The Retriever.....He Retrieves!

We have a new puppy. His name is Duke. Duke is an adorable

yellow lab. Duke is quite possibly the cutest puppy ever. This morning, he and I played for a long time before the kiddo's ever got up. We bought him a store full of toys, and we had to get him the miniature tennis balls.

I started tossing his little ball across the living room and say "Get the ball Duke, get the ball!" and he would get it! Then I would say "Bring it to Momma!" and most of the time, be brought it back to me! First of all, I have never taught a dog anything, so if it does something for me, then it must be instinct!

We've had Duke for less than a week and fell in love with him immediately. He rides in the car with us, sleeps peacefully in his crate (most of the time) and hasn't been to terrible with accidents considering his age. He's almost 8 weeks.

The boys want him to sleep with them (on their top bunks!) so bad they can't stand it. Aven loves to play with him. He runs and giggles as Duke chases after him. When the puppy sniffs Aven's toes, he belly laughs so hard he can hardly breathe! It's hysterical!

We think Duke's favorite new family member is the teddy bear that he gave his heart to. Well, that wasn't exactly his heart he gave to it, but he 'loves' it just the same! Our last dog was female so we didn't have to deal with the male 'instinct' and I'm not liking it at all. While he hasn't 'enjoyed' anything but the bear, I can just see him jumping visitors legs in the future! I know he is bound to do it in front of the boys very soon. At least we had kittens recently so we have covered a little on the subject of animal mating. Maybe it will encourage them to keep all their stuffed toys off the floor! That's one way to get their room clean I guess.