Dog Days of Winter

One of the last things I said before we decided that we were going to get Summit was, "I never wanted to get a puppy in the wintertime." But, here we are...doing it. Lots of things make having a dog hard, but none more than cold and snow in my opinion. However, I have only been a grown up dog owner for six weeks. The terms of difficulty could and most definitely will change. Oh my, when I write it out that seems so short a time. It feels like so much longer. I took him to the vet the other day and as I lifted him out of the car I noticed for the first time that he was heavy and awkward. I sure hope he can jump in and out of the truck by himself soon. The vet said, "Mrs. Chase, you do know that he is going to be a very big dog, don't you?" Aaaah! Sure, I guess.

Aside from all the normal chaos of living, here's what I've been able to capture on film...I mean memory card.

Dave's dream - his kids on his lap and his dog at his feet.

Animal-lover Scout is his constant companion, even when his puppy teeth have recently found her little bum. Although he weighs as much as her, she holds her own pretty well. She calls him "boy" and "pup" most of the time.
He's only 13 weeks old! Look how tall he is! He can already snatch things off of the counter if he wants to. Of all the training that Dave has done with him, one of the most fun ones to watch is when he rings the bell to go outside. It was meant for teaching him to go to the bathroom outside (which thankfully he does). Now, if we don't play with him when he wants to play, he will make a loud and exasperated whine/groan and go ring the bell so he can go play by himself. Like any true Chase, he knows life is much better outside. Summit's biggest competition is Lincoln. Linc loves that Summit will sit, stay, and come when he calls him. He thinks he's pretty big stuff and loves having someone around that he is allowed to tell what to do.

One of his favorite spots (beside the camping chair outside) is under my island. I'm not sure it was designed to hold a large dog on it, so we'll see how long that lasts.

Summit regularly gets squeezes from Scout and we've been working on "kisses" with him. He wants to play all the time.