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saffronhareSo. Wednesday evening, we fell in love with and brought home a Bad Idea. Her name is Bree. She's an English Mastiff puppy. (Yes, we know how big she'll get.) The userpic here is not her, but she's got similar coloring. She's seven weeks old and weighs just over ten pounds at the moment; this image says the dog is about 18 weeks old. WOW.
We've been wanting a second doggie for quite some time now, so I suppose it wasn't 100% impulsive. But when we go impulsive, we go BIG. Tuesday afternoon, FionaPie came home all atwitter over a litter of puppies her classmate's dad had brought to school that day. I called the school and they were kind enough to pass my phone number along. The classmate's mother called up that evening. Three puppies remained, all female. SCORE.
See, we knew from doggie day camp and other experience that Jack would get along better with a female (the bigger the better). Diermuid has also been hankering for a "dog-sized" dog. We needed the second dog to be exceedingly mellow to balance Jack's personality; and the dog needed not to need a ton of exercise/grooming because we know we just won't do that. Second Dog also had to enjoy the whole family instead of fixating on one person.
Because this was a "home-grown" litter, we got to meet the parents at the same time as the puppies. Daddy Dog (named Brutus), was awesomely huge and splendidly laid-back. It didn't bother him at all to have the household's children all over him, or to have people handling his puppies. He was seriously massive. Mommy Dog (named Princess) was a little less comfortable with people touching her puppies, but wasn't at all noisy or aggressive about it. She was smaller than Brutus by a significant order of magnitude; this is one breed where there's a clear difference between the males and females (overall size, and specifically with the enormity of the head). We were able to choose the one we liked best and bring her home that night. She's a brindle, very dark...kind of like a tortoiseshell cat, except, you know, MUCH BIGGER. Baby Girl will get to be 120-165 pounds.
So far, things are going well. She's an extremely good sport about trips outside for housetraining in the snow and seems to be getting the idea. It'll take a few weeks for the patterns to be set and for her physiology to mature enough for consistent success, but I'm pleased so far with the success rate and the level of teamwork in the family. I'd done some research about the breed before, but continuing to learn new things all the time. For instance, corrections need to be very gentle. She is by nature very devoted and sweet, so sharp discipline will confuse her and damage the relationship. It's been amazing to see how smart and responsive she is with just the softest of corrections and redirections. We also need to be super-careful with her physical development. One weird side effect of this is that really enthusiastic praise doesn't register either, which confounds me with housetraining. I'm used to making a BIG EFFING DEAL whenever a puppy successfully does their business outside. Will have to consider how to offer positive reinforcement.
In addition, their bodies grow so much, so quickly, that mastiffs shouldn't run or romp very actively until they're at least six months old. (If she sort of lopes across the backyard on her own, that's fine, but we shouldn't take her for a run or wrassle with her very aggressively. That kind of thing.) KiraDeara is disappointed to learn there will be No Pony Rides. Ha.
Diermuid has been a HERO about nighttime caretaking. He had her out twice in the wee hours this morning and even played for a little while in the kitchen when she was awake-awake-awake and I had NO CLUE. Felt kinda bad about that. :) He has a nickname for her already: Buzzsaw. Girl snores. Like, what-is-that-SOUND kind of snoring. The kids are all, hey, that's mean. And he goes, okay, YOU sleep with her sometime. Looks like she's going to be trained to sleep in her own cushy bed in our room. (For the moment, she's in a big Rubbermaid bin to keep her confined at night. She started Wednesday night in the kennel, but the crying broke our hearts.) Apparently, mastiffs need a cushy place to rest, on account of having 47 elbows.
That's probably enough burbling for now. More later!
We've been wanting a second doggie for quite some time now, so I suppose it wasn't 100% impulsive. But when we go impulsive, we go BIG. Tuesday afternoon, FionaPie came home all atwitter over a litter of puppies her classmate's dad had brought to school that day. I called the school and they were kind enough to pass my phone number along. The classmate's mother called up that evening. Three puppies remained, all female. SCORE.
See, we knew from doggie day camp and other experience that Jack would get along better with a female (the bigger the better). Diermuid has also been hankering for a "dog-sized" dog. We needed the second dog to be exceedingly mellow to balance Jack's personality; and the dog needed not to need a ton of exercise/grooming because we know we just won't do that. Second Dog also had to enjoy the whole family instead of fixating on one person.
Because this was a "home-grown" litter, we got to meet the parents at the same time as the puppies. Daddy Dog (named Brutus), was awesomely huge and splendidly laid-back. It didn't bother him at all to have the household's children all over him, or to have people handling his puppies. He was seriously massive. Mommy Dog (named Princess) was a little less comfortable with people touching her puppies, but wasn't at all noisy or aggressive about it. She was smaller than Brutus by a significant order of magnitude; this is one breed where there's a clear difference between the males and females (overall size, and specifically with the enormity of the head). We were able to choose the one we liked best and bring her home that night. She's a brindle, very dark...kind of like a tortoiseshell cat, except, you know, MUCH BIGGER. Baby Girl will get to be 120-165 pounds.
So far, things are going well. She's an extremely good sport about trips outside for housetraining in the snow and seems to be getting the idea. It'll take a few weeks for the patterns to be set and for her physiology to mature enough for consistent success, but I'm pleased so far with the success rate and the level of teamwork in the family. I'd done some research about the breed before, but continuing to learn new things all the time. For instance, corrections need to be very gentle. She is by nature very devoted and sweet, so sharp discipline will confuse her and damage the relationship. It's been amazing to see how smart and responsive she is with just the softest of corrections and redirections. We also need to be super-careful with her physical development. One weird side effect of this is that really enthusiastic praise doesn't register either, which confounds me with housetraining. I'm used to making a BIG EFFING DEAL whenever a puppy successfully does their business outside. Will have to consider how to offer positive reinforcement.
In addition, their bodies grow so much, so quickly, that mastiffs shouldn't run or romp very actively until they're at least six months old. (If she sort of lopes across the backyard on her own, that's fine, but we shouldn't take her for a run or wrassle with her very aggressively. That kind of thing.) KiraDeara is disappointed to learn there will be No Pony Rides. Ha.
Diermuid has been a HERO about nighttime caretaking. He had her out twice in the wee hours this morning and even played for a little while in the kitchen when she was awake-awake-awake and I had NO CLUE. Felt kinda bad about that. :) He has a nickname for her already: Buzzsaw. Girl snores. Like, what-is-that-SOUND kind of snoring. The kids are all, hey, that's mean. And he goes, okay, YOU sleep with her sometime. Looks like she's going to be trained to sleep in her own cushy bed in our room. (For the moment, she's in a big Rubbermaid bin to keep her confined at night. She started Wednesday night in the kennel, but the crying broke our hearts.) Apparently, mastiffs need a cushy place to rest, on account of having 47 elbows.
That's probably enough burbling for now. More later!
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 05:12 pm (UTC)and the ktty has brought incredible joy and good fortune. i think she's here for aaron, altho she seems much closer to me.
best of luck with the new baby.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 07:40 pm (UTC)I came home from the office for lunchtime -- hooray, working only a few miles away -- so he could run some midday errands. Bree had some lunch, played outside in the sunshine and accomplished some bizness, and then cried to be placed in her little bed for a nap (which she settled into within about 20 seconds).
IF ONLY children could be this simple.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-13 10:27 pm (UTC)