What happend to my cute LITTLE puppy??

It's been a while since I've updated my blog. It's been rather busy around here. It's been nothing but work, rehabbing my knee and taking care of what once was a little 10 lbs fur ball. How many times have you heard someone with a little puppy say this.."I wish I could just give him a pill that would make him stay this size forever". Boy do they have that right. Buster is amazing. He's also getting HUGE!! At his 8 week Dr. checkup he weighed 20 lbs. His next check up is this Monday, I'm betting his weighs over 30. The Vet said "he's going to be a big boy". LOL. Tell me something I don't know. He's already there. In regards to training, it's been going great. He's training US well. He trained me to get me to stand in front of him, say sit and shake while he sits down in front of me, hold his paw out for me to take and then give him a treat. He's very good at it. He loves his treats and I have to admit, I love giving them to him. Bogey and Buster are becoming pretty good friends. Bogey won't admit to liking the "little" guy...keep in mind the "little guy" is actually taller that Bogey now and Bogey walks underneath Buster. As I said..Bogey won't admit to taking a liking to Buster but we've caught him a few times after returning home sitting as close to Buster's cage as possible while we were away. He doesn't growl at him much these days and will actually share a food and water dish with Buster from time to time. Buster's been the best thing to happen to Bogey for a long time. He still misses his best friend Buddy...we all do..but Buster is the next best thing and is making Bogey feel young again. It's pretty funny to see the look on Bogey's face when Buster is doing his "wild and crazy" puppy stuff. Bogey just watches him toss his toys, run after balls, jump, roll, etc... and then looks at me with this "the kid is just plain nuts" look on his face. As far as the rest of us are concerned, we agree with Bogey. Buster has become the center of attention around the Byrne house. To say he's getting a lot of attention would be a huge understatement. Buster seems to like us as well. To see the look on his face and his response when he hears Kathleen walk in the door after a hard day of work is priceless. Buster hears the door open...ears perk up..he hears the door close..he stops what he's doing. He hears foot steps..he runs to the doorway. He see's Kathleen and he runs as fast as his can toward her with his tail wagging a million miles per hour. Here are a few pictures and a video of Buster. As you can see...he's starting to look like a dog!! Not a little puppy. Oh..and by the way. He's found the coolest spot in the house during these hot summer days. The refrigerator. See for yourself..that was a few weeks ago...when he still "fit" in the fridge. He doesn't fit anymore.

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My Wife...dog training....and me

When I started this blog weeks ago, you might have noticed the title was "Dog's, my wife, family and..oh yeah..me". I've been talking mostly about the impact my dogs have had on my life, especially the passing of my Buddy and the recent addition of Buster.

Today, it's my wife's turn in the spotlight. When I brought up getting a new puppy over a month ago, Kathleen said NO WAY!!. I asked again..she said NO..I asked a few days later, she said no. I noticed the NO was not quite a loud. So..I started looking...LOL. I sent her pictures of cute little puppies. She said no again and to stop sending the pictures. So..of course I sent a few more. Keep in mind, she knew at that time in a few short weeks my son Michael and I were going to be having surgery on our knees and both Mike and Tommy were going to be starting college in a few weeks...and she does have a full time job. So..I sent a few more pictures of puppies for sale I found on the Internet. She said.."if we get a new puppy, I'm not going to be the only one getting up in the middle of the night, picking up the back yard full of poop, training him..etc.." Mike, Tommy and I all said "Of course not..We are all going to help". Kathleen knew full well that she was going to be doing most of the puppy work. But she went along with it anyway. She finally gave me the nod to start puppy shopping. HA!! My plan worked. I knew she couldn't resist those cute puppy pictures. So..here we are, two weeks into having Buster at home. I'm still limping around on crutches sitting up stairs since 5:00 am Saturday morning while Kathleen is down stairs taking care of Buster and Bogey. She was up at 3:30 am this morning, took Buster outside..went back to bed for a hour or so and then up again at 5:00 am. She gets up every morning around 4:30 am to let Buster outside. She's picking up the messes the little guy has made...and still doing all the laundry, picking up the house, helping the boys with their college prep, cooking dinners, making lunches, basically making our house a home...and of course working at her full time job. And she's doing it all without complaining. As I type this I hear her downstairs saying "No biting" for about the 5th time in the last 10 minutes. Buster is getting trained by the world's best trainer. I know..she trained me. Buster doesn't stand a chance. LOL. She's amazing. We are all lucky to have her training us. You too Bogey. Nod and say WOOF!!

Buster...attack killer dog

I learned a big lesson yesterday. Never...and I repeat..NEVER attempt to take care of a puppy while you're on crutches. I came home from work yesterday afternoon. Nobody was home. It was just me, Bogey and Buster. I tried my best not to let Buster know I was home since I knew if he saw me I'd have to let him out of his crate and out to the backyard so he could do his business on the grass. His hearing is better than mine and Bogey's. He heard the door and started to whine and bark. I went upstairs, changed my clothes, took my shoes off and tried my best to ignore his pleas but he just sounds so pathetic I just had to let him out. BIG MISTAKE #1. I hopped back down stairs to find this way too cute little fur ball staring at me with this big "PLEASE" look on his face. I had no chance at this point. I opened the cage, opened the back door expecting the little fur ball to be a good little puppy and go outside. Mistake #2. He turned and ran the other way toward the kitchen. Now I have a puppy ready to pee and poop, running around inside the house and I'm chasing him on crutches. I catch him and try my best to round him up using my crutches like a cowboy rounding up his cattle. I'm not going to let a puppy get the best of me. After a few minutes of playing cowboy I had won the battle and Buster was outside being a good boy peeing on the grass. So far, so good. Now all I have to do is round him back up and get him back inside the house. How tough could that be? I go to the door and call Buster, he loves being inside the house so this should be easy. Buster looks at me, looks at the door, looks at the backyard and takes off. The wrong way. Bogey looks at me with this "I warned you, don't look at me, you're the one who wanted a puppy" look on his face. I grab my crutches and give chase. I'm getting pretty fast on these crutches but I have to admit, the kid has better moves than I do. He runs full speed under my utility trailer we keep on the side yard. At this point, I'm not looking too good and I'm thinking I might need help to round up Buster. He comes out...we stare at each other. He has something in his mouth that I'm pretty sure he shouldn't be munching on. I make my move and catch him. I try my best to coax him back toward the door...trying to be nice. He takes a few steps and then bolt toward the trailer again. Time to regroup. Bogey is just sitting there, laughing at me. I have an idea...tease him with food...something the little monster has never seen. (notice how he's gone from a cute little fur ball to a monster at this point). I go back to the kitchen, grab a hot dog and head back to the showdown. I lean down under the trailer and he smells the hot dog. He comes running out to sniff out this new taste treat...it's working!!MISTAKE #3. Suddenly I feel a tug on the hot dog..my bait has been taken...BY BOGEY. He ate my bait, the entire hot dog was gone!! I felt so stupid. I was duped by a Basset Hound once again. Bogey ran off to the safety of the inside of the house. Fat and happy..with my bait. But...being of superior intelligence I quickly realized I still had hot dog juice on my fingers and the little guy didn't know I didn't really have the hot dog. He smelled by fingers and started to follow me back to the house thinking there must be something in this for him when we get back inside the house. Minutes later I'm back inside the house with the door shut. I did it. I won the battle...or so I thought. I gave Buster a puppy treat, not the juicy hot dog he thought he was getting but he seemed happy. I sat down on the floor to play with Buster. MISTAKE #4. Here is some advice. Never sit down on the floor, with a puppy, bare feet and a bad leg. As you all know, Puppies love to use their very sharp teeth on anything they can dig these weapons of mass destruction into. Buster, as cute as he may be...is no different. He went after my uncovered toes. I forgot just how sharp puppies teeth are...he reminded me. I grabbed him and brought him back to my chest. He went for my hands. Now I'm bleeding on my left hand from those little weapons he has in his mouth and my left little toe has teeth marks in it. I put the little devil dog back on the ground to take care of my wounds. My toes starts to get eaten again. Now I know I'm in big trouble. What did I do to deserve this? I'm starting to think he must have heard me call his mother a good looking bitch. I meant that as a compliment. Really, I did! I call Kathleen on my cell phone as I try my best to roll on the ground away from what I'm now calling names I can't print. I beg for mercy as he goes back to the little toe on my bad leg. I warn Kathleen that she should get home ASAP, if not she will just find a pair of crutches and what's left of my left foot when she gets home. We bought a man eater. A little furry fat Piranha with feet. I'm thinking I should have given him a real hot dog at this point, he obviously wants fresh meat and I'm on the menu. Lucky for me I see his favorite chew toy..other than my left foot that is...this long red furry chew thingy. Not really sure what it actually is but I know he likes it. I roll over on the floor, dragging my way slowly across the floor..like I'm avoiding sniper fire on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, bleeding..it was getting ugly... toward his toy fearing my feet would be eaten at any point. I grab the red "whatever it is" thingy...and toss it over to the great white fur ball hoping to get his attention before he comes in for the kill. In my mind, I'm picturing the scene from "Jaws" where the boat captain is slowly being eaten by the Great White Shark as he slides down the sinking boat. One toe at a time. so...I toss the red toy toward the little white man eater. He looks at it...he looks at me..AND?? I know..the suspense is killing you, isn't it? He takes the red toy. The battle is over. I scramble back to the couch for safety. He's happy and I still have a few toes still left untouched. Kathleen came home 30 minutes later to find me sitting on the couch, in the fetal position, with blood stains on my shirt. Kathleen looks at her cute little fur ball and thinks I'm making the whole thing up. Of course Buster immediately goes back into his full cute little puppy mode. Kathleen picks up her little bundle of white fluffy joy and he licks her on the face. Talk about a momma's boy. "He's SO cute" she's thinking. How could this cute little fluffy puppy become "Cujo, attack killer dog"? Bogey just sat and laughed. I told Kathleen I wanted to change his name to Charlie Manson. She wasn't amused. But at least my nightmare was over. I learned my lesson. I told Kathleen I am never coming home again alone until my leg has healed to the point where I won't need crutches. Then, it's game on Buster. I know I'm bigger, faster and smarter than he is. Right? Ok..maybe just bigger...at least for the next year anyway. Thanks for reading.

Why everyone needs a dog

I started this blog with a comment about why I would want to do this again. "This" being get a new puppy. I know my wife Kathleen was wondering the same thing. We're busy, having three son's, ages 20-18-18, our kids are taking care of themselves for the most part so we've got a little more free time these days. Did we really want to get tied down to having to take care of a puppy? Well..it's been 5 days and I can honestly say it's been the most enjoyable 5 days my family has had in many years. Is it a lot of work? You bet. Do we all need some extra sleep about now? Yep..but Buster did make it ALMOST through the night last night so we can't really complain at all. The best part of having a new puppy around the house is seeing the energy of a little puppy. The look on his face when he tries to catch a fly for the first time. His eyes are seeing everything for the first time. It's also very entertaining to see a puppy make everything a toy. You can buy him the most expensive doggy toy in the world only to watch him play for hours with an old sock or try to pull off a tag from Bogey's bed. Don't tell the mattress police. Mike and I were playing with Buster on Thursday. He was is full puppy mode at the time. Non stop action. The world is his playground. Mike made a comment to me about how much energy Buster has. I told Mike that I think Buster is thinking..."hey, I'm a dog, I've got about 12 good years in this world..I'm not wasting a minute". Good advice for us all. We can all learn something from having a puppy full of so much life around us from time to time. We all have a limited about of time in this world. Let's not waste a minute of it. Go out and make the world your playground.

Here is a quick little video of what I am taking about..I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks for reading..

King Buster

Well..here he is.. King Buster. There are things that words just can't describe as well as pictures. So today, my blog is only pictures. Click on the picture above for the full size pictures. And yes..he knows he's cute and uses it to get what he wants. So far the training is going well..we do everything he wants. Isn't that how it's supposed to work?

New Baby in the house

Well...he's here....and we all need some sleep. Buster joined the Byrne family yesterday afternoon and he's become the hit of the neighborhood. Everyone loves the little guy...Bogey, isn't so sure just yet. He did what I thought he'd do. Basically ignored him for most of the afternoon and evening. Buster wanted to play, Bogey wanted to sleep. Which is pretty good for their first day together. I think Bogey is expecting to wake up this morning and find the little pest gone. Buster bounced off Bogey most of the night as if he was trying to push him into at some sort of reaction. Bogey didn't take the bait..but finally around 9 pm last night Bogey finally wondered over to Buster, sniffed him a few times, barked and walked away. Today's blog is short, my knee hurts and I'm tired from not sleeping much last night thanks to our new baby. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I will say one thing, nothing can put a smile on your face faster than a cute puppy. If you need a quick pick up, you're having a bad day and need something to get a positive attitude back, visit a pet store with a few puppies. It works every time.

Finally...It's time...Buster meets the Ear Monster

Let's get ready to

RUMBLE!!!!

Well, the day is finally here. Time for Buster to meet Bogey. We're not sure what to expect later today when Buster arrives. I don't expect much response from Bogey. I'm pretty sure he will totally ignore the puppy for a few weeks, that's what Basset Hounds do...the fun part is going to see how Buster responds to seeing this funny looking floppy eared Monster. He may go into shock at just the sight of Bogey. I can't wait to see Bogey's reaction the first time Buster gets a hold of those ears and gives them a big tug...or pulls on his tail...or jumps on his back. That "hey kid, can you give an old man a break" look on Bogey's face will be priceless. I hope they become great friends. Buddy will never be replaced but I have a good feeling that Buster will bring new life to Bogey. He still misses his old friend and a young pup might be just what the Dr. ordered to get him back to his old self. His old self...the thought of that send shudders down my spine. As I said on the first day of this blog..I can't believe I am doing this again.

Anyway...it should be an interesting, fun and very long day. Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

P.S. For those of you who think I'm just making this stuff up about Basset Hounds...and Bogey. Here is something I cut and pasted from an Internet Dog site. This is honest assessment they make regarding Basset Hounds. I just took the highlights. And these are the good points of a Basset!!!

Basset Hounds are not Golden Retrievers. They are independent thinkers who don't particularly care about pleasing you. Most Basset Hounds are very stubborn and can be manipulative. You must show them, through absolute consistency, that you mean what you say.

Basset Hounds should never be left outside in your yard, unsupervised. Their deep voice carries a LONG way. The mournful baying and howling will have your neighbors calling the cops to report the nuisance -- or quietly letting your Basset Hound out of his yard so he'll wander away. Many Basset Hounds, especially those with massive jowls, slobber and drool, especially after eating and drinking. Gassiness (flatulence) that can send you running for cover.

Basset Hounds cannot be trusted off-leash. They will take off -- oblivious to your frantic shouts -- after anything that emits an odor or runs. Slowness to learn and an independent "what's in it for me?" attitude toward training -- can be very stubborn. Yikes...