Happy New Year from Guinny.
It's been a very busy year for her. She has acquired two new friends and had to learn how to share her bones and toys. She did very well with all of this. Her first friend is named Anna and is a yellow Labrador. I will have more on Anna later this year. The next friend has moved into our house with my daughter's family and her name is Baby May. She is Beagle-Basset mixed and about a year old. She and Guinny play all the time. I'm sure that there will be all kinds of messages on her as she grows.
What the heck is a torn ACL? The first time I had ever heard such a word was when my boss told me that his son tore his ACL playing basketball and needed surgery. Who would have ever thought it would happen to Guinny!
We still haven't figured out completely what caused Guinny to hurt her leg. She really wasn't doing anything unusual so we think she just twisted wrong.
Last Thanksgiving my nephew Danny was playing in the yard with Guinny. For some reason she started yelping and limping around quite a bit. My nephew rubbed her leg for awhile and that seemed to help. He had several large dogs at the time, including a Boxer and a St. Bernard so he knew how much romping they are good for.
After a couple of visits to the doctor it was decided that she had torn the ACL on her left hind leg. Surgery was in order. On December 11th, my granddaughter Savannah and I loaded her up into the car and left her with the doctors. Of course it snowed for the next 3 days so I couldn't even get out to see her at the vet's and by Monday she was ready to come home. What a shock to see her beautiful leg shaved and stitched. They kept talking about this nice calm quiet dog and I kept thinking, you have the wrong dog, but when Guinny saw us, she was so different from what they had seen. She became the wild woman that we all knew and loved with excitement.
Our next problem was keeping this 2 year old calm and quiet. I should have taken lessons on How to Raise the Perfect Dog: Through Puppyhood and Beyondway before this day, but we all learned what she could and could not do and before long she had the run of the house.
Going outside was quite the challenge also because if you put a lead on her, she thought she was going to go for a ride in the car and would get overly excited. Almost to the point that she could re-injure her leg, so we broke the lead rule and let her walk off the porch and into the fenced yard by herself to do her duties. You had to watch her close so that she would not run, or try to play with the neighbor dogs if they were outside.
It's been a major adjustment to the home front and our lives but every day I see improvements and maybe if the weather hadn't been so terrible and we could have exercised her on the lead her recovery time might have been quicker. I really can't say. The nice thing about all of this is that she has calmed down enough to be a real family member and have house privileges 24/7.
Another big plus about all of this is that my four year old grandson was able to learn not to be afraid of her size. He weighs 40 pounds and Guinny weighed 125 pounds. They are best buddies now and Guinny hangs on to everything he says or wants her to do. She almost minds Carl better then she does us.
I've always been a big believer of training your dogs. All of mine have always been great animals and a lot of fun. I am constantly reading something about training or different breeds. Please check below on some of my favorites.
Let me introduce you to Holly and her day with Guinny. They are as different in some ways as day and night, but in other ways they are the same. They were born in the same year and only one day apart. They are both very loving, but a little hyper. I'm sure that they will both calm way down when they get out of the puppy stage.
Holly is the small long haired Dachshund and at the time of this picture she weighed all of 3 pounds. Dachshunds are excellent hunters and seem to be able to find anything that you to try hide from them Training can be a problem, but if you stay with it, they do learn. They are also great snugglers and make very devoted companions.
Now Holly is one of a kind and she has an owner that really loves her. My granddaughter Sarah has a very special place for Holly in her room complete with a blue fuzzy oval chair that Holly uses as a bed most of the time. The first time I walked into Sarah's room and saw Holly with her blanket, soft bed and watching television I thought boy what a life.
As you can see in the picture Holly is very small and since this was March of 2008 Sarah had her in a cute little coat. Of course, Guinny had a ton of hair so she didn't need one. I was really amazed that the two girls got along really good and played well.
Of course now Guinny weighes in at 129 pounds and I think Holly is around 11. Needless to say they don't play much together anymore.
Sarah is so proud of her little Holly just as I'm proud of my Guinny. Any dog lover would know what I am talking about and I hope you enjoyed this bit of information.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Let me introduce you to my Guinny. Her picture is listed on the front page of this blog. Right now she is a 21 month old Newfoundland and the love of my life. At the present she weighs in at 129 pounds and her coloring is black and white or otherwise known as a Landseer.
Her special markings got their name from Sr. Edwin Henry Landseer (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) who was an English painter, well known for his paintings of animals—particularly horses, dogs and stags.
So popular and influential were Landseer's paintings of dogs in the service of humanity that the name Landseer came to be the official name for the variety of Newfoundland dogthat, rather than being black or mostly black, features a mix of both black and white; it was this variety Landseer popularized in his paintings celebrating Newfoundlands as water rescue dogs, most notably Off to the Rescue (1827), A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society (1838), and Saved (1856), which combines Victorian constructions of childhood with the appealing idea of noble animals devoted to humankind—a devotion indicated, in Saved, by the fact the dog has rescued the child without any apparent human direction or intervention. You can view this picture by clicking here Saved.
Somehow at 21 months I have problems with picturing her trying to rescue me right now. Like I said earlier, she is the love of my life but still my BIG baby.
Basset Hounds (Complete Pet Owner's Manual)
Newfoundlands (Complete Pet Owner's Manual)
way before this day, but we all learned what she could and could not do and before long she had the run of the house.
