Meet Titan, he is the newest addition to our household!
Ethan and I have talked for years about getting a dog for our family eventually. First it was a matter of breed, that took forever. Talked about temperament, hair length,(I am allergic, but can become immune to animals in my own home.), size, how old it should be when we get it, how they do with kids. We finally settled on a Redbone Coonhound. If you have ever seen "Where the Red Fern Grows", that is the kind of dog we are talking. They are known for being an amazing hunting dog. And yes, Ethan is planning on training it for coon hunting. No, I don't have an issue with hunting.
We started looking around to pretty much anything touching our state. Checked pounds and rescue centers, private breeders, websites, Facebook. We knew we wanted a puppy, Ethan was shooting for something younger that 6 months, I was shooting for at least a year old. I wanted it pass a lot of the puppy stage. There were lots of dogs out there, but most of them were too old for training, or would not have been able to handle being a hunting dog (mainly the abused rescue shelter ones). We also didn't want one to be microchipped, and that is a whole different story. Most of the high end shelters required it be done before adoption.
After several weeks of searching, Ethan comes across one that was very, very reasonably priced. The gentleman selling them privately had been raising hunting dogs for years, had them registered, and as I said very reasonably priced. The gentleman was down in Virginia, but when we looked on the map, it turned out not to be too far away from where Ethan's sis. Auby lived, so the commute wasn't an issue. We asked why he was selling them for cheap, and it turned out that there were 11 in the litter. He wanted to make sure he was going to be able to sell them all. They were only born in Oct. so they weren't available at the time of the call, but would be soon.
The first weekend in Dec. Ethan and his sister Alycia drove down and chose a male puppy and brought him back home. Three days later we finally agreed on a name that we both liked and the kids could pronounce. Titan is a very energetic, 9 week old pup. We are trying as hard as we can to get the housebroken stage thing done, but I know it will take a little while. The kids are doing well with him for the most part, but Titan really likes to jump and he is the size of Lyssa. Well we are trying. We'll let you know how it goes.
