We Are Family

A week after we brought Zeus home and into our lives it was time to announce to the world we had a new family member. He had been doing so well with Ares and bonding with us so well I couldn't wait to finally let everyone know the good news.

Something I should point out is that I do not have human kids. I am just one of those women who decided children were not for me. I do however love animals, so these dogs are my kids...my fur kids. I had seen a few years back a post on Facebook about a lady who only had dogs and decided to do a puppy reveal announcement. This always stood out in my mind and I thought "what a perfect time to do one for our family". I brought the idea up to Mike and like the amazing husband he is, he went along with it. So off to the party store for some supplies to make my photo shoot come to life. I wanted to have the balloons pop out like you would for a gender reveal but in a neutral colour. Once at the party store we found an actual dog balloon which worked out even better! We also found some balloons that spelled out "It's A..." which we placed on the front of the box instead of using my original idea of just drawing it on. We also got the pups new bow ties to wear for their new family photoshoot from Duke's Pet Foods store (http://dukespetfoods.ca/?nocache=e9166b34-c8e8-4802-dfa0-dd15c0ef771f). The bow ties were made from old discarded ties which makes them all unique! Next up we just had to stage some photos. These are what we ended up deciding on:

Once the photos were done it was off to my parents house for a BBQ and to surprise them all with the new puppy. My family has always been amazing when it comes to accepting our dogs into the family and loving them like one of their own but I was still nervous. I never want to let my family down or have them think I wasn't doing the right thing so I was still a little nervous to introduce Zeus.

We pulled up and decided to just walk the dogs into the backyard and wait for people to notice the puppy. Ares went first and, as usual, everyone is always excited to see him so it was a big exciting deal right away with lots of "It's Ares!! Hey bud!" which of course gets Ares all excited and happy. This feeling Zeus picked up on right away so as Mike and I were coming up around the corner with the puppy he was so excited by everything going on we just let him run on out and say "Here I am world!" All we heard was lots of "Oh my gosh, a puppy!" and laughter and happiness. Zeus of course made himself right at home there too. He ran up to each person to say hi and check out his new family, little stub tail wiggling the whole time. Watching this I was pleased to see everyone enjoying him right away and also to see how well he did greeting each person. A positive experience with each new person means better social skills in the future so there was lots of praise for Zeus before answering all the questions and comments from the family. "Who is this?" "When did you get him?" "How much?" "What kind of dog is he?" "He's so cute!" "How long have you had him?" "I can't believe it!" "Does he have any siblings?" "How old is he?" Answering each question was fun and by the end of it Zeus was acting like he'd been a part of the family for forever. And I had nothing to worry about, everyone was happy for us and ready to enjoy our new family member in their life too. The whole night went very well as once again Zeus took everything in stride. He didn't have any accidents in the house, thank goodness, and we stayed on top of his training making sure we put a puppy pad down just in case. At dinner time he was a little bit of a handful so Mike and I just took turns eating so one of us could control Zeus from jumping up or bothering other people. It wasn't really his fault however as we did not having his crate or baby gates handy like at home and that was how he was getting trained. He did try to please us as much as he could for the situation as we ended up placing him on his leash and when he pulled we told him "No Pulling" and put him in a sit with us. He would calm down and relax with us for a bit before trying again but eventually he did settle and not bother anyone else. He met the family cats as well, which I think was the first time he had ever seen cats. He did well with us teaching him some boundaries thank goodness because I had read that this breed can have a high prey drive. At first he was scared of the cat who was also curious about him, and Zeus did have a little puppy bark at them. But all too soon he had a wagging stub and was trying to play with them, however, the cats were not really into it just yet. Perhaps once he is out of the puppy stage they will try again. We kept him on his leash for the cat introductions so he understood boundaries. He also was very good with playing with everyone and making sure each new person got some puppy kisses and snuggles. I was able to take some photos of Zeus meeting his new family members.

Meeting Grandpupma

Meeting Grandpuppa

Meeting Auntie Julie

Meeting Uncle Steven

Meeting Uncle Christian

That night little Zeus slept so well and so did we knowing that our family finally knew and loved Zeus as much as we did. I am so proud of him for making a great first impression with everyone. Now he just has to meet his very special group of friends which I'm sure will love him just as much. We put the announcement on Facebook and it looks like he will be very popular indeed. Anyone who would like to meet him just let us know and we will make it happen!

Some outtakes from our photoshoot: