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.