02/02/01: Well, if you have read this far, you know us: the more the merrier. We have acquired a new roommate. His name is Bear. He is half Shar-pei (his mother) and half black Labrador Retriever (his wandering father).
Is he not the cutest puppy you have ever seen?! Bear is our first house dog. He is a puppy, 8 weeks old tomorrow. We are working on potty training. Or I should say, I am working on it; he is not cooperating very well. (ha ha!) No, seriously, he is really doing pretty good for his age and the fact that he was not housebroken at all when we got him 2 weeks ago. He is already spoiled rotten and chews on everything in sight. We bought him toys and a bone to chew, but no, he likes shoes and socks much better.
I read a lot of information on the Internet about using crates for puppies. Larry and I both work so Bear would be left by himself from when I left in the morning for work until noon when I get home for lunch, and then from 1 until Larry gets off work at 3. I have heard so many horror stories about puppies chewing up everything from a brand new sofa to poisonous plants. I didn't want any unfortunate accidents to happen, so I decided to give it a try. I highly recommend it; it works great!
At first Bear hated the crate. We started out having him sleep with us. Bad mistake! He chewed on the comforter and us, anything else that would fit into his mouth, and he would wake up during the night, jump off the bed and chew on anything within his reach. We got no sleep those first few nights. Then we bought the crate. The first night we put him in it, he cried, whined and carried on something terrible all night long. I put him in it the next day while I was at work and after about 3 nights and days in it, he learned that it is not so bad after all and now he does just fine with it. It won't be long, though, before we will have to buy a bigger crate. He is going to outgrow this one very shortly.
Here is the story of how we got Bear. Larry had gone to a friend's house who lives way out in the country. On the way there, he saw some kind of animal walking down the road towards him. He stopped his truck and got out to see what it was. It turned out to be Bear's brother. Larry saw that it was a wrinkly puppy and he came right to Larry. There were no houses in sight, so Larry decided to bring him home. I told Larry we had to take him back and try to find his owner, so we took him back to the area where Larry found him. We kept driving until we came to the first house in the area which was about a half mile down the road. As soon as we pulled in the driveway, here came a female Shar-pei to meet us, barking her head off. We knew that had to be the puppy's mother as he looked just like her.
We knocked on the door and told the owner where we had found the puppy. She thanked me for bringing him back. I asked her if the puppy was for sale and she said no, they were keeping this pup, but they were giving away his brother. That is when I learned they were not full-blooded Shar-peis. About that time, here came Bear trotting along towards me and it was love at first sight. He came right to me, I picked him up and he licked me a good one right in the face. I knew he was the one for me. I looked at Larry and he shook his head yes, so I asked if we could have this puppy and she said yes.
That's Bear's adoption story. The owner told us the pups were 6 weeks old and were weaned, so off we went with our new puppy.
Here is Bear's favorite thing to do all the time:
Update 02/09/01: We took Bear to the vet for his first puppy shots and worming last Friday and the vet said he looks to be about 3 months old, so he is older than we were told by the previous owner. We are changing his birthday to November 2, 2000. He weighs 14 pounds.
Update 02/28/01: We took Bear back to the vet for his booster shot and rabies shot last Monday. He is now almost 4 months old and weighs 22 pounds. I also had the vet look at his eyes which seem to be watering a lot. He gave me an antibiotic cream to put in his eyes. Unfortunately, he has the Shar-pei eyelids that curl inward. The vet said he will probably have to have surgery on the right eye for sure which is worse than the left. We are going to try the antibiotic cream and see if it helps first. If not, he will have to have eye surgery. I forgot to take a stool sample with us to the vet, so I have to get that and run it by the vet. His stool seems to be fine to me, but better safe than sorry.
Bear is growing fast. He loves bacon! I make bacon and eggs for breakfast and he is right beside me in the kitchen. He can't wait to sample the "baky". He knows what it is as soon as you say the word. We try not to feed him too much table food, but it is hard to resist those big eyes staring at you. He also loves Iam's puppy biscuits. It is his favorite treat besides baky.
He loves to play fetch. He has a plastic ball that I throw and he brings it back to me. That is the retriever coming out in him I think. When he brings it back to me, he runs as fast as he can. It is so funny. He almost knocks me down when he runs back and slams into my legs. The ball squeaks. When we first got it for him, he couldn't put all of it in his mouth and definitely couldn't make it squeak. Now you hear squeaks all over the house when he carries it around in his mouth biting it, making it squeak.
Bear loves to follow Larry around to feed our other dogs. He follows right behind Larry as he makes the feed rounds. He doesn't get too close to the other dogs as they are bigger than he is and they bark at him and scare him, but he stays right behind Larry's legs and watches them. He runs after the cats a little, but ignores them most of the time. They completely ignore him. You know cats. They aren't too afraid of a hyperactive puppy. But just wait until he gets bigger; they will be running for their lives.
Update 03/23/01: Bear is getting huge! He will be 5 months old on April 5th. He weighs 29 pounds. He still loves to chew, but I have gotten him several chew toys and that helps a lot. He is still just the cutest puppy, full of energy.
His stool sample was normal; he doesn't have any worms. Yea! He does have entropion in the right eye that will require surgery. The vet will call me when they can schedule him in. Other than having the eye problem, he is doing great.
Bear has learned some basic commands. He can sit, speak, fetch and bring back. He is learning stay and come. He hasn't quite got the hang of those yet. When the weather gets warmer and we can get outside, I can teach him a lot easier and more commands.
Bear's favorite toy right now is his nylon bone. He carries it everywhere. He loves to play tug of war with it. He can be stubborn sometimes. He loves to play with shoes and socks. I am trying to teach him to play with the toys instead. He is very active and gives excellent puppy kisses!
He is fully crate trained and house trained and has not had an accident in a week. I am so proud of him!
That crate was the best idea to raise a pup that I have ever tried. It has worked out so well for us and for him. Not only does it protect our home, it protects him as well. He can't get into any trouble while we are gone. He sleeps all night in his crate without a sound. He goes to bed at about 8:30 p.m. every night. He wakes up when my alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. He is a great substitute for an alarm clock snooze button. If I don't get up when the alarm goes off the first time, he starts barking. He is ready to start the day and of course, go outside to do his business. He is in his crate from the time I go to work until when I come home for lunch. Then he does his business and he is back inside until Larry gets home at 3. Sometimes, Larry has to work late, but I get off work at 5, and Bear does just fine with those hours. He never wakes up in the middle of the night anymore to go outside. That was a big help! When he was younger, he would wake me up in the middle of the night to go outside. Not anymore!
Since Bear is an "only child", the one thing we need to work on is socialization. I have been reading information on other websites about how important it is to socialize pups early so that they are used to other people and pets. Otherwise, they tend to behave badly in front of other people if they are not socialized. Tomorrow we are going to visit some friends and I will see how he does. We aren't staying very long, just to get him started with socializing. These friends have two adult house dogs who are very friendly.
Bear loves to be outside. We go out when we can to run around the yard. He loves it. He stays right in the yard and never ventures farther than the end of the driveway. Now that the weather is getting warmer, we will be able to be outside more.
Bear is a typical Shar-pei in that he hates baths. He doesn't mind the shampooing part, but he hates the water part. He tries to bite the water sprayer. I sing to him and talk to him the whole time and try to make it a good experience, but he just hates the water part. He can't wait to get out of the tub. He looks so pretty when he is freshly bathed, but he doesn't think so. :)
Update 03/30/01: Bear did very well with his first attempt at socialization. He rode well in the car. He was happy to know at the end of our ride, we weren't at the vet's office. (That is the only other place he had ridden before, except when we first brought him home.) At first he stayed close to me in the car, but after a little bit, he was sitting in the passenger seat by himself looking out the window. I think he is going to be an excellent passenger.
When we got to my friend's house, he was timid at first to go inside, and once inside, he was quickly in my lap when the other dogs came out to greet him. Little by little, he got brave and ventured out of my lap. By the end of the visit, he was running with the other dogs, playing with their toys (he is very good at sharing), and they had a big time.
So I will keep up this socialization practice so that he will be good with company at our house and other peoples' houses too. I am determined that he will be good around other people. I had a Miniature Schnauzer many years ago who had no social skills, and consequently, barked and growled at all company, which was my fault as I did not socialize him. He did not like anyone but me as he was never around anyone but me most of the time. Since we do not have any children, there is not a lot of traffic in and out of our house. I don't want that to happen with Bear.
I think Bear grows everyday. I believe he is going to be almost as big as a Labrador. He is indeed looking like he will be larger than a Shar-pei. If I could only get him to like bath time. :)
Update 04/12/01: Bear is scheduled for entropion surgery on his right eye April 23. His left eye is doing great, but the right one is bad. I have kept antibiotic cream in it, but it is definitely not improving as the left eye did. He blinks it all the time and rubs on it with his paw. There is a watery discharge almost all the time. Poor baby! He will feel a lot better after the surgery.
Bear is still a happy puppy. He has made best friends with our 10 year old Labrador. They play together all the time. Sometimes I have a hard time getting Bear to come inside because he still wants to play with Scooter. Bear has been good for Scooter too. He runs and plays with Bear, unlike the old dog that he is, and they have a big time together. Bear has also made friends a little bit with our two Foxhound male dogs, but they are not as easygoing as Scooter, so Bear is a little more cautious around them. Bear and Hunter will smell each other, with tails wagging a mile a minute, but Hunter will try to jump on Bear, and Bear doesn't know what to think about that. Of course, Hunter is just a big pup himself and he is just wanting to play. I think eventually they will be good buddies too.
Bear never meets a stranger. He is friendly, tail wagging with everybody. He is doing really good with people, other dogs and even cats. He likes Tiger, my tomcat. He will chase Tiger if Tiger runs, but otherwise, he will go up to Tiger with tail wagging and just wanting to play. Tiger doesn't know what to think about that; he will usually run, which makes Bear run after him. Of course, Bear doesn't get very far as Tiger is a lot faster. Bear doesn't mean him any harm; he just wants to play with anyone and anything.
He has completely cleaned up my backyard. He has found pieces of paper and brought all of them to me. So far he has brought me a Wal-Mart sack, sticks, dust all over his face from when I had emptied the vacuum over the fence, a newspaper, torn to shreds of course, a dandelion, a plastic soda bottle, and numerous other things I can't remember. Last Saturday he helped me pick up sticks in the front yard. Of course, he would take the stick the wrong direction, but he thought he was helping me. He saw me picking up a stick, so he would pick one up. I had the trailer on the back of the 4-wheeler and I was loading the sticks onto the trailer. We have many big trees in our front yard and I ended up with a trailer full of sticks. Bear's sticks would sometimes make it to the trailer and other times, be carried off to the place I had just picked up. LOL. He is a character.
We bought Bear a bigger crate last Saturday. It is working much better. He simply had outgrown the small one. He couldn't sit all the way up in it because he had grown too tall. He had to lay lengthwise from corner to corner to sleep. I bought him one for up to a 70 pound dog, so that should work fine for the rest of his life. Bear now weighs 34 pounds and is 5 months old.
Update 07/30/01: I finally got some pix of Bear put on this page in the appropriate dates, hopefully, for his age updates. Isn't he just the cutest puppy you have ever seen?! He is unique, one of a kind. And Larry and I have the only one like him in the world!!
Bear will be 9 months old on August 2nd. Boy, time goes fast. He weighs 45 pounds. He still looks like the pic at 5 months, only he is bigger.
Bear did just fine with his eye surgery. It helped him a lot. He doesn't have the runny right eye anymore and he is doing just great. You can see the eye discharge in his pic at 3-1/2 months. Well, that is all gone now. The vet said he did just fine with the surgery. I called the afternoon following his surgery to check on him, and the vet begged me to come get him. He was making all kinds of noise in the kennel. He was ready to come home. He was barking up a storm. He certainly recouperated from surgery faster than anything I have ever seen before. I am so glad we had the surgery done, even if it was so expensive.
Next we are going to have him neutered. I am having a little bit of a problem keeping him in the yard. If we are outside with him, he stays right with us, or at least within vision range. But if I let him out and don't stay out in the yard to watch him, he has been visiting the neighbor's Golden Retriever. If I call him, he will come back home, but I am afraid that if he ventures too far away, he will get out on the road and get hit by a car. I don't think he would wander that far, but you never know. I think if I have him neutered (which we had planned to do anyway) he would stay more at home. We will see.
Bear is now known as the Bear Dog, or B-Dog, or sometimes simply "B". He was Bear, then Bear Dog, then B-Dog, then B. Larry and I were going to take him out in the boat last Saturday, but when we got down to the lake, it was too windy and stormy looking to go, so we didn't go. We didn't want to get him out in the boat for the very first time and have a big storm come up and scare him away from boating for the rest of his life. So the next time the weather looks decent, we are going to take him out in the boat and see how he likes it. He loves to get into the boat at home and sit in it and look around, but it may be a different story out on the water. I think he will like it fine with Larry and me both there in the boat with him, but we will see.
We were on vacation the week of the 4th of July. We took Bear camping with us. He had a great time and did fine. I was afraid he might not like it, as he is not used to being around that many people, but we tied him to a tree and he had a ball. There was so much to see and that kept him busy all week. I took all his toys and he played with them and people watched and had a great time. He barked only a little, when we would go into the camper and he couldn't see us and he was outside by himself; he didn't like that very good. He stayed in the camper with us at night and did fine. Our camper isn't that big, so there wasn't room for his crate, but he slept in bed with Larry and he was just fine with that. Of course that put me on the table bed, but oh well. There is a queen size bed in the back of the camper and that's where Larry and Bear slept. The kitchen table makes into a double bed and that's where I slept. It wasn't the best sleeping arrangement for us, but Bear liked it just fine. LOL
Bear now tolerates a bath. He doesn't like it really well, but he will hold still for the bath. Once he is all done and I have him towel dried a little, he is out of the bathtub and out of the bathroom in a flash. He looks so pretty when he is freshly bathed. He has beautiful cream color hair.
Bear loves Larry! He was supposed to be my dog, but it's funny that he prefers a man over a woman. Usually a male dog prefers a woman, and female dogs prefer men, but Bear doesn't. Bear thinks Larry is #1 in our family, he thinks he is #2, and I am #3. :) Bear minds Larry a lot better than me, but I am terrible at discipline and Larry makes him mind. I think Larry's voice is deeper and stronger than mine too and Bear shows more respect for that also. I know Bear loves me, but Larry is his favorite. If Larry leaves, Bear goes from door to door looking for him. Larry said when I leave, he doesn't pay any attention. That figures! LOL
Larry and I have taught Bear many things. Larry has taught him more than I have. He is very good at learning new things. Larry has taught him to retrieve very well. He has taken after the Labrador Retriever in him for that. He is excellent for his age to retrieve and bring back too. Bear can do all these things with simple ease: sit, stay, down, up, speak, come, fetch, bring back and go to bed. Now his favorite treat is Milkbone medium size dog biscuits. I had been buying him the puppy size, but they are just too small for him. He can swallow them in one bite. So I got him the medium size and he has to chew them up. He also loves hamburger and bacon. He doesn't get too much table food, though. I am careful on that issue. He eats Purina Puppy Chow most of the time. If I run out of that, he has the big dog food which is Purina Hi Pro and he loves that.
Bear's favorite toy right now (it changes a lot) is his ball. He will chase it for as long as you will throw it. He will also carry it around the house in his mouth and squeak it and drive you crazy. LOL. He also likes his nylabone, but not as well as the ball. He is so big now that if he is running full force, I have to get out of the way or he will knock me down. He is strong, muscular and doesn't know his own strength. He is still a puppy, though, and he still gets in trouble for chewing, but not nearly as bad as when he was younger.
Bear loves people! I didn't have to socialize him as much as I thought I would. He has an alpha personality, is not bashful of anyone and will go right up to people wagging his tail, waiting to be petted. You might as well pet him right away, or else he is not going away until you do! He is very friendly and loves everyone and everything. I am so glad! He was very easy to housetrain. He never has accidents in the house. He goes to the door and sits and then you know he needs to go outside. He doesn't bark about it, just waits for you to let him out. He really doesn't bark much at all. If you tell him to speak, then he will bark. Speaking of his bark, he definitely has a scary bark, not scary to me and Larry, of course, but to people who don't know him, he has a deep bark and it sounds scary. Of course, Larry and I know him as our big baby, but I can see where some people will be afraid of him due to his looks and bark. He has the small Shar-pei ears, Labrador nose, wrinkles on his forehead and his head is big. He doesn't appear as friendly just to look at him as he really is. He barks if someone pulls into the driveway. Then when he sees who it is, he is wagging his tail and ready to be petted. So far, he has turned out just right!
Update 12/21/01: Bear is doing just great! He's my bestest buddy. I took some new pictures but they didn't turn out very good. I will take more later. Now, on to the latest news...................Click here!
Update 07/19/03: Gosh, I am getting terrible at updating my web pages. Remember when we started out all gung-ho on this web page building stuff, and now, I am not updating anything on a regular basis. Bear is now 2-1/2 years old. I can't believe how fast time has gone. I'll have to make another page with some new pix. He is such a unique looking dog and is my best friend. He turned out to be a very good looking dog. He and Hammer are best buds.
Here are some cool Shar-pei, Labrador Retriever and other dog website links I think you will like.
Everything you might want to find out about a Labrador Retriever
Potential Health Problems of a Chinese Shar-pei
