Our Jack Russell Terrier

Our First Day with Gumbo 

When we brought Gumbo home when he was 8 weeks old, we couldn't wait to watch him grow and become a part of our lives, and today is his big day!! He's 5 years old.

He's a Lil' Dude Now

Here's how Gumbo spends his days now:

He gets up early, at around 6:30 or whenever my husband wakes up in the morning. 98% of the time, Gumbo is completely house-trained and doesn't have any accidents overnight. My husband lets him outside, but not before he goes outside with a flashlight if it's dark to make sure they aren't any critters about. Unfortunately, there are coyotes in the neighborhood. Luckily one has never come to our backyard, but we do have raccoons, possums, squirrels, and feral cats; so we never know what's lurking outside. After Gumbo gets out the door, he races around the perimeter of the yard to see if he's missed anything overnight.

After he's done his business, he runs upstairs and snuggles up to us while we read the newspaper and do the crossword puzzles. When 10:00AM rolls around, he lets us know that it's time for his walk. It's like an alarm clock goes off in his head.

My husband has quite the battle getting Gumbo's harness on so he can attach the leash to it. Gumbo wiggles around, runs to the door before the harness gets on, and growls and nibbles on my husband's fingers until the dreaded harness is finally locked into place.  Phew! We walk 30 minutes in our neighborhood and it seems like everyone notices us and waves. "Who were those people?" we sometimes ask each other when this happens. Some people we meet tell us that they didn't notice us without our dog.

After Gumbo's walk, he's pretty mellow and lets us have some peace and quiet so that we can write and market our books until he hears the next-door neighbor rumbling around in his backyard. If so, Gumbo flies out of the dog door and barks at him. Our neighbor doesn't appreciate it and lets him know, which makes us feel a little defensive and protective about our little guy.

Gumbo can sense the mailman's approach even when we can't.  We always know when the mail's here. After lunch, it's tea time for us and we give Gumbo a Kong with peanut butter we insert into it. It's his one little treat he gets. Our vet told us that Gumbo needs to lose some weight, so we do our best to not give him little extras. Gumbo doesn't look overweight to us, but the vet knows best.

Gumbo Wants a Peanut

At 3:00PM, it's time to watch the bluebirds in the backyard garden and Gumbo eagerly waits at the door, until we go outside and he enthusiastically follows. The bluebird nesting box has 3 eggs in its nest and we love to watch Mama and Papa bluebird bring home various worms and insects to give their young ones. At first, Gumbo barked at the birds and acted like he wanted to catch them as they flew around, but thankfully they've all learned to play nice and he leaves them alone--for the most part. We spend about 2 hours in the backyard when the weather is nice and Gumbo loves to run around and sometimes cuddles up next to us if we're sitting on the glider.

After he eats dinner at about 6:00PM, he's ready to settle in for the night and comes upstairs with us while we watch TV.  If the show we are watching has too much noise in it, such as car chases, he seems to get uneasy and goes downstairs by himself, much to our sadness. We miss him. Gumbo especially is annoyed when we watch The Larry David Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm. He doesn't realize that the arguments in the show are funny to humans.

Gumbo has come a long way since those early years when he was tearing up our CDs, albums, books, and photo albums. He has the run of the house, but no longer gets into things. Thank goodness.

He's a healthy little dog and the folks at the vets' office act like they like him when he comes to visit. He provides us with hours of entertainment and sometimes we like to just stare at him and watch his antics. We call him "Our Little Comedian" and couldn't imagine our lives without him.

Would you like to know more about Gumbo? We wrote a book about our first year with him. It's called "Our First Year Raising a Jack Russell Terrier  Puppy (and then some)".

It's available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Smashwords, Kobo, and Google Play Books.

Here's a link for where you can purchase it:

https://books2read.com/Gumbo

Gumbo has grown up!

It's been quite a while since we posted anything about our little guy Gumbo. He's now three and a half years old and has been through all sorts of new things. So have we!

If you'd like to catch up, you can find out the latest on Gumbo in his newest book, Our First Year Raising a Jack Russell Puppy (and then some). Available in digital and paperback formats at all your favorite book sellers.

Purchase at Amazon

Purchase at Apple

Purchase at Barnes and Noble

Purchase at Google Play

Purchase at Smashwords

Purchase at Kobo

Still chewing after all these months

Rope Chew

Born: 1:00 PM

Died: 2:00 PM

He loves his rope toys. We found this one at of all places, Albertson's in the dog and cat toy section. Only $4.99. We started buying them about 6 months ago and found that of all his tows, he loves these the best. We originally got him a few pricier ones at Petco but he wasn't as enamored with them as much as the Albertson's brand, pictured above. When we bring a new one home, he knows instantly that his favorite toy is in the house. OK, maybe all dogs do this but it's still pretty cute when he does his little "oh boy a new toy" dance. 

At first, the ropes would last for weeks. Recently, his chewing gusto has reduced them to tow knots in a matter of minutes. There's a collection of single knot toys around the house that he still loves to play with. 

Here's a picture of him with another rope toy.

He sometimes gets into a little trance playing with them. He'll roll on his back and with the rope toy in his mouth, he'll stay there for several minutes. It's like he's savoring the fine taste and smell of it. Maybe it's like catnip for him. 

Probably his most favorite chews are bully sticks we buy him. These are a God-send when it comes to keeping him occupied and away from mischief. They cost $29.00 for a package of two 12-inch sticks, quite a bit in my opinion!  I cut them in half with my circular saw to get 4 6-inch chews. The picture above is a recently released 6-inch one I was able to pry away from him for a picture. They are so precious to him apparently that we have to block the dog door when we give him one or he'll immediately take it outside and bury it for safe keeping. Eventually, he'll settle down and slip into chewing nirvana. They will occupy him for hours sometimes. You can see that their braided. Once he gets them down about halfway, they split into three chews which is a bonus for all of us. We can put a chew in almost every room in the house. 

Like his rope toy, he has become more accomplished at chewing these. We're lucky if we can get a package to last a week now. As he's grown his chewing has intensified and gotten stronger. But he's a big boy now and has what seems to be endless amounts of energy. So we learn to adapt trying to keep the right things in his mouth and the wrong things out. He is changing and we're changing too. What he'll want to chew on next is anybody's guess. Just as long as it's not us!

Is he awesome yet?

Well here we are again. Almost six months have passed since Gumbo turned 1 year old. He's an adult now by veterinarian terms but if his behavior is any guide, he's still a crazy puppy. He's now almost 19 months old and still full of puppy energy. His breeder assured us that when he was 18 months old, he'd "be awesome". What that meant we weren't completely sure although the notion that he could slow down a bit and be a bit less rambunctious was exciting to us. He's kept us in a constant state of motion since we brought him home. Maybe he'll sit and do like other dogs do. Maybe he'll fall asleep on the couch, maybe in our lap. Maybe. Maybe not. 

Maybe it would be good to start with what hasn't changed in 6 months. He still loves to chase a ball. Any ball. Tennis balls are now a special favorite since he was able to convince me to part with a few from my lower-back therapy supply. Chewing. Boy can this little dynamo chew! Nothing is off limits for his teeth! Our vet does his best to reassure us when we mention his chewing habits saying, "it's normal, terriers interact with the world through their mouth." Barking. He has a nice, strong voice. It's shake-you-to-the-core strong. If we're sitting, quietly reading (despite what I say, we do have these moments) sometimes he'll hear something and instantly rise and let out a room-shaking bark. It's a wonder either of us haven't had a heart attack. 

I know it sounds like I'm complaining. After rattling off a list of what he's doing may sound like he's not changed at all. But he has. He has turned many corners and surprised both of us almost daily.  Are we looking too hard for progress? Perhaps. But perhaps he's just growing and changing as a normal terrier does. Sure, he's not on the same track as our other Jack Russell, but that would be boring wouldn't it. He has his own personality and it's truly a joy to watch him grow and adapt to our world. 

Well, that's it for now. Stay-tuned as there's a lot more to say in the coming weeks. Watching Gumbo grow into his second year will keep us all young!

Now he's a big boy, right?

Am I grown up yet?

Well here we are at Gumbo's 13 month mark. A lot has happened since our little Gumbo passed the 1-year threshold. He hasn't caused any major damage or destruction to our home, ourselves or to himself so we're very grateful at this point. 

Now that he's grown to this ripe old age, we're told he's an adult now. An adult. What does that mean? It conjures up all sorts of things to us. Can he suddenly be trusted with all things? Will he behave better than before? Will he listen to us and learn what to do and what not to do? Or does it mean we should only feed him once a day as the dog food sellers say.

Looking at him, he's certainly grown to his probable adult size. He's bigger than our previous Jack who only topped out at about 17 lbs during his entire life. I'd have to say Gumbo is probably 20 lbs at least if not 22 lbs. We've tried to weigh him at the vet however he's so excited he can't stay on the scale long enough to get a decent guess. We've wondered if maybe the only way to truly know is to have the vet knock him out and lay him on the scale while he's asleep. On further thought, no, I don't want them to do that. We'll live with our guess to his weight. 

Some time ago, we emailed the breeder where we got Gumbo to ask about his temperament and when he would change his constant need for motion. They told us that at 18 months he'd be "an awesome dog." I'd say Gumbo is an awesome dog right now. I'm not sure what will happen at 18 months but perhaps it will be big. Maybe he'll suddenly stop bringing in things from the garden to chew on in the front room. Maybe he'll lose his desire to discover every nook and cranny of our house. Maybe he'll want to just sit instead of jumping for joy whenever we get the leash out for walks. Maybe he'll just be a lap dog. 

Gosh, I sure hope not! I think I'll go and throw the ball with Gumbo to make sure I don't miss any moments in case he decides to change!

Happy Birthday, Gumbo!

We did it!  My husband and I managed to keep a very active Jack Russell Terrier alive to reach his first birthday.  Our house is still intact, as well as our sanity (although sometimes I wondered).  He gets an A+ on his report card for this month.  He is changing for the better everyday and growing into a fine adult doggie.

Here's what he looked like when we first brought him home at 8 weeks' old.  Awww...

Thanks for coming along as we followed our new Jack Russell puppy through his first year and watched him learn and grow to become part of our world.

Our First Year with a Jack Russell Terrier Puppy

This picture was taken when Gumbo, our Terrier, was only about 8 weeks old and we brought him home.  It's one of my favorite pictures of him.  It's hard to believe that our little Energizer Bunny was ever calm enough to sleep on my lap!  What have we done to him?  He used to be mellow.  I hope we've been good caregivers.  He couldn't have asked for more devoted humans.

This is what he looks like today, at 11 months old.  He is very good-looking!  Everybody loves the big black spot on his back.  The white on his forehead near the top of his head is shaped like a heart.

He has really shown a lot of improvement.  We have to remind ourselves of that whenever he gets into trouble.  He is now completely house trained.  YAY!  I can't remember the last time he had an accident in the house.  Since we first brought him home, he's always slept through the night.  It's amazing to realize how much he does sleep, considering how hyper he is when he's awake.  He lives mainly in the kitchen still; but I've been trying to lengthen the times he is in the front room, dining room, and bedroom.  That's working out well, for the most part.  He does like getting into my album collection, though.

See the linoleum floor?  Gumbo started reaching in the seams and pulling up the flooring.  My husband had to install this threshold strip.  It was meant to be under a door, so it doesn't stretch the length of our room.  Isn't it lovely?  Thank goodness Gumbo hasn't done any more floor stripping.

  

I really do want to give him a good report card for his 11th month, because he's still learning.  He has so much joy and spirit that it's fun to watch him when he comes inside from the backyard.  He has an extra spring in his step.  It reminds me of Bambi or any other Disney cartoon.  We could spend hours just watching him, he's so entertaining.  Someday, he'll be older and not have puppy-ways anymore. Only one more month, and we'll have an adult dog.  We really do enjoy every silly and funny thing he does and hate being away from him, even when it's only for a few hours.  We are truly smitten.