Gully

Originally uploaded by slushgod.

Some commenters asked some questions about Gully, so here’s what I know:

He’s around seven years old.

He’s a German Shepherd mix.  When I questioned what he might be mixed with, Hannah suggested that he looks labrador-like, and I agree (after looking at some lab photos).  So I’m going to go with German Shepherd/Labrador mix.

He doesn’t seem to know any tricks, except that he will sit when he thinks you want him to (though telling him to sit doesn’t seem to be what makes him do it), and he’ll also come to you when you snap your fingers, slap your leg, or make smoochie noises.  Can’t seem to fetch, and shows no interest in the chew toy bone or the tennis ball-like balls I bought him.  However, I ordered a dog training book to see if there’s stuff in there I can use, as I have no real idea how to train an animal to do something.  Though just by reading reviews to some of these books, I picked up some stuff, such as: you’re not actually supposed to say “No” to a dog when they do something wrong; instead you’re supposed to reinforce what the correct thing to do is.  Or something like that.  I suppose it’ll all become clearer once I read the book. 

One bit of concern is that he seems frequently listless, and mostly lays around.  When I let him outside into the yard, he sniffs around, but doesn’t seem to want to stay out there (and, as I said, he shows no interest in fetching–perhaps I need to get one of those tug-of-war toys).  He does seem to enjoy going for walks, though; he’s a very eager walker, and seemed to like smelling the smells of the neighborhood.  If I were inclined to run with him, I expect he’d like that; because he was so eager, I started jogging for a little while so he could go faster. 

And as you can see from  this photo, he’s obviously a literary sort of pooch.  His preferred place to crash appears to be right next to my bookcases. Curiously enough, on the top shelf of that particular case are two copies of the book of his namesake…