Meeting Mia

Jireh met Mia today at the dog park. Mia is a MAJESTIC Golden Retriever whose coloring is very similar to Jireh’s, so I got a glimpse of how Jireh will look in a few years… I am such a lucky dog! *when I find the cable to my camera, I will post photos.

Mia’s sister didn’t come because Jennifer didn’t want to overwhelm Jireh with 2 bigger golden’s. That was a wise idea as Jireh instantly connected with Mia like no other dog she has met, and I was much less nervous, knowing the gentle temperament of goldens. Jennifer has had four of them so she is a wealth of information, teaching me such valuable lessons, which I never realized there was so much to learn.

The objective of this particular blog is to share information and experiences from raising a cat and puppy golden in hopes it helps others when they adopt. As I mentioned, I had a golden retriever dog as a kid, which is much different than a puppy. The next few entries will be catching up on the weeks since I brought her home on December 5th, 2010. She has grown so much!

But back to today:
I have been against crate training until Jennifer explained the security and comfort dogs feel when they have their own place for retreating. So she brought one over and showed me how to acclimate Jireh to going in the crate for fun times, rest, eating, etc. Within 24 hours, Jireh began napping in her crate – on her own and not once have I shut the crate door! I wish I had crated her from Day 1! She is not as restless and allows me more writing time.

Another area of importance is feeding – I didn’t know the type of food I feed Jireh affects her potty habits… now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense. Instead of leaving food out all day, the puppies bowels are better regulated when fed twice per day.

A lot of information in raising a puppy… but the rewards are sooo worth it! Jireh had so much fun playing with Mia, then came home and zonked out for awhile… that in itself made it a great day for all 3 of us, as it gave me time to spend with Addy.