With 3 puppies I am finding it hard to balance my time between having fun with my kids and training my german shorthair puppies. This week I started enlisting the help of my children when working with the dogs and taking them for walks. In the picture above I am coaching my 6 year old daughter on how to keep our youngest puppy Rocky in check. One of the things that I am trying to accomplish is to get my young children to be confident and strong when handling the pups. This can be difficult when the dogs get wound up and start bouncing off the walls, my two daughters become terrified and run for their lives.

Jake has begun to calm down a bit as his first birthday approaches. It is nice to see a glimmer of hope that there can be some calmness in this very active breed called the german shorthaired pointer. Since this is my first experience in raising and training shorthairs I must admit that I did not know what to expect. The shorthairs that I had hunted behind were mature and very well-trained leading me to beleive that they were born that way. But, like most things in life the reward comes after many hours of hard work and loving care. With a little time each day I can see the beginnings of greatness starting to peak through.