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Holy cow! Remind me why I wanted to have FOUR dogs? *grin*

Just kidding. All things considered the new puppy has joined his pack *fairly* smoothly…though there are some bumps that we need to work through.

First of all, he has not eaten since he got here. We’ve figured out (we think) that he doesn’t know what dog food is and was probably fed table scraps. I tested this theory by seeing if he’d take a *SMALL* piece of Dorito and sure enough he gobbled it up. Then we tested him last night with a piece of hotdog (we were trying to get him in his crate…another issue) and he ate that too. So I think our theory is right.

However this morning as the other dogs were gobbling down their food I had tried a little bit of Kodiak’s food in a bowl (Kodiak and Quinn get Solid Gold Holistique for lower activity dogs) and he ate some of it. It was funny though - he’d take a few pieces in his mouth and spit them out. And then try again. And spit them out. hahaha I was cracking up and Trooper was loving the scraps. Finally he ate about 1/4 of a cup or less. *sigh* I won’t get worried yet. I know that he’s gone through a lot and is still getting his bearings.

Another issue is his absolute total OBSESSION with poor Kodiak. He will NOT leave him alone. He’s been trying to establish his dominance since he arrived and found quickly that he could not do so with Quinn or Trooper. So Kodiak has been trying to show his dominance but he has a very hard time with his poor back legs. There have been several scuffles and some crying but no blood so far. Honestly we don’t break them up unless they are pretty serious and so far so good. There was ONE serious fight over a toy with Trooper but I broke that one up.

So do I let the new dog try to dominate Kodiak? And let Kodiak deal with it himself? Or do I try to stop him from establishing that dominance? I’m not sure which is the best option. Because right now we are trying to keep him from humping but it’s CONSTANT. It would be funny if Kodiak weren’t in such a delicate state.

Third issue is the name…for over 24 hours we just made kissy noises and said ‘new doggy’. LOL

*** drumroll please ***

His new name is … TIMBER.

Hubby, mother in law, and I were sitting around throwing out names and all of a sudden hubby said “what about Timber?” And we all just knew. That was it! We went through SO many names but none of them felt right until Timber. With his coloring and his long legs and his personality it just felt perfect.

We have a lot of work to do with our new boy. He can’t walk on a leash to save his life and that’s one of those areas that I’m really bad at training. Trooper now seems a little more cuddly so I think it’s a little bit of jealousy. He never likes to snuggle on the bed but he was doing that last night. LOL

I think that Timber will calm down eventually. Right now he seems like a crazy out of control animal. =) But we know that this is all so foreign to him…the freedom, the kindness, the doggy companions. It’s all new.

Oh…and the panting. Boy he has a bigger tongue than Trooper does!!! And he has been panting like a fiend. I’m not sure if it’s partly stress or from all his excitement but I hope it’s a temporary thing because the super heavy breathing kind of worries me.

Right now he’s laying at my feet and earlier he finally took an interest in a bone. =) Normal doggy here we come!