Road Trip!!

Ernie, Ernie, Ernie

"Lets get a Cane Corso he said." It will be fun he said." In his defense it has been fun. It has also been frustrating and chaotic at best. In the end though, I think it has all been worth it. Ernie is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He stole my heart at first snuggle. Even when he is carrying away my right shoe or pulling off a chunk of drywall........ Something about drywall and Mastiff breeds? Must look into that at some point.

Ernie is our first "Guardian Breed" of this magnitude. When we put a deposit down on him we researched breeders on line. I'm finding out now it was NOT the right kind of research. I've decided to blame it on being hit in the head several times when I was younger.  I do have to say most of the sites are pretty much copied and pasted. They basically say the same thing. The thing is though, not all breeders are the same. I have since found out that the breeder that wants blood from your first born and your pinky finger along with the bright light interrogation that even the FBI would be proud of, is the breeder you should choose. They REALLY care about you and their dogs. My breeder asked no questions. I volunteered everything. She took me at face value. I could have ran an underground dog fighting ring and she would have never known about it. I also asked ALL of the wrong questions and due to lack of knowledge wasn't aware of the ones I SHOULD have been asking.  I'm also pretty sure some of the comments I made during our talks about training still have her rolling on the floor laughing as I type. Does all of this make my breeder a bad breeder? I'm not sure, the vote is still out but I have to honestly say, I am starting to question that fact. 

We picked Ernie just short of 8 weeks of age. To make matters worse it was at the vet and right after his ear cropping. I think we were more traumatized than he was. We were not prepared for that.  I'm not going to say we won't ever get another ones ears cropped because we will. We'll just wait to pick the puppy until most of it has healed over. (Yes, I've discovered this breed is like Lays Potato chips. You can't have just one no matter how bad it gets.) He was all sleepy (who am I kidding, he was drugged out of his mind) and sweet and cuddly and warm. You just wanted to channel that little girl Elmyra in those Looney Toons cartoons and "Love him and squeeze him, and hold him forever."  The first couple of days it was more of the same. Then came potty training and crate training. Fun times. I was told that he would be partially potty and crate trained. Someone needs to tell that to my carpet and the hours of sleep that the whole family lost. I don't think he had ever seen the inside of a crate. Of course since he sleeps in it every night and still cries when he first goes in he could just hate the damn thing. I know I do. The only reason he is still in it is trust issues and his love for all things drywall.

That first week I was on a serious training mission.I declared that by his first vet visit which was just a short week away that I  would have him partially leash trained and have him sitting and staying on command. Some people actually laughed. The sitting was easy, staying was fairly easy but it has to be worked on everyday, the leash on the other hand, not so much. We are still working on that one. We are also still working on drop it, and no biting. For a brief period of time I referred to Ernie as the Tasmanian Devil on crack. Which was pretty accurate. With age he has mellowed some. At first he was food aggressive, would growl and snap when you picked him up and would be completely ruthless while playing. He would nip and then they would rapidly turn into bites and he would  hang on for dear life. You would have to pry his mouth off of you. Once you got it off he was looking for another hunk of meat to hang off of. Not a trait you want from a dog who is more than likely going to weigh 140+ someday. I never wanted to use the word "aggressive" and since he was our first one of this breed we weren't sure if it was normal puppy actions or something more. Before we brought him home I had joined several Cane Corso groups on Facebook. So I turned to them for help. That just opened up a whole new can of worms and made things much worse. Words were thrown around suggesting he was a bad dog. Had aggression issues, and needed to be returned. It ended up being a huge misunderstanding but really good things did come out of it. I ended up with help and good solid advice from some of the people in the group. Which has greatly improved the quality of the lives of the people living in this house and one puppies. He no longer growls or snaps when he is picked up and the food aggression has for the most part stopped. He no longer growls or snaps when you remove his food or place your hand in his dish but he does eat like it is his last meal when you give it back. He gives a whole new meaning to the term "Wolfing it down." Sadly none of the advice offered came from the breeder. She was more than happy thinking the issue was with the owner and not the puppy. Some of it was our fault. We as a family were not all on the same page as far as training went and for the last 28 years my kids have been lying to me. I am not Hitler. Or at least Ernie doesn't think so. In the end I settled for Attila the Hun which was way better than Lizzie Borden. He still has issues which have us concerned and we are working hard with him everyday. A bored puppy is a destructive puppy. If the puppy is bored, quiet and you can't find it you should probably run for your life. We've also discovered that a sleepy puppy is like a cranky three year old who did not get a nap. Translation: a child from hell. 

Today though I find myself faced with another issue. Ever since we have picked Ernie up he has had multiple (5-6) smelly, mucus filled, loose stools a day. At first my vet thought it was from the meds they used during the ear cropping. When it continued we then thought it was his food so I changed out his food. Still the loose poop continued. The vet said we were going to give it another two weeks or so but she felt something else was wrong somewhere. While we were there they ran some new tests for his puppy classes that start this week. One of them was a Giardia test since he will be using the pool during class. Bingo....We have a winner. The test came back positive. I notified my breeder last night since all signs show that he picked this up at her kennel. She told me that she gave preventive meds at 6-7 weeks for it so she was shocked. I looked in the little brochure she had given me and it is listed but there is no date. She dated everything. I told her that she may want to inform the other puppy owners to just be safe but  honestly I don't think she is going to. For me guilt is setting in. What do I do?  Answer...all of this.

To all perspective puppy buyers, join a group for the breed you are looking at. Most have files that you can look through that tell you what to ask the breeder. Don't be offended by ALL the questions the breeder asks. Remember she or he is only protecting you and the dog. One more that I am sure is not on any list and if it is good for them for adding it. I would request letterhead copies from the vet on all shots and treatments given. Not just some brochure that ANYONE can fill out. That way you have someone to contact if questions arise at a later date.

My hubs has introduced me to Alaska The Last Frontier which has inspired a major canning and freezing mode in me. I always can a lot during late summer and fall but the freezing is something new. I swear I don't think I could get a piece of notebook paper in my deep freeze right now. I feel like one of those preppers. It's like "Bring on the Zombies" in our house right now. Hubs keeps telling me I'm a natural and we could do that. I keep telling him only if we are in The Keys when we do it. I am NOT moving to Alaska. I look like Nanook of the North now and we live in Indiana. If I add one more layer of clothes I won't be able to bend my arms.

What's for Dinner?

How many families fix more than one meal at dinner? Is it weird to fix more than one type of steak for a meal? Friday's is steak night in our home. Three of us eat steak, one doesn't. Tonight we fixed one strip, one ribeye, one filet, and one hamburger. For our family that is not a normal night. A normal night would be me cooking say pork and chicken. Or pork and some sort of pasta dish. Very rarely do we all eat the same thing. I have been told by others that I am nothing more than a short order cook. So I'm guessing it's a good thing that I love to cook.

I started this blog because I think every family thinks they are different. This is just a small insight into mine.