Congrats, Bruce!

Bruce had his "interview" at doggy day care on Tuesday, and passed with flying colors. They even gave him a certificate which I promptly displayed on my fridge:

Camp Bow Wow is the only day care/boarding facility that I could find that takes pit bulls :( They assured me (and now I will assure you) that he showed no signs of aggression, and played wonderfully with the other dogs. He had to be put in timeout a couple of times because he was too energetic for the older dogs, but overall he passed with flying colors and is welcome back anytime!

Myth-Busting Monday!

Today's Myth Monday is dedicated to Randy and Melissa, proud parents of Max.

Randy (who is one of Bruce's biggest fans) mentioned this weekend that pit bulls have locking jaws, to which I promptly replied "That's a myth!!" Melissa said I better hurry up and bust that myth, so here we are.

Myth: Pit bulls jaws lock (hence they are so evil and dangerous)
Truth: There is absolutely no evidence that a pit bull's jaw is different than any other breed. More information here.

The "kids" playing

Vicious?

Vicious, adj.: (of animal) Wild and dangerous to people.
(Merriam-Webster's Dictionary)




I spoke to my computer-savvy grandfather on the phone last week and asked if he had visited this dog blog of mine. The remainder of the conversation went a little like this:


Grandpa: "Yeah I've seen that"
Me: "What do you think?"
Grandpa: "What do I think??? I think that dog looks vicious!!!"
Me: "Well grandpa, whatever do you mean, how does he look vicious?"
Grandpa: "What?? What'd you say??" (he's a little hard of hearing)
Me: "HOW DOES HE LOOK VICIOUS TO YOU???"
Grandpa: "Oh. Well, he's a pit bull."


So, I post this uber-closeup picture of Bruce perched on his favorite spot on the couch right beside my head (where he could easily attack my face! oh no!) to challenge you, dear Grandpa, to call my sweet puppy vicious again.


And if this doesn't work, Grandpa will be licked to death upon their first in-person meeting this fall.

Downtown Dog

We spent this beautiful Saturday morning taking Bruce on an adventure to 5th avenue in downtown Naples. He doesn't get out of the neighborhood much except to go to doggy school, so we got up bright and early and went out before the streets got too busy.

Bruce did a pretty fantastic job of ignoring the cars driving by, though we still have to work on containing his exuberance when he sees people. He greeted many of Naples' finest by jumping up on them and licking them to death...but everyone loved his energy and playfulness.

Here he is basking in the glow of the morning sun

A+ for Training

This just made my day so I had to share:

I called our trainer to discuss our next appointment, and it turns out she lives right down the road from us. She saw us walking Bruce yesterday evening and told me she was so excited & proud that we were doing everything right, and that Bruce was behaving himself even as her car drove by (something that previously made him jump around like a maniac).

It's always nice to have reassurance from someone when you didn't know they were watching. Yay for puppy progress!

Bruce has a new playground

We found a little slice of heaven in a fenced in little area very close to our house. It's kind of our secret spot so I'm not giving any more detail than that. Bruce loves to go there and chase the frisbee or his new favorite toy, the pine cone. (He totally ignored the tennis balls we threw at him for three days straight but will chase a pine cone anywhere). Having the ability for him to run off-leash has been a blessing, as it's the only thing that will (kind of) wear out my little ball of energy.

Here's an action shot Adam's really proud of:

Introducing Brooke

Meet Brooke, Bruce's aunt (translation: my parents' 7 month old lab mix). Brooke was found as a very very small, sick puppy crying outside of my dad's store, and he's such a softie he couldn't leave her abandoned. Yay, Dad! Bruce will meet his Aunt Brooke for the first time this fall!