8 Our Pound Puppy

We have been talking about getting a black lab puppy for a while now, and a few weeks ago my husbands grandmother made us aware of a female lab at the county dog pound that had limited time left.  She felt drawn to this dog and that we would be a perfect fit for each other.  They said that she had been at the pound since June, when someone turned her in because they lived in an apartment and the dog had gotten too big. (Hello....its a Labrador Retriever..what were they expecting!)  She had a good temperament and is spayed, weighs about 30 lbs and is roughly 1-1.5 years old.  So after several phone calls and a handwritten letter from an sweet little Gram in her 80's (along with the picture from the paper) pleading with us to help this dog, we went to see the dog last week and we both were drawn to her. She deserved a shot for us to try and see if she could fit into our family.
For now she is being called Big Girl. (we are still deciding on which name fits her personality)

My husband and his friend picked her up from the pound late yesterday afternoon, took her to get microchipped before bringing her home. Brought her into the backyard to get used to it, first on the lead then free to run around. She sniffed around the whole circumference of the yard with my husband and left her mark a few times. Then we brought Emma out to meet her. Big Girl was jumping and excited when we both came out, partially because of me, but I know mostly because of the little dog beside me. Emma was excited and ran up to hubby, which of course got Big Girl more excited. Then Emma was like, what the heck is in my yard by my dad? Big Girl kinda jumped around a little, excited, but never growled or anything. Both tails were wagging the whole time. That is until big girl went and swatted her paw at Emma to play, and Emma’s hair stood up on her back, kinda like back the eff up! It was not a good situation, I was instantly like, take her back this isnt’ going to work.

So Emma kinda hide behind me for protection while hubs held Big Girl back. But they kinda looked at each other every now and then, but basically Emma wanted nothing to do with her, and I can’t say that I blame her. This dog is easily 3 times as heavy and 5 times as big as Emma. Once when hubby was holding Emma and I had Big Girl on the leash, she sniffed Emma’s butt, you know like dogs do, and Emma kinda growled and nipped at her and then she walked away. So that was good, and the other one didn’t seem to feel like retaliating so that was good. I didn’t see any ill intent on either of their sides, so that made me feel better. Big girl was just curious and wanted to play, Emma was like what the heck is that big thing doing on my patio!

My husband was tossing the Frisbee and she was bringing it back, she is a smart dog and really sweet. A few times she was laying on the grass with her legs sprawled out and head titled letting us rub her belly. She’s really submissive so that’s great sign I think. I think once she gets over the excitedness of a new home and new people parents, she’ll be great. Didn’t hear her bark once, just kinda tilt her ears when the neighbor dogs barked but didn’t follow thru on it.

We brought her in after an hour or so and kept her in the kitchen in a gated area, we borrowed a big circle fence from my in-laws and hubby sit with her and petted her for a bit, she leaned against me on the fence when I walked by to pet her. It was clear, she just wanted love…and I’m glad we could give it to her. She could easily jump the fence, and we aren’t giving her free range just yet, so after a bit, we sent her to her crate, which she didn’t fight us on. She was content being there for an hour or so then we got her out again and played for a bit, went potty and so on. Me thinks she was pretty warn out from the Frisbee game….she was happy to be sitting down. It was so funny at one point, she stopped panting and tilited her head, my husband motioned for me to turn around...and she was staring out the backdoor...listening to the crickets!  It was adorable!

We heard no whining at all last night. Didn’t hear a peep from her and she didn’t mess in her cage so that’s awesome!  This morning, I let Emma out to go potty and brought her in, then got Big Girl (who was wagging her whole cage with excitement) and put her on her leash to take her out (I smelled a skunk and didn’t want her to be any part of that, otherwise I would have just let her run). She went potty I said good girl (gotta have that positive reinforcement) and she proceeded jump up on me, getting my shirt wet and grassy. With Emma, I only had to worry about maybe getting my shins wet, but this girl can put her arms on my shoulders so now I have to worry about my shirt. So lesson learned, if I am taking the big dog out in the morning, wear a smock. Had to change before I left. But when I left, she was back in her cage just chilling. So praying today goes well for hubby with the two girls getting used to each other.

We are just going to introduce them for a little bit at a time, hopefully then they will become BFF’s. She’s a beautiful dog and really sweet and I don’t feel like she would hurt Emma. She doesn’t seem like the attack kind of dog you know how sometimes you can just see that in a dog. She wanted to play and was excited to be out of her concrete cell she used to call a home. But Emma is pretty chill and used to being on her own, so it will take some time to adjust to that. You can tell from the image below, she was less then thrilled. But Emma is the alpha dog, it is her domain and we want her to be the leader and put Big Girl in her place, and I think she will be great for that.  She would have been a great mother.

So this morning, I feel like it’s going better then I thought it was when they first met, Emma was wagging her tail and whined when Big Girl started to wiggle and want out of her crate this morning. Granted they aren’t cuddled up together now, but they’ll play together one day, it just might take a few weeks. Slow and steady.

PS…I’ve never had a big dog, well we had a German Sheppard when I was little but other then that, I’ve only known doxies or beagles. So this is a big change for me and a little scary to be honest. But I think she’ll be good for all of us.

PSS…any of you lab owners out there that have any advice or training tips, please pass them along. We’d appreciate them!