It has been six months since we drove down to Old Town, Florida to pick up our newest furry family member, Bogey. Bogey is a red-merle Australian Shepherd. His official name is “Fleming’s Ace in the Hole”, but we nicknamed him “Bogey” after all the missed golf shots that land in our yard every weekend. The past six months with him were fabulous. They were also been very challenging.
Bogey is beautiful, bright, effervescent, and loving. He is also independent and more willful than we could ever have anticipated. He slept through the night from the first night after we brought him home. He potty-trained pretty quickly. We did have a hard time the first three or four weeks because he would nip a lot and his puppy teeth were incredibly sharp. Both of us had cuts and bruises on both arms. We made a little progress with some basic commands but were feeling pretty overwhelmed.
We took him to an 8-week training class. We learned some things to help us communicate with him better. He learns very quickly but also gets bored with things pretty fast. We didn’t feel like we accomplished everything we wanted to with the class. We are going back to work through each of the skill areas to see if we can get to a more consistent place.
Owning a pet brings about significant changes in one’s life – love, responsibility, and challenges. Bogey has certainly changed ours. Although there are days when we question our ability to handle it all, he never fails to do something cute, funny, or smart that warms our hearts.
