Michael & Liz are Bloggable

This post could be forever long describing everything about our new puppy but I will try to be brief (try). Well his new name is "Gryffin" and I will get into how that came about in a second. First I'll talk a little bit about him.

Just the basics, he is a Chihuahua/Dachshund that is now 5 months old and is 7 pounds. His birthday December 26th. He is all black and has a white stripe down his belly. He is definitely more dachshund than chihuahua because his body is longer, his legs are shorter, and he waddles when he walks and runs. He is smaller than Daisy but his front paws are huge. He will either grow to be bigger than her or that's just a dachshund trait, we aren't sure yet, time will tell.

This dog is about as lovable as any dog could be. He reminds me of a miniature version of Keba, Annie's dog that we met this past weekend in Arkansas. If you are sitting down he wants to be snuggling with you. I didn't say sitting with you, I said snuggling. He will nudge and push on you and try and wedge himself into you. He is such a snuggler. He also loves giving kisses and won't stop till you tell him too.


He loves to play and wrestle with Daisy. He is never vicious and 90% of the time he isn't the aggressor, Daisy is. But he can handle whatever she dishes out.

Here is Gryffin giving Daisy "the business". This is his best move when they wrestle, Daisy can't get out of this stronghold:


He is not 100% potty trained, but because we are crate training him, it is becoming easier. He also doesn't like his collar and doesn't like leashes, but we are working on that too. He is finally getting used to his collar and the scratching is slowing down. We haven't taken him on a walk yet because he gets plenty of activity inside. Plus it's Wednesday, we got him Monday, give us a break!

So far he sounds like the perfect dog. He has a couple issues that are going to be tough to crack. He has severe separation anxiety. If we leave the room he immediately begins to whine and cry. If he is playing with Daisy and I am the only one home, if I move around the kitchen and go to the sweet room and walk back and forth, he makes sure to chase me and Daisy comes running along behind. When leaving I sometimes open and shut the door without actually leaving and he immediately starts wailing. Hopefully it doesn't go on all day or else I feel sorry for Daisy.

The first night we had him, he refused to go to bed if he wasn't in our bed. We caved after 20 minutes of crying and yelping. The second night, after a day full of crate training we managed to get him to sleep in his crate (granted it was directly next to the side of the bed) until 3 AM. Tonight we're hoping for the whole night, we'll see how it goes.

Feeding the dogs has been an adventure so far too. They both want to know what the other is eating and doing at all times. Tonight was the first time they both ate all their food and didn't stop to go over and check out the other dog. Success!

The last issue that I am going to resolve this weekend is the deck. The deck still doesn't have railings by the way, it's just a flat surface. Gryffin is fearless. When I say fearless I mean he will do ANYTHING without considering the repercussions. He will walk up to the edge of the deck and then sit and turn and start scratching himself... part of his body is literally over the edge in the process. He and Daisy also started to wrestle on the deck as well. Daisy is smart enough to stay away from the edge, but he isn't. So if we let them out the back, we have to go with them. If it's dangerous, you name it and he will try it, see below for another example.

Gryffin started to eat one of Daisy's bones, so she took them all and started to hide them. This is Daisy hiding a bone in her crate, and Gryffin followed right behind to see what she was doing:

So how did Gryffin get his name:

Tuesday we weren't too terribly comfortable leaving him in the crate while we were at work so we put the baby gate up in the doorway of the downstairs bathroom and put him in there. The baby gate by the way is 2 and a half feet tall, which for a dog that small, is insurmountable. The couch is exactly 2 feet tall and he cannot come close to making it up. So not only is it taller than the couch, but it has no platform, so it's a good sturdy barrier, correct? When I came home for the day Tuesday, I came in, went to the bathroom and Gryffin was gone, nowhere to be seen. By the time I made my way to the living room he came running at me. He somehow managed to get out of the bathroom. Who knows how many times he actually attempted the feat of clearing the baby gate. Not only that but he also somehow jumped and pull the towel down off the towel rack. We are figuring he vaulted off the toilet to do all this. I can't imagine the kind of thump that followed him making it over the baby gate. It's a terrifying thought.

Regardless of how he did it, we started coming up with names of famous escape artists and magicians. Gryffin also seems to be able to fit through the smallest of holes and places in the house so a magicians name would be suitable. Blaine, Copperfield, and even just a plain 'ole "Presto" came up as possible names. At the time Rudy was one of our favorites, because it is one of our favorite movies. So we were thinking, why not combine the magic part and the favorite movie part and name him after a Harry Potter character?

So we came up with Dobby, Granger, Weasley, Hagrid and then the name Gryffindor came up and we could call him Gryffin. Both Liz and I loved the name Gryffin. The Gryffindor house students are fearless, courageous, and relentless, all qualities our little puppy possesses. Not only that but we love Harry Potter movies. The name Gryffin also has a few advantages, it shortens to "Griff" or "Griffey" (go Reds), it leaves room for good puns like "McGruff" or "McGriff" and also avoids vowel collision with "Daisy" so the dogs won't get confused.

Adding to all of this, the first three times I used the name to call him over, he looked at me and one time he even stopped what he was doing (tackling Daisy) to run over and give me kisses. It pretty much sealed the deal.

So Gryffin is our new family member and we love him to pieces. The first two days were really hard on us and I think we both silently started having doubts as to what kind of work two dogs would be over one. Was it turning out to be harder? Every day is getting easier and easier though. If we can manage to lick the sleeping issue, and have him sleep the whole night through in the crate, it's safe to say having two dogs is easier than one and life will start to be routine again.

I'll make sure to update soon with his progress on the areas he needs work. Here is the first picture of our new family: