September 4th

Well, today is September 4th, and Spencer has been busy, busy, busy growing.  His first vet appt he was 10.2, his next appt he was 14. 6, and Saturday Mike took him to get his heartworm medicine and they had to weigh him.  19.3!  He is 12 weeks old.  He's actually doing really good, other than being a water whore.  We are still limiting the water to help with the house training, and he will forage for water wherever he can.  And we have learned that when it rains, do even bother taking him for a walk.  It's more like taking him for a drag while he laps up water.  We are falling into a pretty good routine, , and I'm starting to think we aren't so crazy.   He's a really cool dog.   He went to work with me 2 weeks ago.  Wind-Lock is having the dog days of summer, and they are allowing 2 dogs per day at work.  What fun!  And what a fun company.  Can you take your dog to work?  I took Bella last week, and trust me, NEVER AGAIN!  Spencer will go again on Sept 13th.  We are going to sign up for puppy classes, probably at Awesome Dawgs or Douglassville Pet Center.
We've already had to buy him a bigger collar, and a bigger food bowl.  I'll try and post a picture, but it will probably turn out crooked.  Haven't figured that out yet.   :(

First Vet Appt. 10 pounds!

Just got home from Spencer's first vet appt. He is 10.2 pounds, at 9 weeks.  Bella is 9.8 pounds, at 6 years.  And guess who rules the house (for now).  Yep, She's the princess.   And do NOT touch her tootsie roll.  He has a tiny little hernia we need to watch until he gets neutered at 6 months, and then they will fix it.  Notthing to worry about.  He's doing great.  The vet and the vet tech love him.

Still can't figure out why my pictures upload sideways.  They aren't saved on my computer like that!

Spencer is doing great!  He's been home with us for over a week, and I don't think he's had an accident in the house since Saturday?  Well, chewing the rug the other night wasn't so much fun, and the words out of Mike's mouth were pretty comical, but, he is only a puppy.  He is sleeping thru the night, from about 11pm to 6:30am.  That's not too bad.  I'll take it.   Last week we arranged our schedules so someone was home with him most of the time, but this week we are both back to work.  I have some help from Charlene and John, our neighbor, during the day.  You know how most dogs go nuts in their crate when you come home and it's time for them to go out?  Spencer just sits and waits patiently until I turn off the alarm, say hi to Bailey and Bella, and then I get him out of his crate.  Such a good boy!

We're getting there!

Every day is getting a little better.  Sunday night was AWFUL.  I might have slept a total of, lets see, maybe ZERO hours?  That's a slight exaggeration, but when you have like 2 hours of sleep when you are used to a solid 8 hours, it might have well been zero hours.  So yes, I kind of lost it around 4am and Mike came downstairs, a bit scared of me I think, and sent me to bed.  Anyway, Monday morning I took Spencer to meet everyone at Wind-Lock.  He ran around like a little whirlwind!  We stayed there for a little while, then we drove to Manning, and Spencer slept the whole way down.  I took him in and laid down in Janice's office, and he was out.  Picked him up and took him to see Drew, he didn't wake up, Drew introduced me to Tim, who also has a GSP.  Mike is going to contact Tim andget together to train Spencer.
I put Spencer in the small crate in the car, he continued sleeping, carried the crate inside, and he didn't wake up so I got a MUCH needed 2 1/2 hour nap.  He slept for 3 hours!
And last night was much better.   We kept him up a lot more, and Mike took him for a walk before bed at 11 in the big crate.  He whined for quite awile, and I got up with him around 1.  Took him outside, inside to play for a bit, and then he laid on my lap and went to sleep.  I put him in the little crae and took him up next to our bed.  He slept until 6:30 this morning.  That my friends, is an awesome night. 
Today is going really good. Took a nice walk with him this morning.  He is starting to walk really nice on the leash. 

It should only go up from here!

Yowza! Completely forgot what it's like to have a puppy at home. I should have slept for a solid month BEFORE we em-BARK-ed on this journey. (haha). Yesterday was whirlwind! We picked him up at 10:30, and he was a rammy little guy on the way home, and then fell asleep. We came home and introduced him to Bailey and Bella, and after the obligatory sniff-test, they decided he was ok to stay. They actually did pretty good, all day long. He played and napped and pooped and played and napped and pooped, until his "Welcome Home Spencer" party. We had lots of people here. Aunt Charlene, Nana and PopPop, Brian and Sharon, Greg and Stacey, Rachel, Gary and Gavin, Brett and Terie, Brenda, Justin and Hayden, John and Therese, Julia and Johnny, and Kirk, Nicole and Emily. I don't think I missed anyone? My apologies if I did. We had a lot of fun. I've never seen a puppy sleep as soundly as Spencer does. Gavin was holding him, and someone arrived to see him, so I picked him up and he never woke up! He slept until he was good and ready to wake up. Potty training will take quite awhile. He's not really getting the hand of it yet. (that's the part I forgot about!!) He fell asleep with Therese holding him around 7:30(ish) and slept pretty soundly right thru close to 9:30. He played for little while, and I went to bed, soon after our friends went home. Mike stayed up with him until 1:30 and when he fell asleep, Mike crated him and he was good until around 4. We'll have to get better at keeping him up in the evening, so when it's sleepy time, he can make it more than a few hours. I have off Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning, and Mike has off Thursday and Friday to stay home with him. I hope the potty training gets a little better, soon??
I will attach a bunch of pictures (hopefully I can figure out how!)

No idea why they are all sideways.  (just turn your computer for now, I'll figure it out later.  I'm off to take a nap!)

Spencer comes home tomorrow!

Spencer comes home to us tomorrow, July 21st, and we are super excited.  Instead of clogging Facebook with pictures and updates, we (I) thought it would be easier to start a blog for Spencer.  Check back tomorrow for home coming pictures!