Finn

Back in January a friend’s dogs had a litter. The dad is a chocolate and the mom is a black lab. Six puppies were born. Two died, one right after birth, the other three days later. Two chocolate and two black labs were left. The two blacks were picked quickly by other friends. The two chocolates needed homes and I wanted a lab. Fast forward ten weeks and Finn showed up. I got to choose between him and his brother. That’s a tough choice, but I think I chose correctly, at least I want to tell myself that. It’s always a crap shoot.

My neighbor called a friend who was also looking for a lab and he came over after I’d made my decision. He spent about an hour with the dog and he left with his new puppy as well. That ended well because I’ll be able to see Finn’s litter mate and see how he’s doing. Finn took to Fritz right after everyone had left. I pulled out my camera and shot some pictures to capture his first weekend with our family.

He sleeps and takes all meals in his crate. Last night, he whined for a few minutes but went right to sleep. We were lucky and he slept until about 5:30am. Fritz usually wakes us up at 6:30am to go to the bathroom so I’m hoping after some time we’ll all get on the same schedule. So far he’s taken to his crate and hasn’t chewed any bedding. We do keep teething toys in there with him and I did have two towels to rub on both the mother and litter mate in there with him. I wanted to make sure his transition to our family was as smooth as possible for everyone involved.

Today he’s gotten a bit more comfortable and is letting the puppy out. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a puppy and I’d forgotten how one track minded they can be. The giant feet and the floppy ears make up for the tiny little puppy teeth though. Today we’ve done some work with a few commands, he’s even done “come” at over fifty feet which really impressed me. He’s already retrieving balls way too big for his little mouth. I can’t wait to experience training him and with Fritz by my side, I’ll have an incredibly smart training partner.

Today has been full of “oww oww oww” “leave it”, and “no, Finn”. In fact I just heard my wife correcting him. He probably just went after our 14 year old cat for the hundredth time today. She’s stubborn and wants to sit at the back door. He thinks she’s a toy. No one is going to win that one. Obedience classes begin soon and I’ll be working with him daily. This dude won’t get a break and hopefully by summer we’ll have a dog on his way to becoming the next Fritz, but one that actually will go into water.