After they year this has been, I’ve held off on posting about the new dog we got in August until I was sure he was going to stay. After the nightmare that was the corgiador, I was a little gun shy and I didn’t want to jinx things.

But this little (ha!) pound puppy has a great personality and while he’s not a perfect angel, he’s definitely a keeper. So… prepare for puppy spam! 😉

This guy was about a year old when he was picked up as a stray in Georgia and transferred up to a no-kill shelter here. He was housebroken, leash trained, and knew most of the basic commands so he was definitely a house-dog for a good part of his life before us.

He was roughly 70lbs when we got him and we’re guesstimating about 90lbs now, so this mutt is offically the largest pup I’ve ever owned! He’s theoretically a Lab and American Bulldog cross, per the pound, but I’d love to do a DNA test someday…

The place we got him from had no history on him and had done no behavioral testing, so we really lucked out. He got along great with our other dog (who is about a fourth his size) and with the cat, although there was an adjustment period with both.

He’s got no food aggression, which is odd in a stray, and he’s stopped bolting his food. In fact he’ll wander away from his dish to check on me if I’m in another room– at which point the ShivaDivaDog will start eating his dinner. *sighs* But he doesn’t seem to mind horribly, so I have a feeling he shared a house with other dogs (and plenty of food) in the past.

Now if he could just stop eating/destroying everything else!! (Firewood, 2×4’s, deck chairs, particle board walls, the seat to the lawnmower, paint cans, citronella torches, fallen tree limbs, step stools, and digging… soooo much digging. *facepalm*)

Since Shiva’s quite a bit smaller (and older) than the new Snickerdoodle Dog, there was some worry that he wouldn’t be able to learn how to play nicely with her, but the two of them quickly worked it out. He’s great about stopping when she’s had enough and she’s got no qualms about attacking him when she wants to play!

There’s nothing more amusing than watching her chew on his elbow when she wants to play and he’s busy doing something else…

He has bulked out quite nicely since he got here, putting on maybe another 20 pounds, and while his head still looks enormous it’s not quite as out of place on his body. I went for a lot of walks with him while it was nice out and I really need to get off my duff and start taking him out in the cold too. He loves kickball like burning, but there’s nothing like a walk to calm him down out of the dorky puppy zoomies zone.

The one thing I did with him that I would highly recommend to anyone getting a new dog is to enroll them in obedience classes! There was an amazing difference after just six lessons (one a week with daily homework assignments) and I think his energy level might have been too much for us without it. It was my first time ever enrolling in a class like that and now I wish I’d done it with all my dogs! *sighs*

He also absolutely adores Nosework classes and is all sorts of serious when it comes time to find the hidden lure. He’s very much a bulldozer dog and he won’t stop until he’s wormed his way to where it’s hiding. I really wish I was less squeamish, I think he’d make an excellent search and rescue dog, but I know sometimes the ‘R’ goes from ‘rescue’ to ‘recovery’ and I’m not sure I could handle that.

Anywho.

Bucket has been a big source of inspiration for my Nerd Fitness challenges this year and I’m planning on keeping that theme going next year! Getting out for a walk is something both of the dogs love and I want to keep it up. There’s something to be said for the safety of having a 90lb dog on a walk versus a 25lb one! 😉 (No offense Shiva, but you’re more fluff than fury.)

Bucket (aka Buckethead, Buck, Snickerdoodle Dog, Tiny Tan Dog, Big Dumb Dog, OMGDON’TEATTHAT, etc.) is ready for 2018 and so am I! 🙂