Brian Elliott

By demand: Zelda Photos

Life with a 8-12 week old puppy turns out to be enjoyable, but also very tiring. Zelda was certainly a cute little furball during that time, but we definitely had to re-order a lot of our routines to make her fit well into them. Everything had to be re-organized to fit in with Zelda’s bladder control. (or lack thereof)

Crate training helps teach little pups not to use the house as a bathroom, so we spent most of the first few weeks putting her in for a nap, taking her out to pee, getting a little playtime, and then back in the crate. She also got to eat, drink, and do obedience work. As an added bonus, this cycle sometimes got to be repeated at 1, 3, and 5 am.

Although there were a few accidents, Zelda did seem to quickly adapt to the idea that she really ought to be going to the bathroom outside, but you really have to interpret her wishes to figure this out. She does not bark and rarely whines unless you are leaving her. She thinks that barking is a sign that one is too upset.

We’ve seen her try to calm down other very “barky” dogs. She just looks at them like, “Are you sure that’s what you should be doing right now?” Hell, we’ve only ever heard her utter one real bark when she was in guard dog mode, and she looked kind of sheepish about it. Very odd, but an interesting personality quirk. The owners with “barky” dogs all tell me they are quite jealous.

One other thing we discovered is that our pup really loves to do obedience work. She learns quickly, pays attention, and keeps coming back for more. She was certainly very calm compared to other puppies at her “puppy kindergarten” class and really picks up new commands quickly. Of course, after class, she is completely exhausted!

So far so good. The puppy keeps growing and shows signs of becoming a very good dog.  At the rate she is growing, we’re expecting her to hit 65-75 pounds.

a.k.a. geeks take a leap of faith in real humans.

It started with the two of us deciding that there is only way to get what you want is. You just have to reach out and grab it! Of course, that’s not a novel idea, but in our case it meant that I quit my job to get a Weimaraner puppy, manage the household, and enter the murky world of self-employment. For the sake of brevity, I will focus on the acquisition of our little monster.

The wife has always wanted a puppy and we both love my parents’ Weimaraner, Shadow, so there was little question that we’d have to find our own gray ghost.

We wanted the whole puppy experience because the wife has never had one and it really is an experience everyone should have at least once in their life. So I started shopping around for a breeder in my usual fashion by googling for hours upon end.

However, after much googling, it became clear that selecting a breeder comes down to a leap of faith that your puppy will be healthy and a good companion. In other words, you have to put your trust in a human. With this hope in mind I selected a breeder hours away in Missouri. They had 2 female weimaraner pups left and promised to match the pup’s temperament with our stated preferences.

A couple weeks of impatient email exchanges ensued and we finally made a very anxious trip downstate to get our dog. We actually met the breeder’s driver halfway and synchronized up in a rural gas station parking lot. She simply popped open the minivan door and we saw half a dozen puppies making their way to a new home, including 2 gray ghost pups! There was a bit of a drumroll moment to see which pup we’d get, but the driver quickly scooped out the more shy Weim from the rear of their shares craw and plopped her in the wife’s arms. (That was a stroke of good fortune because my wife was already eyeballing up that one.) We paid the woman and the whole transaction was done in about 5 minutes.

So yeah, we had our little zelda. She was a cute little roll of fur who spent most of the ride curled up on our laps. I an surprised I didn’t drive off the road given what a cute little pup she was. She had her picture taken a few times with an iPhone on the way home.
Anyway, it was about a 4 hour drive home and then we had our own little gray pup!