Week 1 with Jake

Oh my gosh... we LOVE him. I never had a dog and never appreciated their smell or being licked or anything like that. But he is MY dog and I love him so much and tell him all day long that he is the best puppy ever. He is so sweet and so smart and such a good runner.

The night before we got him, we went and got all our supplies and engraved his OU name tag.

It has been officially one week together now and it has been a lot of work to take him out to go to the bathroom a lot (or clean up after him when we don't make it outside) and we play with him a LOT (instead of doing work) but its been worth it.

Blaine lays down on his back and Jake will get excited and crawl back and forth over his face, biting Blaine's ears and hair and beard. I think Blaine's better at playing with him because he's good at tug of war and stuff. I try to do it, but I don't play very rough so I think he gets bored of me. He likes to snuggle a lot, too, either with us or between the couches, or on top of my Uggs. We think its because thats how he slept on top of all of his brothers and sisters. But he'll take naps with us under blankets with us or curled up by our feet.

We gave him a bath last Sunday and he liked wading in the warm water until we tried to lather him up and rinse him off. But then a couple days ago, Blaine sat in the bathtub with him and liked that better. He is so playful and fun. Blaine took him to the vet for the first time yesterday and said that everyone just loved him. The vet did all these tests and said that he's really healthy and has good genes, which I guess he could tell by Jake's teeth and bite. He also assessed his temperament and personality and told us what we already knew - he's perfect.

The first 2 nights we put him in his crate to go to bed and he cried for a long time, so we brought him in bed between us and we all slept great. Then starting on our third night together, we just left him in the kitchen with his bed and food and toys and put a baby gate up and he's been fine ever since. Blaine goes and tucks him in his bed and pets him for a while until he's ready to be left alone.

Since I get up first, I get to see him in the morning and take him outside to go to the bathroom. I try to get up earlier than usual to play with him and turn on Disney Channel for him :)

He has also been a good conversation starter. Everyone wants to be your friend when you have a cute golden retriever puppy. Seriously. Everyone. Never talked to our neighbors until this week. Anyways, he are a million pictures from the last 7 days.