there is no way to post this and not sound like a crazy dog lady

alright y'all. if you dislike animals [and all things happy and fun and good] then this post might be a little weird to you.

but. i love my dog. but like, really. a lot.

he loves to cuddle.

he loves to hike.

he tolerates my nonsense.

he loves to swim.

you guys know that we happened upon zissou back at the beginning of march, kind of randomly. we had not been planning on getting a dog really at all, but we fell in love with one of his litter mates that our friends adopted. wiggly tails and puppy cuddles got the best of us, and before we knew it, we had a puppy in our tiny apartment and not a clue what to do next.

growing up, my family almost always had a dog. and we loved our dog[s]. but i feel like dogs nowadays are more "part of the family" than they used to be. i grew up in the woods so our dogs roamed free in their own little neighborhood pack when they weren't chained up [i know i know this is very much frowned upon now!] and they didn't come inside the house but were never late for dinner. and that worked for us and them.

all of that to say, i don't think i ever fully knew the joys of having a dog as part of the family.

the first few weeks of having zissou were really stressful. puppies are a lot of work. but after week two, we were totally in love and sold on him and already talking of more puppies one day. we pretty quickly enrolled him in an awesome and local, group puppy class that we went to every saturday for six weeks. we learned loads about our pup and how to properly communicate with dogs. [we will definitely be back for more classes]. for the first month and a half that we had zissou, we had to be "on" 24/7. constantly redirecting bad behavior and reinforcing positive behavior and teaching him how to walk on a leash and socializing him in tons of different situations. so now, in the fourth month that we have had him, we know him really well. we have a pretty good gauge on what he can handle and what he cannot, where we can trust him 100% and where we 100% canNOT trust him. and he also knows us very well. he knows that we love him and feed him [cause its practically the same thing], that we like to play with him and what we expect of him in most situations we encounter [full disclosure: we came home last night to a chewed up and partially eaten bed in his crate. so yeah. good days and bad. c'mon man!].

the more i have learned about zissou, and the more i have learned about dogs in general [those first few weeks i read every article i could find on dog behavior and stopped every person walking a dog to ask questions], the more i have fallen in love. i have learned a lot about myself and harrison through having zissou. i've made new friends and feel connected to a whole new group of people [dog owners and lovers] that i wouldn't otherwise have noticed. i am understanding the bond between humans and dogs, and i like it. and i don't get mad at people for only posting photos of their dog anymore. cause, hello, have you SEEN my instagram account? dog city around there.

since the weather has warmed up harrison and i are trying to go on more adventures with zissou. i feel like having him has pushed us towards more outdoorsy things. we have always enjoyed a good hike or camp in the woods [i mean we wear chacos. so like. yeah.] but mostly in phases. it hasn't really been a regular occurence in our lives. [although i feel like i should give harrison a shout out for being an eagle scout. so he knows everything. apparently.] anyways, all of a sudden, we want to go hiking every saturday and take zissou to new places and experience new things with him. we are researching dog friendly camp grounds, and vacation rentals and parks and lakes. and its really fun! having a dog to adventure with is such a joy. we were hiking recently and found ourselves laughing and commenting on everything zissou did and then realized we have become COMPLETE dog people. and we're happy about it. what a gift to have something so fun, loving and entertaining with you all the time!

i think there is something real special about human/dog relationships.

and i love my dog. plain and simple. and that's okay.

he loves sticks.

he tries really hard to focus.

he's our favorite pup in the whole wide world.

<3 jojy