"Puppies are good for the soul"

Before we got Maggie, our last puppy that was just too "rambunctious" and "energetic" (read: crazy and wild) for the Shaffer household, my friend Shelly said, "Puppies are good for the soul." And I thought, yeah, they are because I had loved Elmer (our first puppy who was hit by a motorcycle) so much. Well, while Maggie was/is a good girl, she was just too wild and needed more than we could give her, which equalled not being good for my soul AT ALL! She was more like detrimental to my sanity.  So, even though I was excited for Finn to come home when he was old enough, I was pretty much a basket case worrying that it would turn out like the Maggie debacle. As it turns out Finn is a dream come true! 

He has been the easiest to house train! In the five weeks that we have had him he has had one pee accident and only a handful of #2 accidents. He took to his crate almost immediately and is content to be in there when he needs to be. He has already learned: sit, down, and sometimes come. We are working on stay and with a treat he will go out to the bathroom and come running right back to me with no need for a leash. It took him awhile to walk on his leash and not be afraid of it, but he is doing much better and walks almost the whole time Mom and I are on our walk.  

My goal is that someday, not too far in the future, Finn will be able to just sit with Lucy and be her pal. Right now he sits with her, but I need to monitor his teeth the whole time as he is still mouthing everything and has sharp puppy teeth. But she really likes him, and he likes her.  So, even though our point in getting yet another pup was so Lu will have a little companion, it turns out that I fell in love with him, and since I am the "pack leader", he loves me too.  Someone has to be in charge of him and of course it is me because I am the one here all day (and I was the driving force behind him joining our family). I love having him around. And, at the end of the day, he's a good distraction for me when Lu is alseep.  I like to walk him, and train him, and have him sit with me at night. He is in fact "good for my soul".