Let me Introduce... Ranger!

Ranger is a border collie mix, and he's just over 2 years old. In May 2011 I decided I needed a second dog. I was living with my husband and we had adopted a black lab mix from the vet on Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri a year before. She needed a friend, so I set out to find something on CraigsList. I don't buy dogs from pet stores, and at the time I wanted a dog, a mutt, and you can't get mutts from breeders.

I found an ad for dogs of all ages that were scheduled to be put down by the following week if they weren't adopted. 

Long story short, it was a puppy mill. He supposedly came with all his shots, vet records, etc. That was a lie. The next day he cost me about $400 at the vet to rid him of all the internal and external parasites he had, his conjunctivitis, all his shots, and lab tests. But you know what? He has turned into the greatest darn dog I ever could have asked for so every dollar was well spent. 

When we first got Ranger he weighed 5 pounds and was smaller than a bottle of water. The vet guessed he was only about 5 weeks old. This is the first day we had him, when he was tiny an adorable and tick infested. (Kind of takes away from the cuteness but lucky me I had no idea until we got to the vet the next afternoon.)

A couple weeks later, he was finally bigger than a water bottle! He weighed 6lbs 3oz! And he was so fluffy I almost died of cuteness overload every time I looked at him. 

Here'a his first bath!

When he was 11 weeks old, he was getting big, and he was getting big fast. We were told he would be about 35lbs full grown. Boy did they lie to me! 

Ever since we got him he has loved car rides. I'm not sure why since I got him out of a van, which he had obviously been living in with at least 15 other dogs. 

So my "35lbs full grown" dog got bigger. A lot bigger. 

The above picture was taken just a couple weeks ago. He's 70 pounds. Yes, TWICE what we were told he would be full grown. And the scary part? He's thin. He needs to gain at least 10 pounds. 

He's a good dog, though. I wouldn't trade him for the world. 

Enough about Ranger growing into his paws. Let's get to the good stuff. What does he like? What IS he like? He likes everything. Especially toys, butt scratches, and cuddling. And food. He loves food. He's 2 but he has the personality of a 6 month old puppy. He loves car rides. If you pick up a set of car keys he goes nuts. He likes peeing on stuff (outside thankfully!) And walks. Because he can pee on new stuff when we go for walks. 

He doesn't like when people get loud. It scares him. He doesn't like thunderstorms. He can feel them coming and it upsets him. He doesn't like popcorn or pretzels. 

I love this dog. He's my little buddy. He's my sidekick. He's also my dumb bum. 

I'm going to use this blog to document our adventures together. Ranger is a friendly dog so I can take him to new places and not worry too much. The only thing I worry about is him barking to say hello, and other people letting their dog get close to him when he doesn't want them to get close. He's afraid of new dogs and I don't want him to hurt anyone or get hurt because he feels cornered. 

We have a lot to do, a lot to learn, but that's all part of the adventure. We only recently started obedience training (I'll document our progress here!) and socialization so I know with time and training and consistency he'll become the dog I know he can be! 

Coming up Next : Clicker Training