The Building Brows' New Puppy

The poll on what breed of dog you thought we got was interesting. The results were:

• Great Dane 40.9%
• Golden Retriever 36.4%
• English Setter 9.1%
  
• Rottweiler 4.5%
• Shih Tzu 4.5%
• German Shepherd 4.5%
• Poodle 0%

I must have given you good hints because you picked the breed. We bought a Great Dane.

I know. We're nuts to get an extra large dog like a Great Dane in this mobile home. "Diesel" will weigh about 170lb full grown, so it will be like having another adult in the house.

At first I was against getting a dog, but after much prayer, God softened my heart and showed me it was OK, even good, to get one. What can I say? If God says it's OK, then I don't have to worry about how things will go, because He'll be here to help.

Jim sought online and narrowed our choices to a couple of breeders and together we chose which dog. This Great Dane puppy came from a breeder in Oklahoma, David and Kathy Tiner. They have seven kids, so we knew this puppy would acclimate well to our family well.





Meet Diesel.


He actually has brown eyes. My digital camera made them look all blue, though, and I tried to fix it with the remove red eye feature in photo software.


Isn't he a cutie?





This guy was so good, he didn't go potty once the entire trip, in the airplane or on the ride home in my lap. (Thank You, God.) When he got home, though, it all caught up with him.

Jim took him out of the car, and tried to get him to go potty. All he would do was shiver. As soon as Jim set him inside, he peed on the carpet. I came out of the bathroom to find Jim cleaning the carpet as Diesel was pooping on the kitchen floor behind him. I was carrying baby ND, so there wasn't much I could do to stop him. Jim looked bewildered.

Ah, the distinct smell of dog poop. It was something I had not missed the past four years without a dog.

Still, I tried not to laugh at the situation because I saw myself in it. Usually I'M the one cleaning up one mess only to have another, often worse one, happen behind my back.


(The Tiners took this last picture.)

After Jim cleaned the carpet in TWO spots (it turns out the puppy urinated on the carpet in two spots one right after the other), he went to pick up the kids from the neighbor's house. During that ten minutes he was gone, the dog urinated again--this time on the puppy house training pad (YAY)--and then pooped again on the floor. In total, he pooped on the floor three times. That poor dog must have been very backed up from his trip half-across the country.

We finally got him to pee outside one time before bed, and now he's sleeping in his dog carrier for the night next to Jim.

At last--a baby I don't have to take care of in the middle of the night.

Whoopee!!!!