My dog Max died a couple of months ago, of old age at 11 years old. Seems like only yesterday when I was blogging about getting him as a puppy…. Scroll down this old post for a picture of Max:
Our other dog, Xena, is about ten years old now, gray and old herself. We don’t expect her to live a lot longer, sad to say. She follows Marie around from room to room, but she can’t walk well enough to go on walks, and seems to be hard of hearing.
And we need functional dogs here on the ranch, for our security. So Marie, who has always wanted one, got herself a Doberman puppy last Friday. He’s a bit over six weeks old, tentatively named “Duke”.
He’s a handsome boy and seems fairly smart, too.
Max was a fantastic dog. Exuberant and amazing.
Let’s hope Duke grows into that wrinkled skin of his. He looks pretty adorable from over here.
Xena must be glad to have company again.
Yeah, Max was a terrific companion dog. I miss him.
The new puppy is quite adorable, and seems to think pretty well. He throws tantrums when he doesn’t get his way, whining and backing away and shaking his head. So far the clicker training seems to be working pretty well with him. He knows “sit” and Marie is teaching him that chasing a ball is good. Picking it up is even better.
But Xena thinks he is the Devil, at this point, because he just won’t leave her alone. He ignores her barking at him when he climbs on her bed. She hasn’t snapped at him or tried to bite him, but the tension is building on that… we’ll see what happens.