, I just don’t think were meant to be dog owners. They had purchased Bogey from a pet store, but the wife had recently become pregnant and decided it was too much for her to handle.

Now, I get that dogs are work. That’s something I knew going in to dog ownership. It’s kind of a thing with dogs — they require a great deal of effort, especially in the beginning.

This couple apparently didn’t know that. They also put very little work into his training and rarely took him outside. I know this partly because they told me and partly because the first few times we took him out, Bogart was completely overwhelmed by the outside — it was way too many noises and smells for him to handle at once.

Plus, I took Bogey on about eight walks his first day with us, and he still had energy to burn. So no walks? I can see why he was a handful.

Fortunately, the previous owners weren’t bad people (just ill-prepared) and had made sure he got most of his necessary shots and immunizations. They hadn’t gotten him fixed, however, so that’s something we’ll be taking care of in the next week or two. (He’s about eight months, so he’s definitely old enough.)

Our first night with Bogey was…memorable? All of the changes made it impossible for him to settle down, and he still hadn’t gotten a handle on where to pee versus where not to pee.

What I’m saying is, we cleaned up a lot of pee that night.

Because he wasn’t quite trustworthy at that point, Bogey was confined to his crate for the evening. He spent about 10 percent of the night sleeping (with the most adorable baby snore) and about 90 percent whimpering. The opening scene of Lady and the Tramp? That was my life. Collectively, the three of us got about five hours of sleep.

But the moment when he finally drifted off and we heard the snores? Joey and I just grinned at each other like idiots because it was so sweet.

I worked from home the following Friday so I could help him get settled. The reason we took so many walks is because (and there’s no way to say this without sounding like an UES douche bag) we’re using the Dr. Ian Dunbar method of housetraining recommended to me by one of my readers a couple or years ago. Essentially, if the dog goes potty within a few minutes of being taken out, he gets to hang out with the fam. If not, he goes into his crate from 30 minutes to an hour and then he gets to try again. It’s supposed to be especially helpful with dogs like Bogart who, for whatever reason, get nervous to pee in front of their owners or pee outside. It took me six trips to finally get him to go, but there has never been a prouder moment in my life when he finally did.

Yes, I know what I just said. I know, you guys.

So we spent the first day taking walks:

Misunderstanding the purpose of wee wee pads:

Having a bath:

Taking a nap:

And helping me work from home:

Honestly, we had the most perfect day. Bogey only had one accident in the morning, and after that we were free and clear. Our eight walks tired him out, so he was especially snuggly throughout the day. Plus, we had out first vet check-up, and Bogey was the picture of health.

Here are a few fun Bogart facts I learned in the first 24 hours:
- he is a champion fetcher — he brings everything you throw right back without a struggle
- he came to us loving wet dog food, but we’re mixing it with kibble for the health of his teeth
- he wants to say hi to every single person and dog we meet
- his whole butt wiggles when he’s happy…it might be my favorite thing in the world
- his most favorite thing is curling up in someone’s lap

Not surprisingly, I’m head-over-heels for him. But what am I telling you for? Just look at that face:

The rest of the weekend went pretty well, too. We’ve started crate-training him for when we’re not home (we fill a Kong chew toy with food and freeze it over night, then let him work on that while he’s in the crate — it keeps him pretty busy), and that’s going well. He had a couple more accidents, but most of the time lets us know when he needs to go out. We’re also working on sit and stay, which he gets a little better at every day. He’s also gotten used to the neighborhood and doesn’t act as timid outside. And we’ve all been sleeping much better now that we don’t have to keep him in the crate overnight.

As my Instagram account will attest, I really can’t get enough of him. I feel like we ended up with the perfect dog for us.

Stop Me if You've Heard This One - One girl's attempt to use her words.
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