Another Another New Addition?

For a few years now my wife and I have been trying to have a baby. When we realized we would not be able to we decided to look into adoption. Almost 2 weeks ago our attorney had a birth mother that chose us. She is due in January sometime.
Now that we will have a baby in our house in about 6 months we are going to have to get our dogs ready for the day we bring the baby home. I spoke with our dog trainers and they gave us several suggestions to begin with and then we can go through a more detailed training once the baby arrives.
So, now we need to go get a baby doll that makes baby noises: cry, laugh, giggle, etc. that way they will begin getting used to those sounds. Also, my wife will begin to put baby lotion on periodically so that they will get used to that smell. One smell that they will definitely have to get used to after the baby arrives is diaper contents. Of course, that is one thing I am not sure I will get used to. =)
This will be fun even though it will be a serious time of training. It will be good to get the dogs prepared. We want this to be as easy a transition for them so that they will still feel loved and wanted, yet know that there is another alpha in the family.
I may just go to good will, but a regular doll and then try to find some baby noises and downloaded them from the internet.

Great Follow-up

Well, we went over to see Tilly and how she is doing. Heard great things. She is taking to the children very well, and she is even obeying! It is wonderful to see the payoff in something you gave alot of time and attention.
The unfortunate thing for them is that Tilly is now officially in heat. We knew that it would be coming soon, but we feel somewhat bad that it happened now. The new owners did not seem to mind as they will be getting her fixed very soon.
I met a very nice lady via the internet that has runs a pit bull rescue near Tampa. I was looking to see if they could direct me to a place where we could get Tilly spayed at a really low cost. Our vet is great, but I just did not want to spend nearly $250. As I was on their site I saw that they were advertising a discounted rate for spaying pit bulls for $55! Well, we were definitely going to take advantage of that when we ended up placing Tilly. They will be taking care of that instead.
We are very satisfied that Tilly is with a great family. That was the biggest worry for us. We have no doubt that she will be a great addition.

I need my next fix!

It has been only two days now and I feel I need another rescue project. I was semi-joking with my wife that I wanted to foster another dog. She was gracious and simply asked that we waited.

I agree - we need to get things organized a little more now that we are on schedule to adopt a baby. I am still somewhat on a buzz about the possibility that we could be parents by January of next year. I have caught myself dwelling on it more and more and the concept was enjoyable to me. Then as I thought of the ramifications that this was a new life that may be given to us to raise, nurture and guide.

I am sure that we will eventually open our home to another rottweiler that needs some help. I look forward to that day, but until then I can be patient.

New Home For Tilly

We were finally able to place Tilly with a family. And the entire process was rather unique and suprising.
Yesterday, we found out that the birth mother that had viewed our profile had chosen us. Needless to say we were very excited. And since we had 5 dogs I wanted to touch base with our dog trainer, Christie, on how we could prepare our dogs for the eventual new member of the pack. I told her that we would probably still have Tilly as we really did not have much success in finding a home yet.
Then about 20 minutes after I finished speaking with her I received a call from a lady inquiring about Tilly. She was looking for a dog for her children and went into our vets office to see if they knew of anyone that was looking to find a home for their dog. They mentioned Tilly and she called.
We spoke for a few minutes, mainly my filling her in about Tilly and her past. She was fine with the information and so we scheduled a time for that evening to show her Tilly. We met that evening and they just loved her immediately! I spent some time with the kids having a good few lessons on what they could do to help her adapt to her new home as well as what they should NOT do.
We even took her to her new home and set a time to go by that weekend to follow up on how she was doing and to make sure the environment was working well for her and the new family.
We will definitely miss her tons, but know that it is best for her to get into her forever home. We look forward to doing various follow ups for the near future.
I am sure that we will eventually have another rescue, but for now we are going to focus on getting ready for the arrival of the baby due around January.

Another New Addition?

Well, my wife and I have been trying to adopt for a little while now and we heard for the first time from one of the adoption attorneys that we chose. They wanted to show our profile to a birth mother. Needless to say I was somewhat excited. Not so much excited because we have a real chance to add a baby to our family, but simply that they have someone that they feel might be a good match and they wanted to show the profile.

I will admit that I am wondering how they will digest the fact that we have 4 rottweilers (and now a pit bull that we are trying to find a forever home). Many people tell us that we should not have added the dogs to our profile. I understand completely why they suggest this (I probably would say the same thing). What we want however, is for people to see us for who we are. We want them to know that we love animals and that the baby they would entrust to us would be completely protected. I was thinking of this the other day. Yes, there are 5 "bully breed" dogs in this house that are of the natural temperament to protect home and owner to the death, but not even that. I can see Sandra "going postal" on someone trying to harm our baby. And don't even get me started on my protective nature.

Anyway, I would love to hear from anyone that has a "bully breed" in their home and they were successful in adopting. I know that it is possible and I would love to hear your story.

Not So Much of a Success

Well, after we got back from being gone most of the day we put Cody and Sheba back in their kennel, went to a couple of CVS stores to get some stuff leaving Sasha and Casey out to see how they would do.

Not so good, unfortunately. They got hold of the runner near the from door and tore some of the trim. We have tried many things to keep them from chewing on stuff. We even tried using a Habanero pepper! They just licked it off the rug! Amazing.

Well, I guess we will have to try and build their out time slowly to hopefully get them to not destroy stuff.

Success!!

Well, we left a few minutes after 10 this morning and did not get back until nearly 5:30pm. That means Cody and Sheba were loose for nearly 8 hours! They did wonderfully!

We were so excited to see the house in one piece and not have pieces of stuff scattered throughout the house.

This is great and gives us hope that we can do this more often with them. As they prove themselves and we choose the right times to allow them to be out while we are gone we are excited with the possibilities with them being loose in the house. It provides greater security of the house and we love the thought that they will be able to be free and not confined to their crates all the time.

YAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

Aren't they cute?

We are trying to see how they behave themselves while sleeping around the house during the night. For the longest time we allowed them to sleep in our room, but doing some research lately we found out that it is not a good thing to allow them in your room as they will think that this is their space. By giving them boundaries it will help to show them that you are the alpha. So, sadly they are not allowed in our room.
We started by seeing how Cody would do having the living room and kitchen to sleep in. He has done very well. Then a few nights later we tried to add Sheba to the mix. That did not do so well. I think she was excited to be out that she forgot that she needed to settle down or we would put her back in the kennel. Well, we helped remind her so she spent that night in the kennel. Last night we tried again and she was super!
I would like to try the puppies next, but I am very skeptical as they have little self-control at times. I am sure we will give it a try at some point. We will probably have to walk them to wear them out before we go to bed since they are usually out after a good walk.
I would also love to have all four dogs out at the same time overnight but when all four are out together they play and that would not be good to have four full-sized rottweilers playing loose in the house.
I am excited to see how Cody and Sheba do today while we are gone. Besides it makes a great security system - 4 rotties and a pit! Oh, yeah!

Just Some Thoughts

Well, it is Monday afternoon and it is beginning to wind down. The weekend went well. It was definitely nice to have my wife back home. We spent much time with the dogs. Sheba had a vet check-up so we went to that and she put on some pounds. She was always hovering around that 60# marker. Well, she tip the scale at 76#. She is the rottweiler/black and tan coonhound mix. She is slender, fast and all muscle. We love watching her run. If we had some land she could run to her hearts content.
She loves to chase the tennis ball and bring it back. She will even "play soccer" with it. Not too long ago I gathered some sticks together and held one up to see if Sheba would run and jump to grab it. She did not disappoint. She jumped just like a champion jumper (whatever that means).

Saturday after the vet appointment Sandra and I took Cody and Sheba to a new place to check it out. It is a running track that belongs to a school. It is open to the public when school is not in session. We walked there with them and even ran a bit. It think Sheba is going to love it there. We used to go to the dog park, but we had some bad experiences with people and their dogs - some people think it is cute and funny to see their dog being rude and aggressive. I even had a guy cuss me out and yell at me for protecting myself and a dog we were getting out of a rather bad situation. I had enough and chose to go elsewhere.
I would really like to find about 2-5 acres so that my dogs can have more area to run. Also, I would love to put a shelter up where I could take in rescue rotties. I could then rehab them, find new homes or even help current rottie owners on how to train their dog and be the alpha. So if anyone had land to donate... :)

Getting Back to Normal

Sandra made it back to me from Michigan so things are already getting back to normal. My dogs were able to spend much needed time outside. This past week has been rough with Sandra being gone. I had to be at the office so the dogs ended up having to be locked up all day. Now with Sandra back they get to catch up on their outside playing time.


Last night we were able to just hang out with the dogs. The pictures above are me with the two "puppies". They are so loving and playful. It baffles me when I hear people say that rottweilers are mean dogs. It is obvious they have not met my dogs. Those that do meet them are shocked that they are so nice. My answer is always the same: blame the owner and/or breeder for a bad dog - don't blame the dog. And the same goes for our staffie. She is so sweet. When we finally find her her own forever home I am sure she is going to please them for years to come.

Back to my Doggies, but missing my baby

Finally, I am back with my buddies. I am so glad my wife and I had this time away from them, but it was definitely great to get back to them.
I got back rather late Saturday night and totally ignored my dogs. Obviously, they were excited to see me back, but I wanted to ensure that they knew that I was still in charge. So, they went through their typical maniac excitement, but then finally calmed down when they realized that they would not get anything from me.
I was definitely excited that they calmed down so fast. So, I let them out two at a time outside. Of course, Cody got to go out first with Sheba. Then, when they did their bathroom stuff I sent them in and brought out the "puppies" Sasha and Casey. They really are not puppies anymore since they are over 1 year, but that is how we have always distinguished them so I think they will always be labeled "puppies".
Then Tilly got her turn outside. She does not always get as much time outside of her crate as the others do. I feel bad so we try to balance it out, but she always seems to get the "left overs". I hope that we can find a great forever home soon. We have grown deeply attached to her and would miss her, but she deserves a good home where she can be out more. So ... if you know of someone that has experience with pits and is looking for another one please let them know we have a winner.
I am hoping to get back into the swing of things as quickly as possible. I am going to try to get up at 5 to walk Cody and Sheba, but I am thinking even now that this won't happen. So, they get walked at night and Sheba gets the treadmill as well.
Glad to be back.

Almost Done

Well, it is Friday morning and we are nearly done with vacation. It is funny how it seems to take so long for the time to get here to actually go on vacation, yet the time is so fleeting when the week actually arrives.

I did basically nothing this entire week. I spent more time in the cabin just hanging out, checking emails, surfing rottweiler sites, etc. than I did hanging out with people. At the beginning of the week I did go over and chat with some people a few cabins over that had 4 dachshunds with them. I know they were not rotties, but they were dogs and I was able to get my fix in. =)

We went miniature golfing, took a day trip down to Lansing, watched the kids fish from the dock and sat a few times around the fire pit. But other than that I did not do much of anything - much to the bewilderment of everyone. I have had late nights and early mornings much of this past year - all I wanted to do was rest.

But it is nearly done now and I get to go home to my dogs. I have missed them. We will be getting in rather late on Saturday, but you can bet I will be spending time with them.

I Miss Them Already!

We are on vacation and I miss my dogs.

We left early on Saturday morning, flying up to Michigan. We finally made it up to the lake where we have been able to simply veg.

It is nice not having to be at work or have to think about work. But I miss my dogs so much. I miss their whining, their need for bathroom breaks, their need for walks, their need to play, their need for attention. But what I miss most is my need for them.

We do not have children, but I think I can imagine what parents go through when they are away from their kids. Yes, the time away is good so that they can regain their energy, but they miss them because they are a vital part of their lives.

I am loving vacation, but I cannot wait to get back to them.

In Capable Hands

4pm. the joy began.

This afternoon at 4pm I began my vacation. A time I have looked forward to for quite some time. Time that will do much to restore life, energy and peace in a time of uncertainty and wonder.

My wife and I plan to spend a week with her family in Michigan at the annual vacation lake spot. Last year we took two of our kids: Cody and Sheba. Since then we have added to our K-9 family 3 additional kids. We made plans to take all of them with us, but the economy dictated that we make different plans.

My parents are in education which allows the summers to be fairly flexible. My dad was able to come down for the week we are away to watch them for us. He is looking forward to this time with the dogs. He is wanting to learn how to control rottweilers better as he has a rottweiler/coonhound mix (Sheba's brother).

This time will be good for my wife and I. We may not have children, but having dogs is similar (so I am told). This will allow us time for ourselves to be recharged.

I will miss my dogs greatly, but the time away will be good for all involved.

Besides, I am but a phone call and email away. =)

Stages of Cages

As I am sitting here before getting ready for church I was watching our dogs chill out. Then I started looking at the crates & cages we have and began to reminisce about all the various forms of containment we have gone through (and the dogs have gone through) to get them to where they are today.
We started out with Cody in a simple 24x36 Lifestages by Mid-West. I know that they are one of the more popular brands, but we have found them very reliable. And of course, we watched Cody grow fairly rapidly so we upgraded to a larger crate - 30x48.
Then as Sandra began to work more and more in Kissimmee with her sister we were feeling bad that Cody was stuck in a smallish crate with not much room to do more than tightly turn to lay in a different position. So we started looking. And of course we ended up in Petsmart where we found a 4x4x6 kennel that is really made for outside. It even came with a tarp to go over the kennel for shade. Well, our dogs are all inside dogs so we kept the kennel inside (without the tarp).
By getting this for Cody we were able to give him more space to "roam" while we were out if we did not let him loose in the house. We were having issues at one point since he tore into the house. But, I think he is out of that phase now and he roams more while we are gone.
Well, then we got Sheba. She got the old 24x36. Then as she grew rapidly she got the 30x48. Then, we got the puppies who go the 30x48 and Sheba got her own kennel.
Soon, the puppies outgrew their shared living quarters and we had to put them in their separate crates. But early on we discovered that Sasha had severe hip displasia. She needed more room to move after her surgery. So we swapped out Sheba and Sasha.
Then we decided that everyone needed a kennel of their own. While we were brainstorming we had a epiphany. It is sometimes scary, but most of the time I just smile. One of us will say something and the other will just pipe in, "I was just thinking that same exact thing!" A 4x4 was ok for each of them, but what if we combined two 4x4 and then combined another two 4x4 and then connected them together?! Actually making it happen was not a problem, the only issue was how to lay them out in the house. We don't have that big of a house and we don't want the dogs outside. So, we took about 45 minutes to hypothesize the configuration and placement.
Well, we finally settled on what we currently have.
Then once that got settled, we were given Tilly, the pit. Well, she got a nice deal in that she had 3 crates to choose from. So she got a big crate and a life of luxury.
I know, you are probably thinking that we are somewhat crazy for all the things we do for our dogs. But you must know that they are our babies. We are currently looking to adopt a baby (human). Can you imagine how they are going to be treated? If we do this for our dogs, you can only guess how "pimped out" the babies place will be. It will be awesome!! =)
If you watch the slide shows on the right side you will see some of the different living room formats we have gone through to get to what we have today.

Cody Almost Goes Bye-Bye

Things were going well. Sandra was enjoying having Cody in the house with her. It helped the days go better. Most of the time he would just hang out, laying on the ground. Occasionally, he would have a burst of energy. Sandra learned quickly to take him out to the backyard, play with him there and burn it out of him.
One day Sandra called me at work crying her eyes out. Obviously, this rapidly got my complete attention. She finally was able to tell me that Cody bit her. As I mentioned in an earlier post I am very protective of Sandra and for my dog to do this to her... Well, let's just say I was very furious.
I told her I was on the way. As I was gathering my stuff I told my business partners I had to go, that Cody just bit Sandra.
I won't say how fast I was driving, but lets just say I made it home in record time. By the time I got home she was calmer and wisely said it wasn't as bad as it seemed earlier. I am glad she said so because I was about ready to do a rambo on Cody.

Apparently, Cody was having one of his energy bursts, was running between our bedroom and the living room. With his mouth open, like he always does when he is running around, he got too close to Sandra and his mouth/teeth made contact with her leg. What scared her was that she could not control him when she told him to stop. This, combined with his teeth making contact with her leg (he did break skin) was what caused her to lose it.
She was justifiably scared of Cody, but mainly because she did not know how to control him. We needed to help her (and me) learn how to get him to obey. This would let him be himself, but we would control him.
So, I got on the internet and started doing some quick searching for a dog trainer. After looking at a few I called Southland Dog Training. I am so glad that they were the ones I was chose. I filled out a form on their web page and sent it. Less than 10 minutes later the owner, Vince, called me. It was nice to get someone that was not interested in just getting my money, do some stuff with my dog and never see or hear from them again. The phone call took time. He asked me why I called, what had happened. He wanted as much information as I could give him. Then he proceeded to ask me about things that I had not thought about before hand. He wanted to know everything he could about us as well as the dog so that he knew how to approach the plan of action.
Only after he was satisfied with the information we were able to give him did he propose the plan of action. He forwarded the information to the actual trainer that would come by the house. Later that day the trainer, Christie, called and we set up the schedule. She would stop by once a week for six weeks.
Those six weeks were great! She did not train the dog. She spent the time to train us on how to work with Cody to be the one in control. We were the ones that needed training. It was great. She was available anytime we needed her throughout the week.
We were so pleased with the success of the training that we have gone back to them for any other training we needed with our other dogs. We are very pleased with the work that Southland does. In fact, when we are at the dog park we are approached frequently by people wanting to know how we got our dogs to be so obedient. I tell them two things: I am the alpha and the training we received from Southland. I have even spoken to people at Petsmart while the were looking for a training collar. I have their business cards with me nearly everywhere I go. They saved us from the potential of getting rid of our first and best dog. For this we will always be grateful.

It is so difficult to imagine Cody at this size. When we got the two puppies Sandra kept saying that Cody was about that size. I kept telling her no way, he was bigger than they were. Of course, she is always right and she showed me this picture. Wow.
That first night was interesting. We had just got a new set of mattresses for our bedroom, but we still needed to get a new frame for it (we were downsizing from king to queen). So my parents were staying in our bedroom because we had the new mattresses in the office on the floor. So we had Cody in the kennel and we were laying down to sleep - five minutes later we smelled this awful smell! I KNEW it could not have been Cody because we were told by the breeder that he was house trained. So, I turned on the light, sure enough Cody had left us a rather large gift.
That was the only issue we have had regarding house training. He began to make this his home. He adjust very well very quickly and began to forge a place in our hearts that will never go away.

As I mentioned in my previous post we nearly got a rescue Rottie, Dakota. She is pictured above. Ain't she cute? Well, we were about a day away from getting her when the rescue people called and said that she found someone in the same town to take her. We were glad that she found a home, but part of me was disappointed.
So, Sandra continued the search. She found a breeder down in Arcadia, about an hour south of us. She had a 5 month old male. We decided to go down and see him. By then my parents were down visiting so we all did a road trip. I was definitely not disappointed this time. He was so awesome looking. No, he did not look like the typical Rottie everyone thinks of. He was still big for a 5 month old puppy, but that is what you get with the Rottweiler. We, and I mean I, spent a little time with him. He loved just laying down and chilling.
We decided that we wanted him and Sandra was fine with it. She was not afraid of him, which was HUGE in our decision. She would definitely be the one spending the most time with him since she would be home most of the time. The night before my dad, Royce and I went out to Petsmart to get the supplies we would need: crate, collar, leash, FOOD. So, we loaded up and made the drive back to the house.
We started thinking on the way back how to handle bringing him in the house. The reason was because my parents had brought their dog and he had been in the house for a couple of days already. We did not want any issue with them trying to figure out whose house it belonged to. Well, it all worked out fine.

How We Got Started

Looking back now when we got our first Rottie it seems so long ago. The desire for one goes way back. For many years now I wanted to have a Rottweiler. They are a beautiful dog yet powerful and respected. Their loyalty is unquestioned.

We had started talking about getting a dog since we moved to Plant City. We love our house, the best looking one on the block (dare I say neighborhood?), and those of you who have been to our house may concur. Our neighbors are friendly and for the most part trust-worthy, but they seem to attract the most unique friends. To put it bluntly I don't trust them. Especially when they get to drinking and smoking their drugs of choice.

I am very protective of Sandra, sometimes to a fault. The thought of something happening to Sandra because of someone coming on our property scares me and angers me. I should not have to be this way. So we thought of a dog and, of course, the Rottweiler was the first choice (and only choice for me, but don't tell Sandra).

We I really did not think we would end up with one since Sandra was bitten on the face by a lap dog when she was younger. So we had a very real issue to deal with before moving forward. I know it happened many years ago, but that is a reality that one does not get over easily, so I wanted to make sure she was going to be ok with it.

Well, even though I did not know it she began looking for a puppy for me. Purebreds are not cheap so I really did not think we would actually get one. We looked at even rescues, but that is also risky. We nearly got a rescue, a 3 year old female, Dakota. I was all giddy with excitement inside, then someone else got her. We also looked at a 2 year old male up near Kissimmee. I would have taken him in a heartbeat, but the simple fact is that he would have stayed locked up all day until I got home. Sandra was terrified, and for good reason. It was dark the night we went to see him. And since his colors are black, it made for a very difficult time. And we were strangers on HIS property. So we rather quickly decided to go a different route. And Sandra continued to look.

Then in December, Sandra found a breeder about an hour south of us that had a possibility. The story will continue on my next blog.

Missy & Fritsy

I am sure you may be somewhat bewildered, wondering why are these dogs on a blog about rottweilers. Are they rotties in the making? Are they rottweiler wanna-bes?

These two adorable doggies came to us out of sad circumstances. One of my clients recently passed away and her co-worker told me that they needed to find homes for them. My wife and I were able to open our home to them until a new forever home was found for them. We wanted to keep them together, but if necessary we would have sent them to separate homes.

Several people came together to get the word out that two dogs needed a new home. And it sure did not take long. I am not sure if their hearts went out to these two because of their loss? Was it because smaller dogs are cuter looking and appeal to more people? Whatever the reason, we had several people call willing to take both.

A couple just a few miles from our home were able to take both dogs and give them their new forever home.

I want to thank those that I know were instrumental in getting the word out: Abby, Stacey and Pat. Also, those that I am not aware. Thanks to all of you so much for your care and concern to find these fine pets homes.