Check this out! Proof that at only 9 weeks and 1 day, Orso comes and sits on command. What a smart puppy! Obedience titles, here we come!!!!
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Last night we slept less than 3 hours each. Orso had another fussy night; he must be missing his littermates. Overall, he is a great puppy and is doing wonderful! It is only 96 hours with us and he is fully housebroken, is getting along pretty well with the other two and sits on command! He is so intelligent. And he has discovered the joy of sleeping for hours on a sofa! His favorite toy seems to be the one we took home with us from Diane’s house. He is such an awesome puppy! He is eating very well. Every time he finishes the food, he pitches a tantrum to demonstrate his discontentment with the empty bowl.
Our only real complaint is that we have had a couple of rough nights because he cries at night. Since he sleeps in our room, we are both pushing only 2-3 hours of sleep a night for 3 straight nights. Hopefully he will feel more comfortable shortly so we can all get some rest… Diane’s theory is that he spends too much time snoring on our sofa! We took the tape off his ears today, as instructed. It broke our hearts to pull the tape off. It pulled off so much of his fur and he struggled with us through it. We felt so bad! I had the honor of removing the tape. Immediately after removing the tape, his ears were standing beautifully. 10 minutes later, the right ear was drooping while the left ear was perfectly upright. We sent an email to Diane to find out what we should about it. Below is her response and some photos. From Diane: “Hi Yvonne, Glad things are going so well. Housebroken already??? I’m sending my pups to your house for training! I’m sure he would do much better at night if he were not sleeping for hours on the sofa…… His ears definitely need to be re-taped. That right one looks like it has a fold in it and should not be left too long. I would say let them air out for a day and maybe try to get him in on Saturday if possible. In the meantime get some vitamin E oil and try to massage the ear to straighten it and towards the inside (opposite of the way it’s leaning). Don’t worry, it will be just fine. My puppy looks just the same! Thanks for the update! Take Care, Diane” This morning was bittersweet for me. For starters, no one, absolutely no one, slept in our house last night. Orso was pretty fussy most of the night and I took off early to the gym. The good news is that Orso woke up with quite the appetite! He inhaled his breakfast, lunch and dinner and was a firecracker all day! We also made unexpected progress with regard to getting all three of the dogs to hang out together. We didn’t expect this kind of interaction for at least a week or two! Everyone was relaxing on the couch for hours together. It was wonderful! Orso’s housebreaking is also going extremely well. No accidents at all. Not even last night with him feeling not that great. He has learned to sit on command and comes when you call him. Below are photos showing the progress with assimilating the three dogs together.
From Diane regarding Orso feeling better and the photos below: “Well, that makes me feel much better. I’m sure it was just the stress of all the new things he was dealing with. Looks like you are going to have to buy yourselves another sectional since there won’t be too much room left for humans on that one once he starts to grow like his daddy! Very cute pictures—thank-you! Have a great night! Diane” We were so pleased with Orso last night! He did not make a sound all night; he slept like a bear! LOL, get it, Bear – Orso, ha ha! He also had no accidents overnight, which is amazing. He had a good amount of energy this morning, so we got to play with him quite a bit before feeding him breakfast. He ate most of it and due to my negligence, we had a peepee incident in the pen, which ruined his good housebreaking streak. Clearly it was my fault because he was whimpering to go outside and I didn’t make it to him in time. Later in the morning, we did the second round of introductions with Luna and Mouse and were extremely happy with the outcome. There was no growling, barking, nothing scary for him; it went very smoothly! The entire day was spent in the family room – Orso sleeping in his pen and the other two wandering around the house. Business as usual… The crucial first day went really well! Below is a cute photo of Orso deciding that he preferred a cardboard box for his nap instead of his cushy doggie bed. There is also a video below of all three of our dogs hanging out in the family room. Unfortunately, we think all the excitement of coming to a new home may have made Orso's tummy feel funny. Orso didn't want to eat his lunch and ended up vomiting. He then had several bouts of diarrhea in his pen, ruining his housebreaking streak. I am sure it did not help that there were some major thunderstorms in the area. I suppose my nerves got the best of me, so I called Diane to ask her advice. She told me to keep an eye on him and to take him to the vet tomorrow if the vomiting persisted. He didn't want his dinner, which really stressed us out, but his activity level and interest in playing was high. He wasn't lethargic, so we tried to convince ourselves that it was just the change of environment getting to him. Let's see how he is feeling in the morning...
There is absolutely nothing like waking up with butterflies and having them there for an entire morning. That’s how I felt this morning when I woke up, as I sat through breakfast and as we made the hour drive to Diane’s house to pick up Orso. I was so excited, but in a weird way. Every time I thought about him, my eyes would tear up. Weird, huh? We arrived at Diane’s house early in the day, once again armed with enough photography equipment to shoot the next edition of Sports Illustrated. Most of the pups had already gone home since our visit on Friday, so it was much less hectic in the puppy room. We took a bunch of photos, asked a ton of questions, stared obsessively at Orso for minutes at a time, collected our belongings and started our way home. It was that simple! Below are my favorite photos from the visit to Diane’s house, including a few family photos and a couple of shots with his sister, which is the female first pick that Diane is keeping for herself. Orso slept the entire way home from Dade City to Miami, which was a solid 6-hour drive with bathroom and food breaks. We got some nasty weather on the way home, which slowed us down, but he didn’t even seem to notice. Our dog sitter & vet technician, Nichelle, waited for us at the house so that she could assist us with the first round of introductions with Luna & Mouse (our Catahoula & Doberman). It was pouring raining when we pulled up at home so we were a little bit stressed about how we were going to be able to follow our plan for the introductions. I had been doing considerable research on the best and less stressful way to allow everyone to meet, and my conclusion involved all three of them having to be walked on leashes down the street from our house so it would be somewhat neutral. Our plan didn’t go exactly as we wanted because of the rain, but overall it went well. Luna was curious, but aloof. Mouse was not happy about the whole situation and expressed his disapproval by either barking when at a distance from Orso or refusing to acknowledge him altogether when up close. At the end of the day, though, we couldn’t complain given the circumstances. I felt the introduction went better than I expected. Everyone was brought into the house and no more contact was allowed for the rest of the evening. Everyone ate dinner, including us, which was graciously brought over by my parents, the loving puppy grandparents (see below). Orso cried every time he needed to go potty, which is a testament to Diane! No accidents in the house so far! Bedtime was perfect. Orso’s crate is temporarily in our bedroom so we can monitor him at night. He will probably be OK to sleep with the other two in the dog room in several weeks, but for now we felt it was more appropriate that he stay close to us at night. These are all the photos from Diane's house this morning:
With the stress of the puppy selection behind us, we went last night to celebrate our the addition of our newest (and cutest) family member at the Tampa Bay Brewing Company. Many toasts were made in honor of Orso throughout the night!
After a morning of some rigorous cardio to work off last night’s indulgences, we spent the day at Busch Gardens riding all the roller coasters. While standing in line for the rides, we took turns staring at Orso’s photos that I had uploaded to my Blackberry that morning. Everything we saw reminded us of Orso – little kids, baby hippos, animal topiaries – it was the beginning of an obsession! Dinner tonight at Ceviche in Soho was also in honor of Orso! Orso is one very celebrated little guy! If only he could have been there with us. We were just mere hours from picking him up and starting our journey home, but it felt like the time was dragging by! The day has finally arrived to meet Diane, Saggio, Alondra, the whole litter and pick out our boy! We left Miami at 7am with a mix of anxiety and happiness and uncertainty and certainty – all at the same time. I had a plan and we had practiced it in our heads over and over again. When we arrived at Diane’s house, we were greeted by an impressive pack of Cane Corsi! We had never seen one in person, so it was quite a sight to see the true size of these dogs! They were HUGE! And they were all kind, playful, curious and CLEAN!!! I entered the house armed with all my photography equipment and started to snap away – photos and videos alike! We immediately met Saggio and Alondra, along with several other Corsi who live indoors with Diane. After meeting all the resident adults and one spunky pup named Fin, we started our puppy selection process. Since the entire litter was blue, all 7 males were potential pups for us. Given that we were looking for a show quality pup, Diane had already narrowed it down to 3 pups for us. We entered the puppy room and met all 13 pups. Diane then separated the 7 males for us so we wouldn’t get confused with any of the females. After looking at all of them, she only left us with the 3 who were show quality pups. From that point on, it was so difficult to decide! Since this pup will also be a working pup, we went through the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test with each of the three. Interestingly enough, the 3 we were looking at were the ones I especially liked from all the photos – the one with the dark blue ribbon, the one with the light blue ribbon and the one with the white ribbon. My immediate favorite was dark blue ribbon pup. Light blue ribbon pup had a great temperament and white ribbon boy had a fantastic head. Dark blue ribbon though was the best of it all! Amazing bone structure, daddy’s famous head and the boldest character of all of them – he scored consistent 3’s on the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test with a 2 and 4 here and there. I was set on him! He took a bit more convincing because dark blue ribbon pup has some brindling, which we were not planning to pick a pup who wasn’t solid blue, but he was just so perfect that it was the right decision! At the end of this entry is a video of the 3 pups playing tug. So, after spending almost 3 hours at Diane’s house, we left with a warm and confident feeling that this delicious pup was our guy. Having said that, we are proud to introduce to you Mar e Sol Orso di Costa Bel! For anyone who may be wondering, “Orso” means bear in Italian. Today we sent a very long email to Diane with a ton of questions! We had a 45 minute conversation working out the last minute details. Ears have been cropped but no photos have gone out. They must look funny all taped up! 2 days until we meet our boy! Wow, we are really excited!
We heard from Diane – she emailed us with feeding instructions. No photos though! I can tell by her email that she must be going nuts over there. I am sure we are not the only ones counting down until the day they get to go home!
From Diane: “The day for the babies to go home is approaching quickly. I am attaching the feeding schedule to this email. I will send you home with enough food for several days and a good supply of the supplements. Have a nice weekend!” Our day to pick up our puppy is quickly approaching! We have decided on a name, ordered pet ID tags, purchased a harness, collar, 3 beds, an exercise pen, a crate for upstairs and a whole bunch of toys! We haven’t heard from Diane in a little bit, and we have not wanted to bother her since we know she has her hands full with all the growing pups. Their ears should be getting cropped soon, so we might be getting an update or photos soon…
From Diane:
"Hi Everyone, Puppies are growing fast! They are spending a little time outdoors (very little due to the heat), but have lots of space indoors as they have taken over the dog room----700 sq. ft of play space. I have been taking a few pictures, nothing spectacular as they are not very easy to catch being still unless they are sleeping. Every time I try to snap a shot they come running into my lap. Took me 2 days to get these! Tried to get at least one or two of each puppy, but green boy seemed especially photographic this week. Trust me, they are all very cute! Please excuse the mess as it is almost impossible to keep their area spotless. Enjoy! Diane" Dark blue ribbon & white ribbon are officially my favorites. Light blue is still in there, but dark blue keeps calling my attention! Check out this photo of dark blue: From Diane:
“Hi Everyone, So sorry for not the delay in sending new pictures. The pups have moved to their new giant playpen (22×10) and have so much room now to run and play. Makes it quite a bit easier to get pictures too. Some of these were taken last week, but most are recent, taken yesterday and today. The one picture of the 2 puppies “spooning” are of the biggest male and smallest female—thought it a neat picture. They are really good puppies, so cute and very affectionate, and most importantly not extremely vocal—–as long as their bellies are full . Enjoy! Diane” I have finally started to make out travel plans to pick up our pup. We are driving up the morning of Friday, August 13th, and heading straight to Diane’s house, which is just northwest of Tampa. Since we have pick of litter for the males, we need to be the first ones there to pick our boy. After picking him out, we plan to leave him with Diane for the weekend while we enjoy a weekend in Tampa. Busch Gardens is definitely on the agenda, since I love roller coasters. Sunday, August 15th, we will pick up our boy at Diane’s house and drive straight home! How exciting! We are counting the days!
This is a photo of Saggio’s mom. Her name is Mim and she is the paternal grandmother to our pup. What a beauty!!!!
The Cane Corso breed has made the news a couple of times recently!
The AKC finally accepted the breed into its Working Group and because of this, it was featured on TodayShow.com. To read the article in full, click here. Also, the breed was highlighted in the AKC Gazette this month. Our pup’s dad was chosen for the large intro headshot photo at the beginning of the article. The other gray/blue dog in the article is Prince del Cerberus, who happens to great, great, great grandfather to our puppy! To read the article in full, click here. |
YVONNE
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