01/16/2002: Yep, we did it again! Larry just had to have a chocolate lab so off we went to find one and we are happy to present: Hammer, a/k/a Larry's Chocolot Hammer Time. He is now 3 months old and a handful! I had actually forgotten what fun and what patience it is and it takes for a puppy his size. Oh, but is he cute! Those gold eyes look up at you and you fall under his spell. Of course he is spoiled absolutely rotten! He and Bear are best buds. I will have buddy pics soon. Do you think we need any more animals? Of course! lol
Here he is hiding under the dining room table. He is a character and we are working on housebreaking. He is not nearly as easy as Bear was. Bear got it very easily. Hammer thinks the best place to go pee is in his crate on his newspapers. He is better at #2 outside, but he has #1 accidents a lot. Oh, boy, but we are having fun now! LOL! How I ever let Larry talk me into this I'll never know. I just am such a softy for a dog, any dog.
Is he just too cute or what?! Hammer is growing so much. He is going to be huge. His sire weighs 110 lbs. and dam weighs 85 lbs. so it is easy to see and we know that he will be a big dog. Right now he is 3 months old and weighs in at almost 30 lbs. He is very active as puppies are, and he is so much fun to play with. We are also working very hard on not biting. Oh, but he is a biter this one, but he doesn't think so. Mom does though, so we are working on it.
Hammer can sit already very well. I taught him that and I am so proud of him. He loves Milkbone Puppy Biscuits and when he hears the box shaking, he immediately sits down. He stays there and looks at me like "Ok, I'm ready for a biscuit now". It is so cute. I have him and Bear sitting at the same time and giving a medium size biscuit to Bear and puppy one to Hammer. It is so cute when they are sitting for their biscuits at the same time.
I will be taking more pics soon of the 2 brothers playing. They have a big time together. I was worried about Bear handling a new puppy, but he did just fine and I think he enjoys having the company. I guess he didn't like being the only "child" in the family as much as I thought he did. When Hammer starts to bother Bear too much (as 3 month old pups do), Bear will give him a small growl and an easy bite on the behind and Hammer knows to stop. Bear never is mean to Hammer or hurts him, but he is just letting him know it is time to cut it out. They play together very well and I am so happy it all worked out. Will be back soon with more pics of my 2 boys.
Update 02-23-02: My 2 boys are doing great. Hammer is growing so fast it is unbelievable. He is going to be huge! He is 4 months old now and weighs 43 pounds. Bear is now 15 months old and weighs 52 pounds so Hammer is definitely going to be bigger than Bear. I can't believe how fast he has grown. I can't get pix developed fast enough to get any recent ones in here. I have some but they were taken a month ago and they don't even look like him now.
Hammer got his rabies shot last week. He is such a good boy. He is not as hyper as B-Dog. B-Dog gets so excited about anything. Bear loves to go "bye-bye". Hammer is not so sure about this bye-bye stuff. He sits on my lap the whole time and doesn't look too happy about it. Bear sits in the back seat and takes in everything. He loves to go for a ride. If you open the car door, Bear is in the car ready to go. Hammer will climb in behind him sometimes, but then wants right back out. He is not as crazy about it as Bear.
My boys love to play with a rawhide. One will grab one end and one will grab the other and here they go. They get along well together and I am so glad. Bear does not get along with our male Foxhounds. They have gotten into fights before I could get in to stop them. Bear has a little scab on his ear to prove it. But for some reason, he likes Hammer and Scooter. He must just like labs. Bear likes all female dogs, but only Hammer and Scooter when it comes to males.
Bear got loose from his leash the other day and I just about freaked. He took off running, leash dangling behind him, and I couldn't catch him. I yelled his name and whistled which did no good. I finally found him about an hour later at the neighbor's dogpen looking at their female golden who is in heat with leash still attached. I just knew he would get hung up in a fence somewhere. So I have to watch him and hang on to him closely or he is off to visit the neighbor now.
Bear and Hammer have their own email now. They are such important dogs you know. This is a great place to get your best friend's email. You can get an address for your favorite pet of dogsname@dog.com. Is that too funny?! Bear's email address is bear1@dog.com and Hammer's email address is hammer@dog.com.
Update 05-04-02: Hammer is now 6 months old and weighs 61 lbs. Is he ever going to be a huge dog! He has outgrown Bear except he is not as tall as B-Dog. He is too cute. They are both still in the house and are my buds.
Update 09-22-02: Hammer is now 11 months old and weighs 78 lbs. B-Dog is now 22 months and weighs 50 lbs. Hammer has outgrown Bear bigtime. I have sad news about Hammer. He has seizures. I was devastated the first time he had one. He has had 4 about a week apart each time. I had never seen a seizure before and it scared me to death. This was back in June. The first time he had one was in the middle of the night. I woke up and heard the awfullest racket coming from Hammer's bed. I went in the kitchen and he was lying on his side, both front legs stretched straight out, both back legs pedaling, foaming at the mouth. His eyes were wide open and at first I thought he was stuck in his crate, so I tried to get him unstuck. I couldn't move him. It only lasted about 20 seconds, but it felt like 20 hours. I yelled at my husband to come in there and he didn't know what was going on either. He tried to get him out of the crate, but he couldn't. Finally Hammer came out of it, but he acted confused and like he didn't even know us. After a couple minutes, he came around to normal and was back to his old self. My husband then said he thought that Hammer had just had a seizure. He had 3 more and I told my husband that was all I could take and I took him to the vet. (If you have never seen a dog have a seizure, or a person for that matter, it is a horrifying sight. There is nothing you can do but wait it out, make sure he is comfortable and there is nothing around him to hurt him. The dog will not remember the seizure at all after he comes out of it. He has no control over himself during the seizure. That's why you have to make sure nothing around him will get in his way to hurt him.) The vet did testing on him. I wanted to rule out diabetes, which we did, and the vet confirmed our fear that it is seizures. We have put him on medication. He started out taking one pill in the morning and one pill in the evening. I now have him down to one-half pill in the morning and one-half pill in the evening. He has had no additional seizures since taking the medication. You would never know he has seizures as he is otherwise a healthy, happy, carefree pup. At first I was so upset about it. We have never had to deal with this type of permanent health problem. I have to remind myself to look on the good side and that is the medication is keeping him from having any more and he is doing fine just the way he is. He is still my baby dog and always will be (along with the B-Dog). B-Dog is doing just great. He and Hammer are still best buds and get along fine. I have spoiled both of them rotten and am proud of it!!!
Update 07/19/03: Hammer will be 2 years old in October, boy, does time ever go by fast, and has he ever grown up to be a big boy! He is 85 lbs. and all Labrador Retriever. He retrieves excellently, he knows commands well and he has excellent manners. He has not had any more seizures. I have him down to one-half pill in the evening and he has had no seizures since he started taking medication. I am attempting to wean him off the medication completely and see how he does. I don't want to give him the med unless I have to as it is not good for him.
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