jd, ginger and kramer: best friends forever ...

I heart dogs.  I have 2 of them - well, technically 3, as my little cuddle bug Fletcher is now an angel in heaven.  With us here on earth we have a 12 yr old mini-schnauzer named Kramer, who can be a little stubborn (typical German ... I can say that since I come from a family of Germans) AND an energetic 1 yr old cocker spaniel named Ginger.  We thought it would be best to introduce the dogs one at a time to JD, since he's likely not been around any in his short little life.

First up:  Ginger.  We were really worried about her, since she's still a puppy and a sassy one at that.  We brought her back into the mix on JD's 3rd day with us and, wow, did she surprise us.  She's been so motherly toward JD.  She's very gentle with him, licks him, I even think she was trying to clean him one time when she was nibbling at the back of his head (like a mother dog would do to her pups).  Super cute!   We thought our little girl (Ginger) had matured overnight now that she had deemed herself "mother" to this cute little boy named JD.

Second up:  Kramer.  We introduced Kramer on JD's 8th day home. We were a little worried about Kramer as he's very set in his ways.  And why shouldn't he be, after all he's in his retirement years!  The one thing we thought might be a problem with him is that he gets jealous when humans show affection to each other.  So if I hug my husband, and vice versa, he barks at us.  Well, wouldn't you know it, if I needed to hold JD, Kramer barked.  Question for you:  how many times a day does a baby need to be held?  A lot!!  That's the same number of times Kramer barked the first 2 days!!!  Needless to say we've been working on that with intensity as it needs to stop.   And thankfully it's getting better.

Oh, and about Ginger's overnight maturation: Um yeh, didn't happen.  What we thought was instant maturity was really just her being 'the only dog in the house'.  She's always been a cuddly, gentle and playful dog with us "humans", but has a tendency to spend a lot of energy on being dominant over Kramer.  It was interesting to observe what an obedient little girl she could be when she was the only dog (we've never had her in that situation before).  This lasted the 5 days we left Kramer at my parents.  But presto-chango, we bring Kramer back into the family, and she is instantly a "you know what" to him.   So now I know what to tell our dog trainer that we need to work on - she tries so hard to be dominant over Kramer that she gets into trouble.  I'm hoping we can nip that in the bud fast, as outside of that she's the sweetest. 

Overall, I'm VERY happy with how well JD has taken to both dogs.  Even though Kramer was a bit jealous the first few days, the barking never upset JD.  And it makes my heart smile every time I see Ginger go check on JD when he's sleeping, or I find her sleeping on the mattress we have in his room, or catch her trying to "clean" him as if he were her pup.

Here are some pictures from our first couple of days home ...

ginger has been following him around everywhere, doting little mother that she is ...

... she's with him even as he goes to check out the vacuum (remember he liked them in Korea)

ginger finds any way she can to be by his side - even helping me put him to sleep