It's been about a month now since I picked up my WPG pup. My son and I drove to Caldwell Idaho to pick her up from Idaho Wells Griffons. We drove just over 9 hours and I didn't tell the boy where we were going until we got there. Needless to say he was pretty excited when he figured out what we were up to.
The boy got naming rights for the dog, so we ended up calling her Pepper. She was about 3.5 months old and the last pup from the litter, so I got a great deal on her. I was originally trying to get a dog from Larry Harkins at Idaho Hunters Extreme Griffons but the litter just didn't materialize. Like a fool, I told my son about it and said that we wouldn't get the dog after all. He was absolutely heart broken. I went on a frantic search trying to find a pup somewhere and ended up at Idaho Wells Griffons. They only had one dog left, and the dam and sire of this litter came from some of Harkins' dogs, so i figured it was worth trying.
So far she has been the best dog I've ever had, including all the ones when I was a kid. We had her house broke and bell trained in 3 days, and she responded to her name after about 4 days. She's an absolute sweetheart and is affectionate almost to the point of being annoying!
When we got her home the first night it was about 1:30 in the morning (we made the trip to Idaho and back in one day
). I went in to take a shower and while I was in there the kids came knocking on the door telling me that the dog was "broken". I got out to find Pepper locked on point on the kids' pet rabbit BunBun who lives in the house. I had to pick the dog up and move her to the other room to get her to snap out of it.
I think that she'll do just fine as a hunting dog!
The only problem I have with her is that she's a full on runner. I typically get home from work around 7:30 or 8. As soon as I get in the door the dog meets me with her leash and wants to go out for a walk. The problem is that she wants to run. I am not a runner at all. After working 12 hours I feel even less like running. Either way, we run about 1.5 miles every night and by the end of it the dog is practically dragging me back to the house.
It does do a great job of burning off some of that extra puppy energy before bed though, so it's worth it. I just wish the dang kids were old enough to let them run down the street with the dog!
I just thought I'd give an update to the earlier threads I had about looking for a dog and say thanks to all of the advice that everyone gave me. All I can say is that the waiting and searching were all worth it. I couldn't possibly have asked for a better companion. I'm pretty excited to get her out in the field hunting next season.
Andrew
