We recently added a new member to our family.  He is a white German Shepherd and we  have named him Flash.  Why Flash?  Well, the school mascot for Fillmore High School is "The Flashes" and the colors are royal blue and white.  We were at Petco, looking at collars for the new puppy and the royal blue was the perfect color - having a white dog with a blue color just seemed natural and the name Flash stuck.

He was born on April 3, 2007 and came into our family when he was 10 weeks old - so here are some pictures as he grows.  He came from Abbot's German Shepherd Dogs in Arizona.

We had him flown in from his home and parents in Arizona and quite frankly - it was a very traumatic experience for him.  His crate was a mess and so was he.  We spent about an hour cleaning him and the crate up so we could take him home. When we got him home, he promptly got a bath and some love.  We have not been successful in crating him without him putting up a big stink.

He arrived on Tuesday, June 12 2007 and we promptly left for vacation on Friday, June 15, 2007 - his first road trip in a car with his new family.

We don't have may pictures of him at 11 weeks because we were on vacation and pretty busy running around.  But for the few we have...

Home from vacation and getting used to his new home. He loves going to the boys baseball and football games.  We haven't figured out how to sneak him into a basketball game yet... he isn't exactly small ;) He has acquired some steady fans that look for him and come over to pet him.

This week Flash not only survived the 4th of July but he passed with flying colors!  In our town, any and every holiday is celebrated with BIG fireworks, so that means lots of BOOMS and lights.  He seemed to enjoy the celebration until the Piccolo Petes came out... I can understand why he didn't like those - I don't care for them much either.

He has some new toys that he really enjoys and some favorite past-times.  He has learned that ice cubes in his water bowl are fun to dig out - he makes quite the mess.  We let him do this while we are in the backyard swimming.  His new favorite toy is not a dog toy... its a cat toy.  It is a hollow open tube with a  ball in it that goes in circles... it occupies his attention for very long periods of time.

Flash celebrated his 14th week on the road... his second road trip!  He went for a couple of hikes and learned that wading in a lake is kind of fun...it is hard to catch the waves.  He is really trying to learn his boundaries in the house - he is learning that there is more room to stretch out on the floor than on mom and dad's bed.  He hung out in the park and decided the park bench was more comfortable than the ground.

Flash hasn't gained much weight this week.  We have been trying to nail his diet down because he has been having problems with his bowels being too runny.  We have been interviewing training facilities for Flash to attend.  We settled on Thinschmidts in Corona, CA. Flash left for doggie boot camp today and he will be gone 4-6 weeks.  We miss him already but we know it is for his good and ours too.  WE will be much better behaved after HE is trained ;)  Here are some pictures we took before he left...

We have finally picked him up from his training camp.  They said he was the "Bart Simpson" of the group.  He definitely had personality and was always trying to guess what the trainer would do next - a very quick thinker.  We had a tough go of it at first at home - he thought he was back on vacation and wanted to forget his training.  He still did not like his crate but with a bit of work, he got much better.  We used all the techniques the trainers gave us and Flash finally figured out that he still had to remember his training.  Here are pictures of Flash showing off some of the things he learned - this is before he knew we were watching.

Well - Flash has been home from boot camp for about a month now.  He is much better behaved and has adjusted well back at home.  He has lost most of his baby teeth (if not all of them).  He loves to play with the boys - whether it is ball or just about anything we throw.  He still loves a good belly rub or a chin scratch.  We are having a hard time finding durable toys for him (the cat toy is the only remaining toy from when he first joined us).  He can go through a stuffed animal in minutes - the first thing to go on any toy is the tag - he has a mission to remove any tag he finds, on anything.  Physically, he is a fine dog and much of his white is turning into caramel colored streaks.