Breaking the Rules (a little)

The loss of Trotsky left a gaping hole in our lives, he was torn from us at literally a moment's notice. One minute a healthy fit seven year old German Shepherd, by the morning he was dead in front of the lounge fireplace having been killed by Bloat.

Put simply Bloat is what appears to be a spontaneous twisting of the gut and  mainly affects larger breed. If you get the dog straight away to a vet who has both the technology and skill, the dog has a reasonable chance of survival, if you can't do this then you have a dead dog and in any event there is a significant chance of it occurring again.

As to what causes it and minimises the chances of Bloat occurring, the jury is out and the Internet is full of conflicting advice, so point your mouse and take your pick.

I suppose one thing that can't do any harm is small regular meals, but whether or not it actually helps god alone knows.

France in the summer is scorching and we had Trotsky buried before mid morning. We raised a cairn over his grave and Matt our builder has found an ancient carved stone for us to inscribe. Around his grave we will plant Magnolia Grandiflora an evergreen with beautiful flowers.

As I write I can still see him, huge for a GSD, but fit lean and pure white, with apricot tufts on the tips of his ears, running towards me with a large limestone rock in his mouth. He would fill up the boot of our Mercedes Estate in an afternoon and we would have to empty it to get the dogs in.

Gandhi our Leonberger bitch was finding it especially hard. I had seen her walk up to Trotsky's dead body sniff him and walk away, you can't tell me she did not know that his spirit had left him. Although the younger of the pair she had been the Alpha and had never been separated from him, she just moped around the house lethargic and off her food.

It was against this backdrop that we decided to get another dog soon rather than later. We settled on a Leonberger as they are a steady family loving dog with a beautiful temperament.

Being a rare breed puppies are few and far between, taking most of my own advice I found a breeder in south Essex with a male puppy available.

I made an appointment fGor a telephone interview and spent half an hour running through a list of prepared questions noting down the answers. 

Based on this I caught the ferry and drove up to continue the research process. I didnt go with the intention of choosing a puppy, at five weeks one looks much like another. The idea was to talk more with the breeder, look over their kennels and meet the parents of the puppies to gauge their temperament. Happy with the breeding I left a £100 deposit, intending to come back at eight weeks and choose a puppy to take home.

In the event my son Olly was over in the UK for a natural pool construction course so it fell to him to go and choose a puppy which he did on the advice of the breeder, as experienced owners we ended up with what appeared to be the most outward going boisterous puppy of a litter 14, we named him Che.

Dozing Dog

Choosing a Puppy

I am not sure we ever get this right and tend to go at it with the same lack of logic employed when choosing a partner or deciding to start a family which in a lot of ways we are actually doing.

Should we have a pet?

Do we have the time the space the finance the support when we want to go on holiday?  Don't worry about that we can work around it. Cat or a Dog? Can't stand cats so it's a dog. Then what sort of dog, big small pedigree or mongrel? Our choice of dog says a lot about our own strengths, weaknesses, and preferences, least said the better.

Choosing your dog

OK we have made an illogical unsuitable choice as to breed disregarding all of the temperament and medical issues involved in what can be the product of  a very narrow genepool, do we get an adult or a puppy?

Having a puppy is great as they do not have any baggage and are easier to train, unfortunately they pee and defecate everywhere and take almost as much attention as a child. Working and house training do not go hand in hand.

It is very important to pick the right breeder and it is an idea to do an initial telephone interview running through a list of questions for about half an hour. After this a visit as soon as possible even before the litter is born so that there are no distractions is important. You need to be satisfied that the puppy is coming from good stock and not a puppy farm.

Meet the parents, if you are not allowed to see and socially interact with the male and female then don't buy the puppy, if the parents are aggressive you can have a problem puppy on your hands.

Once you have chosen the breeder and are satisfied with the parents then picking a particular puppy from the litter is really nothing to get excited about, their personalities are only just starting to develop so apart from sex and not picking a runt an interested outgoing friendly puppy should fit the bill.

If you trust your breeder be guided by them that is what they are there for.

Introduction

This blog has been prompted by the arrival of Ernesto Che Guevara Lynch (Che)  following the death of Trotsky in August of this year 2012. As I write Che is curled up back to back on the lounge floor with Gandhi; and Olly is snoring on the sofa after night duty with Che, our new 8 week old male Leonberger puppy. Trotsky is our late and much lamented white GSD, Gandhi (named after Indera) is our six year old Leonberger bitch and Olly is my 19 year old son. Hilary, wife and mistress of the house is coming home to chaos having spent the weekend in Salzburg on a Girlie Weekend, Mozart and Status Quo.

We split our time between Jersey and the Charente Maritime in France where we are restoring a 17th Century Farmhouse. Olly is working on the house along with his friend Cam, the builder Matt Regan, plumber Adam Kimber and pointer Michelle Hinsbey. Me, I project manage, cook and chop bits off my finger. Hilary controls all and everyone via a spreadsheet, bank account and iron will.

So you can read about and contribute to the joys of, bringing up a headstrong Leonberger who will in all probabiliy reach over 150lbs in weight and want to rule the roost, the argument against commercial dog food, the joys of cooking and the negative impact of Celbretary Chefs (as a genre) and last but not least the battle to restore a lovely old house deep in the French Countryside using original materials such as Lime, Clay, Oak and Straw.