Where Have All the Puppies Gone?

Six Months

They were born on October 29, 2015 and came to live with us on December 23, 2015. They are our greatest joy.

Well, except when they want out at 4am or when they get mad at you for some perceived slight (like not throwing the ball long enough or when demanded) and they pee on the floor in front of you! The hooligans (as Dr. Boos has nicknamed them) are getting trained (again).

This time the training is local. And it goes like this.

Our deck is a health hazard. It has screws and nails popping out of old, dried out planks and the underside is full of wood rot. Our intention, when we moved in nearly 5 years ago, was to immediately replace the deck. We started to.....

Then just repaired the GIANT hole and replaced the newly leaking roof!

But now the deck is getting rather rickety and with two pups playing Ricky Racer orSumo Wrestler or Champion Ear Puller, something was going to give.

And it was not going to be the pups or us.

The removal of the old deck was scheduled to begin this week.

So we began looking for a place to board the dogs. They are puppies and bonded to each other so we wanted to be very careful where they spent the night much less two weeks away from home.


We did not want a kennel where they would stay in a concrete run or a place where they were in the kennel more than they were out of it. We also wanted a place where they had human contact and lots of supervised play time.

Now the first place one goes to when searching for something is-----the internet! The internet knows everything.

After a while this one place keeps popping up. And on its list of recommendators (is that a word?) are two friends of mine.

It had some nice features. Big play yards, human supervision 24/7 AND the DOGS and the owners had to be "interviewed" to make sure they would get along with other dogs.

So I filled out the application and immediately got a response that the trainer would like to meet with the dogs (and us) where we could see the pups interact with other dogs. So we go to a park that has a fenced off dog park. And we meet Justin.

Within seconds (well, minutes...) he has two wild and crazy puppies sitting, heeling, and (best of all) not barking at people or other dogs.

Into the dog area we go. The pups have never been in such a place and to say I was a bit anxious would have been an understatement.

And two things happened. Gracie remained shy and showed no signs of aggression. George, on the other hand, "put on the Giz"*!  He said hi to every dog and every person, played tag with any dog that wanted to play and then came back to tell Gracie that all was ok.

They were accepted to LoveDogs Camp. They spent one night there and were put on probation for barking at night.

So Justin came to the rescue. A little training in dealing with BIG DOGS and a little inclusion of their home routine did the trick. They came home the second time exhausted and filthy! Two very happy puppies!

They are now there for two weeks because this started this morning--

So, where have all the puppies gone? They have gone to camp!!!!



*Putting on the Giz is a reference to my father Harold "Giz" Gisvold. He would work a room by glad handing, chatting, greeting everyone and otherwise being a social butterfly. He descendants, even if suffering from introversion, know how to "put on the Giz". George has is down pat.