Getting to know him

      It has been 4 days now since we adopted Hoss.   It has been going amazing smooth.   He is so laid back and friendly we haven't had any problems except he gets so excited when people comes over.   Sophia sat on the couch and Hoss just hurled himself on her lap and started licking her.  I couldn't even see her under his bulk.   I hauled him off and checked her out.  Except for a small scratch by her eye she was fine, a little shook up but the rest of the visit went well.   We do need to train him.

   He just started to learn to walk on a leash last week.   At first he pulled and boy is he strong.   I watched the video's on You Tube from the dog whisperer on how to handle that and since he is such a quick learning and so eager to please he now does loose walk almost perfectly.   I have not tried him without a leash yet except at the dog park.

   We went to the dog park when it was empty as I wanted to see if he would come when called,  he did.  But with no other dogs to play with he didn't seem to care for it much.   We will try it with dogs in the park next time.  He loves to play with other dogs.

   One problem we have noticed is he won't poo in the yard or the woods.   Taking him down to the river every day won't always work.  We need to work on that.  Zoey always we to a spot in the woods and did her business.  I am not sure how to fix this but have been carrying treats to reward him if he ever decides to go in the woods.

   Yesterday we went to the vet.  Hoss is a rescue dog.   He still has scabs on his neck from the chain that was too small the previous owners had used to keep him tied up.  Some are kind of infected looking.   And on his left flank were several small scars.   Feeling them you can feel small hard lumps under the skin.   We think at sometime he was shot with birdshot.   He used to wander around and liked playing with cows.   Seems someone took offense to that and shot him.   With all that he is still so kind and loving.  How could anyone shoot him!   But besides that he is very healthy.  He weighed in at 74.6 pounds which is perfect for him.  He is lean and muscular.   And hopefully heart worm neg.   The vet said if we didn't hear from her today it was good to go.  Since he lived out in the country I am worried about that.  They never did any preventive on him.  Keep your fingers crossed she doesn't call so I can start him on his heartquard in the morning. ( no call from the vet so Hoss is heartworm free, yippy).

   Since he is young he loves to play but can get a little rough.  He nips at you.  We stop him and give him an appropriate toy to mouth and that is getting better but if he gets real excited I play music for him.   Have you heard of the CD's Through A Dogs Ears?  I played him a sample and he is now sleeping and snoring up a storm.  Wow.  I ordered the tape.   Play is good,  but not nipping, so piano music calms him down rapidly.

   Boy can this dog snore.   I went to bed before Rick last night and he said when he came into the bedroom Hoss was laying on his side with his head on Ricks pillow and Xena was between us both.  Hoss was snoring up a storm.  Rick laughed and took the spare room where he slept well and I kept getting nudged over by the dog, that I thought was Rick.  Have to change that.

   Oh, one other problem.  These dogs are suppose to love water.  Not Hoss.  Since he smells very doggy from living on a farm I wanted to give him a bath.   He won't get in the tub.  They don't say stubborn as a bulldog for nothing.   So I decided to try the hose.  That scared him.  I wonder if the old owner used to punish him by spraying him?   I washed him off instead with a washcloth and cleaned his dirty ears and may try a place where you can wash him yourself, one of those doggy laundromats.

   Hoss also gets along great with my son's dog who was at first timid around such a large dog.  We walked them both yesterday and it went great.  So things are going so good.

  I was worried about adopted a full grown dog, so was Rick.  Would he bond to us?  Would he be untrainable?  All unfounded in Hoss's case at least.   He seems happy to be here.   So different then Zoey but lovable in his own noisy way.  Gee, I wonder if Rick would like to get another? LOL.