Happy Birthday Gus!!!!!

No, Gus doesn't get paid to promote this food but he should. It is about time he made his mom and I some money instead of spending ours. LOL  Gus and I figure as good as the Holistic makes him look and as much as he loves the taste we can throw them an occasional bone. We get cake and Gus gets a can of soft food mixed in his dry food for his birthday and I bet he loves it more then any darn cake. Sometimes I feel dumb for feeding him what I feel is top of the line food to only turn around and see him polishing off some dead fish or animal! LOL 

Here is the "Pretty" photo I promised the other day. At least I think he is looking fine. As I said the other day he is running a little smaller than he probably should at his age but he seems very healthy and so far the hips seem to be okay as well. Couple that with a heart the size of Texas and I will take that over size anytime.

Pretty boy in yet another photo. I still rank him as the smartest Rott I have owned but unfortunately also the most stubborn! Always trying to "out-smart" me and usually in the presence of others when he knows I am more preoccupied with company then following up on training......but don't fear as I always do. He just likes to make me look bad. He finally has come out of alot of his skittish stage and July fourth was a good example. I was scared to death being surrounded by fireworks Gus would go nuts but he didn't bat an eye. He is still and always been ready to fight the neighborhood "bullies" that charge us when WE walk down the road on the leash. Now that he is bigger than most of them they seem less interested in calling his bluff. Happy 1st Birthday Gus.......the first of what I hope is many.

Doggie Daze and Summer Fun at the Island

Heck with photos...Lets swim!!!!

If I had a tail I could turn better!!

Gus is really eating up this lake life. Tooo hot to do much other then cool off in the lake. Last September I put him in the lake (paw deep) and he freaked! This summer he started off just as paranoid but with each trip to the island he would have more and more fun. He now swims quite well and loves to chase his kong and me for that matter. He also feels quite at home sticking his whole head underwater looking for sticks. The only problems with him liking the lake so much are everytime we let him out he wants to run down and go for a dip and then we have a smelly, wet dog to deal with.The other problem is if we take him swimming we have to make sure we will be home for about the next three hours as he takes in so much water he has to potty every five minutes for a long time! LOL 

He is about four days from his first birthday and I will take a (pretty) photo of our boy. He is holding steady at eighty pounds or so which scares me a little as I want him larger than that at maturity. He still has about six months to mature so I am hoping for another growth spurt soon.Just seems he should have slowed down growing at about one hundred pounds but we will see.

Nice Day and I am stuck inside!

Gus would love to be outside doing something destructive but he can only sit and dream. AS you can see his ecollar is on and keeping him honest. LOL The little guy just loves watching all the action but the birds on the patio bother him a little. His mom frowns at the nose prints he leaves but she gets over it.

Taking it easy on the porch watching the boats go by

Gus has a new hobby which is watching the boat traffic. The little guy must have forgotten the traffic when we brought him home last fall. It has been a very windy, rainy spring so when it turned 85 all the boats came out at once and he loved it! He really took interest in the boats with dogs while I kinda liked the wakeboard boat loaded with college girls! LOL One thing for sure, he slept very sound last night.

Happy Go Lucky

Okay, so his tongue might be 3 times larger than his body. LOL We thought this was a cute picture which was taken right after a really long workout of retreiving and keep away. It looks like he has had enough, doesn't it? Even with all of his shedding his coat stays as shiney as can be. I hope he keeps this trait as our last rott had coat issues the last couple of years of his life and always looked horrible. We are switching him to adult Eagle Pack Holistic as soon as he runs low on his last bag of puppy food. Of course we will mix the two types in the beginning for a smooth transaction. Why? I am not sure as this idiot is a non stop eating disaster. We have to watch him as he would eat a log or a bale of hay just for kicks. Sometimes you can see on his face he isn't enjoying it, he just does it. Oh, the life of a dog.

Sorry to anybody that actually comes to this site to watch Gus grow up but to be honest it has been a slow couple of months. Gus's growth has slowed way down and at 10 months old he is 80 pounds. He is still a ball of fire and quite handfull at times. He started shedding what seems like a month ago and has not slowed down yet! (SIGH) He does really well in the house and does not have to be put up in his cage anymore. HOWEVER, after a few months he did have a brain fart and decided to eat his very expensive dog bed. (see picture of bed below) This was quite troubling after our towel incident but he was really drawn to the inside filling which fortunatley went through him. So much for buying a "chew proof" bed but the good news is the company will refund our money and Ol dimwit gets to sleep on the cold tile floor. I hope he is happy. It was weird how he left it alone for so long and decided it was time for a modification. After showing him the errors of his way I placed the bed down and he started to chew it again right in front of me! After another quick go around the bed was taken away for good. He is quite skinny and is as fast as any Rott I have ever owned. At some point I look for him to fill out some and that will sure slow him down. We feel he is a very handsome boy at this point but still has some growing pains yet to endure.

Has anybody seen our puppy?

Our little guy is growing up, isn't he? He is really maturing into a great looking rott in my eyes. I did take off his ecollar for the picture. The collar is working pretty good but I have the intensity on #3 and that isn't enough sting for our "tough guy". It has slowed his off leash indifference and he is a better citizen every day! If he plays his cards right we might just keep him. LOL He is still  a little tougher then I like but I am not looking to break him at this point. Yesterday at thirty-four weeks we had a wonderful training day in which Gus was a combination of Rin Tin Tin and Ol Yeller. Please don't think I am boasting (but I guess I am!!) but he was very sharp doing hand signals and off leash commands at seventy yards plus. Simply put, he is growing into everything we wanted at this point...but ask me again in a couple of days. :-)  Please don't forget that you can click on the picture and get a close up of our little devil dog.

Enjoying the day

Gus is enjoying a break from the frosty winter as the tempeture is above 40 degrees today. As you can see he is keeping a watchful eye on some golfers who decided to come out. After a winter of no one being on "his" golf course he isn't sure what to think of this.

Snug as a bug in a rug.....or dog bed!

Gus is living the high life on his new dog bed. He is now out of his crate MOST of the time and stays on the bed not caring to share it one bit. The little guy has been quite lucky as I had to send my ecollar in to be fixed and the company hasn't been able to get it fixed right, thus delaying his much needed off leash "conditioning". The poor little guy just doesn't realize his master has much more will power than him.....but he soon will. Gus is now eight months old and weighs in at seventy pounds.

Back To Work

You all didn't realize Gus could walk on water, did you? Our lake is sporting anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of ice and I decided Gus could use some training in a new enviroment. His wounds have healed and he is as good as new. While he looks in control off leash here he is quite stubborn and I am going to start using an Ecollar on him. In the right hands they are the most effective training tool on the market so I look forward to "curbing" his mule headed ways. Gus and I are now over the huge loss by the Colts in the Super Bowl and now can only hope the season ends quickly for our struggling Hoooosiers!!

Our Boy Dodges His First Bullet!!!

Gus decided to start chewing the towels in his crate the other day. We finally took them away from him but we were too late. When I fed him Tuesday morning he started vomiting and by noon I could tell he was in real trouble. We rushed him to the vet and as you can see they had to open him up and pulled out about a pound of chewed up towel that was stuck in his bowels. Every dog I have housebroke has used towels in their crates but no more. He was really good last night about leaving his staples/stitches alone so I slept with him and let him sleep without the shield on. Poor guy, he loved having that thing off and snored all night. Bet that was the first good nights sleep he had since the accident. I kept awake most of the night as when he would snore I would wake thinking he was messing with his stitches. I cannot wait until he heals so I can "kill" him for the scare!! LOL   He is in good spirits and is gearing up for tonights Super Bowl. Gus wanted me to tell everyone to root for the Colts tonight.        GOOO COLTS!!!!!!!