COMSTOCK PUPPIES - Page 7
This page covers the growth of our puppies starting at 17 weeks of age. Currently seven of our original 10 pups have been placed. We are keeping two males, Lucah and Riley and are looking for the right home for the remaining female, Buttercup. We hope to continue following the growth of the placed pups from photos and updates supplied by the new families. The group photo at the top of the page was taken of the four remaining pups at 17 weeks of age.
The earlier growth of our pups can be seen on the following links:
Birth to three weeks please visit COMSTOCK PUPS - 2002. Three to six weeks please visit COMSTOCK PUPS - PG. 2. Six to eight weeks please visit COMSTOCK PUPS - PG. 3. Eight to ten weeks please visit COMSTOCK PUPS - PG. 4. Ten to thirteen weeks please visit COMSTOCK PUPS - PG. 5. Thirteen to seventeen weeks please visit COMSTOCK PUPS - PG. 6. If you would like to see our adult dogs and learn more about the current breeding please visit our main page COMSTOCK MASTIFFS - 2002.
Seventeen weeks and still growing! We weighed our pups today as shown below. I will update the weight table as the various families report in.
Lucah 59.8 lb. Riley 59.4 Buttercup 58.6 Spice 56.6 Thumper 58.0 Obie 58.0 Rio 61.0 Chaucer 55.0 Maisie ---- Leia 53.0
Leslie sent a picture of Rio with his stuffed friend.
Some good news! Tomorrow Spice goes to her new home. Actually our happiness for her is mixed with more than a tinge of sadness. We will miss her. Fortunately her new home is only about 40 minutes from us so, hopefully, we will be able to see her often as we do Thumper. She will have a Great Dane as a mentor and playmate.
Enjoy the pictures below. I will try to add some descriptive notes plus email excerpts later in the day.
Chaucer
Maisie
Here are some excerpts of Anne's emails re Maisie.
Oct. 7th - Blessing of the Animals. Yesterday Doug and I took Maisie to church for the annual blessing of the animals. I was a little concerned because that is a lot for a puppy to take in, but she was absolutely fantastic. She took dogs, cats, lizards, and curious small children in her stride and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself. She actually had to sit through a full-length service -- the singing put her to sleep. She was next to Haywood, a border terrier, had a boxer, tiny baby, and four-year-old boy in front of her, and in back of us was a vocal husky-lab mix. She was mostly quiet, but when Haywood sniffed her tail, she barked at him. Her timing was perfect because Deacon Ellen, who was giving the sermon, had just made a comment about trying not to give too long a sermon. Maisie's bark caused the whole congregation to burst out laughing. She did try to teethe on the new church chairs, but no harm was done, and just before communion, Doug sneaked outside with her to avoid christening the new church carpet! Needless to say, Maisie took a long nap when we got home. Everyone commented on her beautiful striped markings and color and especially liked the half and half markings. I haven't worked too hard on any training because I want to be sure that my commands are the same as the ones in class. She sits and also for fun we have taught her to shake. So, when she sees that I have kibbles for her, she sits and without being asked gives me one or sometimes two paws -- she's funny! She is comfortable walking along on her leash, and for the most part, she does her pottying outside. She just learned yesterday that she can jump on the bed. Doug was sleeping peacefully when she landed on him and began licking his face and ears! Oct. 11th - Vet Visit. Dear Caroline, Doug and I took Maisie to the vet's today and got her rabies shot. While we were there, we put her on the walk-on scale and she weighed 60.8 pounds. I saw the weights for the other pups for Oct. 5th, and it looks like she is keeping up nicely. She had quite a big outing. In the vet's office, she once again decided to deal with the other dogs by getting under the chair -- actually, under three chairs now! From her cave she could occasionally bark at another dog and then stuck her head out to be petted by a little three-year-old girl. When we put her on the scale, she was very good and sat quietly. Then I needed to go to the grocery store, so Doug sat outside the store with her. She was praised and petted by the very old and babies, too. Doug said she loves to lick babies' faces -- probably smells milk! So, she had a great day and is napping now. It is funny to watch people try to figure out what kind of dog she is and how old she is. She is so big but they realize she looks and acts like a puppy. Then they always comment on her amazing markings. More soon. Anne
Thumper
Our Hooligans
Spice went to her new home today with Constance and Robert and Rio the Dane. It is a wonderful home and we are very happy for Spice but I'm sure I saw a tiny tear or two trickle down Caroline's cheek as we drove home. The family had a Mastiff previously that lived to be over 12 years old. That is an amazing age for a Mastiff and is an indicator of the loving care the family provided.
0ct. 14th
rio is slowly (optimum word) getting used to this
new, squiggly addition! he barked at her and growled
at the first introduction -- tail wagging all the
time. we think he is more afraid of her than
anything else. keeping a watchful eye out, though,
and they are never left alone together. last night
spice slept on her bed at my side of our bed and
rio slept in his regular place. no problem. she
was up and at 'em at around 5 am and i quickly
got her outside to "potty". i should have waited
longer, but i was barefoot so we went back inside. we all
settled down for more "night-night" and she
promptly walked over to rio's bed (he now having
taken his normal morning place on our bed!) and
went "pooh potty". oh joy. rob's always the one
who cleans up....that's the virgo in him....so
after that little bit of chaos, we all settled
down for about another 45 mins. of shut-eye.
then everyone was up and at 'em and the second
day began.
we are delighted with her. she's just
so smart....you were right....and she's such a
love bucket.
Oct. 15th
rio has progressed....he will occasionally stand
there and bark at her. she sits a distance away,
looking at him as if to say, "yeh, bark all you
want...doesn't faze me one bit!" he will soon
tire of this, as it's not fun if nobody pays attention
to him!
no accidents this (early) morning....i was prepared
this time and we didn't go back into the house until
she did her business. she's getting the hang of the dog
door already...as soon as she masters it, i'm thinking
it will be sort of like when your child begins to walk!!!
i'll get plenty of exercise keeping tabs on her then.
she's a delight and we're just beside ourselves with
"parental" pride.
Oct. 18th
yesterday was our "well puppy" visit with spice
to our vet, dr. dan jones. spice was very good
in the car and we took rio along so he wouldn't
feel left out!
doc said she was a beauty and that all seemed
fine.
on the subject of rio...things have been
going very well. they even "kissed" yesterday
twice, but every once in a while he still
makes his alpha status known. usually when
we have visitors coming to see spice and
they forget during the course of the visit
to make a big "to-do" over him also. he
usually just looks at her and quietly
growls as if to say, "you might be cute
and cuddly, but i was here before you!"
this is all perfectly natural we think and
will get less and less as time passes.
we've started walking her down to our street
which is being re-paved, to socialize her
with the workman -- who have brightly colored
uniforms, hard-hats and lots of equipment
in their hands. she's a little shy at first,
but warms up to them very quickly. i think
her eagerness in the beginning has been
slightly quelled by rio's less than
warm reception the first couple of days.
but each day she's getting back to the way
she was when we came to look at the pups
that first day, so we're not too concerned.
she has been excellent with housebreaking and
just a joy all around.
btw, she and the cat who comes in every night
(nipster) get along just fine. he walked right
in front of her the other night on his way
to the couch and she just looked at him. once
he was settled, she walked up to greet him and
i said, "leave it" and she walked back to her
bed and that was that! she did chase him one
morning when he was outside, but that's par
for the course.
Oct 24th
took spice in for her weekly weigh-in....she's
catching up. 61.3 lbs. we're back on kibble
only, so i imagine she'll be even with the
rest of the "girls" very soon.
our socialization is coming along. met four
of the neighbor dogs...one female and three
males. the "boys" were very enthralled with
the new girl on the block! she did really well,
didn't shy away from the two women walking the
dogs or the "boys" who came right up to her for
a look-see. the female stayed out of the mix --
she's some sort of pomeranian fluff-ball -- very
put out by the "interloper"! no bad behavior from
her, though, so all in all it was a great "meet
and greet".
every day is such a joy for us. we're just having
a grand time with our spice. everyone who sees her
comments on how beautiful she is and what exquisite
markings she has....what do those judges know,
anyway?!!! we think the open brindle is so unusual...
shouldn't be a fault. well, we're probably biased.
do you think?! :-)
that's the latest from four oaks....
constance
(attachments/3 -- note "spice on rio bed" -- she's
taken to his bed -- and he seems fine with it.
it's so cute to see how she's won him over.
a sneak kiss here, a playful nudge there...
didn't take long.
Rio - We received a couple of pictures of Rio last week. He weighed 71# on Oct. 19 and as you can see in the left photo he is quite a handful. In the right photo Leslie writes: "A typical night for our mastiff. He loves to lay on you and sleep. The world series wasnt keeping him awake tonight."
Our Gang. - During the past two weeks I've taken a fair number of pictures of the three pups. Sometimes things happen fast and I try and snap a quick picture which turns out a bit blurry because both the subject and I are moving. Sort of like the picture of Lucah on the right. A little tough on the eyes.
Our pups are still getting three meals a day and they love them all. The other morning Caroline prepared oatmeal for the pups for the first time and they licked their plates clean. And I mean CLEAN! We feed the pups in separate pens using raised feeders (which need to be raised again). Separating them during feeding allows them to eat at their pace (which is quite fast) without worrying about another dog competing for their food. (Conversely they also learn that finishing fast doesn't allow them to get to the other dog's bowl.)
Caroline usually lets one or two pups in the kitchen while she is preparing their meals. They are very well behaved. They show interest in what is going on but, so far, have not tried to help themselves to what's on the sink. (That will come later when we are not looking.) In the photo on the right you see 8 pans. They are for our three pups plus our three adult dogs (Calli, Tessa & Thor) plus 2 additional adult Mastiffs we are fostering for a sick friend. The pans are all color coded with colored tape to correspond to the various dogs. This minimizes (but does not totally eliminate) confusion when the various dogs have differing diets, or amounts of food (fat ones get less) or medicines/supplements.
A couple of days ago we bought an additional refrigerator for the garage so we could store the dog's food. We feed the BARF diet (Bones and Raw Food or Biologically Appropriate Raw Foods) which means we have a refrigerator full of raw chicken and turkey parts. When we switched the pups over to BARF a few weeks ago it got to the point where there was no room for my beer in the frig. Hence the new frig. (I'm always thinking of the dogs welfare.) In any event we thought we would keep the big box the frig came in as a toy for the pups as you can see in the right photo. That lasted about 15 minutes until the pups decided they would rather eat the cardboard box than play in it. Scrap one box.
We do occasionally buy actual toys for our pups (rather than just letting them play with our trash). Buttercup especially enjoyed the roped ball we got the other day. She is very good at playing keep away from the other pups.
After playing hard and eating a good meal the pups crash for a few hours either in the backyard or their garage pen. They always seem to like to curl up together even when their is plenty of room elsewhere. Notice how three pups now fill up the 700 size crate. It wasn't too many weeks ago when all ten pups would have fit in the crate. They have really grown.
Speaking of grown. The other day the pups removed a few items (Caroline's sandals, rubber glove, dog brush, etc.) from the picnic table in the back yard. I thought it was because the items were near the edge of the table and since the pups heads now are just about level with the table they were able to grab them. I figured that putting the items in the middle of the table would prevent the pups from reaching them. Ha! Take a look at Lucah looking into the top of the waste basket in the center of the table. The table is no longer used for storage!
Also, Leslie reported that Rio was 81 lb. at his last weekly weigh-in.
Our sweet, little (well, maybe not so little) Buttercup went to her new home today. Her new "mom" is Debi from the Sacramento area-not too far from Marilyn and Obie. Buttercup has been renamed. Her call name is now Lily and her registered name will be Comstock Calli's Tiger Lily.
We miss her already but knowing she is is in a terrific home where she will be spoiled rotten (unlike our Mastiffs) eases the pain greatly.
Well, we are now down to our basic Comstock Clan consisting of Thor, Tessa, Calli, Lucah, and Riley. Calli was spayed a couple of weeks ago so there will no more Comstock breedings. We are too old to go through that "fun" experience again. We are very pleased with Calli's litter and especially pleased with the families that took our pups into their hearts and homes. We feel that finding good homes for our pups was probably the most difficult part of the breeding process (although loss of sleep those first couple of weeks ranks right up there with me). We wish all of our pups and their families the best of health and happiness in the coming years.
Maybe now we can train our pups as well as our puppy owners have been training their pups.
Lily and Obie. Last Saturday Marilyn took Obie to visit Lily (and Debi too, of course). They got along fine for the most part although Marilyn said that at one point Lily gave Obie a look that sent him scampering away. Obie probably suddenly remembered from his younger days here that the "girls" were pretty tough.
Debi sent a couple of updates on Lily. Debi has 3 cats.
Nov. 2 - All my thanks to you for bringing such a wonderful litter so each of us can enjoy their love and companionship. Lily is a quite the talker and very curious of the cats. Although the cats look at me as if to say couldn't it have been a "dashound" or something that we could at least be bigger than for a while. Nov. 4 - Lily sends hugs to both of you and I know at times she misses not just her litter mates but you as well. I believe she is adjusting quite well. We've had a couple of interesting things happen. Marilyn confirmed since I couldn't quite remember that you didn't have sliding glass doors. Saturday Lily decided to saunter outside and promptly bumped into the door. The look on her face was priceless. That was the only time she did that. Although we had the same experience with the screen door. She's quick to learn and hasn't made the same mistake twice. Mau Mau, as I expected is not afraid of Lily and is forever coming in to visit Lily. Keeping a safe distance. After the initial nip at Mau's tail she makes sure there is enough distance or obstacles in between her and Lily. I can see that Lily just wants to play and I keep telling her "gentle" I would imagine it will only be a few more weeks before they are friends. Tequlia and Macy are keeping a distance between and it's going to take more time. I seriously doubt if Macy will ever make friends. Scaredy cat fits her to a tee. Nov.7 - Lily is doing much better and Tequila and Mau Mau have both jumped the gate on several occasions to meet and greet. Tequila more out of the impatience of me not getting his food to him fast enough. I usually hear him when he jumps over but last night I didn't so I wasn't able to get a hold of Lily until they were nose to nose. Lily got so excited and that scared the big boy into a run. He safely got back over as I was grabbing for Lily. We are working on "gentle" and " no chase". She's getting better. I just love watching her when she's that excited her whole butt wiggles and she slaps her sides with her tail. I believe she is getting more comfortable last night she actually wanted to really play. She would do the elbow crawl with her butt up in the air and then leap straight up and run after me. Oh how I've missed that. The rains and winds have hit here and the only thing that appears to bother her was a plant of mine had blown over. She didn't want to walk by it but once she did everything was ok. I have found there are very few things that seem to bother her. Tigress was deathly afraid of the vacumm but not this little girl. She's not afraid of the garage door opener either. Oh and she loves to watch TV.
Rio Rio has continued to settle in comfortably as reported by Leslie in a Nov 3rd email.
Hello to all, We have had a nice weekend here with near perfect temperatures. It has been great weather to take a young mastiff out for play. Rio enjoyed watching us play tennis and chasing all the balls. (next time I will take a camera) Rio weighed in (after 1day of no food due to surgery) at 83 lbs. This is everyone's chance to get caught up! I have enclosed a few pictures of today's puppy class. He is doing very well after mastering sit, down, come, and stay. Everyone is so impressed how he lays down so quickly. That's because it is his favorite position. Laying down. The little hyper dogs in his class cant sit still long enough to lay down. Rio could lay down the whole class. Oh well, we will let them think he is a genius. Make sure you tell Calli what a smart boy she has! His newest favorite place to sleep is now Connor's room. And he has his own blanket. (left photo)
Spice. Spice is also doing well in her new home per Constance's email of Nov. 3rd.
three weeks today....is it possible?!! spice has settled into life with the two "r's"....rio and the ranch! no worry about rio and her becoming fast friends... they are playing and kissing and sleeping next to each other. i doubt any stranger could approach her now without his coming between them and acting like a "big brother"! the other day we were all in the pasture fixing a corral board at the arena and i absent-mindedly said to rio, "go stay beside spice and watch her". a few minutes later i looked around and there he was....sitting dutifully in front of where she had plopped! of course, i didn't have my camera. they are priceless together. she now weighs 73#....what a testament to all the pups "genetic pre-disposition" towards being large. i'm not feeding her any more than required, but the scale keeps going up! she walks with us twice a day and isn't at all a "couch pup", so i think the saying, "muscle weighs more than fat" definitely applies. i notice from your last e-mail and website entries, however, that she still trails the rest of her siblings.
The first number is the age of our pups today. The second number is the weight of both Lucah and Riley at todays weigh-in at the vets. (Actually Lucah weighed 86.2 lb to Riley's 86.0 lb.) The third number is how much rain has fallen between yesterday morning and 5 PM this evening. Our seasonal pond is full already (maybe a picture of it tomorrow if it stops raining). Just thought I would include a picture of Lucah in repose illustrating his grace and beauty.
A Sad Face. Mastiffs have an innate capability of looking sad no matter how well treated and spoiled they may be. The picture on the right is of Rio who from his sad look hasn't been fed in days (actually he probably just finished a big meal). Any suggestions for captions for his picture?
Maisie Visit. Ann and Doug were camping nearby at Morro Bay State Park and brought Maisie (was Smudge long, long ago) over yesterday morning. She looks great and seemed to remember Caroline. I tried to squeeze a picture or two of that visit on this page but couldn't do it. My 2MB of storage were used up. So if you want to see the pics of Maisie's visit (and the continued growth of the Comstock pups) please go to COMSTOCK PUPS- PG 8.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of visitors since 10/5/02 =