COMSTOCK MASTIFFS - 2005/2006
We placed eight of the pups in wonderful homes in California. We kept two males, Lucah and Riles. We have kept in close contact with our pups and their owners as shown on the earlier web pages. We hope to continue following the growth and development of the placed pups from photos and updates supplied by their families as well as periodic "Puppy Reunions". The photo at the top of the page was taken of momma Calli and her two boys, Riles and Lucah, in March 2005.
Caroline was going through the picture files a few days ago and selected a few pictures for the web page. The left most picture was taken early March when our pond was full. The next picture was taken the day before the Pup Reunion and shows there is still some water in the pond. In the previous 6 years that we have lived here the pond has been completely dry by early June. This was easily the wettest year since we moved here. The third picture is a nice pose of Lucah and Riles on the front lawn taken mid-June which Caroline has entitled "The New Sentinels" (an earlier picture was entitled "The Sentinels"). The fourth picture is of some of our neighbor’s animals (I had a tough time getting them to pose like that.)
Ventura Show. The weekend after the 4th of July we took the RV and Lucah to Seaside Park for the Ventura Show. It is a big show with over 2700 dogs entered and a few hundred motorhomes filling the large parking lot. It is a popular show because it is adjacent to the ocean and the weather is pleasant (about 70 F max.). For various reasons the only Comstock pup entered was Lucah. Debi did drive down from the Sacramento area to help handle Lucah as Caroline's back has been bothering her. Debi did a fine job with Lucah but was competing against the number one Mastiff in the country and didn't win. But they had fun! We both want to thank Debi for helping out.
Actually Lucah has the most fun meeting people. A family with lots of children wandered by our RV and came over to see Lucah. Caroline let Lucah out of his Xpen and he laid down and let all of the kids pet him. He kissed a few faces with various reactions from the kids. We always keep a "slime rag" handy for visitors to wipe themselves off after meeting a Mastiff.
Camp Comstock. Martha brought Princess to the Ventura Show on Sunday. Martha was heading off for two weeks of fun and frolic in Portugal and we agreed to "baby-sit" Princess at our place. (One of the services we provide to our puppy owners.) I believe it was Leslie who coined the phrase "Camp Comstock" during one of Rio's visits with us.
We brought Princess home with us and let her meet the Riles and Lucah one at a time. Riles is a very well mannered boy (as taught by his mother, Calli) and was very gentle in his intro to Princess. Lucah is more of a free spirit "lets play!" type of dog. He was a bit overpowering at first but soon settled down. They all got along well together and just laid around on the patio.
Part of the Camp Comstock experience (as any camper knows) is swimming and hiking. Princess is a good swimmer and did well after a little coaxing into the pool. The weather was quite hot and she enjoyed the experience.
The hiking occurred in our adjacent 1+ acre pasture as we call it (actually it is much more weeds than grass). Princess and Riles enjoyed exploring the pasture each morning when it was cool. Princess learned quickly from Riles that the "Come" command from Caroline resulted in treats when properly seated. Below are a series of pictures of Princess and Riles in the pasture taken over a number of days. Both dogs are in the left hand photo but you have to look close to see one of them.
Princess was a perfect house guest during her two weeks stay. She had the run of the back half of the house during the day when it was too hot to stay outside. She picked the grandkids room as her favorite napping place probably because of the ceiling fan in that room.
Did I mention hot in the previous paragraphs? During July we had a heat wave in Atascadero. The days were 105 F (and higher on occasion) and didn't cool off as much as usual at night. Ginny (Thumper's mom) was on a month long vacation during July with her dogs being cared for by a friend in the neighborhood. Ginny also has an 11 year old Mastiff bitch named Cagney. We were concerned for Cagney in the heat and so we brought Thumper and Cagney to our place each day ("Day-Camp Comstock", if you will) to keep cool indoors. They settled right down on the cool kitchen tile floor and slept the day away. Thumper got to swim a couple of times as well. She really loves the water like her mother Calli.
Our boys and Calli spent the day in the garage and/or Caroline's music studio which is adjacent to the garage. She leaves her door to the garage open (screen door closed) so some cooling is provided by her room air conditioner. As I said in the heading at the start of this update "Wall-To-Wall Mastiffs".
Last month Lucah was bred to Dion's Grace for Rainy Days (Gracie). Gracie is a beautiful fawn female who has been fully tested. Anita, Gracie's owner, called today to say that the ultra-sound verifed that Gracie is pregnant with at least 5 pups. We are very excited about this breeding.
The litter of pups should be ready for placement about mid-January. Anyone interested in a pup from this litter please contact Anita by email rainydaysnorthwest@yahoo.com or phone 509-775-2124
For those of you who joined us late you may find info on LUCAH in the Stud Dog Register maintained by Deb Jones.
Caroline will prepare the tradtional birthday Hamburger Pie with Dog Biscuit Candles for the evening meal (the dogs-not us).
Late this afternoon Gracie delivered, via C-Section, nine beautiful puppies. There are five girls and four boys. Gracie and pups are doing fine per Anita. More info tomorrow.
Anita set up a very nice web page (Rainy Days Mastiffs. ) for their mastiffs while awaiting the puppies. I'm sure many puppy pictures will start appearing on their page as time (and sleep) permits.
This past weekend we had a small reunion of our pups. Martha came from Southern Calif. with Princess (making her usual "Grand Entrance"), Leslie from the bay area with Rio and Ginny (and friends, Mary and Gerry) from the other side of Atascadero with Thumper. Rob and Constance came over on Sunday with Spice. Debi (Lily) and Jay (Chaucer) had other committments. Marilyn has moved to Oklahoma with Oberon and Maisie, as noted previously, lives in South Carolina with Doug and Anne and is still in training for her Search and Rescue Certification.
All in all we had 6 of the pups present over the weekend. The left photo was taken Saturday and, from left to right are-Leslie with Rio, Mary with Thumper, Caroline with Riles, Martha wit Princess, and Ginny with Lucah. Note that Thumper, Princess and Lucah are decked out in their Christmas collars. The right photo, taken Sunday, is of Rob and Constance with Spice (also in her Christmas collar). I tried combining the two photos to make it look like a single group shot but it looked too obvious since it was cloudy on Saturday and sunny on Sunday.
Saturday afternoon Caroline set up a Rally course on the front lawn. Rally is a relatively new event for dogs. The course is a series of signs (on clipboards) giving instructions on what to do next. Somewhat like Obedience except there is no Judge giving instructions. The photos below show our Comstock Clan attempting the course. The first time through there were a lot of mistakes (perhaps the effect of the wine the handlers had been imbibing?) but with each try things got better. Everyone seemed to enjoy the course and we mixed and matched handlers and dogs.
After the exhausting Rally event we all settled down for some serious wine tasting followed by an excellent dinner of ham, scalloped potatos, yams, pineapple bread, salads and rolls. Hardly anyone had room for the Mudpie dessert.
Sunday morning Rob and Constance showed up with Spice and a delicious breakfast (brunch?) casserole. Riles and Spice enjoyed each others company as can be seen in the right photo. Calli has taught Riles to be a gentleman around the girls.
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Calli was so special in so many ways. She earned the nick name Angel Puss the first night I had her. She loved to snuggle with her head on the crook of my arm and her body next to mine, from the first day until the last.
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She was smart—so very bright and eager to please. It didn’t matter if it was obedience, conformation or rally—she could do it all without missing a beat. She was my only Mastiff Special—she loved to go to shows—to have me all to herself. She was ranked fourth in BOS points for 2001—all owner-handled. She took BOB in AKC, International and National Canine shows. She beat out the Golden Retrievers in our obedience classes for a blue ribbon. Had cancer not intervened, she would have earned her Rally title this year—I had promised her we would go back in the ring.
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She was beautiful even to the last. She was a beautiful puppy, young adult, mature adult, as a mother and as a senior. She never lost that pretty look. Though we fought against too many pounds, she was never obese..just pleasingly plump.
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She gave us one litter of 10 puppies. Five of them became champions in 2004 earning her the MCOA Collar Award for most championed offspring for that year. She also was recognized by Pedigree for Mastiff Brood Bitch for 2004. Everything Calli did, she did well.
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She ruled our property—she was the queen of her domain. She was first to the fence to bark at the UPS truck, first in the pond during the winter, and last out of the pool during the summer. She had her pick of dog beds, but would steal into mine every chance she got. She was a sly beggar for left over toast at breakfast or rolls at dinner. Never obvious, but patiently waiting until we finished to make her presence known. She ruled her much larger sons with a look. They knew she was the boss.
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Each dog that you lose takes a bit of your heart with them. It seems like the hole that Calli left is much larger than most. At least I have two of her sons here to remind me of all her wonderful qualities. We will miss her forever.
Caroline
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Gunner is a young male Mastiff that was turned into the shelter by his owners. According to the information they provided, he had killed a cat. He didn’t like male dogs or small dogs. He had never been in the house and was considered to be too afraid of everything to ever be a watch dog. I guess to them, he was a big disappointment.
A shelter volunteer had contacted me about Gunner and asked if I could come evaluate him as he was so fearful people couldn’t get near him. When I saw Gunner for the first time, he was sitting in the middle of his run. He neither barked nor ran away from me. There was a “caution” notice on his card. I spoke to him quietly for a few minutes. He watched me intently, but still sat motionless, afraid to come to me. I left him for a few minutes to gather information as to why he was abandoned. When I came back, he was in the same spot. This time though he responded to my voice by moving slightly closer. It took some time for him to move close enough to take the biscuit I offered him, but finally he did. From there, he let me scratch under his chin and rub the side of his face and ears. He accepted my touch, but was still very reserved in his manner.
I finished the paperwork to adopt Gunner. I had to go to Santa Barbara that day, but made arrangements to pick him up in the late afternoon. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with him, but I was certain he would not get adopted because of his size and fearful demeanor. Physically, he was a bit of a mess. He was 30-40 pounds underweight, very dry, sparse coat and cherry eye in his right eye. However, my 24 years in Mastiffs and showing made me recognize his many fine physical attributes; very large bone, beautiful head and nice balance. In the right home, he would have been stunning.
When I arrived back at the shelter in the afternoon, Gunner was out in one of the play yards. I found him in a run next to a small dog—which he seemed to pay little attention to. So much for not liking small dogs. When he saw me he got up and started wagging his tail. He acted like he had been waiting for me to return for him. He obviously was not well leash trained, and probably in a hurry to get out of the shelter, but we managed to make it to the van. I wondered just how hard it was going to be to get him into a crate for the ride home. One hotdog seemed to be all he needed. He curled up and rode quietly all the way home.
Gunner bonded to me quickly—but just as quickly we discovered how afraid he was of men. I hoped that would change after a few days of letting him settle into a routine. Though Gunner would let me do anything with him, he wanted nothing to do with Ron. If I was present with Ron, he would come over for a treat, otherwise he tried to keep a lot of space between them.
Gunner came down with kennel cough a few days after adopting him. That put his neuter appointment 2 weeks later than we planned. June 7 he was neutered and the cherry eye repaired. His labs all came back normal and he was heartworm negative. The home we thought we had with a single woman fell thru just as we were leaving for a 2 week trip to Australia. Once home, one of our dogs became ill and finding a home for Gunner took a back seat to more pressing problems. It was the end of July before I had time to start training and evaluating Gunner.
Because of the extreme heat we had in July, Gunner became an indoor dog, at least during the day. He never had an accident. After changing his kibble, he finally started to put on weight and his coat started to improve. His leash walking improved considerably and we started working on the stay and come commands.
Gunner has never acted aggressively towards my dogs. If they went down to his pen, he would move away from the fence. He looks away when they come towards him. I think he would do fine with a medium to large female as a companion. I would not place him around cats. I’m waiting for a bit more obedience training on board before evaluating him around children. He appears comfortable with women who are strangers, but not men, even my husband that he has seen every day for 2 months.
In some ways Gunner should be an easy placement—young (22 months), handsome, smart, loving, playful, house and crate trained, and healthy. He is already neutered, current on his shots, heartworm negative and microchipped. He would get along with a female dog.
What makes him difficult to place is his fear of men. That not only translates to a female only owner, but one that is willing to continue to work with him in obedience to make sure his fear of men stays under control. This breed can become over protective around 2 years of age and I would not like that protectiveness to get out of hand because of a fear of men. When Gunner is fully mature at 4 years, he will weigh 200 or more pounds. That is a lot of dog to control. He needs a woman who is dogwise and willing to work with Gunner to ease his fear of men through training and socialization.
All Rescue dogs come with emotional and physical baggage. Gunner’s health issues seem to be under control and no permanent damage has been done with the poor care he received as a youngster. We will never know what happened to make Gunner so fearful of men. He may eventually trust one man at a time, but I doubt he will generalize to men who are strange to him. Once he is solid on his obedience training, I can start to find out more about his reactions to males of all ages. I guess we could say Gunner is a work in progress. He is very worth all the effort it takes to find him his forever home.
If interested in adopting Gunner please contact us at: Email: RONTOBIN@aol.com or Phone: 805-466-9208
Gunner was with us for about 4 months. During that time I finally managed to win him over (it took some left-over steak treats) to the point where he felt comfortable being alone with me and would come when I called him. For the first three months he would not come near me unless Caroline was with me. Debi also visited us with Lily and Toby. The purpose of the visit was to see how Gunner would react to a new person. Debi was able to walk him around the pasture without a problem so we figured that Gunner would do fine with a woman adopter. Gunner also got along fine with Lily.
Towards the middle of September Caroline felt that Gunner was ready for his new home. John and JoAnne came up to Atascadero at the end of September to meet Gunner. JoAnne walked Gunner around the pasture without a problem. At first Gunner was a bit scared of John but after a few hours he came around. By the second day he seemed quite comfortable with John. John and JoAnne fell in love with Gunner and so early Saturday morning Gunner hopped in their van to head south to his "forever home". It was tough saying good-bye after all those months.
Rio (handled by Ken) took an Award of Merit on Sunday and Best of Opposite on Monday. Lucah got a good look but did not win anything. Lucah's son, Micah, (handled by Caroline) took a four point Major one day. All-in-all a succesful weekend.
Martha made her usual grand entrance with Princess in some sort of Tiara. Princess acted like an embarassed teen and refused to get out of the van wearing the Tiara.
Everyone wandered around the backyard sipping wine prior to taking the Group Photo(s). First was the group shot of the 7 Comstock Pups in attendance. Then we managed to get a group shot of the Comstock Pups with Lucah's offspring and Cagney (Ginny's 12 year old Mastiff). It took a while to get that group settled. Lastly is a photo of Lucah with his kids. An impressive group of dogs in my unbiased opinion.
Sunday's show was outdoors. Lucah was also entered in the Stud Dog class. In this class the winner is judged by the quality of two offspring shown with the Stud Dog. Debi handled Lucah while Caroline handled Micah and Leslie handled Lily. Lucah won. Admittedly he was the only one entered but he would have won anyway no matter how many entries. (Once again my unbiasness slips in.)
The Eukanuba Invitational Dog Show is one of the most prestigious dog shows in the country. Entry is by invitation only. Lucah was invited because he earned his Championship in the Bred-By-Exhibitor class. The show was held the first weekend in December in Long Beach, California (about 4-5 hours south of us depending on traffic). Lucah was to show on Sunday but we drove south on Friday to get settled in and checkout the show site. Also, Lucah was signed up for an hour Saturday morning in the Mastiff "Meet the Breed" booth.
Debi and Leslie flew down from Sacramento and Oakland, respectively, to show their support. We all drove to the Long Beach Saturday morning. We walked Lucah around inside the Arena to get him used to the very crowded, noisy atmosphere. The crowds and noise didn't bother him a bit. What bothered him was the slippery arena floor. The show rings are carpeted but the main portion of the floor was rather slippery cement. Caroline located a vendor selling a paw paste and that seemed to help.
We made our way upstairs via elevator which didn't bother Lucah at all but there wasn't much room for others once he was aboard with us. The upstairs area was devoted almost entirely to the "Meet The Breed" booths. Lucah was a hit with the people walking through. One young girl, a Junior Handler, fell in love with Lucah and let him kiss her (though it may be hard to believe not everyone wants a Lucah kiss).
After his tour of duty in the booth we went outdoors to the bathing area in front of the Arena. He was a bit too big to fit in the tubs so Caroline and Debi hosed him down and wiped him dry. Afterwards Lucah did a little more "meet & greet" while he was drying off.
After we returned to our motel Lucah began to hype himself up for next days show. Ginny and Mary drove down from Valencia (about 1-2 hours north) to also lend their support to Lucah and Caroline. We had a nice dinner at the Claim Jumper restaurant. I had an extra large Prime Rib mainly to have some good leftovers for Lucah (the sacrifices I make for that dog!).
SHOW DAY! We returned to the Arena Sunday morning. Martha drove up from the south to also add her support to Lucah and Caroline (I might say that Lucah was much more relaxed than Caroline). Lucah's showtime was 11 AM. The placed was packed. The rings are all indoors
and the aisles were full of spectators. I managed to work my way to where I was in the third row standing. I tried to guess where the Judge would line up the dogs so I could get the best pictures. Guessed wrong but I got a couple of decent shots of Lucah and Caroline.
Lucah showed well. The flooring did not seem to bother him. The Judge seemed to particlarly like Lucah's massive head. She checked his head and then went to the next dog and checked his head and then came back to Lucah's head again. She didn't even bother checking out some of the other dog's heads. Lucah did not win BOB or BOS but he did get one of the three Awards of Excellence that were given. Caroline was extremely happy to say the least.
Afterwards we walked around outside the Arena and got a few nice shots of Lucah and Caroline. I meant to get a shot of "Team Comstock" (Debi,Leslie, Ginny, Mary and Martha) but forgot. We certainly appreciated their moral and vocal support for Lucah and Caroline.
We left for home Monday morning. But before we left we went to a nearby park to get some pictures of Lucah. We had been there before (without my camera) and I noticed how good he looked when he was keeping an eye on other dogs in the park. (He is more alert and watchful when he is with Caroline in a strange setting.) This time I had my camera ready and Lucah did not fail me when he noticed another dog in the park. The descriptor that comes to mind is AWESOME!
About a week before Christmas Hannah and her people, Cisco and Carrie stopped by for the afternoon. They were heading from the Seattle area to Southern Calif. to visit relatives. Hannah is also one of Lucah's kids out of the Rainy Days Gracie breeding. Hannah is a beautiful brindle girl who looks a lot like her dad.
Thumper and our boys got along fine and enjoyed their wanderings together in our pasture area. Caroline would bring cookies and make them practice their sit-stay commands. They did good. Afterwards they all made the long trek uphill to the front yard. We did not let Cagney down into the pasture because of her age. She putted along fine in the front and back yards but that long climb from the pasture might have been too much for her.
Thumper and Cagney are good friends. They quite often lay next to each other indoors or out. Cagney is a beautiful Senior Citizen as the pictures show. She also has a very long tongue. We truly did enjoy having those two with us for ten days.
Note: We have a New Comstock Web Page prepared very professionally by our own Debi (Lily's mom). This is the URL we use in ads that we place in magazines such as the MCOA Journal.
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Continue on to Comstock Mastiffs 2007.
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