A New Family Member

Awhile back I wrote a post about three members of the family—Sophie, the Labradoodle, Abby, the Akita/Whippet mix, and Joey, the Yorkie Poo I inherited from my grandfather. But not long after I wrote that post, a new member of the family appeared. As an early Christmas present in November 2017, my mother brought home a puppy and said, “I found the perfect dog for you.”

I had never had a pup of my own, only dogs shared by the family, and the little guy my grandfather left me. The pup that jumped into my arms that day was a half German Shepherd, mixed with Labrador, Staffordshire, Bulldog, Boxer and Chow Chow... a total mutt! But when you see her, you see that predominant German Shepherd she gets from her father. I named her Maggie and fell in love within the hour. 

Maggie has been here for a year-and-a-half, now. She came to me at 5 months old, with a birthday in June. Soon enough, she will be two years old.

Maggie has a number of goofy habits. She likes to flop around and crash into things. She’s fairly quiet until you get her excited. Then she releases a series of deep-voiced barks. She likes to play with Cong and tennis balls, and slide around on the laminate floor of my house. She rings the chimes I have on my doorknob when she wants to go out and jumps up onto the bed with me at night, sometimes to a cold-hearted rejection, but it depends on my mood. It’s okay though, because I've spoiled her silly. I bought her her own dog bed.

Maggie has remained a kennel dog for these first two years. She’s had a major biting problem when I’m away at work, which is so weird because when I’m home she does nothing wrong. We started her as a pup in a small kennel, while training her. When she got bigger, we put her in a larger one, which I kept in the nook of my bedroom. But she tore up the plastic sheeting of her own crate! After that, we had the idea to build her a large pen that she could sleep in, right in that same nook. Doing so was a process of trial and error. Ultimately my neighbor came over and built her one himself, about five feet high. While inside, Maggie spent each of my work days biting and clawing the wooden bars of her prison, creating a big mess of sawdust I had to clean up every day around 4:00. I crawled into that little pen and painted it with hot sauce. That pen smelled delicious! The hot sauce worked, in a way. I came home the first day we tried it and found that Maggie had scratched the paint off both walls of her pen. The pen came down. Bye-bye.

My mother finally had the ingenious idea to buy a full-sized crate that could fit two dogs, with metal sheeting for the bottom (UNCHEWABLE) which became Maggie’s new home. We fill it with lots of cookies during the work days to keep her busy since she no longer has anything to bite. To keep her warm, we added Styrofoam boards and a white dog towel to the crate. I came home from work one day and found Maggie’s crate fit for a queen, undamaged and undisturbed—except for the white towel she somehow pulled out from under the metal sheet and tore to pieces until I got home. I swear to you all, even with dog treats, this dog is unstoppable.

But Maggie isn't a full-time crate dog. That just happens to curb her bad habits while I’m at work. She goes for frequent walks and makes friends everywhere she goes. At night, she roams the house freely. When I’m home, she sits at my side and brings me various things to throw her. In the summertime, Maggie comes to the beach with me. We find a private spot without any party poopers and sneak her onto the sand. Since the very first time, I take Maggie’s leash off. She is the perfect beach companion. She never tries to run away. She never ventures far, because she seems quite happy here with us. And I know I, too, am happy to have my first pup.