Still here!

Whew.
Our puppies are all sold and all but one has shipped off to new homes in New Jersey,
Seattle, San Francisco, Texas and lots of other places.

I think I forgot how much work puppies are!  We had 13 dogs at our house for most of the summer.
Two words pretty much sum it up--pooper scooper!

Actually it wasn't that bad.  These puppies were really quick to learn.  They all used the dog door to go outside from 5 weeks on.  They learned to sit at the gate to be picked up or fed with very little effort.  Lots of our families were surprised that the dogs already knew how to sit.  Two families said their pup has had no accidents in the house.  Yea!  My goal was always to raise dogs the way I wish mine were raised.  Goal accomplished!

Jackson has been in an alarmingly naked streak.  He is hilarious with the pups.  When they were nursing he would crawl all around and under Paisley with the pups.  There is one picture in particular that my sister took that has my parents renaming Jackson Mowgli.

Yes,  they are all drinking out of the same bowl of water.

 He just got in there and pushed puppies out of the way and said "hey guys--move!"

I think it's safe to say that it was time for puppies to go!

We are into August which is one of my favorite times of the summer.  At least the first two weeks before football starts are my favorite. Once the actual start of school gets closer I panic for a minute.  I feel really unsettled when the kids leave.  I'm not kidding.  My heart beats faster and I get a little sick to my stomach when I think about it.

Some of our last weeks of summer plans:

Go camping with just our family.
Make s'mores.
Have a giant back to school picnic with all our friends.
Go to the drive-in--again!
Sort out closets and get school clothes ready. (okay this one is totally my goal...)
Throw away all the mismatched socks. (I can already feel the relief!)
Sleep in.

Here we go...

Oh yes.

After much discussion, debate and research...

We are now a dog family--again.

We went to check out the litter (--the fourth time for me but the first time for Rustin) fully intending to pick a cute little golden retriever female, but the dogs told us otherwise.  Actually, one little cutie in particular helped make our decision.

A cute (and big)  ivory golden retriever boy attached himself to Rustin.  It was actually really interesting to see.  The other puppies bounced around jumping on our legs and jostling to get the best scratch...  One puppy just glued his eyes on Rustin and followed him patiently.

I have to say I was  impressed with the little guy's taste--I generally follow Rustin around myself...

The clencher for me was when the little three year old grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and drug him across the floor.  He just looked up at her--not a growl struggle or whimper.

At home for the first night, Jenna has willingly taken on the roll of 'little mama.'  She is currently sleeping on the floor next to the kennel in the family room.  I have declared that we will have no dogs in the bedrooms.  It's just too messy.  And I am anticipating Golden hair...

There was a little whining in the crate tonight at first but I snuck my hand in the side door and scratched his soft puppy hair until he fell asleep.  Two minutes.  Honestly.  I am beginning to realize how seriously hard Molly (our last dog--beagle) was.  We endured HOURS of whining and howling that only a fellow beagle owner can appreciate.

Anyway, tomorrow will start some basic training from my favorite training method of course!

The Training levels by Sue Ailsby 

And I went back and read the early days of Sue's assistance dog's training.

I am excited to work with a dog that is a bit easier to train and I can't wait to put all the blood-sweat-and-tears knowledge from past experience to work!  Of course, in the realm of dog training I am completely a novice but hey--it's all fun.