Hey guys! OMbeGeeeez! I am so excited to introduce you to this little guy! He’s totally taken over our lives the last two weeks, and we are madly in love with him! With no further adieu, I bring you: Jones!
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, then you’ve already caught a glimpse of the newest member of our family. And if not, here he is, freckles, beautiful eyes, white eyelashes and all! We were so lucky to be able to adopt such a good dog. So far, Jones can: sit and stay, and he’ll wait patiently after we pour his food to eat until we say “OK!” We’ve taught him to wait for us to go through doors before him, and we are working on “heel,” “get your bone” and “go to your room,” which is his kennel. He does amazing in his kennel so far. We are on DAY 14 now, and he’s already much less antsy to get out. He “goes to his room” without any type of coercing (aside from the treat he knows he’ll get when he’s there). Luckily, he never showed any aversion to his kennel, no whining or barking when we told him to go in. The husband guy and I did have a hard time adjusting to keeping Jones in his kennel while we are at work, and thus attempted to gate him in the kitchen one day. And… nope. All guilt absolved. Check it out:
We secured baby gates to both openings of the kitchen island, and well! He promptly figured out how to jump over them after we left for work. So yeah, that was the end of that. Entire roll of paper towels shredded? Check. Mail basket dumped? Check. Ball found and bounced about? Check. Grocery sacks discovered and drug out? Check. Harness attacked? Check. Jones confined to his kennel all day while we are at work? CHECK! Before you go feeling all sorry for him, just know that I drive 14 miles back home from work to play with him and let him out to potty on my lunch hour, before driving that same 14 miles back to work. And he only has to stay in the kennel for a whopping 7 hours a day (if you exclude his break in the middle of the day). Did you know wild dogs sleep in their den 16 hours a day? No hate mail, OK? Being new fur parents, we were pretty bummed about containing him. Trust me, the guilt settled after seeing the destruction he can accomplish in less than 3 hours.
Jones is a cattle dog mix (likely with pit bull, but we’ll never know without DNA testing), he was adopted from a great group called Arizona Small Dog Rescue, he’s approximately four months old and he’s super wicked smart. The rescue grabbed him from the county pound pretty quick, and he’s been neutered, immunized, and microchipped. Jones was lucky enough — and frankly, so were we — to have a foster home while he was waiting to be adopted. His foster mommy, Randi, and her family have a full-grown dog that showed Jones the ropes. And of course the humans worked with him to teach the basics. Shout out to such an awesome family for prepping our Jonesie for us! He’s quickly making himself at home, and so far he loves following me around, going on his twice-daily walks, playing with the hose, and above all, chewing on one of his MANY bones (dude can chew through a bone in epic time!). We just went to Petsmart last night, where he charmed everyone he met, and displayed how well-behaved he is at every opportunity. I feel so lucky that we found such a lover, and I hope that Jones isn’t duping me with his puppy-ness.
I’ve been begging for a puppy for three years, so I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be this boy’s mommy. Do you have a dog? Any tips? I’ve been absorbing every little piece of information I can get!!
