New Addition

Meet Chuck

Two weeks ago, after nearly 4 years about talking about adopting a dog, we finally adopted a dog. Although we hadn't really planned to adopt at this point in the year, we could resist once we met Chuck. The original plan was to wait for spring and avoid walks in -20 degree weather or during blinding snow. It would've been nice...Unlike Kelly and me, Chuck loves the snow and cold. He's a mix of German Shepard and Alaskan Husky. The Husky in him loves jumping into snow drifts and sticking his head into snow piles.

He loves to smash the ball into the snow and then try to find it

Like most adopted dogs, Chuck has his set of issues. When he came home two weeks ago, he wouldn't let us touch his paws. He's terrified of the vacuum cleaner - he can't even look at it. He's also confused and intimidated by the air vents. We've seen some separation anxiety build over the last week, he gets really worked up when we leave for work. Thankfully he isn't a chewer, doesn't bark much, and has excellent bladder control. He's torn up a bit of the molding near the front door, but that's an easy fix.

Chuck has one blue eye and one brown eye

Chuck is about 1.5 years old and still has a lot of puppy in him. He has the standard giant sized paws for a German Shepard and clomps around on them. When coming downstairs in our house he often goes too fast and ends up running to the front door. When he gets excited and runs around on the hardwood floors he usually ends up sliding all over. He's generally just a goofy dog, he fits in perfectly.

The stress of having a new dog and rearranging our schedules aside, it's been a great first two weeks with Chuck. We're working on training him. He responds well to treats when training, but we need to start moving him away from treats every time. We can touch his paws now, but he's still not comfortable enough with us to let us apply moisturizer to keep his pads from drying out and cracking. Hopefully we can get him used to us coming and going soon. Obedience classes on on the horizon, along with learning how to skijor. Next time we talk about Chuck, we'll be calling him Ellsworth, in honor of one of our favorite Deadwood characters.

Someday