Pastimes
We got Howie a year and a half ago from the SPCA. We were told he was about a year old and fully trained, very quiet and well behaved. He was found as a stray in a run down city, so they didn’t know anything about his history. When we brought him home he was freshly neutered and had an operation on his eye for a cherry eye. After a few days we realized we still needed to do A LOT of training and did not seem to be as old as they told us he was. He did okay on a leash but was not fully potty trained. It took us a few weeks for the potty training to fully catch on. We also realized he has a bent leg, so we’re assuming he got injured at some point when still very young. He absolutely adores myself and my fiancé, along with our friend who he met the first day we brought him home. He and our (male) cat play together all day every day. Due to his high energy we often have to have him tone it down a bit; thankfully the cat learned how to not be so submissive and play fight back. We couldn’t leave Howie home alone because he once tore up the carpet and wood on the floor underneath or would be extremely anxious when in a large sized dog crate. Now that he’s older he can be left alone, out of crate, able to play with the cat, for 4-5 hours maximum. For this reason, we take him to doggy day care on the weekdays while we’re both at work. There he is able to run around and play all day. When he gets home he snuggles right up with us and sleeps either with us or in his bed right next to his bed. He still requires some play time with us at night, like fetch, with soft, squeaky bone shaped toys. He’s a great watchdog/guard dog and barks at any unusual sound he hears. Even when out in public he is very protective of me, but allows a decent amount of people to pet him. If he’s not into them, he continuously barks to let them know. Cutting his nails is a process that requires a lot of strength on our part to restrict him and also a lot of training treats, as he sounds as if he’s being murdered when he even sees the clippers come out and also generally dislikes his paws being touched (he’s doing better with that). Bath time is also a struggle since he greatly dislikes water. He’s great to take on long walks but does need to sniff his entire surroundings and tries to chase the squirrels. When we take him to the beach he prefers to sunbathe rather than get within 20 feet from the water. He’s my first dog but my fiancé’s 3rd. Although he required a lot more work at first than we expected, he is a perfect fit for us.
2 years, 12 months ago