47 is Half Way

I have a dog.

He now weighs 47 pounds at 5 months.

We just got his, more or less, final shots at the vets. The vet assured me he is doing wonderfully and should double in weight as an adult. I guess that was good news. He also told me about this English Mastiff that weighed 24o lbs. It makes 90 lbs somehow more "reasonable".

Just because he is half way in weight to his adult weight does NOT mean he is half way there in time. He is probably a little less than a third of the way down that path.

The vet said Danny is in perfect health and very well mannered and socialized. He was impressed at how calm and unafraid Danny was of the vet experience. Wow... too bad I can't take credit for much of that. Feed the dog, scoop the poop. The rest was up to him.

I also have been asking about his "Cujo Time". Answers range from "he's a puppy and will grow out of it" to a big grin and suggestions on how to "work with him".

I also got the recommendation to "put him in his kennel, throw a sheet over it and don't let him out until he calms down." I'm going with that recommendation.

Oh yeah, the vet asked if he was "lifting his leg yet". I thought that was a rather personal question but a vet is a doctor so I told him that yes, he was. It seems that this behavior is an indicator that his neural circuits are getting wired as an adult and that this is all required before he gets neutered. Don't let that get around, Danny doesn't know about that part yet. The vet said with dogs this size, they usually wait until he reaches about a year old. I wish this "size" word wasn't popping up so often. It is a bit intimidating. It think he is quite a nice size right now.

I console myself that I didn't get an English Mastiff.

The vet said to keep him on puppy chow until he gets "snipped". He goes through a bag of puppy chow a week. They are not the small bags. Thankfully they are not the "horse" size dog food bags I see in the store. That's for the Mastiff types. Supposedly, after the "snippage", his food requirement will decrease slightly.
The puppy chow is also not the "premium, human quality" pet food that my cats get. Not sure how or when that happened but I tried to switch them back to a "good" brand and that was a definite NO from my "furry four".

90 lbs or so... hmmm.... I think I better pay more attention to the training. I think I would prefer it that I'm in charge, not him. It could get unpleasant otherwise.

We definitely need to work on that Cujo thing. I have pretty well figured out that he is just wanting to "play like a boy" and roughhouse a little. Keeping it down to "a little" and under our control will be the issue.

Think about 47 lbs at the end of a leash changing direction while at a dead run. Now picture a hundred pound dog doing that. We are talking either you let go of the leash or prepare for pain.

Those cute leash things that give you a long leash that rolls up in the handle... that just lets the dog get up more speed before he hits the end of the leash. Not a good situation for the one at either end of the leash!

I have a dog.

He just may turn into a dignified gentleman.

I was certified as a D.O.M. (the well respected order of Dirty Old Men - I was in my late 20's at the time) many years ago by the wives on the block in military housing where I was living at the time in Puerto Rico. I probably lost the certificate. It was quite an honor. Alas.... "dignified gentleman" is quite beyond my reach. I mean really... the only reason I even have friends is that my wife is such a wonderful person that I get "credit by association".

That's the whole trick... a nice looking friendly but polite dog, and a wife that everyone who meets her instantly likes her.

When you are a curmudgeon like me... you need to work the angles!

Regards,
WebMouse