Everyone needs to talk about a spay/neuter... while in Europe it is not the "norm" to do so... however in the US it is.... that said waiting till the pup is mature is the best... but in the US we have issues with puppymills and Backyard breeders that breed/sell pups for profit... My contracts say that the pup needs to be spayed/neutered... and we talk about the age. Again, I will say that my puppy people are "Vetted" before getting a puppy, but many Puppymiller puppies and/or Backyard Breeders could not care if those pups were bred or not... nor are they health tested... so as they say "buyer beware". Responsible breeders stay in touch with the pups they place... the others... NOT... could not care less... OK I said my 2cents... And many in the US are not ready to keep a female that is in season... a short story about a friend that had 2 German Shepards... Male/Female in tact.... female came in season, so they locked to male in the backyard, female in their garage... the male "ate down the door to the garage to get to the female..".... puppies happened... no health testing either... IT HAPPENS... DO NOT THINK THAT IT WILL NOT! And I can tell you stories about males coming through windows in the home to get to a bitch in season....years ago we had a 12yr in-tact male lab 3 blocks over, he knew exactly when my Basenji bitches were in season... thankfully we had 12ft fences... but he was there every single day... not so for many homes that have fences this big... and if this boy was younger... I can bet he would have found a way over the fence
First trip to the water
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Mind you Colbey HATES water. We literally have to pull him out when it rains, and he hates going in the grass when it is wet from dew.
Yesterday my b/f and I took Colbey to a park in our area where many dog owners go to let their dogs run and jump in the water. When we were there, there were probably 6 retriever type dogs that were running free and jumping into the water. When we let Colbey loose, he went running after the dogs and jumped into the water. You could see in his face that he was thinking "Oh my god, what did I do? I hate water! Get me out!" He swam to the closest piece of shore (which was a big rock), and scrambled up. For the rest of the time we were there, if the other dogs were in the water he paced back and forth on the rocks and whined. It was just like he was pleading with the other dogs to come out of the water to play with him. He wouldn't even get his feet wet.
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That's funny. The other day I took EL D to the city park nearby and there's a couple of ponds. EL D was chasing after the frogs along the shore when we came to an area with less shore weeds. He went right around the weeds to get to the frogs as they came out the other side – yes you guessed it, he didn't realize the water was there (really shallow only a few inches). For just a few seconds he was still keyed on the frogs and didn't realized he was in the water. Then it was just like Colbey's reaction - OMG!
