She was my Mom's dog. Her first dog that wasn't a Great Dane in seven years. Flint and Lily were Mom's dogs and they knew that, Flint more so than Lily. The rest of the dogs knew who they belonged to and that was just how things in the house worked. When Flint and Lily died and Mom was ready for another dog she wanted another Chocolate Lab like we'd had many years ago. Eventually we landed on Reese's litter. I'm a dog person and when you present me with a litter of tiny puppies I'm going to have fun. When we saw the litter for the first time I played with all of the unspoken for pups. I held them off the ground to see if they'd squirm until their tiny feet touched the floor again, placed my hands on their bellies to see how long they would allow me to hold them on their backs, touched their feet, and in general studied their temperaments. I thought Reese had the best head physically of the available girls but she had the best temperament for what we were looking for in the entire litter. I intended on making this lady a therapy dog. She was enjoyed people, was calm, and seemed to want to be held and petted more than she wanted to play.
When we went to pick her up at eight weeks (see the left picture) that calm puppy was a bundle of energy. She didn't like to sit still, for anything. All she wanted to do was play and poop, and eat, she's a lab she loves food. It took her a long time to potty train, the last dog we'd gotten before her nearly five years before at that point was Max and he's never even offered to go in the house. I wasn't sure she'd ever get the hang of it but she did. I've always liked a dog in my room and prefer to sleep with one on my bed. Takoda doesn't like being on the bed or inside unless it is just scorching outside. Reese solved that problem for me, I put her cage in my room, I took her out in the middle of the night (cleaned her cage up after she went in it at 2 or three in the morning countless times) but during the day she slept on my bed until I was sure she could stay out of the crate at night. Perhaps that was my mistake.
Like I said, Reese was my mother's dog. We bought her for mom, I just picked out the best pup. Reese seems to think that such a fact is a mere formality. She might have been purchased for my mother but she was my dog, or perhaps, I was hers. It might be the fact that she spent so much time with me when she was first home or that I was the one who picked her, but I'm not so sure that any of this was in my control in the first place. I'm not entirely certain that the chocolate dog who has become mine didn't pick me. My therapy hopes were dashed fairly quickly, she is wary of males, I couldn't tell you why, she's never had a negative experience with them since she's been at our house. (My 8th grade boys will tell you that me warning you she could bite is a lie because she lapped up every bit of attention they gave her when they were here last month without so much as a growl).
Still, I trained her, and am still training her to do different things. But, it hasn't been easy. Lab's might have a reputation for being eager to please, but Reese took forever to learn to lie down. Seriously, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get her to do it. I had her doing easy nose work before I had her in a down. Eventually she got it and she will do it now, but she's been a challenge and a fun one.
She's a lab so she loves to eat. I discovered pretty quickly that she will work just as well for a toss of her ball as she will for a treat. I still treat her now because she associates the clicker with food but eventually she will be phased out to tossing a ball when she does what I want her to do. That was a fun discovery because Takoda only works for food so it is neat to find out she has two rewards that she can be paid with.
I still joke anytime she does anything and tell mom her dog has done something. She just responds with whose dog? So why the post? Well, today that chocolate puppy has been in our house for two years. While I didn't ask for Reese(not for me anyway), I didn't plan on having a chocolate lab, I have one. I plan on the next dog at the Shire to be a female Border Collie and want to get a Doberman when I get a tiny house built, they will probably be joined by a certain Chocolate Lab that claimed me as her own because I don't think I can get away without her, and I certainly wouldn't want to be able to do it if I could.
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