It's been too long

I can't believe time has flown by the way it has. Every person in my home seems to be running a 100 miles an hour in opposite directions. The good thing is that I've get to spend a lot of time with Gunther. Working on basic obedience and just playing ball with him. Lately he's gotten very snuggly. He wants to lay his head on my arm or lap or what ever is available. Since I've stopped him from trying to get in my lap, this is our compromise. LOL. He is such a great dog. Everyday he gets sweeter and sweeter. He is exactly the dog I need in my family.

Tomorrow Gunther turns 6 months. I'm taking him to the vet to get his Heartguard and Frontline. We are looking forward to finding out his new weight. Of course there will be new pictures. I do have one that I took of him Monday ( I try to take one every Monday to document his growth.) Here it is.

This is when we first brought him home. 4 months, 2 weeks and 2 days ago.

His other love

Over the past few months I've wrote about Gunther's loves. His love of food, play, tennis balls, the shower, but I haven't talked much about his love for nap time. Finding that there is much truth to the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" here is Gunther at his finest. ;-)

Open House at Doggie Day Care

10am couldn't get here fast enough today for me. I've been looking forward to this Open House ever since I got the invitation. I've wanted to see the dog demonstrations and talking with all the trainers. Well, it was wonderful. GT, Gunther and I arrived at 10 and Gunther recognized the training room and Donna, his Puppy trainer. It was so cute. A few minutes after we got there the room was full with dogs, owners and the shows started. Seeing these dogs work was as exciting and I expected. Gunther did really well sitting there watching, but got a little nervous when the Agility group did the see-saw. It made a noise the upset him, but we took the opportunity to work with him on it while there. He socialized good with all the dogs and actually got use to strangers touching him. He kind of took up with a little girl that was standing close to us. She was a sweet little girl who wants to bring her dog to beginning obedience classes. The part I really wanted to see was the Rally obedience demonstration. This is what I would like to train Gunther for. He has the ability to do it. I just really needed to see it done and get an idea of the direction to head in with his training. Now I have a plan. Donna actually let me take Gunther through the course and of course he was totally distracted and didn't really want to work for treats since he kind of got tired of them. LOL. But, now I know that once we get through Basic and Intermediate obedience we should be ready for AKC Rally. I'm so excited.

Once again, Gunther and I have had a wonderful time at Doggie Day Care of Fayette. If you ever get a chance to stop by there, you will really enjoy yourself.

While we were playing today, Sara put in a full day at work. Clearly these two are pretty tired.

Baby Gunther

About 9 o'clock I hear this call "Mom, come here, you aren't going to believe what Gunther has done now." So I came running, with camera in hand. LOL. Here he was in the middle of the living room with his blanket. Now, he had to get the blanket out of the crate, pull it to the middle of the living room ( about 5 yards) and then wrap up in it. He was so cute. Laying there looking like a little puppy again. (at least in his eyes) I've seen him roll around and wrap himself up while he's been in the crate before, but in the middle ofthe living room was just too damn cute. 

It's all about the tennis balls

This is the king of chasing tennis balls. Tennis balls have become his passion. LOL. The dog has not met a tennis ball he didn't like. Over the past few weeks since it's been pretty nice outside, Gunther's love for chasing tennis balls has grown., maybe I should call it an obsession. He walks around nearly all the time with a tennis ball in his mouth. The good thing about it, is that I have tons of tennis balls around here. My daughter was not far from becoming a professional tennis player. A shoulder/elbow injury brought her to a point of choice, now we have tons for tennis balls for our little guy.

One of Gunther's favorite things is have an audience watching him, and GT is perfect for that. When I'm in the office or not available GT works with The Gun-Man and has done a wonderful job with him. From the spot where they are at in the picture, GT can throw the ball to the far corner of the property and Gunther can get a pretty good run in. They do this every day. I think Gunther would stay out and chase the tennis balls 24 hours if he could. A lot of times outside Gunther will have two tennis balls in his mouth. That is hilarious. I've tried to get pictures of that but he just moves too fast for my camera. I'll keep trying.

Gunther has a doggie friend who loves tennis balls about as much as he does. My X's, German Shepherd, Freya. She is 9 years old and really enjoys running with Gunther in the backyard. It's funny the competition they have with each other. They both see how many tennis balls they can fit in their mouths and then kick the other ones around like they are playing soccer. Gunther now stands taller than Freya. I told her one day this little puppy would be bigger and faster than her, and she's finally getting it. She really moves to get to those tennis balls, because she's learned that Gunther will get there first with half the effort. LOL. The next nice weekend, I'm going to get the video camera out and get movies of them playing. I don't have that many movie's of my German Shepherd that passed in October, and I really wished that I had. So lesson learned.

This picture of Gun's butt is because of the story I'm going to tell you. This morning coming up to the living room area, I looked over at the couch and seen Gunther's butt over the arm of the couch. He had gotten stuck climbing over it. Well instead of trying to get off the couch or finishing the getting up there part, he just stayed there, with his butt in the air, legs pulled up like frog legs. I wondered why he was just staying there, and then I seen he was chewing on his kong toy. So it really didn't matter to him that he was stuck .LOL. By the time I got the camera, the moment had been and gone. His hind end runs by a different set of rules, I'm beginning to think. LOL

In closing I want to mention quickly that my thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost their dog companions because of the tainted Diamond Dog food. There have been several in GA. It's terrible and I feel very sad for them. When you are doing the everything you can for your dog, and something like this happens it un-nerves you to your core. And then for it to happen during the holiday season, is awful. I hope in time that they will heal from this sudden hurt.

Blessed be

72 pounds

Gunther turned 5 months on the 1st. So it was time for his Heartguard and Frontline. Off we went today to the vet pick it up. Since we pick it up monthly he gets weighed every time. Today he is a bouncing 72 pounds.

Saturday we had a little surprise. Gunther and I got to visit with Jay and Gunther's dad, Sarge. Since I didn't know Sarge was going to be there I didn't have my camera with me (extra camera is in the car with new batteries now) I wasn't able to get any pictures. I am still kicking my self for it. Anyway, I am hoping that next month when Gunther turns 6 months that I can get some picture of them together. It was amazing seeing them together.

Update on the food switch.
It seems that Gunther does not have a sensitive stomach. He adapted really well to the new food and it seems to be agreeing with him. Yea the food is a little pricey, BUT, to me it's an investment into the health and well being of my dog.

New photos coming soon!