We slept through the night!

I awoke suddenly at 4:00 AM. Oh, my gosh! I haven't heard the dog all night. What if something is wrong. I rushed to her crate to make sure she was alright and there she was chasing rabbits in her sleep.

Wow! That was a long 5 days.

She has stopped howling and whines intermittently, but is beginning to respond to no and stops whining. Life seems better now. (Remind me not to have anymore children. I like sleep too much these days.)

Howl Baby!

At this point I am not certain whether I have a wolf or a drahthaar!

I have never seen a dog howl the way she does. It is like watching discovery channel. She finds something to put her paws up on arches her back and begins the most distressful howl you have ever heard. I am surprised the big bad wolf hasn't knocked on my door asking to shut the pup up so he can get some sleep.

In desperation I called the breeder to see if I was doing something wrong and he simply laughed. "Give her a week," he said. A week? Holly Moses! I have 5 more days of this.

The puppy with no name.

We welcomed the newest member of our family today. She is a 10 month old drahthaar pup. Currently she has no name. We will wait to see what her name might be as we get to know her better.

The day we picked her up:

Denise, my wife, and Lunden, my 10 year old daughter, made the trek with me from Spokane to Nampa Idaho ( Google Map ) home of Jeff Funke and Three Devils Kennel.

I had spoken with Jeff the previous winter inquiring about pups on referral from Brian Carrol the visionary behind Upland Ironman, a site dedicated to the pursuit of chukars. Jeff hunts the dogs he breeds. To quote Jeff, "If they don't hunt, they don't make it." Simple enough I thought. I want in. He had me write a letter about the type of dog I was looking for and had me provide a deposit. From my letter he suggested the litter that I might be interested in and the deal was struck. Now to wait.....

5 Months Later

When we arrived at Three Devils Kennel there were 4 puppies clamoring for our attention. A fifth puppy sat over in the corner refusing to make eye contact with us. Denise and Lunden said she was beautiful several times. Which for a drahthaar is saying something. While we played with the four that wanted our attention, this fifth puppy got up, yawned and strolled out in to fenced area. At the time I though, wow she is shy.

Jeff walked over to me and said, "don't mistake her avoidance for shyness. She is simply independent. In fact I almost kept her myself." Hmm.... I thought, maybe my 'shy' judgement was off a bit. I picked her up and walked far away from the other pups. Now it was just her and me. This is when things changed. She wasn't hyper but attentive and watched my every move. I had picked up a rope toy to test here desire to fetch and hunt. The other pups had fetched but none of them ventured into the brush for the toy. This is where she stood apart. Upon my throwing the toy into the brush she gave me the 'what did you do that for' look and proceed to naturally quarter into the wind looking for the toy some six feet into the brush. She did this five times. Definitely not a fluke.

That settled that. An hour later I had chosen my pup. Jeff was very patient through the whole thing. Answering questions, giving advice and grinning at my anticipation. Truth be told, any of the dogs will be stellar and I was making it into a production. Well I am guilty of that.

So that settles that. We now have a new pup with no name.