Monday, November 25, 2013

Happy Holidays

This Thanksgiving and Christmas will be Marley's first and I am excited to see how she reacts to Bo and Bailey, my step dad's 8 year old pitbull's. I know my parents are not to thrilled of me bringing home another dog but they know my love for dogs is huge. I am hoping that my parents fall in love with her so that she is welcome at their homes. With Thanksgiving and Christmas break coming up it has me thinking about where I am going to live when I graduate. With me being gone from home for so long I have lost touch with many of my friends and hope I can find some one to split an apartment. I just want to have a place to call my own with a roof over Marley and I's head. Marley has given sight of what true responsibility is and I hope this is able to better my life in the future when raising my children, if I have any. The holidays are also a great time for Marley because I will be able to spend more time with her, more than I am able to now.

Teething Problem

So the last time I blogged about Marley, I was talking about how well she's been doing. I guess I should've knocked on wood because I am down three Iphone chargers and one PS3 controller. She he been chewing anything and everything she can get a hold of. I have gotten her multiple toys and she plays with them for about a week then forgets about them. Honestly if this is anything close to raising a child, I now know I will not be having children anytime soon. Don't get me wrong I love her to death but it's very frustrating coming home to things chewed up left and right. I have been using a spray bottle with water in it and anytime I catch her chewing on something she shouldn't be, I spray her. She hates the spray bottle and I am hoping this helps with training her not to chew on everything. I still have to remember she is still a puppy and she is going to do things that frustrate me, just like I did to my own parents. It is definitely an eye opener having another mouth to feed and caring for something so much, you have to give up tons of your time for them.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Marley's Boyfriend, Diesel

My friend Alex got a blue nose Pit Bull puppy about a month before I got Marley. He named him Diesel, and let me tell you, Diesel is a monster pup. For only being four months old Diesel weighs a little over 20 pounds. Diesel is a beautiful blue nose pit and comes from a prime bloodline of blue nose pits. Alex and I have been discussing with each about breeding Marley and Diesel since they both are beautiful dogs and both are full breed pit. The third week I had Marley, I went over to Alex's apartment and brought Marley with me. Diesel and Marley began to play with each other but at this time Diesel was three times the size of Marley. After a few minutes of playing Diesel was beginning to pick on her by holding her down with his huge paws, this was the first time I had ever seen Marley react the way she did. She snapped at him and then showed her teeth for intimidation. We broke them up after that and I then left. About a week ago I took Marley out on the quad for a walk and Alex brought Diesel with him. They both just played with each other while a large group of girls surrounded them telling us both how cute they are. Alex and I both have been saving up to build a kennel at his home in Canton, OH. I am going to get her papers so that we have two parents with papers, making the puppies worth more money. If we are able to do this right, and are able to have a healthy litter produced we could sell each puppy for up too 400-500 dollars a piece.

Smart Pup

So its been close to 5 weeks since I first picked up Marley and she is doing awesome. I have been waking up almost every day at six in the morning to take her out for a run around campus. She loves being outside so she enjoys the early morning jog. Shes gained close to 7 pounds since the last time she was at her vet and she is getting big ! She still has a problem with peeing in the house every once in awhile but I take the blame for it since I should be making sure she is taken out every hour and a half. Marley has proven to be a very intelligent dog. I have been training her to do a few tricks and she has picked them up surprisingly fast. In about a week she learned to sit and in two weeks she learned to shale her paw. The trick she just recently learned was laying down. It was fun teaching her these tricks because during the training process you can see that she knows how to do it but doesn't understand that they are commands we want her to follow. Like for example when I was teaching her to lie down, she obviously lays down all the time, but you could see her baffled in confusion when I would tell her to lay down. So what I would do is grab her front paws and lay them down and pushed her back down with them so she would be in the lie down position. I would say it took about a week and a half to pick up on the command. As of right now I am working on getting her to roll over, which is going to be extremely difficult but she has proved to me already that she's a smart little pup.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Training Days


So it's been been a little over a month since we first got Marley and you can already see how much bigger she has gotten. She is actually getting her second vaccine shot which I will be giving her myself. I bought the vaccine at Tractor Supply to save myself from another expensive vet bill. She has been teething extremely bad lately, and has chewed up several things of mine including the power cord to my TV. I finally found some toys she likes and has been playing with all day but I still find her with something in her mouth she shouldn't have. I took her to the vet exactly a month ago and she weighed in at around 5 and a half pounds. Looking at her now I would say she is pushing 8 to 10 pounds now. I have also been walking her around campus to give her some exercise and get used to walking on a leash. She is definitely a smart dog because she already knows how to sit and shake her paw along with walking at my side when I say heel. She is scheduled to see her vet this up coming week so I will know for sure how much she weighs and whether she is still in good health. So far she seems healthy and I hope to keep it that way. The toughest thing about training her is keeping her from getting into things she isn't supposed too. I mean she is still only a little puppy so it is hard to punish her when she gives you those puppy eyes.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Adjusting to the new environment

Marley Monroe Richardson

 Meet Marley, the spoiled little pup with seven dads. Yes, seven dads. Living in the dorms at college has its benefits such as the dining halls and dorm rooms right on campus. Living off campus has its benefits as well like having your room and more privacy. They say that puppies are very time consuming and need tons of attention and I would agree completely. Having seven guys in the house is definitely beneficial when raising Marley. With school, work and other activities I'm not sure if I would be able to do it by myself. The cons of having seven people raising a puppy is that each person has their own way of doing things which can be confusing for Marley. I have taken the lead role in her life so that she has a dominant figure she knows to obey.
It's been five days since we brought Marley home and she still seems to miss her family back home. She' seems real timid and scared which I can understand. It would be hard to be taken from your brothers and sisters and mostly your mom and dad. Marley resembles her mother the most out of her siblings and her father was a solid red nose with tons of energy. I'm just excited to watch her grow up and see how big she will get.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Meeting Marley

On October 6th I drove to Columbus, OH to pick up my pitbull puppy that I have been wanting for awhile now. I found the breeders through Craigslist who were selling full breed pit bull puppies for 100 dollars. While I was searching through the pictures I noticed two of the puppies were chocolate brown on their whole body while the others were a mix of white and light tan. I fell in love with the two darker ones so I asked if they could hold off from selling them so I could choose between them. My roommate and I arrived at the breeders house that Sunday evening and played with the entire litter. There were 9 total puppies and the mother and father were both there as well. When I started playing with the puppies I noticed one of the dark brown ones had beautiful green eyes and made my decision on the spot. I had to have her. After that we put her collar and leash on her and took her back to the car. She slept in Alex's (my roommate) lap the entire ride back home. As soon as we got back she went to the bathroom and ate the food I had waiting for her in her bowl. Marley was really timid and scared from being taken away from her home so we made it as comfortable for her as possible.