"I want a puppy for.... {fill in the blank}

So, this is Sprocket. He's a puppy. In fact he's an English Setter. I don't know how common they are but he was new to me when we first met the breeder and this cool breed at a club gathering.

These are beautiful dogs - full of personality, energy, and intelligence! Occassionally, Sprocket allows us to see the loving side too - that is when he's not all puppy jumps and testing everything with his mouth. Those puppy teeth are sharp! So, Joy is working with him to learn the word 'gentle' and other such things as a way to improve his family behavior but of course from time-to-time, the puppy brain jumps the track and it's "bitey bug" for everything! Lol

Thus, this got me thinking about the lament of every kid who has ever lived (for the most part) and that is the whine of "I want a puppy!". Usually it is followed by the word 'for' and then insert most any occassion that you can think of that is traditional for the taking on of a puppy; however misguided that might be. The thing is, a puppy is a living being and it's a committment. Most of us don't always realize just how VERY BIG a committment it is but if you want your puppy to turn into an adult dog with the good behaviors you seek in a companion, then puppy training is a must. Most people think that involves teaching the puppy to sit on command and to learn the word 'NO' as it is holdered over and over repeatedly in a futile attempt to teach the dog a human word that probably has about the same relevance to the dog as if you said "furbish" to him.

You see, I've been on the beneficial end of watching a very smart dog trainer (namely my daughter) grapple with this most adorable and wiggly of canines and I can tell you this - a puppy is a lot of work!

Note to those considering puppy wrangling, puppies sleep a lot - like my friend Sprocket here. But, they don't sleep all the time! When they are awake, you can pretty-well expect some non-stop action and if you don't find productive ways to engage that puppy brain, well let's just say the puppy will find some ways to occupy itself and probably a fair number of them will not make your list of things a puppy should be doing in your house!

So, if you are are subject to aversion to that four-letter word "work" when it comes to dealing with your puppy, then, consider a hamster or something else you can keep in a cage when the mood doesn't hit you to work with the beast because raising a good citizen doggy is real work - i.e. non-stop work from sun-rise to sunset and occassionally in the middle of the night for when a puppy is bored, has a tinier bladder than you, and really just wants a constitutional in the back yard to smell all the really cool night smells. So, my hope is that while I share my admiration for my daughter and how very consistently she teachers her new love good behavior, I can share some thoughts on what you are getting into when you say "I want a puppy for...".

My suggestion for filling in the words after "for" would be something along the line of "training, exercising, and of course, loving and being loved". But before you can get to that last most highly prized state of being loved by your dog, you have to raise a good puppy into a good adult dog and that takes consistency in training, patience galour, and an understanding of the canine mind that you would do well to learn about from people like my Joy. The only reason I have half of a proper understanding of how dogs think is because of Joy teaching me - and she's a great teacher! Many times when I'm not "doing it right" it's because I don't understand how the dog thinks about what I'm doing. Joy will explain this to me and I will go "oh, I never thought of that". To her it's not rocket science but to the rest of us, it surely is sometimes. Dogs are amazing creatures and a real blessing in our lives but just like people they come with some complex behaviors. Having watched Joy successfully teach her puppy some amazing things (and yes he is REALLY smart), it inplants in my mind that not everyone is cut out to do this well. It takes some real determination and committment to do it right folks! I mean people take their dogs to what they think is "puppy obedience" and "good manners" classes but what a lot of it comes down to is training the owners! Then the owners have to exercise the patience and sure determination to repeat succesfully the training they have learned about 500-600 times so the poor pooch gets the idea "oh yeah, they REALLY want me to do this".

So, here is hoping that more would-be pet owners look into what it really takes to first find a reputable and good breeder who breeds dogs for good genetics, health and longevity and then what it takes to raise up a dog that will become a lifelong companion (at least for his/her life span) and doesn't end up in a rescue organization's coffers at some point. They don't want that and neither does the poor pooch. So, if you have the puppy urge - just remember - they are a LOT of work. If you do it right, you gotta work at it. But hey, isn't that how most things worth doing in life work? If you want to do it well, you gotta work at it. I'm pretty sure the best artists, musicians and amazingly talented folks in the world didn't get there in one lesson.

kind regards and hang in there! - JR

P.S. Our wonderful doggie Chasey wishes for me to inform you that all his training paid off splendidly when he was younger and that it was all worth the effort to have him turn out to be 'da best dog ever!'

Time passes - so do people...

A lot of time has passed since last I blogged here. I have also seen a number of people about whom I care pass away too. It's the nature of life that at some point it comes to an end but it's never an easy thing with which to deal. In the same period, a new life was born into our family. So, goes the cycle of loss and rebirth. It is an amazing invention of our Lord and Father.

Now that I am older I think about my own mortality more. I guess that's natural. Still, when you are young and you think your entire life is laid out before you, it seems an eternity. However, when you get to where I am at, somehow it seems all too brief and you start to do the math on the closing end of the deal and the numbers begin to look far too small that reflect the rest of the time you have left on this planet. So, you give a lot more thought to what's important it seems.

I don't think anyone really wants to live forever do they? I mean, if they really think about it? If you live forever, that means all the things with which you associated as you grew up from childhood to adulthood slowly fade away. You lose your parents, eventually you would lose your siblings if you were lucky enough to have them. Finally you would lose your children and even your grand children and so on. You also lose your connection to the world. The sense of who you are or were is based upon, to a large extent, the years you lived through. For example, I am a child of the 50s and 60s so I recall a number of things that happened back then including the loss of a president to an assassin, a war that nobody wanted with lost young lives, and some good things like the music of the times and music lessons with my grandmother - a lifetime gift she passed on to me. I in turn passed it on best I could to my children. A love for music is a wonderful gift to give your kids. But I digress. So, my connection to this world dates to the 50s (somewhat though I was quite young) but definitely to the 60s and 70s and so on.

I suppose one of the things we think about when we think about our 'era' or period of life in growing up is the media that entertained us through that period - people who acted on TV and in movies and muscians who record music (on vinyl records no less) and sports casters, sports players, news commentators, even weather men. There was a certain level of comfort in seeing those same people over and over in the media of the time. The movie actors and other celebrities we enjoyed following and the TV actors and shows we enjoyed were very different back then. As I have aged, I have watched as most of those stars have passed away. I am already disconnected from that time period by many years and young people today have no clue about that era other than what they think they know from watching 'historical' footage of the period. As each showbiz personality or media celebrity I liked passes away, my place in history, my connection to the world, seems to shrink. Today there is a new history being written every day, but it doesn't feel like mine. Today there are many 'stars' on TV and in movies and there are many music performers who are 'hot' right now and by and large, I know nothing about any of them. I knew quite a lot about the ones from my era but nothing much of the ones from today. I don't know if that's because of a lack of interest on my part or just because I just don't relate to them, their music, their style of performance, acting, etc. I don't know. I just know with the passing of each person (good or bad) who represents the years when I was growing up, I feel more of a disconnection from the world. That's a very odd thing.

A lot and I mean a LOT of my high school associates who graduated the same year I did are now deceased. Some died from accidents, many died from illness of one type or another. So, even the population or 'baby boom' out of which I exploded is now dwindling quickly. In fact, I consider myself to be very blessed to still be around when many of them died much younger than me. I don't know that I was fast friends with most of those people but it's just another moment in which I feel less connected to the world and specifically 'my era' as the population of students who graduated with me that year - dwindles.

This all sounds rather melodramatic I suppose and that's not the intent. I started with the question of would people want to live forever? I think maybe Ponce de Leone might have wanted it according to traditional history but if he had obtained it (that elusive fountain of youth), I doubt he would have enjoyed it really - at least not in the long long term.

I'm happy enough and my focus now in terms of what I want out of this world is all about my family. I think I've done most of all I wanted to do career-wise. Fourty six years of engineering is probably enough for most anyone in terms of trying different things. However, that doesn't stop me from wanting to keep learning about all things technical and experimenting with new technology as I have opportunity - I just find myself reaching the point where I tire of doing it for the 'man' just to earn a living. I'd like to direct my own future (as much as anyone can) in the last years of my life. Guess we will see how that goes.

On a positive note, looking back over my life, I feel extremely blessed by God. I have a beautiful family including my sweet partner of many decades, my wife Sheila and my beautiful adult 'kids' and now an offspring of theirs. I've enjoyed a very diverse engineering career with good income from each job so I'm grateful for that. We've had our share of challenges as a family for sure but nothing we couldn't get through with God's help. I am so very grateful for that too. So, all in all, I'm glad I have lived the years I have lived and done the things I have done.

Life will go on as long as God wills, and then, the next phase. What that holds, no one knows outside of some rather indirect glympses we can obtain from the Bible. It sounds good and full of love and that's sufficient to me if that's how it turns out though it is scary to contemplate crossing that border; even for a person of faith.

I guess we will see how it goes. Hopefully I have years left yet to watch a grandchild or two grow up. We will see. Still I'll be grateful even if I don't cause the years preceding that will have been good ones to me. So, no, I wouldn't want to live forever. Long enough to see my family well cared for and able to manage without me? Sure. But not forever. Eventually all the memories of people and places and things that were dear to me will be gone and I would be surrounded by people who did not have those connections or hold those same things dear - so no thanks to that. Life is a mystery. Death and what lies beyond it is an even bigger mystery.

While we are here - love is what counts. Love is what it is all about. To be loved, to feel love and to offer love to others is indeed one of God's greatest gifts to mankind. I hope you feel loved by someone too!