Dobie Love: 2 Weeks with Duke

I'm going to apologize in advance. Actually, I'm not going to apologize, I'm going to warn you. For the next 10-15 years every aspect of The Girly Girl Cooks (Twitter, Instagram & Facebook) is going to be flooded with pictures and posts featuring my new baby pup.

Duke has brought so much joy into our lives. In fact, we can't imagine life without our ginormous puppy. Living in a small town, Duke has easily become the town celebrity in just 2 weeks. I guess there aren't many doberman pinschers in a small farming community! Therefore, it has been both Dusty and my mission to take Duke around town and introduce him to everybody to break the doberman pinscher stereotype.

This is definitely the face of a killer. Right???

Duke is definitely a lover and not a fighter. He's a total momma's boy and everyone he encounters gets smothered in puppy kisses. He definitely is winning the hearts of the community. My favorite is when he encounters little kids. His little nubbin of a tail goes crazy and he attacks the kiddos with kisses. It makes a puppy momma's heart melt. 

One of the biggest adjustments to being a puppy parent is sleeping. Or should I say lack of sleeping? Duke wakes us up about 1-4 times a night. On a good night he will let us sleep 5-6 hours at a time and on the nights when he gets a chicken-liver puppy treat, he wakes me up every 1-1/2 hours (that was a really rough night!). Let it be known...Duke does not eat chicken-liver puppy treats anymore because it doesn't agree with his bowels and I need sleep. 

Giant puppy paw!

The greatest puppy parent achievement Dusty and I have accomplished so far is that we have pretty much mastered potty training with Duke! He hasn't had an accident since last Monday and it was most likely due to the pouring rain outside, and Duke is not a fan of doing business in the rain. 

Other than that, we have been accident free! At night when he needs to go to the bathroom he gives a little whimper from his crate and I let him outside. Then during the day he will go stand by the door and make a little noise to let me know he is ready for business. Such a smart pup! Now if we could just get over the teething stage. My jeans and sandals are getting waaay too much love from Duke. 

Another thing....Duke has the weirdest sleeping habits and will sleep on anything and everything. He likes to sleep on his doggie bed with his toys....

On the couch....

On our shoes???

And my personal favorite. 

This is usually how I find him asleep in his crate...

Such a goober!

As people who are losing sleep as it is with our new pup, Dusty and I were determined that Duke wouldn't sleep or be on our bed. It's fun and cute when he is a 17 pound puppy, but once he reaches 90-100 pounds there isn't going to be room for us in the bed! Well, as you can see, we gave in....

So now Duke can add this to his list of many places to sleep.

I am weak to those puppy eyes.

On Saturday Dusty and I took our once a month trip to the "big city" of Great Falls to stock up on home/food supplies. 25 pound bag of flour and rice for $9 each. Heck yes! We brought Duke with us and of course we had to take him to the city dog park.

Duke hasn't really had the opportunity to socialize with other dogs before, so we were anxious to see how a park with 20-30 dogs would go....

And it went wonderfully!

Duke and this one chocolate lab became best friends instantly. They were rolling around in the grass and slobbering all over each other. Then a german shepherd had to come check out the situation....and apparently Dukes situation too. Dogs....

One of Dukes favorite things to do at the park was to run back and forth to Dusty and I through a giant tunnel. He loved it!

After an hour or so of playing at the park, Duke was pooped out and hot. We drove over to Petco so he could pick out a special treat (because he isn't spoiled enough!). His first choice was this furry squeaky squirrel...

Can I pweaz haz it? I waz a good boy today!

Of course we bought the squirrel. How can you refuse those eyes and soft velvet ears??? On the way home he slept throughout the entire car ride like a good boy. He especially loved laying on his ice pack. I found these giant ice packs at the grocery store and they are perfect for keeping your pup cool on hot days in the car. 

On Tuesday Duke will be 9 weeks old. They grow up so fast!  Each Tuesday I'm going to weigh him and take a picture of him. It will be fun to see how fast he grows from week to week. In just one week, he had already gained 3 pounds, so I'm curious to see how much he gains this week. I'll keep you posted!