Saturday morning I met my clients Meghan and Ethan for a fabulous e-shoot by the water in Virginia. It was the best. The sun was shining, it was a perfect day and the images were fantastic. While I was photographing them I was telling them how much my family wanted to get a dog and Meghan was saying the same thing. Is it a woman thing that we all need something to care for and nurture? Probably. Every day practically since my son John could talk he has been asking, begging, pleading really, for a dog. The problem was that he tested positive to dog allergy. That pretty much threw the whole idea out the door for me. When we were living in Panama we tried to have a dog, and the puppy licked so much John kept breaking out in little hives.
Fast forward a few years and my son has so many friends with dogs and he doesn’t seem to have any reactions. So I’m thinking maybe it could be a possibility. My kids are on antihistamines throughout most of the year so it wouldn’t really add more to the amount of medicine he already has to take.
While I was on my e-shoot, my husband Michael was at home looking at dogs on the internet and e-mailing breeders. He knew I was partial to German Shorthaired Pointers and since he is a sportsman, it seemed like a potential fit for our family. He went ahead and looked up breeders within a 200 mile radius and wouldn’t you know, there was a breeder just 25 miles from us in Maryland. Michael promptly e-mailed the breeder to see if there were any puppies available and there was one puppy left. Not wanting to waste anytime we went to see the puppy that evening. It’s amazing how much your life can change in one day!
Michael and the two boys jumped in the truck and of course I had to come too. As we left the house he said, “Don’t forget the checkbook.” I knew even before we saw her that she was coming home with us. So here we are in the midst of being new parents again, but this time to a puppy. Isn’t she cute? We decided to name her Gracie. Got any advice on how to train a puppy?
She is beautiful! I would definitely recommend crate training her ASAP! Next up is taking her outside just about every hour so she won’t mess in the house. If you want her always go in a certain spot….walk her quickly over to that spot without giving her a chance to go until she gets there. Dogs are creatures of habit so she will eventually always go in that spot. Also if you spray the area with a hose afterwards it spreads out all the nitrogen and helps you avoid the dreaded yellow spots. I’m so happy for you!!