(photo of Fergus by Paulina Hrebacka)
The Farmer and I have entered a new era. After ten years of
marriage, at the ages of 61 and 49, we have welcomed a new baby into our lives.
He is a Golden Retriever and we have decided, after much debate, to name him
Fergus.
The Farmer wanted to name him Red. He is a red type rather
than the English blond type of Golden, but I argued that “Red” is simply a
colour and not a name. I wanted to name him Finn, but perhaps that is more
fitting of an Irish setter. Goldens come from Scotland. We were watching Outlander
on Netflix one night when the name came to me. He will be known as Fergus the
Red. Fergie for short.
We have received a great deal of advice on how to train this
puppy. Some say you should crate the dog beside your bed so you can get up in
the night to put him outside. This will speed up house training. However, I was
reminded that if you allow the pup to sleep in your room as a pup, he will
think it is his room going forward. I don’t want to be sharing my room with a
huge dog that is dreaming loudly about chasing rabbits and snoring in his
sleep. When I mentioned this to my husband he said, “Well, you could always go
sleep in the other room!”
Fergus was tucked into his pet carrier on the first night.
This was settled into the larger crate which will from now on be his safe place
for naps and bed time and anytime he wants to get away from us, our visitors
and our house cats. (Although we haven’t seen much of said house cats since
Fergus arrived.)
I left the door to the carrier open so that Fergus could use
the puppy pads in the larger crate if need be. And there was a need, the first
night. The second night, I awoke a couple times in the night and brought him
outside to relieve himself in the long grass that I have designated as his
toilet area. His crate pad stayed dry.
The first full day at home, Fergus roamed around and
explored every corner in the house. He discovered that although he can wedge
himself under or between many different pieces of furniture, he cannot always
extricate himself. He is very quiet, and doesn’t know his name yet so I spent a
few minutes looking for him before finally discovering him stuck uncomfortably
in a tight space under the spare bed. I decided to block the exits so he has to
stay in the room with me.
I also used up about half a bottle of enzyme spray to
eradicate pup accident odours. We are starting to learn each other’s language
so hopefully in the next week or so we will go through a day without an indoor
mess. It’s hard to know when he is planning a pee when he spends the majority
of each day with his nose to the ground, sniffing. Always sniffing.
The other thing Fergus loves to do is chew. He has a variety
of chew toys in different strengths so that he can exercise his needle-sharp
teeth. Unfortunately he likes toes and fingers the best. I have the marks to
prove it. But for the most part our tiny Golden Retriever wants to please us.
It is obvious that he is looking for instruction, so we just have to figure out
how to tell him what we expect, and to reinforce it.
This is all new to me so, of course, I am reading. I’m
learning how to train our pup so that he can soon go off on road trips with the
Farmer / Real Estate Agent. It wasn’t our intention to buy a puppy. We have
both always owned rescue dogs from shelters. But despite contacting all area
shelters and registering with Golden Rescue, we were unable to find a retriever
that way, so we had to place an order for one of a spring litter.
Fergus is the Farmer’s “retirement dog”, although that man
may never really retire. He has always wanted a Golden, so I suppose he
deserves one. It’s plenty of work, training and cleaning up after this little
creature but I realize he will only be little for so long. Thank goodness he
sleeps a lot, because I am exhausted.
email: dianafisher1@gmail.com
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