Any time I bring a new dog into our family, I like to take the week off from my paying job to bond with the new puppy and set our boundaries from day one. I
Any time I bring a new dog into our family, I like to take the week off from my paying job to bond with the new puppy and set our boundaries from day one. I call this my “pup-ternity” leave. So starting with our first night, Baby Walter slept in his crate at night. The first three nights I slept on the floor right outside the crate door so that he would not feel abandoned in a strange new place with new people. He slept pretty well, needing to go potty and get a drink of a water about every three hours. He would start whimpering softly to wake me up and let me know he needed to to go. Although he had his own crate, he preferred to be in Remington’s crate with him. Since Remington could barely fit in his crate when he was full grown , we knew that we were going to have to purchase a new, even bigger, one for Baby Walter. The one we ended up purchasing is 54L X 37W X 45H. It was so nice and spacious when we set it up that we ended up buying another one for Remington! We also knew we would be getting another saint bernard at some point so we will get our money out of it.
We also had some visitors to the farm the first week Baby Walter was with us. He got to meet my nephew for the first time and the two of them are precious together. My nephew lives with a yellow lab and LOVES dogs! I can’t get over the cuteness in that photo below.
While my family was visiting my mom also took a great family photo of us and it is still one of my favorites.
Even though it is cold here, Baby Walter does not seem to mind. He loves being outside and playing in the snow, which is great because so do I!
In our week of firsts, he also had his first bath and ear washing. He was not a fan of the ear washing at first but we have now done it every week for 6 months and he doesn’t mind anymore. The bath was his favorite. He was so tiny in the bath tub he could barely get his little head over the edge.
We also discovered the first week that Baby Walter was with us that he LOVES sleeping on his back. We find him like this all the time.
When we picked Baby Walter up from the breeder she warned us that he was going to drink a lot more water than our German Shepherd. I was like yeah, ok, how much water can a puppy really drink. Ok you guys, this dog drinks a RIDICULOUS amount of water!
He also found his favorite toy of all time….Remington’s tail (and still learning how to use those big paws).
Baby Walter chasing Remington’s tail
This week Baby Walter also started helping with chores on the farm. Well, not so much helping, more just running around looking adorable.
At 8 weeks I weighed 18 lbs!
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MidWest Homes for Pets XXL Giant Dog Crate | 54-Inch