His name is Shasta. He is nine weeks old today. He has been so much fun.
We picked him up from the airport around 11:00 AM on Friday. He was a little scared and reluctant to come out of the travel cage at first, but once he did, he took to us really fast. In fact, he followed us everywhere.
At least one of our first impressions of him was "Imagine that! A Samoyed that actually comes when called!", for that was quite a contrast from our earlier Samoyed, Casper, that was so scared when we first got him that he ran away from us and we had to earn his trust. Casper turned out to be a very good dog, yet he was such an independent sort and wouldn't always come when called.
Shasta, the new one pictured above, was just the opposite at first and came across as a little clingy, yet as time has passed, and he has gotten more used to us, he is already becoming more and more independent, has began to take off on his own and explore and as he does that, I am beginning to see that typical Samoyed stubbornness emerge. Samoyeds are a little independent, stubborn and difficult to train, but that's part of their charm. They are very gentle and friendly and would never hurt a fly, as I can see, this one will be as well.
The other first impression that we had was that he didn't seem to have quite the energy level that we expected. Our other dog, Casper, just loved to run and was so incredibly fast it was unbelievable. Samoyeds are sled dogs and love to run. I guess Shasta was tired and a little shy around such a new environment, but that is changing as well.
When we first got him, we had to teach him how to go up and down these two small steps over a retaining wall in our yard and also up into the house. He liked it outside and didn't really want to come inside, though he is going to have to be a house dog because of the warmer climate in California. We are up in the mountains, making the weather cooler than in the valley's, yet it is still quite often in the 90s and it even breaks 100 degrees 2 or 3 days out of the year. Samoyeds are winter sled dogs and have very thick fur.
Friday and Saturday, Shasta mainly just trotted and only occasionally broke into a run when he was chasing us, yet yesterday, he was picking up speed and ran without needing to have anything to chase. Yep, he's a Samoyed alright. He was just taking his time getting started. He slipped on the dirt a few times, he's still just a puppy. He runs much better on the grass. I'm sure he will pick up both his energy and speed as he grows. It's so fun watching him learn.
This is so much fun and we are so in love with our new little friend.
14 comments:
Beautiful puppy. After looking at the photos, I'm reminded of the laundry commericals..."whiter than white"...
he looks at bb, with feigned hurt feelings and pouts, "mine is more beautiful"
got a white one also, but, it is a shepherd. all she does, tho, is lay around the house, depending on where i am.
hope you enjoy the dog, lista, as much as i do mine.
Well, Shasta is now handling the steps like a pro and he keeps looking over the side of the retaining wall like he is considering jumping off it soon. It's only the height of two steps, so I'm sure he'll be jumping off it in good time.
He is also starting to run a lot and he is so cute, yet we are trying not to get him too excited because believe it or not, I have witnessed before a young puppy being run to death by two children. I was one of the children. The dog ran & ran & ran & than all of a sudden dropped over & died. It was so sad. That one was a Collie.
We tired the lease with Shasta
Yesterday. He didn't like it much and kept biting it, but he'll eventually get the hang of it.
Thanks BB,
He got a little dirty yesterday. When he runs in the dirt, whether than the grass, sometimes he falls and when he does, he's not quite so white anymore and we have to brush him off. I don't think I'll use laundry detergent to wash him, though. lolol.
Griper,
I don't mean to be biased, but though, all puppies are cute, there are only a few that draw out the words "Beautiful" and "Pretty" just as often as "Cute". Usually, those are the words that are used to describe an adult dog, whether than a puppy, yet Shasta is already called by those terms. Samoyeds are like that.
I like the dog that you have with you in the picture on your blog, Griper. He almost looks like he might have a little Collie in him and not just Shepherd. That makes him more unique and well, yeh, kind of pretty. What's his/her name and what's he/she like?
My husband is the one who can't seem to break away from his thing with white. I'd be just as happy with a Husky or Malamute, yet Samoyeds are really beautiful and Shasta's a real sweet heart, so I have no complaints.
As I was reading over my own post again, just now, I was reminded of how Shasta was reluctant to come in the house at first. Well, he's getting better in this regard as well.
As to the potty training, he has the pooping thing down and always goes in one of two spots in the yard, yet he still peas in the house. I guess this is going to take awhile. Oh well.
We are waiting for his shot record. I thought that that was going to come with the dog when we picked him up from the airport, yet the lady decided to mail it separate.
Hopefully, it will come soon, because we are a little reluctant to take him out of our yard until we know what protection he has. From what the lady said, he appears to have the DHP shot, for Distemper, Parvo and I forget what the H stands for. I think it's Hepatitis, but he is missing the Lime and yes there is Lime Disease in our area.
The other really bad one that is sort of unique to our area is called Heart Worm. It's horrible! These worms attack the heart and it's a definite killer. They say that without protection, an animal will eventually get Heart Worm. He will need this protection as soon as possible. I hope the shot record comes soon, so that we can get Shasta to the vet for his additional shots and Heart Warm pills.
the dog in the pic was a dog i had a while back. and believe me it was all shepherd too. i'll put up a pic of the one i have now later for you to see. and talk of different personalities. wow.
As I look at the pictures that we took of Shasta on the first day that we picked him up, I realize that his actual color now is more of an off white. He keeps running in the dirt and than he slides into this hole that he dug, which is now his favorite place.
I totally take back my comment about expecting him to have more energy than he does. He is quite full of it now, loves to run and is getting better at it. He is even getting used to the lease. I didn't like it at first and kept biting it, but he's learning. We've been walking him down our 400 foot drive way.
I sure wish that the shot record would come in the mail. I have no idea why it is taking so long. We have taken him out of our yard now, but what he really needs is a 20 to 30 minute walk to get rid of some of that energy and we are still reluctant to take him that far until we know for sure that he has had all the shots he needs, even in relation to our area. We assume he still needs Lime and Heart Worm, yet are waiting for the shot record before taking him to the vet.
He doesn't come when called. He is a lot like Casper was. We are actually surprised at the similarities, though he has a few of his own unique qualities. He lays with his legs straight behind him, instead of underneath him. We've began to call that "Shasta Style" and he pulls the grass up by the roots like a goat. Now that's a habit that we are going to need to break him of.
He still gets us up once in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. He sleeps in a box next to our bed and it really is true that dogs will not pea where they have to sleep. We probably shouldn't give in so easily, though, because he didn't pea in his Travel Kennel while on his flight, so that proves that he does have the ability to hold it for 9 1/2 hours.
When he is not in his box during the day, we are still working on that potty training. It can be frustrating at times, yet I'm sure he'll get it eventually.
Shasta preferred being outside at first, but is getting used to the house. He comes in more willingly now, yet still doesn't always come when called.
I look forward to the rainy season. Maybe it will keep the dust down so that Shasta will stay more clean. Believe it or not, mud is cleaner than dry dust because it rinses right off, even without any soap. The dust, however, remains there and changes him too off white. We may not even bother giving him his first bath until after the first rain.
Griper,
The main difference between a White German Shepherd and a Samoyed, in appearance anyway, is all the hair. In a warmer climate, many people decide to shave their Samoyeds in the summer time and when you do, they look a lot like White German Shepherds. I almost hate to do that, but we'll see.
Another approach is to hose them down before taking them out into the heat. We discovered that Shasta loves the sprinklers. Casper was a little afraid of water, yet not Shasta. Maybe he'll be a swimmer.
All the white that your earlier dog has around his neck reminds me of a Collie. He is pretty.
check out my pic now. that is my white dog
The comment section of this post is becoming like my puppy journal.
I still can't believe how white the above pictures are. Every time I look at them, I realized to what extent Shasta needs a bath, but the way he's been playing in the dirt makes me wonder if it would be worth it to do it prior to the first rain. Perhaps he is going to be just slightly off white most of the time, except the first day or two after his bath.
He actually slept through the night last night. We had been getting up in the middle of the night every night since we got him and putting him out to the bathroom. First it was after 4 hours and then after 5. When we made the decision to ignore his winning and stretch the time interval to 6 hours, he fell back to sleep and just kept sleeping until morning. He was in that box for 9 hours and didn't go to the bathroom in it.
I took him down to the place where I work to show him off to my co-workers, but discovered that he becomes rather calm and low key whenever in a new environment. I couldn't persuade him to run. He is so cute when he runs. Oh well, they loved seeing him anyway.
Griper,
Yep, that looks like a White German Shepherd. I look forward to hearing about the personalities of your two dogs.
Griper,
While reading the comments again, I've decided that in relation to German Shepherds and Samoyeds, beauty isn't the only factor to consider. German Shepherds are more obedient and easy to train. Put another way, beauty sometimes requires a lot more effort.
It's just like my mother often says, "I'd never want a long haired dog? There is hair all over the house." and all I've got to say in return is "That's what the vacuum's for." Long hair requires maintenance. Quite apart from the extra vacuuming, the dog also requires brushing. Add to all that the high energy and stubborn nature and you've got a high maintenance dog.
Keeping all this in mind, maybe it's not so much to ask for a the little fringe benefit of having a dog that's quite beautiful and gets noticed as such regularly. I guess German Shepherd's and Labs have their charms as well, for if they're reasonably trained, they usually do do what they're told.
My parents had German Shepherds. They had one male and one female and a couple of times a year we had litters of puppies. They were good dogs. I guess my own desire for the unique, whether than the ordinary, comes with a price, for let's face it. What's less common and popular is that way for a reason. I'm just one of those idiots who's decided that it's worth it.
In General,
Shasta is getting used to being in doors. He preferred it outside at first, yet has decided now that he likes it inside as well and he often runs to the front door after a walk. I took him a little farther Yesterday in order to help him get rid of some of his energy.
Shasta's pooping area has expanded. It looks like he likes to poop anywhere along the perimeter of the fence. This even includes the grass, which is a habit we want to break him of.
There is still no sign of the shot record that the lady said she sent. She finally sent us a copy of it through Email, so we are going to take Shasta to the vet soon in order to take care of anything else that he still needs.
It sprinkled a little the other day, yet was not enough to really get the ground wet, so there is still a lot of dust. As I mentioned earlier, we need some rain to keep the dust down, in order to make it worth it to give Shasta a bath.
It's cooled down a little though. I was still wearing my shorts, yet ended up putting a sweater on at times.
Shasta has been sleeping through the night now, except there is one unfortunate catch. If he doesn't wake us up in the middle of the night, than the other option is for him to wake up sort of early, full of energy. So much for sleeping in and I'm having a little trouble finding computer time in order to keep up on my blog. Keeping a puppy journal in this comment thread is about all I have had the time for. Oh well. I hope things will get better as the puppy grows.
AWWW! Hes' so cute! Actually "cute" doesn't quite cut it, Lista. He's absolutely gorgeous!
Thanks Gayle,
We sort of think so too.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that he has already put on weight since we got him. He weighed 11 pounds on the day in which we picked him up (Friday, 9/12/08) and than just Yesterday, when we weighed him, he weighed 13.5 pounds. That's 2.5 pounds in 8 days. He's growing like a weed.
Well, your puppy is a DAWG now, huh? I bet he must be an 80 pounder or so by now. Very cute, will show my wife.
The Samoyed page is for my mother-in-law and aunt's Samoyeds. They used to breed and show Chows and Sammies. But they are both getting up in years and are slowly moving from having like 50 dogs down to maybe someday one or two breeding females and one or two males.
BTW heartworm pills kill heartworms. Clinical trials have proven that, even if your dog contracts heartworms, the pills eventually kill them. This means the elaborate poisoning of your dog in the name of killing off heartworms is just a bad experience for dogs and owners and easy money for vets. We never have heartworm checks for our dogs, we just buy heartworm pills without prescriptions from Canada. If you give your dog the pills all year he/she will never get heartworms in the first place...Kimbal
Hi Radar,
Thanks for Dropping by. You have Caused me to Read Through this again and to go down Memory Lane.
I Talk about Our Earlier Dog, Casper, here and yet he was not a Pure Breed. He was a Samoyed Mixed with Chow and Possibly also a Little White Wolf. His Fur was not as Thick and he had the Chow Tail. His Hair also had a Slight Ting of Brown in it. Here are some Pictures of him.
I Chuckled when I saw your Mention of 80 Pounds. Samoyeds don't get that Big, Radar. They Range from 45 to 65 Pounds and Shasta is 54 Pounds, or at Least he was last we Checked. Ray Thinks that he may have Put on a Little More Weight, so we should Probably Weigh him again. We Stopped Weighing him when he was a little more than a Year Old and his Weight Seemed to have Stabilized.
A 65 Pound Samoyed may Look Like 80 Pounds, but it is all Fluff. They are Really much Lighter than they Look.
If you Want to Read more About Shasta, there is a Label to the Right Entitled "Our Dog - Shasta". If you do Read some of the Other Posts, you will Find Out that he was Actually a Rather Difficult Puppy; a Definite Alpha and Unfortunately was Both Stubborn and Destructive. He is Much Better now, but is Still not Trusted in the Main Part of the House when we are Away.
The Top Post below this Label Contains a Picture of him and a Deer that is Rather Interesting. Some of the Other Posts were Actually about other Subjects and yet the Dog was used as an Analogy and Illustration of a Point that I was Trying to Make.
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