First thoughts about Cherokee
It’s been a little over two weeks since we brought Cherokee home and I thought I would tell a little of my first impressions of him. For those of you who are not regular readers of my blog, Cherokee is a Lab/Saint Bernard cross, a Labernard. Going on 9 weeks old and he weighs in at 15 pounds.
My first thoughts about him are that he is a very intelligent dog. He is a puppy and he gets into things and does things he shouldn’t, but what puppy doesn’t do that. He wouldn’t be normal if he didn’t. As I mentioned in my first post, when we brought him home, he rode in our van as if he had been riding in a vehicle all his life. Yesterday, I was able to drive to my Dad’s and pick up a chain link gate to finish fencing my back yard off, so I thought I would just bring Cherokee along for the ride, just to see how he would do. He was pretty good, outside of the fact that he wanted to ride in my lap, and he didn’t get sick at all. Very good for only his second ride.
At Dad’s, I transferred from my car to Dad’s truck and we went down to the barn, where all the junk is stored. When I was prowling around in the pile, trying to find what I would need, Cherokee found a round steel post that was lying at an angle, with one end about six or eight inches off the ground. Although he could have easily slipped under it, he seem to take special delight in jumping over it, every time I moved to the other side. I got the impression he thought it was pretty neat. When I was digging through the hinges and pole caps that were laying on the ground, he also took great pride in picking them up in his mouth and carrying them around. You should have seen the look on his face. He was sure proud of himself.
When we finished there, I drove back to the barn and had to get out to get the a set of post hole diggers and I thought he might get a little stirred up, being left in the truck, even for a short two minutes. However, when I arrived back at the truck, I found him curled up in my seat, getting ready to take a nap. On the way back to the house, he lay next to me with his head on my leg or just curled up asleep.
While I was setting the posts and hanging the gate, I let him run around the front yard and when I went to check on him later, he had found the laundry basket full of towels. As I mentioned in my first post, he seems to really like laying in the dirty clothes. He just looked at me, as if to say “where have you been?”.
I also think the Labrador is coming out in him. A couple of times this last week, I have gotten him interested in a stick and when I tossed it away from us, he retrieved it back. I think I can really get him going with a tennis ball. This summer, we plan to get a big wading pool and see if the Labrador really comes out. I think he will love the water.
All I can say is, stay tuned. More to come as Cherokee grows up. I will try to get more pictures to upload as he grows and changes.
That’s my take!
Larry
He sounds like a good little pup (not little for long with those two breeds mixed!).
We had sad news today about our basset hound. She is in kidney failure … tomorrow we will have to say goodbye.