Finally

Sorry it has been a while since my last post, finals have got me studying until I cant see!! Nala, although a lot of fun is definitely a big distraction from studying, but I dont mind too much. The other night her and emma were absolutely hilarious. In the guest bedroom there are two partially filled air mattresses, and her and emma were play fighting like they do everyday and Nala got into the guest bed room. She would walk over the air mattresses, look down and then jump and run around on them. Then she would run full speed out of the room, back into the room running circles on the two mattresses, then run out of the room and start back all over again. Emma started to join in and they both wrestled around on the mattresses for a bit before finally wearing each other out and taking a nap for a couple hours. Im looking forward to next wednesday as I will be done with exams and get to go hang out with my family in Southern Pines for the Holidays. Im sure there will be lots of stories and pictures with Nala over the break. Thanks for reading.

-Trevor

Going to Southern Pines for Thanksgiving.

    Well today I am going to be making the trip home with the dogs for Thanksgiving. Cant wait to see my family and all our friends that we will get to be with over the holidays. Nala, although she is getting huge! Is very much still a puppy and not a day goes by that she doesnt make me laugh. She has no idea how big she is or how big she is going to be. Its very funny to see her being so clumsy. One of her FAVORITE things to do is to chase me around the house. All I have to do is even pretend to start running and she is instantly in play mode for atleast 30 minutes. Its pretty comical to watch her. Also I have one of those little toy helicopters and she LOVES to chase and and try to eat it. She always bites at it then jumps back when it pops her on the nose. I took a video of it so I will try to post that soon if it will let me. I hope anyone who reads this has a wonderful Thanksgiving and gets to be with their families. Take care.       -Trevor

You guys have a rat???

I found another picture from when we were visiting home and thought it was pretty funny. They got along really well though, they played the whole time. No crazy stories lately but she is getting very sweet. We had some friends over last night and I was laying by the fire place and Nala came and straddled me with both legs on either side of me and layed down with her head in my neck and went to sleep. It was cute but all I could think about was how UNCUTE its going to be when she is 200 pounds trying to do this, Im going to wake up suffocating! Ill try to take some new pictures over the weekend as she has grown from last week. I did the math and she is growing at over 4 pounds per week! Until next time.     -Trevor

Visiting Home

(Almost 14 weeks)

    This weekend Alison and myself went home to visit our families in Southern Pines and brought the dogs with us. They did great in the car ride, Nala loves to stick her head out the window, unless were going too fast then she gets scared and backs out. At my house in Southern Pines my parents have a Weimaraner (103 lbs) and a chihuahua (7 pounds) so I knew it was going to be interesting bringing the puppy around them. Nala was a little skittish at first with the big dog, Bruiser is definitely an accurate name for him. Funny to think that when she is full grown she will be double his size! After a while though she really enjoyed being around him. She was VERY playful with the chihuahua, they chased each other for hours. My family really enjoyed getting to see the pup, and me i'm sure. But now I think I have enough information on here for one day (this is the third post today) but just trying to catch up on the major things. I will be adding past stories, training and other info as time allows. Thanks for reading and your welcome to ask any questions in the comments or my email-  tjjones787@yahoo.com

-Trevor

Poison Shot

Well on Monday I got this product called "Kwik Shot" that is made to put into a burning fire to help prevent soot build up and chimney fires. I was waiting for the fire to get going better and set the canister down next to the fireplace and I lean in to blow on the embers and when I turn around its gone!!! Nala had taken it up on the couch and opened it and licked some! It was a terrifying feeling so I called the vet and they said to call poison control so I called them and was stressing out. Apparently it costs $35 just to ask them a question but in this situation who would refuse that. Nala starts to get sick and I tell her this and she says "we will deal with that in a minute now what is your credit card information" and I am thinking to myself "HELP ME WITH MY DOG OR IM NOT PAYING ANYTHING!' While i'm on hold I call Alison and tell her to drive over as fast as she can! So it turns out that it is just a stomach irritant and I spend the rest of the evening bathing her (which was quite eventful, I had to change clothes afterwards), wrapping her up and letting her sleep next to me waking her up every 15 minutes to give her a few laps of water so she is not dehydrated. Overall it was a very scary experience and I cant imagine what it would be like if it was a child! Even though Nala basically is my child. She is doing much better now, back to playing and biting on Emma (our 6 year old sherpherd/collie mix). Needless to say you cant turn your back for a second!!     -Trevor

Background/ Introduction

Not quite 9 weeks.

          Although I helped raise many pets as a child, Nala was the first puppy that I have reared since I have been on my own. My girlfriend Alison and I researched dogs for months and finally came to the decision that a mastiff would be the perfect fit. Protection, loyal, and CALM! Well i'm sure she will be calm as grows in to her size (we think she will be 200+ pounds!!) but for now she is as crazy as any puppy. We already have a 6 year old Shepherd/Collie mix who is wonderful and a 1 year old cat as well. We found a great breeder in Granite Falls NC, after lots of phone calls and talking with most of the breeders on the east coast! We went and looked at the litter when they were only 4 weeks old and we were able to have first pick of the litter. When we held her we knew right away she was the one, she sucked on our fingers, fell asleep in our arms, the typical move a puppy does when being looked at. After that we had to wait a few weeks until we could pick her up when she was almost 8 weeks old. I spent the time waiting researching everything there was to know about english mastiffs. Actually I researched for months beforehand researching just about every major breed of dog trying to get as much information as possible as to what the right fit is for each breed. I found out there is a lot to know about mastiffs and how they differ from other dogs. I will go into further detail in other posts but hip dysplasia, joint problems, and bloat (the most scary!) just to start. Alison picked on me for how much time I spent researching, she loves to give me a hard time, but I knew how useful it woul dbe. Well now our pup is 14 weeks old and it sure has been an adventure so far. I thought I would start a blog to help other people in suggestions as to what breed of dog may fit their needs and along with loads of information on Mastiffs. Im going to be adding information to this as time allows and see where it goes. Hope it works out well. Thanks for reading. -Trevor