Way to go Mario!

Frequently asked questions....

1. Where did you get him from? We found him in the paper from a lady whose mother's dog had become too friendly with the neighborhood dogs and they'd found themselves in quite the predicament. There were 3 pups in the litter total. Mario has the birthright (firstborn son) and was the largest of the litter.

2. How long have you wanted a dog? We've been talking about getting a dog for probably about 6 months. I wanted a bulldog - english or french - but man are they spendy. So we started looking for cheaper dogs. I am opposed to buying a dog from the mall, personal opinion, I just don't trust mall puppy stores so that left us with breeders or dogs in the paper. I started checking the paper daily and we really liked the sound of a springador. Once we talked to the lady and went to meet him we were sold!

3. Why did you pick a springador? Josh grew up with a labrador on the farm. A black lab named Abu. I think secretly he was sold on the springador because of his good experience with Abu. I wanted a smart dog, that wasn't going to get too big. And Josh really didn't want what he lovingly refers to as a "rat dog." So we were looking for something midsized. We both agreed that we wanted a dog we could train, fairly extensively. When we saw the ad in the paper we did some reading up on springadors on the internet and they seems like a good fit for what we had agreed on in our dog compromising process.

4. What will Mario do when you are at work? We are kennel training Mario. He can go most nights, full night, in the kennel with no crying and no potty problems. The plan is that once he is trained he'll get up with me in the mornings, he'll get about an hour and a half of play time in the morning before we both leave and then he'll be kennelled while we are at work. Then freedom and walks and love until bedtime. But for now while we are training him it is a bit more intense. We are lucky that Josh is working from home right now and can do the training. Lucky.....

5. Who walks him? Right now we both do, because we are ridiculously in love. As soon as he gets bigger and better on his leash I'm going to use him as part of my weight loss program and start to jog with him. Check out Mario in walking action....



6. Who cleans up? We've split the duties. I'm the pee cleaner, Josh is the poopsmith.

7. Are you taking him to doggie training classes? Yes we will be. We want him to be awesome! I want all visitors to my home to never be afraid of my dog. I think for that to happen, people need to see that when I say, "sit." Mario sits. And when I say "stay." Mario doesn't move until I say, "okay." I want to be a total stickler about it because Mario has the ability to learn this because of his breed. Also I'd love for him to be a therapy dog. He's such a love, it would be selfish of me not to share.