Meet Gunther

On April 6th, I had the privilege of bringing Gunther into our family. 

 

When I got Gunther, Jason had been gone for a week and was due to come home in 2 days. We had been talking about getting a puppy for quite a
while and I had made some inquiries once we had agreed on the kind of dog. (I wanted a Mountain Mastiff while Jason had his heart set on a purebred German Shepherd, so we agreed to start small with the German Shepherd.) That day, though, my friend Brittany found these cute pups in an ad and they were only about a 2 hour drive away. On a whim, we got in the car and drove to see them, stopping at the bank on the way to get the cash- just in case I wanted one. On the way, I texted Jason and told him what I was doing and asked if it was okey to get one. He told me that I could get one if I wanted.

There were 12 puppies to choose from and this little guy was the lucky one. This cute pup was about 7 weeks old and weighed 13.8 pounds. His mom was a purebred Rottweiler and his dad a purebred German Shepherd, both of which were brought from Germany as pups.

Since his heritage is German, Jason and I talked about giving him a German name. However, I told Jason to wait to name him until he met him. So this poor puppy had to go 2 days being called "Hey." Over the phone, I gave Jason a list of names that I had found. Gunther was one I liked because it meant "warrior." And, because this puppy has huge paws for his age, we wanted a big, strong name to suit.

Finally, Jason came home and was able to meet the puppy and officially named him Gunther. And, Gunther quickly became quite attached to Jason. Even though he spent the first 2 days with only me, he gets more excited when Jason comes home then when I walk in the door.

During the 2 weeks that we have had Gunther, it has snowed each week. We discovered that Gunther absolutely loves the snow. He likes to play in it, eat it, and burrow tunnels in it with his nose.

This second round of snow lasted for 3 1/2 days and it got quite deep. That's when Gunther didn't like going out to play in it by himself since the snow was stomach high and made it hard for him to walk. If I went out with him, though, he would hop along behind me.

I think he looks pretty ferocious in this picture.

Since coming to live with us, Gunther has gained 2 pounds, is pretty much kennel trained at night, has gotten a cool climbing rope collar and army dog tag, and has learned what "no" means. We have discovered that Gunther is very smart; he knows he's not supposed to go bathroom in the house but he hasn't worked out how to tell us when he needs to go out. He is in constant training to not chew on things, especially people, and also to stay off of the furniture. He is very sneaky, ornery, and stubborn as well. If he doesn't get out to play and go for walks, he can become quite a handful indoors. He still gets super excited for Jason to come home, and loves to sleep on his slippers or pajamas if he can. He is still super cute, and can give some of the best puppy-dog eyes ever.

Gunther has definitely brought excitement into our house, and Jason really likes him even if he isn't a purebred German Shepherd.