Nick and I knew we'd get a puppy shortly after we got married. (Remember this post?) We're both dog people and I need one now that I don't have my Sierra (I didn't take her with me. She doesn't do well away from home [pees and poops everywhere, eats everything]. It wouldn't be fair to move her nor would it be fair to us to have to deal with that.) Plus I need something to take my lonely mind off missing my family and friends and give me something to do.
The 20 months prior to the wedding, I was counting down the days until I could walk down the aisle and marry my best friend. Nick, on the otherhand, added about 3 weeks to that number and was counting down to the day we got a dog. Yes, he was more excited for a puppy than our wedding (he'll deny this but we all know the truth. And it's okay, Babe, she's cuter than me so it's understandable).
Nick has been wanting a Weimaraner for forever! And although I wanted a Vizsla, since Nick has been dying for a pup, we began searching for a Weim. (Before we get MORE comments: Yes! We know about the breed. We've done extensive reading on their personalities, their needs, their health, etc. We know they require a lot exercise and attention. But we also know they are incredibly loyal and intelligent. We are more than prepared and willing to care for both of these energetic and demanding dogs.)
Anyway, I logged onto PetFinder.com and sure enough we found some Weim puppies. They were just shy of 11 weeks old, a little older than we wanted, but it didn't matter because they were too stinkin' cute and needed a good home.
So we headed to Lancaster, PA to pick her up last Thursday evening. We arrived at this nice Amish family's home to see her. Only her and one brother were left. We knew we wanted a female so there was no deciding which one to get. But boy was she massive! She was almost twice the size of her brother! She has an adorable little swirl on the back of her neck and I love her unique marking! She also had quite the little Buddha belly on her as well. We were instantly in love. We swooped her up, got her vet papers, and started the drive home. We quickly learned our little fur-ball gets motion sickness =/ The first time was all over Mommy. Just lovely. The second time was on the blanket on the floor board. And the third time was again on the floor board blanket. This little pup was determined to make this the longest drive home.
We stopped off at PetSmart to buy her crate (nowhere near Annapolis had a 'large' one). The little girl REFUSED to walk. She was just so scared and kept crouching down everywhere. We had to carry her into the store and carry her around (and let me tell you, she is NOT light.) After about 20 minutes of just sitting, she FINALLY took a few steps. Then sat for a while. And then a few more steps. Yes! Progress!
We finally arrived home and the poor thing was still terrified and confused. She had been living in a horse stall full of hay and that's it. It took her a while to play with her toys. She was skittish and is terrified of pavement, phones ringing, water running from a faucet, slide glass door, etc. (poor girl wasn't used to this kind of living!) But we knew in time she'd get over that...and it only took her about two days! (Although, she still gets the nervous hiccups! When she's in her crate or in the car, she gets the hiccups haha, poor girl).
We've had her just shy of a week and she's doing really well. We start puppy training classes on Thursday. It's every Thursday for 6 weeks to learn the basics of sit, lay, stay, drop it, etc. (She's almost got "sit" down, which is impressive.)
She is a little over half-way to fully comprehending her name and coming when she's called.
She is definitely a puppy and into the biting and chewing stage...on everything... table legs, couch cushions, shoes, faces, hair . . . . pretty much anything she can get her little mouth on. But we took people's recommendations and bought "Grannick's Bitter Apple" spray. It's worked pretty well and she's laying off most of the stuff now.
We've also decided to crate train her. She's doing REALLY well in terms of not peeing/pooping in her crate. She's been in the crate for four nights now and not peed or pooped in it once. However, she does NOT like being in it at night. But in all honesty, she's done well. We have her in the kitchen and at night, she whines at first. But if we sit by her and let her know we're there, she calms down and will lie down. The first night, she went to bed around 1am (we were having too much fun playing with her) and she didn't start whining until close to 6am. The second night was a little worse. She cried off and on and we had to keep comforting her. (We know we "should" ignore her and we do until her cries become TOO loud. We're in an apartment and don't want to be "those" neighbors.) The third night was much better and then last night was a little rough again. But again, it hasn't even been one week so I'd say this is good!
We've left her three times during the day and the first time was awful! We were only gone about 20 minutes and when we returned, she was crying sooo loudly! So loudly that we could hear here as we got to the stairs...and we live up three flights in the back. So she was LOUD! The other two times, we were gone an hour and then two hours. Both times we returned home to not have her whining or crying at all! Not even when we walked in the door and began talking to her! The difference is the last two times we filled her Kong with a treat so I think that's the trick.
While she's out of the crate, 50% of the time you can find her in her bed. We bought her a bed and it took her 12 hours to realize it's hers. She absolutely loves it.
We've read that Weims are really loyal, almost clingly dogs. We've already learned that. She's our little shadow. When we sit on the couch, she's right there at our feet, up against the couch. If we are on the floor (which we are most of the time because we do not allow her on any furniture) she will lie down with her head in our lap. If we get up to go do something, she gets up and follows.
She's really good when we're eating too. She will sniff the air a little but then she lays down and doesn't give us or our food a second thought.
Potty-training is going well. She's had a few accidents in the house but that's our fault for getting her all hyper and then not thinking to take her out. We're going to start bell-training her starting tomorrow. We've heard mixed things about this but we're going to try it.
She's getting better with walking on the leash. She doesn't pull us but we know once she gets bigger, she might try so we're going to buy a harness for her.
Weims love water, as long as they're introduced to it early. So this weekend we took her Hospital Point at the Naval Academy to run and play and then we took her in the Severn River to swim! She didn't hate it but didn't necessarily love it . . . but then again, it was her first time. And once we got home, she had her first bath!
We are beyond in love with her. She is our little child and I can't imagine not having her. She keeps us busy and drives us bonkers sometimes but she's totally worth it.
She is in that adorable puppy stage where she can't figure out her feet. She's always tripping herself up with her long back legs, falling over all the time. She romps around in her puppy way (rather loudly.) She is still trying to figure out how to do the stairs (poor thing hits the front of her paws on every concrete step of the 3 stair cases). She plays hard and then in a matter of a second, plops down and passes out.
She has such a personality and it's adorable. She loves Nick and the feeling is mutual. Nick actually loves her more than me.
So how did we choose her name? We had wanted to pick something Cardinals related. Naturally, we wanted to name her after our favorite player but we couldn't name her Albert or Pujols...too boyish. My mom suggested Yadi (after Yadier Molina,our catcher) one of our other favorites but Nick wasn't sold. So then we decided we'd wait until we met her and pick a name that fit her personality.
Then we met her and saw her big belly, and immediately knew we should choose something that related to her belly. We then noticed she crouched down a lot. And she walks and runs verrrry slowly. If you know Yadier Molina, (nicknamed Yadi), then you know these traits perfectly describe him. Yadi just seemed so fitting. So it stuck. And now we're representing our Cardinals as we originally wanted!Yadi's middle name is Buttermilk. Why? Because that was one of the weird streets we traveled on (a horse-crap covered street) as we traveled through Amish country to get her. It was one of the last streets we had to turn on before reaching our destination. We found it funny and decided we needed to incorporate it. (We had NO idea we'd be in Amish country considering the pups were listed on PetFinder.com on the INTERNET!...but apparently they sell lots of things on the internet but have other people take pictures and post it for them.)
Yadi is also our wedding gift to each other. We had agreed no gifts (even though Nick broke this by surprising me with a princess cut diamond necklace and bouquet of roses) for the wedding. Our gift was going to be a puppy (since they're pretty expensive with food, toys, crates, vaccines, spaying, microchipping, etc.)
So there's the story behind our little baby. I apologize now because we're obsessed. We'll be posting lots of pictures to Facebook and I'm sure quite a few blog posts about the little booger!
If you want to see more pictures, click HERE.
