Meet Chip. 

or…Baby Chip Chip as my children call him…

 Chip came home with us after briefly meeting our two females out at the rescue. He seemed to be a happy pup, ani-confrontationl which would mix well with my slightly grouchy female; Bailey.   Even when we were at the rescue watching him run and chase the birds I could not believe that this sweet boy was still a “baby”.  According to his paperwork, which by all accounts could be incredibly far from the truth, he is going to be three around the second week of May.  In my eyes a two, almost three year old GSP should be bouncing out of his skin, leaping and flying through the sky after birds lizards and squirrels. An extremely young GSP should be wagging his tail and panting excitedly for you to throw a toy or ball for them… Not Chip.

He just looked at me with these soulful eyes as if to say, “Im tired, please just take me home so I can rest.”  It was more than just an old soul, he seemed sad. We drove home and although he got along with my other two I did not trust him in the back yard with the animals yet.  I walked him past the backyard with the goats and they were nose to nose without much of  a problem.  He was very interested, but didn’t try to attack them or charge them like some of our other fosters have.

As you can see, he was more interested in checking out the birds and other smells on the property than those strange looking animals twice his size on the other side of the fence 🙂

Because I was unsure of his escape tactics I then put him in our laundry room (pretty much he size of a large crate) and the rest of the day I couldn’t shake that eerie feeling that he was too quiet.  He was too used to being stuck in a small space and left alone. He didn’t whimper, whine or bark…heck I barely heard him moving around in there even.  Of course it was a good thing that he was so well behaved but in the back of my mind I kept thinking, why isn’t he acting like a puppy?? A two year old puppy should not be so content being stuck in a laundry room when he could be outside exploring and playing. It made me sad…and then I understood the look in his eye.

For the first few days the only time he would “look” happy was outside chasing butterflies and birds flying over head (yes, yes he truly did leap into the air thinking he could catch a crow flying overhead)…or when the kids were in the room.  He didn’t seem to understand that Eric and I could provide comfort and love. He would snuggle up to the kids and brush against them wanting love and attention adn we would see for a split second, his tail would wag.  It was such a beautiful yet heartbreaking sight to see.  We knew there was a fun-loving puppy somewhere inside him but we just couldn’t figure out how to get him to open up and trust us.

Then one day when I came home from the store I brought him a dog TOY…you know, the kind that bounce in all kinds of crazy directions and can not be chewed up by our resident tennis ball shredder (Hanna). The three dogs LOVED IT!! They ran and played and chased each other to get to the toy.  He seemed to watch Hanna and Bailey and follow them at first not sure what the heck they were doing, then after a few throws a light went off and he was unstoppable! I saw his whole demeanor change!!  Suddenly, I saw a happy puppy just enjoying himself in the yard with his buddies and a toy.

Next thing I knew he wanted to wrestle and play with us. He was demanding attention and love like the puppy I always knew he was.  He was a whole new dog!!

I was so overjoyed to see the new face of Chip. He was eating better, playing better, just over all being himself better!! Each day that passed he also seemed to bond more and more with the kids and I. If he were in the house he would follow me around and lay at my feet. If the kids were sleeping by the time I let the dogs in he made sure to push their doors open and check up on them…He snuggled with his sisters, laid by my feet, destracted me from writing my papers…I cant help but love the glimmers of personality coming out in him. Heck, check out how he sleeps… its hilarious!

Not to mention a little video of his latest personality quirk. EVERY night he eats a wonderful bowl of food and then proceeds to roll around and rub his face and body on the floor. it’s adorable.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76zKclJnjMo&feature=g-upl]