My New Dog Jack

Don't worry, we still have little Molly dog, but we now have a new family member - beautiful blond golden retriever/lab mix Jack, adopted Saturday from the Humane Society.  He is about 14 months old, 71 pounds, and quite well-behaved, all things considered.  At the moment, he is attempting to fit under my bed to reach the squeaky ball he keeps knocking under there.

This has been and will continue to be quite an adjustment for us - he has the bulk and power to totally steamroller Molly and Ammon and Abbie, and is still a young adolescent, full of exuberance and energy.  He needs at least two good walks every day, in addition to frequent play sessions.  Technically he is my dog, but everyone else has been helping out a lot as well - I love it that everyone seems to love him, even though he isn't perfect.  Daniel and my Dad have been great to take him for his second walk during the day, and hopefully I can build my stamina to the point where they won't really have to do that unless they want to.  

We're still getting to know each other, but here are a few quick facts about 'little' Jack.

• He would really prefer to sleep on my bed with me, but as I only have a twin size bed, that can be rather difficult at times.  Try to picture in your mind the night that I could get no rest until I allowed both Jack AND Molly to sleep on my bed with me.  Believe it or not, I did eventually get some sleep.
• He eats and drinks really well - seemed to have no hesitance with the new dog food, or with eating at this new place.
• We adopted him just the day after he was surrendered by his owner for cost reasons.  There were others who were highly interested in him even as we were completing the paperwork for his adoption.
• He seems to have been well taken care of, except that he had quite a few mats in his fur which I have since gotten rid of.
• He knows sit, stay, down, and shake in addition to his seeming ability to understand most of what we say to him.
• He LOVES Molly, and really wants her to play with him - he even offered her his prized squeaky ball last night as encouragement (which she refused).  Unfortunately for him, Molly doesn't play a whole lot in her old age.  He seems a tad over-interested in Molly, though she in turn either warns him to give her her space or just watches him goof off.
• He SHEDS!  Molly has human-like hair, which only falls out like our own hair.  Jack and his profuse coat are something we are getting used to.  I use a de-shedding brush every day, which seems to help.
• He loves to play fetch; I can't wait for the day that I can trust him to get along with other big dogs enough to take him to a dog park to play in a little bit more space.  He really is quite good with other dogs, but if the other dog is as big as he is and exhibits dominant or territorial behavior, he does tend to get riled up more than I'm comfortable with.
• He loves to jump up on Daniel's bed and prance around on Daniel's head and back in an attempt to wake Daniel up in the morning.  Luckily this was Daniel's idea - I personally have bruises from when he gets too excited and jumps on me too much.
• I think he stares at me in the morning until I wake up - this morning all I had to do was open my eyes (no stretching, sounds or movement) and he was up and ready to get out and about.

There will likely be a lot more as time passes - my hope is that our bond will grow to be at least as strong as my bond with Molly, that he will help me to get my exercise every day, and that I will be able to teach him manners and healthy dog behavior.

I realized as I started this post that I didn't yet have any pictures of him, so I took a couple of him laying on the floor between his big cushion and my bed.