Well, I went to Schutzhund training one sunny Saturday morning in July of 1999 and came home with a puppy. "Just take him home and see how it goes," he said. "Maybe you'd like to co-own Arsenal with me."
ARSENAL....this a
dorable puppy is called Arsenal??? Well, you know how it goes.. take a puppy home and how can you NOT keep it!! BUT Arsenal... how about Ari?!?
dorable puppy is called Arsenal??? Well, you know how it goes.. take a puppy home and how can you NOT keep it!! BUT Arsenal... how about Ari?!? Ari was a goof from Day 1. I took him on a 10 day trip to visit the family on the East Coast only weeks after he came to live with me and he charmed everyone with his antics. The kids had water in a small pool and he discovered that digging in water was a blast so whenever he saw water that's what he did. I eventually put a word to it (DIG of course) so he would dig wherever I told him to. To keep him from digging where he wasn't supposed to, he got his very own sandbox. If he would dig in the yard I simply took him to the sandbox and told him to DIG and very quickly he learned that was his very own place.
Josephine, who was 8 years old, thought he was the greatest thing since sliced chicken and I'm sure she thought he was there for the sole purpose of her entertainment. She did, however, make it VERY clear that SHE was in charge. That happened the first weekend when he mistakenly went for HER biscuit instead of the one I had for him. There was a huge ruckus and a screaming puppy that lastest for oh... 5 seconds. She stopped as quickly as she started, grabbed HER biscuit and bounced away. Ari popped up and took his treat as if nothing happened and trotted away having learned the first lesson of living with Josephine.
So... he survived Josephine and stayed. He acclimated well to the house and learned all about the dog door to go outside so housebreaking was a non issue. He was also 12 weeks old so he was really easier to train.
I fed my dogs a raw diet at that time and would get a small chicken at the grocery store and have the butcher cut it apart and then give them each half... THEY were happy campers. One time I decided to open a can of tuna fish for them so I divided it up on 2 paper plates. Josephine happily ate hers but Ari decided it was dead fish and flipped on his back and rolled on it... on the kitchen floor.
So... he survived Josephine and stayed. He acclimated well to the house and learned all about the dog door to go outside so housebreaking was a non issue. He was also 12 weeks old so he was really easier to train.
I fed my dogs a raw diet at that time and would get a small chicken at the grocery store and have the butcher cut it apart and then give them each half... THEY were happy campers. One time I decided to open a can of tuna fish for them so I divided it up on 2 paper plates. Josephine happily ate hers but Ari decided it was dead fish and flipped on his back and rolled on it... on the kitchen floor.
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