We are exhausted!
We are a busy family with a crazy schedule at times, but somehow it doesn’t seem exhausting. Seems okay…actually a lot of fun. But three days ago, we bought our first puppy (mind you, both Brian and I did NOT grow up with dogs and feel completely out of our league here!). I feel like Brian and I are going to collapse with total exhaustion. What were we thinking? π
That’s right, not a single photo to show off the puppy. The puppy hasn’t held still long enough for me to even consider grabbing the camera. But this should all change soon, right? Photos to come. Details for now, she’s a beautiful Golden Retriever with BIG paws. π
I’m wondering if Andrew Niesen from LaCour is exhausted…
Andrew came up to visit our Pictage User Group
and stayed the night at our house. We had a great time together, and it happened to be the same night we got our puppy. Andrew, Airika and Gerald were all great sports about all the chaos. But the next morning he went to our Cross Fit training session with us. How’s he doing Rachel? He was a serious trooper and busted out the chin ups! Mark, you would have been proud!
But the deadline news, let’s talk about that. I’ve had my hands full with the puppy adventure at our home, and I just now got caught up on everyone’s comments the last two days. We didn’t realize the mailbox was full for the WATER themed photo contest. So Brian and I want to extend the deadline for you. The mailbox is now bigger, and if you haven’t, you can still submit your WATER themed photo contest. Just to be fair and make sure everyone gets a chance to get their image in (particularly those of you that had trouble earlier this week), we’re going to extend the deadline until this Friday at midnight PST . So send your submissions by email to contest@fioria.us. Attach your image submission as a small sized JPG.
Puppy’s nap is over. Gotta go!
Wow! A puppy! Nothing like a puppy to bring you to your knees with exhaustion. I cannot wait to see pictures.
Hi! I was just wondering how we would know if you received our photos…or more importantly, if we need to resubmit them. π Thanks!
Wow, what an adventure you’re going to be on with that new puppy! I love new puppies, plus a Golden Retriever…I can imagine the cuteness right now!
Yay for extension of Water deadline! I sent my submission in twice since I thought the first email about the full mailbox was in error!
OMG! A puppy! You guys are so brave. I can’t wait to see pics. I am sure the kids are loving it, too. MMMMmmm, so snuggly.
Congrats on your new little puppy! Boy? Girl? What’s its name?
We have a lovely Golden… he’s 4. And he did potty train fast and he’s just so sweet and lovely, but I can’t really say he’s out of his puppy stage. Okay, he doesn’t chew on everything anymore, but he’s still as playful. And super pitiful! When he meets a new friend (everyone is a friend) he acts like he never gets love and affection! AND just accept now, that you need to take him/her to the groomers. NOT TO GET SHAVED, but that fur is something else when they shed! Going to the groomers regularly really keeps the sweeping and vacuuming down a lot!
Have fun!
Andrew is still limping around the house like an old man π
You guys wore him out with that workout! Mark was over at our place yesterday asking Andrew about how many chin-ups he could do. LOL.
Rachel
Not fair, Me Ra! You can’t tell us that you got a Golden Retriever puppy and NOT post pictures!! I grew up with Golden Retrievers. You need to take pictures every day – they grow up faster than babies!!! I agree about the groomers – don’t let them shave your goldie!
Best toy for a golden retriever EVER (besides your kids) – put a tennis ball in an old tube sock and tie a knot in the middle.
Has Brian notified The Chosen Ones about forum beta access yet? π
Have fun with puppy time!
i hope it’s ok….but i’m going to show off pics of our puppy….i got nostalgic from your post.
and then here he is a little bit bigger with the kids (pre mags)
good luck with your dog….that’s good stuff.
puppies are actually the devil in disguise… they’ll give you hell for awhile – hang in there. Im sure the kids will help out a lot though.
Thanks for the new deadline! I’ll try to send mine again and can’t wait to see what people come up with!! π
A Golden Retriever puppy??
Super cute but a puppy for at least 2 years.
Puppies are like babies. cute but take a lot of work.
Take thee to puppy class.
The whole family must be involved.
And the hardest thing to do is NOT to let bad behavior happen at the beginning because it is cute.
When your dog get to be 80 lbs and you don’t want it on the couch anymore and he goes “WHAT!?!? I can hang on the couch!”
It will be nothing but trouble.
Cute trouble today because BIG trouble tomorrow.
Oh, and congrats! You will wonder how your family ever got along without him!
Can’t wait for the photos!
Can’t wait to see the new baby! If you didn’t get an email stating the box was full, I guess that means you got it? I’m sorry….I probably filled your email box with my submission. I forgot to resize my pic. My bad.
*blushes*
Oh wow! I know this story all too well lol. We just got our GoldenDoodle (half Golden Retriever half Poodle) a couple months before Matt left. I don’t know what we were thinking!! My oldest is a dog fanatic and we recently lost our beloved family dog so I hate to say it but he was kind of a replacement. I was so NOT prepared for the puppy phase again! He’s now 7 months and he is a big HUGE furball! He listened to my husband but does not listen to us girls at all…he is Mr. “Alpha” around here! I can’t stress enough what Mia said, a class, an at-home trainer (such as Bark Busters etc) is a MUST! Or you will be looking at each other with tears in your eyes a few months from now saying WHY?! and now WHAT?! BUT this is the perfect age for your kiddos to have a pup. Especially Pascaline, I know my oldest loves being responsible for “her son” as she calls him (though my youngest tells me on a daily basis she wanted to get a little dog lol!).
Just remember, the puppy phase doesn’t last forever and if there’s a problem with the puppy, it’s usually something the owner isn’t doing right. Also highly recommend crate training, it’s worked for us…
Congrats on the new addition to your family!!!
p.s. Can’t leave without mentioning how important it is to keep the Golden’s ears clean. Ours loves the water but has already had 2 ear infections in his short little life! Hopefully this will save you an unnecessary vet bill!
http://www.ehow.com/how_2352781_do-golden-retriever-ear-cleaning.html
i guess you can’t post pics of our dogs on this blog….so i’ll just say…congratulations. good luck with the pooch. π
New puppy, eh?
I think I’d rather have a fourth child. π
Good luck and can’t wait to see pics of it with the kids!
New puppy, eh?
I think I’d rather have a fourth child. π
Good luck and can’t wait to see pics of her with the kids!
Oohh, Carrie H is right! Our goldens used to get lots of ear infections too if we didn’t clean them regularly. Poor things, and they just LOVE the water!!!
Pictures, pictures, before an angry mob storms the blog. π
A puppy or a newborn baby — which is more work? You decide! Love you!
Okay, I promise! Photos of the pup go live on tomorrow’s post. Your tips are super helpful, Brian and I feel like the serious new kid on the block and wonder what the heck we were thinking! We are doing the kennel method, so she sleeps in there at night and during her naps. But we can’t get the potty training thing down yet. Any ideas on that? We were told from the seller to put Cedar Chips down outside in a certain spot. So far, she goes everywhere but that spot. HELP!! π
kennel method works. stick with it. golden’s just want to please you….so use lot’s of praise. they want to make you happy. good luck!
Regarding the potty training… We have a golden and what we did was always picked her up to take her outside to the spot we wanted her to go. She wouldn’t wet on us so this avoided accidents inside. Always on a leash, kept to the spot and we’d say “go potty” repeatedly until she went and then praised her. Now she’s six, uses the same area and goes on command which is helpful when on a trip. Accidents will happen w/puppies but if you watch them, you can kind of tell, especially if they just woke up from a nap.
Congrats on the addition to your family. It will bring much happiness to your kids especially. Maybe the next photo contest could be kids and their pets?
So the big question? How is Prince Phillip (your kitty) handling your newest addition? Hang in there with the puppy stage, it does get better and it’s worth the love and loyalty you will have for years to come. Congrat’s on puppy lovin, potty training and some sleepless nights.
Our Golden, Paddington, goes in the same spot in the back yard. When he was a pup we took him out there and said, “Hurry Up” and every time he went potty we cheered and said, “Good hurry up!” each and every time he went. We’d get all excited and showed him how proud of him we were! He loved it.
This may sound yucky… but, we also put some of his poop where we wanted him to go. Gross, but it worked. He was trained super quick.
We also didn’t have food and water out all the time until he got the potty training down. It’s just like with kids… it’s harder to hold a full bladder. After he drank we’d go outside to his spot and say, “hurry up”. After he had a playing session… before he fell asleep… when he woke up… we’d go out again. You got to catch ’em before they have an accident.
Okay I just read Susan’s post better… OOPS! It took me too long to delete my post… We use, “hurry Up!” because we call Paddington “Paddy” and that’s too close to “Potty” Ha! Could you imagine!
Haha. We had a great time with you guys and love the new pup! She’s a doll. Thanks for letting Andrew crash at your place! π
It was great to meet up with you again!!
Melissa and I are definitely going to try and make it to more of the pug meetings π
I just finally signed up for ShootQ yesterday!
Can’t wait to get it going π
Grace&Peace,
ross.james
Very nice post. I’m finding out more about how to potty train my toddler from reading the info on your website, then I’ve ever did from the advice given to me by my own grandma. Hope it’s ok that I share this post on Facebook?