Newest Girl In Town : National Dog Week

Happy 84th annual National Dog week!

This is a week to recognize and honor our four legged companions and raise awareness about being a responsible pet owner. So I figured what better way to honor my pup than dedicate a blog post to him and all the dogs in my life.

If you hadn't noticed I may have a slight obsession with my 5 month old German Shepherd/Welsh/Airedale Terrier mix, Grigsby. Right after graduation I decided it was finally time for me to add another member to my little family. One year prior I adopted a 3 year old mitten kitten, Minnie. We were a pack of princesses and had the easy life so I thought we should spice things up a bit. My puppy fever first began when Boyfriend adopted an 8 week old German Shepherd/Rottweiler named Mozie. For 2 weeks she lived with me and I fell in love from the moment I saw her. She and Boyfriend moved back to Greenville at the beginning of summer leaving Minnie and I with a bad case of puppy fever. Craigslist lead us on an 1 hour drive outside of Winston and with a $65 dollar hole in our pocket.

Mozie a week after Boyfriend got her!

Grigsby at the vet the first day I got him!

I've grown up with dogs my whole life and being in college without any pet especially a dog took some getting use to. For anyone thinking about getting a puppy or a dog I have a few pieces of advice:

Think Think Think about it! I know how tempting it is to go to the humane society and fall in love with every animal you see but you have to make sure you're ready to become a full-time animal parent. Thankfully when I decided to get Grigsby my sweet momma agreed to help me train him and keep him!
Enroll in puppy or dog obedience class! Yes 100+ is a lot of money but it is 100% worth it. Whether you get a puppy or an older dog enrolling them in a class where they learn basic commands or awesome tricks will help both you and them. During our puppy obedience class at Petsmart I think I learned more than Grigsby did! In his class we learned basic potty training, anxiety and feeding, sit, stay, shake, lay down, come, leave it and roll over!
Socialize your dog with as many people, animals, and places as you can! The hardest part about becoming a dog mom has been really making the time to go new places with people and dogs and smells to help get Grigsby use to the world around him. Just because something that is very normal to you doesn't mean your dog will think so too! Currently we are overcoming his fear of driving under bridges (who knew!)
Adopt!