My fur daughter - Manitou
This week I want to talk about my fur daughter Manitou. My daughter and I were blessed to have her in our lives for 14 years. Let me tell you Manitou left us with many funny stories that my family still laughs about today! But let’s start at the beginning. I was a single mom with a 9 year-old daughter and we wanted to add a “puppy” to our little family. Mariah had wanted a puppy at a much earlier age, as most young girls do, however, I told her we had to wait until we had a house with a fenced in backyard and she had to be old enough to help with the puppy. The timing finally seemed right. Petfinder.com here we come! I wanted a German Shepherd or a German Shepherd mix and we knew we wanted a rescue. I saw there was a German Shepherd mix litter of puppies at the Raytown Animal Control. We were off! When we spotted our soon to be puppy she was in a cage with her sisters and brothers. The sad thing was they were all huddled together and Manitou was off to the side shaking all by herself, it was obvious she was the runt. Immediately I knew she was going to be our puppy!
We welcomed her to home and our family and then the training began. We had a crate ready for her, the type that grows with the puppy. The crate was very large, but it had a divider wall inside. You want to give your puppy enough room to be able to turn around completely and lay down comfortably. If they have too much room, they will poop or pee in the extra space and then go lay in another part of the crate. The idea with the divider is as your puppy grows you can give them more and more room. We used the crate when we weren’t home and at bedtime. Manitou picked up on “potty outside” & “poopy outside” very quickly! Crate training is extremely helpful.
Mariah was eager to take her new puppy on a walk! We were prepared with a leash and collar, what weren’t prepared for was that it takes some training to get your puppy comfortable walking on a leash. In our minds we thought, we’re just going to leash her up and she will just start trotting away. Not the case! Manitou walked a few steps and then just sat there on the sidewalk. Mariah would get her going a few more steps and then plop back on the sidewalk. We continued our walk, however, Mariah carried Manitou the whole way. So don’t get frustrated with your pup when they don’t know how to walk on a leash, it takes time & practice. Before you know it your dog will love getting out to adventure and enjoy all the new sights and smells.
Next we were on to tricks for treats! Dogs love to please their humans and they love treats! We started with the go to trick, “sit”. Manitou was a quick learner and had “sit” down in no time. Next, was “shake” and then “down”.
The bond between the 3 of us grew and grew stronger over the years. Mariah had her dog sister and I had another daughter. Manitou had many adventures I would love to share, but that could be a book. I just wanted to share a little about my first fur daughter Manitou and how we helped her through the training process. A take away would be, know when it’s the right time to add another member to your family! Timing is everything. I had to resist Mariah’s cute begging for a puppy for years, but when the time was right everything fell right into place and the next 14 years with Manitou were filled with fun, love & happiness!
