Saturday, May 30, 2009

5 months - 58 Pounds - 22.75" Tall

Bella's growth has certainly been focused more on the length and height and less on the weight which is always preferred for large-giant breed puppies. She is almost 23 inches at the withers at 5 months and 58 pounds lean. Teething did a number on Bella's appetite and she dramatically decreased her food intake. She does have her adult canines and molars now so we'll be adding more raw chicken backs to her diet. I'm taking her completely off puppy kibble as I have found she has some light allergies to things in the recommended brands. Her eyes and skin should brighten up without the grains. We will follow the BARF diet which has been around for quite a while now. I was 100% raw with my previous dogs but opted to go back to kibble for Bella because of the new brands available that claimed to be much more 'natural'. I didn't find that to be the case and I'm digging out my Grow Your Pup With Bones book.

Last week, we graduated from puppy kindergarten and she received her AKC STAR Puppy certification. http://www.akc.org/starpuppy/ Once Basic Manners starts up in July she'll be enrolled in that. We're going to take a little time off of formal classes for a month or so. After basic manners we'll go for the CGC. She has started her next fear stage so we're taking things a little slow.

Some interesting things have occurred in the house in that we now have a Severe Macaw named Marlow. He has certainly found his place in the family. You can see him, one of our cats Simon and Bella on the (slipcovered of course!) appropriately named love seat. Shiloh's really are the perfect family dog!

We also recently rescued a pair of Ragdoll cats. I had a pair of Ragdolls years ago and size does matter ;) as does temperament and Ragdolls are the Shiloh's of the cat world. As Fred and Ginger get more settled in, we should have some pics of the whole gang on the blog. Soon enough we'll have Dr Doolittle status with our collection of creatures.

You can see Bella's ear is back down. Teething really does a number on ears. From experience, I am confident her ear will be back up soon enough :) She was carrying it erect this morning but in her relaxed state, she is more likely to let to let it drop. I do hope she grows into those big 'uns though...

Sunday, May 3, 2009

18 Weeks 50# 21" MN Dirt Hound!


Every day we see Bella grow and mature more and more into a fine young lady. Here we see her DIRTY side! This weekend she helped us prepare one of our garden beds for veggies.