We got a dog! We named him Güenther (pronounced ‘Goown-tur’), which is germanic for ‘Warrior’. I haven’t written about him yet, though there are a bunch of pictures of him in my photos section, so I decided to take a bit of time to introduce him to the internet. Internet, meet Güenther… Güenther, internet.

Güenther is a Weimaraner, which is a large breed dog (about 75 to 80 pounds full grown) bred for royalty for hunting.

We got Güenther from a couple of women who were selling him at a local Target parking lot. Apparently they moved into a new house here in Murfreesboro and the landlord would not allow them to keep a large dog, so they decided to sell. I think they were also having money issues and could not afford to keep him up. I can completely understand this, because he has not been inexpensive.

He’s a pretty good dog, but he is getting bold lately. He was sick the second month we had him, so right after we started with training, we had to stop because he was too sick to go, and then the vet wouldn’t give him his shots, so training policy would not allow him to attend. Now that he’s gotten better, and his shots are all caught up… we’re going to start up with him again… but probably after the holidays.

He had a bone disorder called Panosteitis, which is a bone disease common in large breed puppies. It caused a lot of pain, and when the disease first presented in Güenther, he would not get out of his crate… and we had to carry him outside and hold him up so that he could poop! It was heartbreaking! It took forever for the vet to figure out what it was too… many visits… many x-rays, and painkillers / muscle relaxers for weeks!

He’s a smart little guy… he knows ’sit’, ’stay’, ‘come here’, ‘leave it’, and ‘no bite’ (though i think he just knows the ‘no’ part of this one)… but we’re working on ‘drop it’ (he usually just scampers off with the thing in his mouth, and goes to hide under the coffee table in the living room) and ‘no jump’ and he has a habit of wanting to put his mouth on everything, including Melissa’s hands and her coat, pant legs, etc… not really biting, just thinking that she has treats or something when she comes home. He really doesn’t bother me the same way. Melissa got this stuff called ‘Bitter Apple‘, which she puts on her hands. Güenther hasn’t really made the association yet between her hands and the awful taste though. It’s kind of funny to watch his reaction to the stuff! I think it’s just that I’m here all day with him, but I’m working… so I don’t really spend a lot of time with him during the day. So when she comes home… he’s excited and happy to see her… probably in part because she feeds him immediately after she gets home, and so he associates her coming home with food.

He also loves to tease the cat… (our most frequent use of ‘leave it!’ is because of his affinity for the cat).

So yeah… he is a very good dog. Very friendly, sweet… and loves attention. He’s been very good with all the people we have around! He doesn’t chew on furniture (yet), and has been doing very good with his potty training. I think he’s a wonderful addition to the family, and I’m sure that you’ll see more posts about him!