Murphy is going to be three in October. He just keeps getting to be more and more fun to have around. One of his latest adventures was a trip to the eastern shore of Maryland. For you folks across the big pond, that is on the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay not far from Washington DC. My sister in law and hubby have a large farm that is on the banks of one of the fingers of the Chesapeake. My OH was worried about Murphy just running off but I felt he would not stray far. Ahem, I was right (I may make a note of that, it rarely happens). We let him free run of the place but he never really got more than about 50 yards away from us. Once in a while he would go around the house, but it was not long before he was checking to make sure we were still behaving. Murphy was in 7th heaven. He now had 5 people to keep track of, one of them being our 18 year old niece. And then there were the sheep, he only sniffed the electric wire one time. Then he discovered the water! He would run and play, get warm and head right down to the water to cool off. Pretty soon he figured out that we needed to throw his tennis ball in the water for him. My niece is/was a soccer player. One of my favorites moments was when she was running around the yard with him. He ran alongside of her, tongue and ears flying all over the place, looking up at her as they loped along. I wish I had been able to get a picture! I have to keep a sharp eye on my brother in law though. . . .Ernie is a great guy, but I can see in his eyes that he wants to have a lab like Murphy. . . one can never tell, even good guys sometimes go astray. I became concerned when Ernie decided he needed to nap on the floor next to Murphy...hmmmm. Murph is not crazy about car rides and it is a 8 hour one way journey. He sort of slept on his bed in the back all the way. Would not eat or drink anything. We stopped about every hour and half to see if we could get him to at least drink, but ohhh noooo, his stubborn streak was in full control. We are still taking him for walks on our "riverwalk" in downtown Wilmington. He loves those, gets to meet lots of people and some dogs but meeting kids or teenagers is the best for him. We go in the morning and I have started stopping in a small "convenience" store for a cup of coffee. Well, it turns out that the owners just love dogs, so all dogs get a spoon of ice cream on the house. Murphy knows which door it is, let me tell you! Murph does not get on the furniture except for the ottoman, that has become his. But he is such a good dog he moves right over if we want to put our feet up. What a guy! Well, that is the update for now!
Sounds like a fantastic trip away. I love it when they prove you right . Murph sounds like a fantastic dog and he is clearly loved. I love reading about others trips / activities with their dogs as love how much time people put into making them part of our lives.
He sounds like a real happy lad! I just love that age..3...when they start to mature and you can almost sit back, relax and forget about that mad teenager..well, almost!
Beanwood, Murphy has pretty much been great since he was 8 weeks old. Would you believe, he never ever pooped in the house and only had two other accidents? We abandoned the crate when he was about 3 months. The following could drive a dog trainer nutz: We have never officially trained him. When he was a pup and he started to do something we did not want, all we would say is "aaaa, aaaa" and then move him away. It would only take a couple of reps and that was it. He has been with one of us almost continually. When we got him my wife was traveling 4 nights a week and I was building our workshop in the back. I took him everywhere I went. Had a bed for him in the shop so he could sleep when he got tired. There have been two occasions when I had to leave him home alone for an extended period (about 7 hours). He had full run of the house. No problems whatsoever. He is just one of those dogs. We have never raised our voices to him. But, we do respond to his needs. When he wants to go out and play, which is about 4-5 times per day, we go out and play. When he nudges his food bowl, it gets filled up. BTW, he is not an overeater at all. We generally put two cups in the bowl in the morning. Sometimes he eats it right away, but it usually sits until late afternoon. We put two more cups in when it is empty and he eats that in evening. If he nudges it around, he gets another cup. We don't go crazy on treats either. He does not beg for table food at all. I get a couple of egg mcmuffins every now and then and he does get a bite of them, but not at the table. The vet tells us that he is at a correct weight. In the sunlight we can just barely see the outline of his ribs. He is an amazing guy. Sometimes, like right now, I feel like a doting father bragging about his son. Did I mention, he is a great watch dog? He knows what is normal and what is not around here and he lets us know when he hears anything out of the ordinary. But most of the time he eats, sleeps, keeps an eye on us and plays. Oh, an interesting thing that he has started doing the last few months...like most dogs he has a way of laying around right where you want to walk. Lately, if he sees we need to get by he moves out of the way by changing his position. We have never told him to do that, normally we just step over him. He has never been stepped on but I guess he just figured out it was a good idea, after all, we are not spring chickens around here. Alright, I am rambling like the doting father, off I go!
