I will never forget the day my husband called me from the bank. I had about 5 seconds to make up my mind. The big question…”I just bumped into so and so and she wants to know of we would be interested in adopting a Golden Lab/Retriever Mix puppy?” Umm, OK sounds good. You see we were getting married and moving into a new house and started entertaining the idea of adopting a dog. I knew I always wanted a Golden Retriever but my husband always wanted a German Shepard. I told my husband I really didn’t want the German Shepard. Even though I knew they are good dogs I was a little afraid of them. SO we had agreed upon the Retriever but I wasn’t expecting the call so soon. We didn’t want to miss this opportunity so of course we jumped on it. We had to wait the 7 weeks before they could take the puppy from his mama and I think that is when I had the time to really prepare myself for this new adventure. I had never owned a pet before other than fish that kept jumping out of the tank at night. I had a lot to learn and I was nervous. My husband has had many dogs before so I was confident that he knew what he was doing.
My husband picked up the puppy the same day we moved into our new house. What an experience. I would highly recommend not doing this. It was definitely not a good idea. Although it seemed like it at the time. The puppy was so tiny my husband was able to carry him with one hand. Try doing that now, he weighs 115 pounds! Getting back to the story. I had no idea what I was in store for. We set up the puppy cage and expected him to actually stay in yet. Nope. He hated the cage from day one. He would cry and cry and cry some more. He would shake the cage and chew on it trying to get out. But this is really the only way we knew how to potty train them. One day when I came home from work I actually went back in the car and drove to the nearest shopping center. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t even get out of the car. I just sat in the car and cried. What did we do? This was supposed to be great. Why am I so miserable? The puppy wouldn’t stop crying for a second. We didn’t get a good night sleep for weeks. If someone would have told me how much work a puppy was I never would have agreed to getting one.
After a few months of really regretting our decision things started to finally calm down. He stopped crying all the time and was potty trained. We were able to take him out of the cage and then seemed to help. But then the next new problem started. He began to chew on our brand new furniture we had just purchased for our house. I was ready to lose my mind and give this dog away. I couldn’t take it anymore. Well we figured out why he was chewing on the furniture. He didn’t like when we closed the front door. He liked to see what was going on outside. As soon as we closed the door he would start chewing. As soon as we opened the door he would stop. Oh Vey.
Thankfully as he got older things started to finally get better. He stopped chewing. I guess he matured and grew out of the chewing phase. I have to say that now that he is turning 6 this summer he is a wonderful dog. He is wonderful to my 2 year old son. My son pulls on his tail, sits on him, polks him in the eye, the nose, the ear,, …and Cozmo (my dog) just lets him. Even my other dog sits on him and he lets her. He is such a good natured dog.
He needs his exercise though. It is important to let them run around outside and get some fresh air. It is almost impossible to walk him though. He pretty much walks you. Even my husband has a hard job walking him. We tried hiring a trainer but that didn’t really work. We just spent a lot of money for nothing. We love our dog so much. Looking back at those puppy years though, I am not so sure I would do it again.
