And then we got a dog

My mother loves animals and so we always had at least one dog.  My husband and I inherited my mom's older dogs when she moved into a condo and when they were eventually put down we got a cat.  And when the cat got hit by a car and died we got a fish.  My kids asked for rodents (mice, hampster's) but I don't like anything that scampers.  And then we had a bearded dragon (my compromise instead of a snake) and, guess what.  Yeah, he died too.  We think from licking a floor that was just cleaned by a Swiffer.  This happened over several years people and we took very good care of all of our animals but just have had terrible luck.  Thank goodness the fish hasn't died yet.  He's a good fish.

And then we got Murphy.  What a joy.  A lovable black lab that we got when he was 10 weeks old.  He is now 6 months old and has grown tremendously.  He was the second biggest in his litter and it shows.  He's our farm dog and he loves nothing more than to eat horse manure, chicken feed and anything else he can get into his mouth.  We've taught him the word no and how to sit, fetch and come, he's very smart.  The one thing we are still working on though is that while he has manners in the house, he loses his mind outside.  He grabs the girls hands, lunges at their heads (to get their hats) and jumps all over them unprovoked.  He barks at the shovel and tries to bite it when I'm clearing the walk and plays the "catch me" game with items he shouldn't have.  I've been looking for solutions online and only found that we need to leash him around the kids when they are outside.  This I have to work on (and I'm open to other suggestions) as he spends all of his time on the leash pulling and trying to yank it out of my hands.  Well at least he's not attacking the kids.  God love ya Murph.