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The fiancee and I have talked about getting a dog since midsummer but we decided to wait a bit, learn more about raising a dog and make sure we were committed to welcoming a new member of the family for an amazing 12-15 year journey. I believe in living on at most 1/2 my income so the finances are good, our work schedules allow the puppy to not be alone for more than 2 hours, and we can quote different dog training regimes like experts.

Our plan was to wait until summer but as luck would have it, about a week ago we found our new pup at our local rescue. She's a 7 week old boxer labrador mix (la boxer or boxador). She's rambunctious yet attentive to basic training already. We're crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. Today I passed my first interview. Tomorrow I have another and finally the rescue's board will determine if I can take my new puppy home after she gets her next round of shots next week.

I've talked to three members of the rescue board already and they all seem to think I'll get green lighted. To help get us ready we ordered an excessive amount of stuff from Amazon yesterday.

-One crate for the bedroom (full sized with a divider)
-One for downstairs for puppy housetraining (the big one is not going to be easy to move, so why bother)
-An exercise pen to pair with the crate for long term confinement (more than a couple hours)
-Lots of kongs, premier pet toys, food balls and other puppy toys
-shampoo, brushes, toothpaste, nail clippers
-Kennel Beds
-water bowls and food storage container (we're feeding with toys and hand feeding as a puppy)
-Reflective collar, lead and harness
-bitter spray
-Pet stain and odor remover
-Rubber mat for under exercise pen
-More training books

First thing will be getting her crate and house trained while working on socialization and basic obedience. Then more training, tricks and consistency for a year. Finally around 1.5 years she can go on runs with me.

Very excited and pictures to follow once I have them

Best of luck with getting her!

Any rambunctious names picked out for her yet?



Mike

Congrats and good luck! As a long time dog lover, I'd like to your list:

- Newspaper, paper towels and small plastic garbage bags. Lots of them.

"and we can quote different dog training regimes like experts." - Yep, and you can amuse each other by quoting them to the puppy at 3am when you're busy cleaning up the impact area from one of his accidents.

Gummiente wrote:Congrats and good luck! As a long time dog lover, I'd like to your list:

- Newspaper, paper towels and small plastic garbage bags. Lots of them.

"and we can quote different dog training regimes like experts." - Yep, and you can amuse each other by quoting them to the puppy at 3am when you're busy cleaning up the impact area from one of his accidents.

+1000

I know what all of the dog training manuals say and all that, but they basically say to
1. Bond with the dog
2. Make sure YOU are the Alpha
3. Be firm
4. Be kind
5. Reward good
6. Punish bad but not with too much attention

Boxers are NOTORIOUSLY hard headed (and being the owner of one I can attest to that, it's like nothing I've ever seen) but are EXTREMELY friendly and loving.

And overall have fun with the dog! Not every single thing is a training opportunity, have some fun with the dog, accidents do happen, and enjoy the pup for what it is!
My dog (Busa) will agree with that I'm sure!