Bacchus update

Haven't been on for a while so a quick update. Bacchus is nearly 2 now ( can't believe how the time has flown since I brought that wee rascal home)



He continues to amaze me with his personality and how we have bonded. My wife says I'm a bit obsessed with him, which is absolute nonsense of course. I'm TOTALLY obsessed with him.  

He has sired a litter of puppies, all beautiful of course, and they have all found loving homes, 1 in Wales, 1 in Sunderland and 1 here in Aberdeen.

I started him on BARF back in November and he is looking amazing on it with lovely firm poos and no more smelly bum burps.

I still have to be careful with him and keep him on-lead unless I can see all around us as he is not good with unfamiliar dogs if they get in his face. His recall is very reliable but unfortunately, like many of you, I have had several occassions where I've had to ask people to call their dogs as they seem oblivious to the fact that he is on-lead and of course their dogs have no semblance of a recall. It's the usual "It's ok he's friendly" Yeah well mine isn't. Don't you think the fact that he is on-lead is a clue??? They seem to assume that he is on his lead because he is disobedient like their dogs. Still we are fortunate to have lots of places where I can exercise him off-lead.

Speaking of exercise. Any ideas for tiring him out? He has 4 long walks per day, and on at least 2 of these we spend 20 to 30 mins. playing retrieve and flirt pole. He is very fit and the fitter he gets the harder it is to tire him out. I would normally give him his main exercise at lunchtime but with the warmer weather I take him out at 6am for his main aerobic exercise and limit his lunchtime exercise to a brisk walk as I worrry about him getting overheated. Then some vigorous exercise early evening and a toilet walk around 11 pm.

Will try to keep up to date on here but thought you would like to know that he has become such a huge part of our lives.

Fantastic update and he does look good. They do tend to take over your life and I bet you can't imagine life without him always being there, I get concerned when Flo isn't somewhere nearby   

He is gorgeous. What beautiful markings he has. Yes, they do change your life, for the better of course.

Sorry I can't give you any advice on tiring him out  

Wow time flys!

Great update   

Beautiful looking dog. Good update too.

All sounds very familiar when we got Buster we had all these rules we we going to enforce and we were going to stick to them i.e not getting on furniture etc however were now lucky if we can fit on with him. He has totally taken over our lives. Buster is also nearly 2 he gets a couple of walks a day and a a half hour playing fetch with his chuck it ball this tires him out also plays with his boomer ball in the garden this just frustrates him because he cant get it in his mouth. Definitely the way to tire him is chasing his ball which he can become obsessive with I have to stop it after half hour or so as he would just keep going untill he collapsed. He`s also very fit but tends to get sore paws after on long walks if there is a lot of pavement.

Thanks for the up date, with regards to walks Rocky has 2 long walks a day now of about an hour and half each time, these tire him out just fine. You want to up the length of time you are out with Bacchus to about an hour at least each time, you may well find you only need to do this two times a day.

Wow Rodger he looks great thanks for the update. Xx

He looks great thanks for the update   

wow what a stunning looking boy he is!! as for the tiring him out, is he a swimmer? id give swimming a go if he likes it, another idea is clicker training. working there minds seems to be every bit as good at tiring them out and clicker training really gets them thinking. a friend of mine has started clicker training his 5 year old staff, and he is loving it. Karen Pryor has a great yet simple book entitled clicker training for dogs.

brilliant update,i can see why your totally obsessed with him,he's a gorgeous lad   

When I picture a Stafford, Bacchus is what I see! He's a stunner, with an interesting name. Is it from the god of wine?  * geek alert* We named Theia after the exo-planet that crashed into earth billions of years ago and it then became the moon. Theia is the greek god celestes' (the moon) mother.*geek alert over*. There's an Athena on here too. Just shows you what we think of them naming them after gods!
Pete.

dave-irl wrote:wow what a stunning looking boy he is!! as for the tiring him out, is he a swimmer? id give swimming a go if he likes it, another idea is clicker training. working there minds seems to be every bit as good at tiring them out and clicker training really gets them thinking. a friend of mine has started clicker training his 5 year old staff, and he is loving it. Karen Pryor has a great yet simple book entitled clicker training for dogs.

Hi Dave, we live in a fishing village and have tried to coax him into the harbour but he's not stupid enough to go into the North Sea with the temperatures up up here.   He'll go in up to his chest after a stick but that's about it.  Mind you I had a GSD a number of years back who refused to swim until he fell in one day, then we couldn't keep him out of the water.
I do a bit of training with him on an almost daily basis...recall, sit stay, down stay, recall, off lead heel work etc. I have a clicker which I've never used much but will look into it. I know the theory of clicker training but does her book give actual exercises to work on?
Re tiring him out, it's just at the time he doesn't seem to tire but when we get home he usually goes to his crate for a sleep and he is very content around the house. Maybe I'm just being over anxious.

Lynn&Pete wrote:When I picture a Stafford, Bacchus is what I see! He's a stunner, with an interesting name. Is it from the god of wine?  * geek alert* We named Theia after the exo-planet that crashed into earth billions of years ago and it then became the moon. Theia is the greek god celestes' (the moon) mother.*geek alert over*. There's an Athena on here too. Just shows you what we think of them naming them after gods!
Pete.

Yep. Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and frivolity. Like you, we try to give our pets original names. Our Siamese tom is Rufus, after Rufus Wainright, our Siamese girl is Willow ( just because we liked it) and our moggie is Kedi, which is just " cat" in Turkish.

Thanks for all the lovely compliments folks. Naturally I think my wee boy is gorgeous   but it's always nice to hear it from others.