Dog Books and Movies

I started reading "A Dog's Purpose" by W. Bruce Cameron this week.  I was sobbing by the end of the first chapter - on an airplane no less, a little airplane,  the Embraer ERJ 145.  One where a sobbing person is noticed by all 49 other people packed in the sardine can.  Albeit a wonderfully designed sardine can with awesome propulsion power.  


Sobbing is a sign of a highly engaging book - but not wanting to appear emotionally distressed on the plane, I put it away and began to watch a movie on the Ipad.  


But for some reason, I really wanted to a dog movie at the time.  Actually I wanted to watch "Turner and Hooch."  with Tom Hanks and the gorgeous Dogue de Bordeaux.   I haven't seen that movie in years. Or maybe "The Sandlot" (another awesome mastiff) or even some "Best in Show."   Might have to watch a movie or two this weekend. 


So I thought I'd ask:


What's your favorite dog-themed movie or book?  


Post your answers in the comments, I'd love to find out what you would watch over and over.  

Obie and Envy - Back to School

Lots going on and spending time enjoying it.  And so happy that spring makes a sporadic appearance in Indiana. Now that it's April, can we please quit with the snow?  

We are in the middle of our 8 week Novice Training class at First Friends K9 Training.  The dogs have completed their second full class and as always it is so worthwhile.   We've gotten tons of compliments on how good Envy is on the leash and they've both been "staying" well.  Sit stays with distractions this week and random "come" commands when we're out walking.  Obie did well in class too.  His main distraction is my husband and Envy - so they are far away from us during class.  I think there are at least 40 dogs in our one class.   This isn't  your pet store dog training class.

Fun time at the Bark Park today.  Apparently Sunday is little dog day because other than about 2 other Labs and one Shepherd, there were about 20 snack sized doggies.  They were cute and full of little dog attitude.  Envy  was afraid of the five pound blind Yorkie who chased her away anytime she came near.  Then there were two of the cutest Dachshund/Pit mixes.  Dach legs and Pit heads - too cute.  Envy thought she was about their size and ran and played with them.   They all rolled around on the ground.  


After all that romping, she came home for a bath, brush out, a good nail trimming, and tooth brushing.  Chicken flavored toothpaste is the clear winner in this house.   

Since Spring may have finally sprung, don't forget to treat your dogs for fleas and ticks.  Also if you aren't doing it regularly start treating your dogs year round for heartworm.  Heartworm is on the rise in the midwest but is easily preventable.  Our doggies get their pills on the first of the month.  

Random number fact:  I just figured out that I drive 34 miles ONE WAY to our dog training class (544 miles for 8 weeks).  That's got to be a good class.  

No, I'm not Italian (and answers to other Corso questions)

All of these questions in this post are actual questions from real people.  Most of the responses are really what I've said, except for the green italicized phrases - those are just what I was thinking at the time when asked.  


What is a Cane Corso?


A Cane (Kah-Nay) Corso is an Italian Mastiff dog.  The other Italian Mastiff that most people would be familiar with is the Neopolitan Mastiff (aka Fang the Harry Potter movie dog).  The Cane Corso is the more athletic of the two mastiffs.  They are both descendants of the Roman the canis Pugnaces - a legendary dog of war.  The breed was near extinction in the 1970s.  They were first brought to the US in the late 80s.   They gained full recognition by the AKC in July 2010


Aren't they mean/vicious/attack dogs? (This question always invariably would come on the heels of the "what is a cane corso?" question)


You mean the dog you didn't even know existed and never heard of 30 seconds ago?  No.  However bad people can do bad things with dogs and mastiff types get that kind of reputation regardless of their true disposition.  They are guardians and protectors and even that trait can be used against them.  They can be fierce looking especially with cropped ears, but look at the mug on my pup and you'll likely experience "envy."  (See kids - that's irony!)

So Sleepy

  


Are you Italian?


No, I'm not.  I wasn't aware that I needed to be.  If it makes you feel better, I can get a German short hair, Irish setter, English springer spaniel, and throw in a Polish lowland sheepdog next time for good measure to fulfill my obligation of owning only those dogs that fall within my /our heritage.


How did you pick a Cane Corso?


See my first post:  The Story of the Cane Corso and Us


Did you know that envy is one of the seven deadly sins?


Yes, I'm Catholic, so I'm familiar with the concept of sins and types of sins.  Did you know that envy is just a word?  It's also the emotional verb that we felt when we first saw her newborn pictures and thought she wasn't ours.  Our next dogs will be Gluttony, Greed,  Sloth, Wrath, and Pride - not Lust though, that name is just too difficult to imagine saying out loud at the Dog Park.  Of course, we could always go with the more virtuous - Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Patience, Kindness, Humility, or Diligence.  See Sr. Rita - I do remember.


How fast do they grow?  


Almost fast enough to watch it happen.  Overnight, sometimes.


How big will she get?


Females are generally 80 to 100 lbs from what I've read.  The males are bigger.  We think/hope she will be an 80 pounder with a ginormous head.

The Story of Obie

He's definitely part hound.   We think he's part Staffordshire terrier - but when others see the big broad chest and the overall muscle on our little guy, they see pitbull.

I personally believe that bully breeds have gotten a terrible rap.  Yes, a number of news stories have shown the devastating impacts of dog attacks and when they occur with strong jawed and muscled animals, they are terrible and devastating.  

But the biggest problem is the owners.

There I said it.  The owners are the biggest issue.  More and more people treat their pets like baby dolls.  They play dress up and buy cute collars and outfits.  They buy presents at Christmas.  They love to baby them.  But they don't exercise or discipline them.  They don't take on the dominant role in the pack (the human and animal pack).  Then, after the puppy or dog is not so cute and cuddly anymore.  After they take over the dominant role from the humans.  After they growl, bark, bite, show aggressive behavior - then they are abandoned, neglected, shoved in the basement, left at the animal shelter. 

65% of all puppy owners give up their puppy within the first year.  Last year, 11 million dogs under the age of 1 were euthanized in shelters across the United States.  Grow up people!  Take responsibility for those who depend on you.  Take accountability for your behavior and their response to your behavior.  Be the grown up in the relationship between you and your pets.

But, alas, I've digressed from the the topic.  This is Obie's story.  A less than perfect dog who has been given another shot at life.

On July 5, 2006, my husband Chris found a dog in a cornfield on his way to work.  Yes, we stop for animals on a fairly routine basis - it's a wonder we've never had 100 or more animals.  This dog came right up him and while he was very skinny, he appeared to be in good health.   He brought him home and for some reason I was home that day.  He told me that there was a dog in the backyard and not to let our other dogs out back.  

Our three other dogs were elderly females ranging from 11 to 13 years old.  I did NOT want another dog at that time, and we already had the two cats as well.  So while I was working to find out if this little bugger was lost (not likely, he was more likely dumped) and then worked to find him a new home.  He worked on my 4 year old daughter to get the sympathy vote to become ours.  My daughter is a bit of a dog whisperer.  She has loved animals dearly since she was a baby and this wild boy somehow knew that he should buddy up to her.


He was dominant, wild, and aggressive to everyone but Audrey (and sometimes Chris).  I remember her hugging him around the neck and he was cuddled up next to her while I worried that he would turn on her.


He stayed.  She loved him.  Our oldest dog Lady loved him.  He wouldn't listen to me, but he stayed anyway.


It was about a year later when I finally bonded with him.  Our dog Lady had been put down.  She was my baby, my dog, my cuddler.  I went out for a walk with Obie and we ended up walking for hours.  He knew she was gone.  She was the only other dog that loved on him.  The other two dogs pretty much ignored him.  He and I walked a lot at night after that. 


But he was still wild, and aggressive, and dominant.  Something had to be done.  Fence fighting, chasing bikes, the children would run by our house as fast as they could.  We only had a 4 foot fence and he would run around the yard with his hackles raised and his ears back.  He was a pretty fierce sight.


We did a lot of research and knew that a regular training class wouldn't work.  We really wanted Cesar Millan, but hey we're Hoosiers, so that wasn't going to work.  So we started looking for options.   We finally found an in-kennel training facility that addressed behavior issues.  It wasn't a close drive and it wasn't cheap. But we were going away on vacation and would have boarded the dogs for 2 weeks anyway, so we took that cost into consideration.  We went to First Friend K9 and Obie was trained on site for a month.  That was hard, we didn't really see him until it was over, but we talked to his trainer every few days.  He has/had a lot of fear aggression, but he also thinks nothing of going up and trying to attack the biggest dog in the place.  After four weeks, we went to pick him up.  He was a brand new dog!  Wow, what a change.  They spent a few hours training us.  We had to learn all of his commands and what was and was not acceptable.  Then Obie and I were off to their Novice Training class as part of our continuing education.   We finished our eight week class and he changed.  And I am a changed human being.  We bonded as owner and animal.  We loved our experience with Bruce and his trainers at First Friend that we've even taken Envy there for puppy class and we are all going back for Novice class (Obie gets to go too, so he can go along for the car ride and work on his socialization issues).


He isn't by any means perfect.  He does need an e-collar for correction, although he no longer wears it all day.  He still has significant dog-aggression issues and because we rescued him, we will never know why.  But that is going to continue to be work in progress.  Obie will always be a work in progress and amazingly he does continue to progress.  He even eventually came around to having Envy in the house - albeit with lots and lots and lots of cookies.  


Maybe one day he will actually be a Canine Good Citizen, likely not, but I won't stop trying.  We owe it to him to have a good life.  For the 11 million dogs this year who won't.  

I love this picture of Obie and Oscar above him.  He's a good boy.

Envy and the Bark Park

So what to do on a beautiful muddy day in early March with a pup who wants to play?  Go to the bark park of course.  We're lucky to have such a place a few miles down the road.  
Eagle Creek Bark Park


Today was Envy's first visit and she loved it.  At first, she was a bit nervous and overwhelmed.  There were other dogs there and they all came over to see her, smell her, and get nosy.  After a few minutes, she settled right in and we let her off the leash to run.  And run she did.


There's a nice big open space with benches around.  There's one area to do some agility work on, but the rest is a dog's dream - big open field and lots of other dogs and smells.


We learned a thing or two as well.  Bring water because a playing dog is a thirsty dog.  Leave the cookies at home.  My eight year old daughter was VERY popular as she wandered around with cookies in her pocket.  Lots of nosy dogs checking out her pockets and one elderly female dog who decided that Audrey was her best friend.  Of course, she loved that - the little dog whisperer she is.


We met some new friends and lots of beautiful dogs - the labs, the husky, collies, the doberman, the little white mix puppy with bright blue eyes, her brother the bully mix who was the nicest dog in the park.  Lots of fun.  


Came home to nap time.  All in all a good day for the Wonder Pup.


Someday, I hope we can take Obie with us to the Bark Park.  Someday, maybe he won't be dog aggressive.  He's a work in progress.  Aren't we all?

Play Hard, Train Hard, Sleep Hard

Finally a day off from work and evening activities.  Although I love evenings spent with the kids and their activities, I know it's hard on the dogs sometimes.  


This afternoon was spent playing hard and having a nice long walk.  She loved it.  She is starting to walk very nicely on the leash - not a lot of pulling.  She does get very interested in what all the other people are doing and sometimes just stops, sits, and watches.  Too cute.  


Worked on the "wave" again today.  Starting on playing dead too.  Obie has the wave down and Envy is still a work in progress.  She has a lot more to learn.  


When she's tired, she'll take a nap wherever we are.  So this afternoon, she grabbed her itty bitty blanky and brought it into the office and crashed.  She fit on this blanket when she was 9 weeks old.  Now it's just a little square she carries around when she's tired.  


We're in the toddler stage of puppy-hood.  She always has something in her mouth and is extremely curious.  She's not much of a chewer (so we've been lucky with shoes) but she always finds paper, pieces of lint, her precious mulch, kitchen towels, kleenex, whatever and keeps it in her mouth.  And her mouth is cavernous!  Always pulling open her mouth to see what she is keeping in there.  Shees.

Envy asleep on her itty bitty blanky

By the way. . . . 
I'm pretty excited too today.  We bought our kids a new (used) piano.  We have an old bang-on piano that we were given free a few years ago from one of my husband's friends.  It's been ideal for the kids to practice on and we wanted to make sure that they would stay interested in music before investing any more money.  They've been at it for more than a year, so I thought it was a good time to give them a tuned, nice instrument to use.   We debated for a while while the gentleman showed us all the beautiful new and reconditioned pianos they had in the store.  He even showed us one that $240,000.  Yep, $240K.  He laughed as a I backed away from it.  We found some nice new ones that were in our price range too.  And then he showed us a nice Charles R Walter upright that was used, but restored beautifully.  


It sounded wonderful.  It comes on Tuesday and they will even take our old bang-on one back to see if it can be salvaged.  It's a Story and Clark upright piano and I finally looked up the serial number today and found that it had been built between 1949 and 1956.  That's a tough old gal and a lot of kids pounding away on the keys over all those years.  


Two things I liked about the Charles R Walter - they are built here in Indiana and they are the only non-Steinway brand that Steinway will display on their floor.  


I might even take lessons now.  

The Busy Week

This week has been super busy.  Poor puppies didn't have much fun last night, I was at a banquet and hubby was surrounded by the kids' homework.  Already Wednesday and I won't be home Thursday night or Friday until late.  


Tonight I stayed home to play with them.  We are working on the "Wave."  So very cute.  Along with Envy's version of crawling (dragging her back legs on the ground).  I need to get pictures of both.


I got two books on dog tricks and even the older dog is learning them.  He has a very cute wave.  


Time to throw the jolly ball.


Enjoy your puppies!

Envy's Pedigree

Envy was born on September 17, 2010.  She is from Stonecroft Cane Corso in Virginia.  We live in Indiana, so how did we find Stonecroft?  Well the internet, of course.  But we didn't stop there.  I had researched Cane Corso breeders off and on for a few years.  We knew that we really didn't want to get a new puppy for a while, so I was able to take my time searching for the right person with the right dogs.  There didn't seem to be a lot of good options in or around Indiana.  We found a few, but they seemed to stress the "guardian/attack" behaviors. So we looked further.  There were some in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Nevada, North Carolina, and Virginia where they had dogs that had nice pictures and the sites seemed to stress a family pet or show dog.  We had narrowed it down to two that we liked.  


Then last summer in 2010, we took a family vacation to Washington D.C. and then to Virginia Beach.  Stonecroft Cane Corso was nicely located between DC and VB, so we arranged a visit with Misty to see her, the dogs and the kennel.  After a few lost turns in Virginia farmland, we met her at her farm house.  She showed us the kennel and let us in to meet the dogs and several puppies.  My husband and I still brag about how impressed we were with the dogs.  We met Kat right away.  Then Noegan came out.  She was gorgeous and smaller, but still muscular.  She was playing with the puppies (who I think were Vida's???).  Then she came over and approached us.  Not shy, just watchful.  We met big daddy Lieto, who I think is the most awesome dog I've ever seen.  His head was enormous.  She took us into her Kennel house to meet her young prospects - Friday, Summer, and Lola.  I still love Friday's head too.  The heads of these dogs are amazing.  All the while there were 8 to 10 puppies running around, romping with my kids, biting shoe laces, getting picked up and cuddled.  


Misty answered all our questions and gave us some things to think about.  She then let us know that she had planned a breeding with Noegan and Lieto for her fall litter.  But there wasn't a rush, she usually had litters 3 times a year.  


We thanked her for spending so much time with us and went on our way.  We kept talking the rest of the way to VB about beautiful mama Noegan and big playful Lieto.  We really wanted a puppy from those too.  Since, the other breeder we had contacted never responded to us; we knew we had narrowed our options down to Stonecroft.  We sent Misty an email and let her know we wanted a female puppy from her fall litter and the long wait began.


I'm really pleased that we decided on Stonecroft.  Misty is an awesome person and she is really invested in her dogs.  She is also an amazing photographer.  I'm in awe of her photo on her main page.  Thank you Misty for our newest family member!  


Check Stonecroft out at http://www.stonecroftcanecorso.com Look for Envy on the Happy Owner's page.

Stonecroft's Lieto - Envy's Dad

Noegan - Envy's Mom

Wild Kingdom

That was one of my favorite shows growing up and now it occurs every day in our home.


This morning is another Wild Kingdom morning.  Envy and Obie wrestling and romping all over the family room. I've tried to take pictures of it, but it always looks like "when dogs attack"  each other.  Given their shaky start, I'm happy to see them play - even when its rough and noisy.  


Now that the weather is warmer they've taken wild kingdom outdoors.  I'm grateful for the privacy fence.  I can't imagine what the neighbors think just hearing them.  Obie is so noisy when he plays and Envy makes her wild leaps and jumps.  Then they chase each other all over the yard.  Envy is getting faster as she grows, so Obie has managed to lose a pound or two just trying to keep ahead of her.  


When Envy came to live with us, Obie was very aggressive with her and the first night was terrible.  We learned quickly to keep them separated but in view of each other.  For weeks we kept gates closed all throughout our house and let them have separate play time with us.  Obie is very dog aggressive.  But he was able to live with our original girls.  They were all older and I don't think he felt threatened by them.   But we knew from training and other experiences that he would have a difficult time with a new dog.


We limited all their interactions but would often have Obie come and lay down by Envy's crate while we gave them both treats.  We wanted him to associate Envy with all things good.  And Obie lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllloves cookies.  


We walked them together as often as we could too.  That is a lot harder when you're walking a 9 to 13 week old puppy on a leash.  You can guarantee you won't just be walking.  Cookies help out here too.  One cookie in front of the nose will get about a block of attention out of a very young pup.


Finally on December 28th, they finally truly played.  My Facebook status that day was

"A new era of peace has been declared in our house. Obie is finally tolerating Envy and the baby gates separating them have been opened. She really likes him and wants to snuggle and he really . . . . . . . tolerates her. And that's good enough for us."

And a little Wild Kingdom goes on every day in this house ever since. 

She Grew . . . . Again

I could write that title every day for a week and it would be true for several weeks and months.  

It's fun to watch this puppy grow.  One day it's loose skin.  The next day, those hind legs shoot out and she looks awkward with her rump higher than her shoulders.  Then the front legs catch up.  Then it's the bigger head and larger neck (check that collar every other day).  Then she gets a little bit wider.  And then it starts all over again.  All the while, those giant baby puppy paws remain huge.  I'm convinced they grow every few seconds.


Today, we are on front leg growth.  I would get a big dog all over again just to watch all this growing.  

Happy 5 month birthday today Wonder Pup!

Even Dogs Get Spring Fever

Envy - Feb 16th (5 Months old tomorrow)

After a long hard winter, one that started only two weeks after she came to live with us, Envy finally got a taste of warm weather and the scent of the coming spring.   We've had something like 33 inches of snow since December 1st and one nasty ice storm week in early February.  For three days, we were home from school and work due to the ice.  Our whole yard was a skating rink.  


That poor puppy looked at me like I was insane every time I opened the back door.  Our older dog, Obie, decided at one point that he was just going to "hold it" until we made him go out.  He promptly melted the ice on my back step and came right back in.  This was not the ideal weather to go through housebreaking.  After the first ice-skating day, she figured out how to slide out into the yard and dug in her claws to get back into the house.  Good thing Corsos have very cat-like claws.


What joy today at 68 degrees that the ice has finally melted!  The yard is a muddy mucky mess, but the dogs frolicked like it was late summer.  Obie and Envy also got a long walk this evening from my husband - first time he's walked them both together.  


Now she's happily sitting by the back door - wagging her tail - waiting to go out again and again.   I expect she won't be spending much time indoors once Spring finally arrives.  Her precious mulch is out there and the remains of my herb garden.  Now, I have to consider puppy destruction as I plant my garden for spring.  Hhmmm.

Envy - Feb 16th - Check out those legs

Next up is Continuing Education.  We graduated from Puppy Class on January 31st and now are anxiously waiting to go back for "Novice Training."  We still work on everything we learned in Puppy class, but are stretching out times.  Envy downstays every night during dinner.  A few nights ago, we got up to an hour.   In the evening we still work on sit, down, come, free puppy, and a few tricks from class.  The hardest part, but the biggest payoff, is the submission training.  She hated it in the beginning and would fight against it every time.  But now she is doing much better and tolerates it really well.  


Submission training might sound awful, but it's as simple as getting the pup to either lay down on her side while you touch her from head to toe (without struggling or fighting) or to lay down on her back in between your legs while you sit on the floor.  We learned how to clean teeth, check ears, brush coats, and clip nails all while in these positions.  If I do the exercises every night, she does well.  If I skip a night, well, I'm wrestling with a forty pound puppy who has a mind of her own.  Ever try to strap a baby into a carseat when they absolutely don't want to go in?  They stiffen up, right?  That's what she does too and spread her legs wide so that I can't move her into position.  That's when Obie comes in.  Obie gets down on his side and gets lots of praise and treats.  Envy sees this as a good thing, stops resisting, gets lots of praise and treats.  And the next day is easier.


I've also learned to clip a few nails every few days.  I want to keep her used to the idea of this "claw" near her little paws.  If she doesn't need a clipping, then I at least put the clippers near her nails so she gets used to it.  

Obie - Feb 2011 - In his preferred resting state.  Silly dog!

Our Cane Corso - Envy

Envy is our Cane Corso puppy.  She was born on September 17, 2010.  Now that she is approaching her 5th month and to celebrate the first ever showing of the Cane Corsos at Westminster, I've decided to start a blog about her and our adventures raising her.


Every day is an adventure with Envy aka The Wonder Pup.  She joined a household with two kids, two cats, one lizard, and one other dog.  Quite the zoo.  It used to be larger, but the story of  "Our Girls" - the original three dogs we had - will come later.  


Envy was born in Virginia and came to live with us on November 17.   Her litter had 8 pups; 3 females, and 5 males.  At the time we were second on the list for females and though there was only one blue female, we knew our chances of getting her were slim.  We started to fall in love with one of the two black females.  We communicated with our breeder via email and she sent us weekly pictures.  At around 5 weeks, she let us know that we could have first pick of the females - including the blue one.  What an agonizing decision!  We thought about it for a few days and talked it over with the breeder.  The blue pup conformed so nicely and the black one seemed to have a great personality.  In the end, we decided to go with the blue female, because we knew we would have picked her if we had had first choice in the beginning.  We loved them all.  

After the decision was settled, we had to prep our home for a new puppy.  The last time we had a puppy had been about 16 years earlier.  Our kids had never had the adventure of potty-training, crate-training, training-training, you name it, with a puppy.  What an adventure that would be.  So the crate was purchased.  Two hot pink collars picked out (one puppy collar, one BIG girl collar), vet appointments made, training class signed up.  All set for a puppy to arrive.


To Be Continued. . . .

The Story of the Cane Corso and Us

So how in the heck did we decide to add to our menagerie with a Cane Corso (pronounced Kah-naye).  And how did we even find this breed of dog.  I keep getting asked this question, so I'm going to answer it.  

Easy answer, slightly long story - so bear with me.  

Shortly after Christmas in 2006, we were driving home late one night after visiting family for the holidays.  We were about 10 minutes from home on a winding county road when I saw something off to the side of the road.  I told my husband to stop.  He said it was a deer and it was late.  Well he stopped anyway, since I've never seen a large black deer with floppy ears before.  We turned around and went back.  There on the side of the road was a large, gorgeous black brindle dog (of some breed we had never seen before).  And he had just been hit.  He had blood all over his front and both front legs were split open.  As we approached him, it was obvious that he couldn't walk.  He was very gentle and somehow knew we were there to help, even though he had to be in tremendous pain.  We touched him quite a bit, carefully, and were able to assess how much damage there was all the while petting his giant head. 

It took us a while to decide what to do.  It was very late, and very dark.  A man who lived on the road stopped to help. He had a car full of teenagers who were great kids and really helpful.  In the end we decided to waive off animal care and control and took the dog to the emergency vet.  At the time, the other man thought the dog belonged to another neighbor (which didn't turn out to be the case) and we just couldn't leave the dog out there.  At the hospital, we asked the overnight vet to stabilize the dog and get x-rays.  Handed over the credit card (splitting the cost with the other Samaritan) and went home to bed and to our four dogs.  

It was a day or two later that we went back to the vet.  I remember that it seemed to take a couple of days before all the test were done - so I think it was two days later.  The damage to his front legs wasn't as bad as expected - his bones weren't broken.  However. . .  The big However.   His spinal cord was damaged, likely severed.  His back legs didn't work and didn't respond to any tests on his nervous system.   The selfish sorry excuse for a human hit this dog, broke its spine, left it to die, and kept on driving.  

We were there with both of our kids and realized there was nothing that could be done.  He was a big sweet gentle dog and no one could save him.  We went out into a hallway to talk to the staff about euthenizing him  while the kids stayed in the room with the dog.  He was on a big blanket on the floor.  My daughter (who was all of 4 at the time) was sitting on the floor against the opposite wall crying.  She knew what was coming.  As we looked through the window into the room, looking at our daughter, this big beast of a dog started to crawl across the floor on his bandaged front legs dragging the rest of him behind.  He got over to her,  made a huge sigh and put his giant head in her lap.

Everyone started crying after that. 

We left heartbroken but knowing that in this dog's final hours someone loved him.  And he loved us back, unconditionally.

We started searching the internet afterward, trying to determine what kind of dog he was.  We could tell he was a mastiff, but that was all we knew.  We landed on the Cane Corso after finding a few others mastiff types that were similar, but not quite him.  He was clearly a Corso.

After that we knew when the time was right that this was the next dog we wanted to add to our family.