Getting in shape

Well, on March 16th we rescued a 6 month old German Shepherd puppy. We named him Liam, as that means protector. :)
He needs/wants LONG walks, more than once a day. He can jump the fence, so we are working on trying to get a privacy fence up. Found the reed fences, that are six foot tall and 16 foot long. They are less than $30 at Home Depot! So, we are going to try and get 2 panels a month and get the fence up as quickly as we can. It will make things safer for us as well as for Liam, and I'll be happier with that privacy.
But I have lost over THREE pounds in the walks that we've been taking, and we went with our neighbor today in her van for a LONG walk that took over half an hour this morning. He was panting by the time we got back to her van, and has slept for a bit on our tile floor I think in an effort to get cool. Then just a few minutes ago he stretched and made a growly yawn as he woke up. LOL
I LOVE watching Liam spread out on our floor, or walk around the house. Or when he's walking beside me. I have always always wanted to have a german shepherd, and now I do! But oh wow, he is definitely a handful. More so because we did not get him from when he was a really young puppy, but at 6 monthes, and he has been abused and neglected. We are reading Cesar's Way and trying to implement what he is teaching. And it is working, slowly. If only we have a HEALTHY dog pack nearby that was also well trained etc.
I am new to blogging... Should be interesting to see where this takes me! :)

What I didn't know before Liam

Wow... On the 16th of March we adopted a 6 month old German Shepherd male puppy. We decided to name him Liam, because that means protector, and ...that is what I wanted and had been praying for.

He is definitely protective of all of us! And of little children.

But he jumps fences, doesn't like it if dogs in another yard start barking at someone (he seems to feel that they are going to go after the person they are barking at), and though house trained he is rather wild and untrained. He was chained, ignored, and possibly abused. He is attention STARVED and loves to try to make room for himself in our bed at night to sleep with us. (no, 2 adults AND a rather large puppy in a full sized bed does NOT work well!!) He does not know how to walk on a leash, but is starting to not try and take me for a drag when I walk him. He seems to be absolutely petrified of ONE of my students, and definitely needs socialization with other humans AND dogs.

So...I'm waiting for Cesar Milan's Cesar's Way book to arrive from finding it on Amazon at a price that I could barely afford and meanwhile trying to initiate some of the stuff that was suggested to me by some wonderful ladies in the Homeschoolers Flying in Christ. :)

Still don't have a thermostat to replace the broken one in the '95 Escort station wagon, nor do we have it inspected, so...still walking! Which means can't trek to the bank, but can trek to Walmart or go further (almost 2 miles one way) to Kroger or Auto Zone or CVS....Not bad. Gets ya in shape! But we did manage to get 2 metal T bar posts for FREE ('cept labor) to replace the wood posts we have for clothesline posts, will use the wood posts to make our back porch. Planted 2 grapes (1 red, 1 green) today, still need to plant our blackberry. Started 18 rutabegas, 18 radishes (both purple top....LOL) in a seed tray, and our inside plants are doing great. Seems that the pineapple sage likes where I put it, so do the chives, and the other stuff...But will have to plant the lavender my MIL gave me SOON, and will need to change where I have the plants in the kitchen window when we have the back porch up.

And yes...Having a German Shepherd puppy in the house and HERE makes me feel TONS safer!!

Now to go walk and get some tamales...All of us in this house (except our picky boy) want TAMALES!!! :)

Have a very blessed Saturday!