Meet Bowie!

My mornings have always been imbued with a sense of calm and quiet, the deep breath before the chaos of the day.  It’s my time to ruminate and plan, the creative juices flowing just as the sun starts to rise.  I keep a pen and notebook on hand for these occasions.  Coffee is also a must, preferably espresso but anything will do.  Silence rules the morning, there’s plenty of time for talking throughout the rest of the day.

Now my mornings are filled with the sharp commands of “leave it!” or “no biting!” and carefully dancing around to make sure I don’t truck over a small body.  My pajama bottoms have tiny little holes, and my bedroom slippers have been banished to the hall closet.  There’s no easing into the day - the day jumps on your lap and greets you with all its energy and excitement.  Yes, another day for playing and for naps! but sadly not for me.

As I had hinted in my previous post, we added a new furry family member last Friday - meet Bowie everybody. 

His name is pronounced “Booey” and he’s named after Jim Bowie, defender of the Alamo.  He is a German Shorthaired Pointer and we picked him up from a breeder two hours south of Dallas who had a litter of eleven puppies (!).  We chose him because he was the pup who kept coming back to check us out over and over again, even though we were outside with plenty of distractions.  Bowie is in training (and I use the word “training” lightly) to be Bryan’s hunting buddy when he’s a bit bigger.  Currently he’s 8 weeks old, 11 lbs, and fully-grown will be between 55 - 70 lbs.

Every dog owner warns you - prior to getting a puppy - that you’re going to be sleep deprived, which is absolutely true.  The only thing that has saved our sanity so far is that we immediately started Bowie on a crate training schedule.  After waking up four times the first night, he usually only wakes up once a night to use the potty.  We have taught him to sit, stay, lay down, come here, and he’s also learning how to walk nicely on a leash.  Luckily Bryan is home for a few more days so he’s able to spend all day working with Bowie and getting him used to his new schedule.

Bowie’s favourite things are his squirrel toy, sticks, testing his boundaries, and sleeping on warm laps.  He hates when we take away his bed when he’s chewing on it, cold weather, being told “leave it” or “off”, and when we ignore his pleas to play at 4 am.

Watching TV together

I know a lot of you are pup owners and have more experience than I do so if you have any tips / tricks / things you like, please feel free to share them.