The AM Forum

After being dog-less for 4 years we brought home a new German Shepherd puppy, Cheyenne, Friday.  She is working out well but it is like having an infant with the body of an eight year old.  Yesterday in less than 55 seconds (the time it took to warm my coffee in the microwave) she had removed the 4 keys surrounding the pointer button and the button itself from my Dell laptop and set the Windows background photo to a Zenith solid state TO.  Fortunately no damage to the pup or the laptop but it was a good reminder that it is much more difficult to puppy proof a room than child proof it.  

In a couple of weeks she will be much easier to handle but at just over 6 weeks she is already just about perfect with  house breaking and sleeps in her training crate from 10:00 until 5:30 in the morning when it is time for a bathroom break.  This morning she ran down the front steps by herself for the first time, previously she was happy to climb up but not go down.  A ground squirrel was on the sidewalk and she was running "full puppy speed ahead" down the steps which wasn't nearly fast enough to catch a rodent.  I give her high marks for not leaving a trail on the sidewalk and she walked over to her usual bathroom area.  Cheyenne has made friends with two of the house cats who couldn't resist chasing her chew rope when she goes by and they are willing to tolerate wet puppy tongues.  One cat held her down last night to bathe her ears so it looks like there will be peace in the kingdom.

Cheyenne is an early birthday present to my daughter who will be 10 this month and she has wanted a dog for quite awhile.  The puppy is happy to help Anna with soccer practice and it must be working out because Anna scored 3 goals Saturday on the way to our 5 to 2 victory and I don't think the great play was solely due to the team coach (me).

Very nice. Lots of fun times ahead. Enjoy!

Rodger,

What a nice early BD present!  Its also good how seamlessly she has integrated herself into your household.   My parents always had a nice dog around as we were growing up and it has stacked up many fond memories for me.  Now that I am retired, I have often thought about getting a dog again.  My wife still works so it would be a nice companion around the house. 

Joe, GMS

11 on a scale of 1 to 10 for cute.

Dogs are great.

Rodger,

Great photos! Thanks for sharing.

73,
Brad

What a great looking pup! 

Thanks guys and I had forgotten how much fun it is to have a puppy in the house.

I admire her spirit but she is currently overestimating her ability.  While she was out for tonight's bathroom break a coyote started howling in the field to the south.  She immediately positioned herself in front of me on the sidewalk, raised the hair on her neck, and started growling.  I told her to leave the coyotes to me for awhile.  No matter how big she gets I don't plan on having her take on the local "critters". 

SMART MOVE

yup .... a good companion and company when you find yerself in the doghouse for a while for some infraction incurred from the home boss ... I might as well put in a PW rig in mine ...73

Not much room for a ham station in the dog house:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyduncFpzl4#t=22

Jim
WD5JKO

Congrats Rodger, and enjoy. Dogs are the best people on earth.

I'm still chuckling to myself....your daughter is 10 yrs old, mine is just over 10 mos. And the wife was talking about getting a beagle pup! Told her I thought one baby at a time was enough(and rapidly crawfished on my 2012 comment that twins would be cool to have). Cannot imagine doing both!

German Shepherds are great dogs and fierce protectors of their family. Fortunately they grow to something short of horse-size but they do eat a fair amount. We had a couple when I was young, I recall dad learned fast not to forget steaks on the counter after shopping.

A great companion with endless love and loyalty for your daughter, for many years to come.

Todd,

Life is about to get much easier for you, that first year was the most difficult for me.  Once Anna hit about 14 months life was good.  Prior to that going to work was like going on vacation because I didn't have to be on guard all the time  :)  I think the only real argument we had was getting her to fasten her first pair of "I am old enough to put on by myself" shoes and although she could she refused.  I finally told her that if she wouldn't fasten the shoes I was going to give them to the barn cats and the reply was a loud, "You will not give my shoes to the barn cats" and after that fastening was not an issue.

Yesterday Cheyenne was trying a test of wills with me but today she is much better.  I explained to her that although she is German my great grandfather was a Prussian army officer so I descended from the military heart of Germany and she doesn't stand a chance in this battle.

I grew up with a German Shepherd and they have always been my favorite breed.  All of them have been easy to train and I expect Cheyenne will work out well although she is the first "working line" German Shepherd I have owned.  It will be a learning experience for all of us.

Great (little?) pup Rodger!  I'm sure you will enjoy many happy times with her in the future!

73,  Jack, W9GT

ahwoooooooo