Corbin

After my last blog post, I went back and was looking at some of my old ones, and realized I never formally introduced the newest member of our pack!

This is Corbin!

We adopted Corbin at the beginning of May from the Greater Charlotte SPCA. I found him via petfinder.com. We believe he is a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix. He doesn’t have a ridge on his back, but his coloring fits the bill. He and Gus have so much fun together!

This is the first night we had Corbin. As you can see, Gus is not sure what to think of  this young pup sitting on his couch.

Corbin gets along with everyone, except that cat of ours. He is convinced that JD is evil. He loves all people though and knows how to turn on the charm. When his foster mom brought him over, Stephen knelt down and Corbin went right up to him and snuggled right in between his knees! I knew from that moment that we would be keeping him, even though we had a week trial run before we had to commit.

Corbin, expert snuggler.

Corbin is an excellent snuggler, although he sleeps in his crate at night. I drew the line at having two dogs on the bed, and when it gets colder, a cat too.

Corbin loves his big brother! Gus tolerates Corbin. We’ve actually been pretty impressed with how patient Gus is with Corbin. Being a puppy, (he’s about 10 months old now) he has more energy to get out than Gus does. They play together a lot, but it seems like when they are not playing, Corbin is chewing on Gus’s leg, or nibbling and tugging on his scruff, trying to get Gus to wrestle. And if Gus is not interested in playing, he just sits there and let’s Corbin chew on him.

Nap time.

I was a little apprehensive about getting a second dog, but now that we have Corbin, I am glad we went for it!

My dog is a toddler

Gus has turned into the dog equivalent of a human toddler. He has hit the terrible two’s, so to speak. If it is nice out, I will leave the sliding door open a bit so he can come in and out as he pleases. Which he does, but now usually it is at the speed of sound. He tears around the backyard, comes racing inside, jumps up on one end of the couch, runs down to jump off the other side of the couch (usually leaping over me in the process), and races back outside. Repeat. At least 3 times.

He has decided he would much rather stand on top of his crate and survey his domain than lie in it (which he has never liked to do.)

He digs holes in the sandbox that is Florida soil and lies in them.

He has become very interested in what is on the kitchen counter (dirty dishes.)

And the ultimate show of toddler-ness – Gus has started Dumping. Namely, his food and water. I don’t mind so much if he dumps his food bowl over, because then he will eat if off the ground anyway. But the water bowl, not good. The other day he dumped a half full bowl of water all over the floor, picked up the bowl, trotted over to the couch, and proceeded to chew on his bowl. Because he doesn’t have enough chew toys strewn about as it is.

But it’s impossible to stay upset with him, because he’s so cute!

Puppy Jr. High

Mr. Burton Guster is now enrolled in Puppy Jr. High at the University of Doglando.

School, me?

We took him with us to Texas for Christmas and he did ok, but we realized he would never reach his full doggie potential without some help. He barks and growls when someone enters a room, explodes at sudden movements, and still doesn’t fully trust Stephen. Enter the University of Doglando. They know what they are doing when it comes to training and behavior rehab.

We were going back and forth between their Beginner Obedience training and the Puppy Jr. High. Although more expensive, we went with the Puppy Jr. High because it includes the Beginner training and two days a week of Doggie Day Care. With the exception of the two weeks we were in Texas, Gus has never been around other people without us. So the Doggie Day Care will be good for him. Tomorrow I drop him off at 7:30 am and Stephen will pick him up at 5:30! He will spend all day without us, playing with other dogs and working with the trainers. The same thing will happen on Saturday, from 10 -4. We are expecting him to be a model canine by the end of the 6 weeks!

While Gus is not the star student of his class (yet) he is one of the cutest doggies there! He was even called gorgeous. But we already knew that. 🙂