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Ben met his foster brother today for the first time, and it was a huge success; they played hard in my backyard for about 15 minutes, but Foster (2 yrs old) was much too big and fast for Ben. Even so, my boy gave it his not inconsiderable best. We had to stop it in the end because Ben was visibly tiring, even though Foster was just getting warmed up, and Ben had already had a pretty busy day.
Ben
bonded to me in about 3 or 4 hours. In two days, I broke him of the
grazing habit, and he now cleans up his meal in 20 minutes or so each
morning and evening. He loves being in the truck and is ready to go
at a moment's notice. He is obviously much happier being left in the
truck than being left in the house, and fortunately, the weather is
co-operating. All in all, he has settled in extremely well and
remarkably quickly. Right now, he is He absolutely loves my son and grand-daughter, and they are hooked too. I think I am going to see more of them than I have in the past, and I don't think it's because of my natural charm or brilliant conversation. Ben got his vaccination booster shot yesterday, and I have the deworming pill to give him tomorrow. I bought him a present at the vet's yesterday: a pair of doggy nail clippers. Somehow or other I don't think he appreciates my kindness or thoughtfulness. Update March '09 ...
Update October '10 ... Ben is just fine. He is the happiest, friendliest, most active and fit dog I have ever known. He seems to level his appetite (amount of food per meal) in accordance with his activity level. He is just a normal dog, who is devoted to his humans and his doggie buddies.
On weekdays, he and his buddy Foster are normally with me for as much of the day as possible. My back yard is a "Combat Zone" and many of his neighbours and friends besides Foster come to "Take him on". Unless they are a Basset Hound which he cannot roll over, or outweigh him by more than 40 pounds, 90% of the time they lose. He gets them by the collar and "grounds" them. That is "match point to Ben".
At the cottage, he runs free with his friends Aspen or Spencer. He loves the water and is in it most of the time, but he rarely if ever goes above his shoulders. On the other hand, because of the triangular development of his front leg, he can swim if needed. We have tested that by taking him at least 150 feet from where he could touch bottom, pointing him out in the lake, where I was encouraging him to come out a little bit further. He swan towards me about 10 feet, looked at me, and said to himself; "To h^*# with this sh*^!" He then turned a 180 and swam back to save ground with no assistance from anyone. There is absolutely no need for a life jacket around water unless he goes out in a boat.
Lack of an appendage just don't seem to be a problem. He just looks at other dogs and keeps asking himself - "Why do they all seem to need that redundant leg?" On the other hand, he isn't great on high speed right turns.
He can run as fast as most dogs his size, except running dogs like greyhounds. His favourite game is "Chase me Charlie" in, out, behind and around my 20 foot tall pyramid cedars, which are now devoid of foliage on the bottom three feet.
As I write, my son and granddaughter have had Ben and his buddy Foster out for a 2-3 hour visit to an "off leash" area (Long Island or Bruce Pit) as they do most Saturdays and Sundays when we are in town. When they come back both dogs are pretty exhausted (at least for an hour or so).
Finally - introducing Ben's buddy, Foster. In summary: "Ben is just Great"! Fortunately, I am privileged to be Ben's buddy too.
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Ben
has now settled in and decided that this is his home which he has to
protect from dangerous intruders such as the garbage man and
especially that special villain the mailman, with fierce vocal
threats.
He
and his older foster brother are getting to be the best of friends,
and the latter is turning out to be quite a good teacher and
disciplinarian. I have not left the two of them alone together yet,
but that should not take more than another week as long as it is done
on Ben's "territory". Both dogs were together in my house today for
six hours and got along marvellously, including a total of two hours
wrestling in the backyard when there were a couple of fully justified
disciplinarian growls or nips from foster brother, which Ben fully
understood. Needless to say, there has been one "apparently dead", black body on his mat in the kitchen for the last seven hours. I did
wake him up and put him out for a long wee about an hour ago, just to
make sure he was still alive.
All
this to say: Ben is fully settled in, bonded to me, defending his new
home and a happy, normal, loveable and loving, no-longer-so-little
puppy. Heaven help his foster brother in the wrestling matches a
month from now.
