Devneck
New member
Greetings everyone!
I'm a new English Bulldog owner (day 2 as I write this), however, I've always told my wife that I wanted one when we finally decided the time was right.
Here's my story:
This past weekend did not start with us planning to have a dog though. After the kids soccer game, we stopped by a local pet, feed and nursery for looking for some plants for the garden and the kids talked me into letting them go check out the pets (mainly they wanted to see the 50 year old tortoise that wanders around freely in the pet area) and they had 2 9 week old American Bulldog pups ... which we obviously did not get. After we left, and after seeing the puppies, we decided to look around at a few other pet stores etc. just for fun. At exactly 4:58pm on Saturday evening we stopped in the local humane society. They were closed at 5 but since we were there just in time they let us go look anyway. At nearly the end of the kennels, my wife spotted Lilah first and then I came seen her.
We inquired on our way out about her and they told us we could put a hold on her until 4:30pm the following day then come in and spend time with her the next day. They also told us another family had had a hold on her that day which expired 28 minutes before we arrived. The lady helping us told us a couple possible concerns that I will get into shortly.
Sunday we got up, took care of morning stuff and arrived at the humane society at about 10 minutes after 11am ... 10 minutes after they opened. You all may not be surprised to learn that there were other people already there to see her (from her being posted on their website) and we were hearing the volunteers taking calls about her at the same time while we waited. We took her out for a walk on the paths and unleashed her in the play area, just generally trying to get a sense of how she was with us all, especially the kids (10 year old twins and a 5 year old). She was fantastic and we decided we wanted her even considering the concerns.
What we were told about her:
She is about 4 year old, and her name was unknown so the humane society just called her Lilah. We like the name so she gets to keep it.
They had her in possession for 5 days, available for adoption the previous day (we originally went on the first day available) due to them having her spade before adoption.
Her previous living conditions (as we were told) was quite sad. She and another dog were kept locked up in a room, not even allowed to go outside to do their business so we needed to expect to house train her. The other dog did not get to eat and suffered malnutrition.
She likes walks but does not handle well on a leash.
Is a little overweight (66 lbs)
Does not like other dogs.
One of my biggest concerns was the house training but I decided I was up for the task (I work from home quite a bit and my wife is a full-time student). We brought her home and they were not well informed at all in my opinion. She has not even been the slightest concern with having an accident, in fact while I was at the office today my wife sent me a message that she is going to the door and scratching to get outside. If she was going indoors then I'm convinced it was due to human laziness and not her at all. We don't have any other dogs so that was not a big concern but we do go on walks as a family and last night during her first walk with us we passed probably 15-20 different dogs that would bark at us/her. She barely looked at any of them, was completely uninterested and this included both small 'yappers' and larger dogs. She does want to pursue cats though. While she pulled a lot initially with the choker style rope the kennel gave us, once we got a harness then her performance vastly changed (still work to do though)
All-in-all, I think we got pretty lucky and am super excited for the newest addition to our family. My wife was not aware of the gas and snoring ... the snoring she thinks is cute though
I'm not real sure about the weight. She looks thick and strong to me but I don't know what ideal is. The other, I guess, "immediate concern" I have is that at about 5 this morning I suddenly awoke to what sounded like her choking on something in the twins room (she snuck in there and climbed in bed with one of them). I ran in immediately and she would make like a cough/sneeze like sound a couple times then almost gag like she was about to throw up, nothing came out and then she would look at me and start wagging her rear. This happened for about the first 15 minutes of the morning and then mostly subsided with a couple very random occasions throughout the day. What research we've done so far seems to point to maybe kennel cough or something called "reverse sneezing" both of which sound mostly harmless from what I've read. I'll be calling for first vet appointment right after I finish writing this but since she appears OK after a minute or so then I didn't think it warranted an emergency visit.
Right off the top of my head that's all I got ... sorry there isn't more. Thanks everyone!
And probably the part of my post you're really looking for :D :
I'm a new English Bulldog owner (day 2 as I write this), however, I've always told my wife that I wanted one when we finally decided the time was right.
Here's my story:
This past weekend did not start with us planning to have a dog though. After the kids soccer game, we stopped by a local pet, feed and nursery for looking for some plants for the garden and the kids talked me into letting them go check out the pets (mainly they wanted to see the 50 year old tortoise that wanders around freely in the pet area) and they had 2 9 week old American Bulldog pups ... which we obviously did not get. After we left, and after seeing the puppies, we decided to look around at a few other pet stores etc. just for fun. At exactly 4:58pm on Saturday evening we stopped in the local humane society. They were closed at 5 but since we were there just in time they let us go look anyway. At nearly the end of the kennels, my wife spotted Lilah first and then I came seen her.
We inquired on our way out about her and they told us we could put a hold on her until 4:30pm the following day then come in and spend time with her the next day. They also told us another family had had a hold on her that day which expired 28 minutes before we arrived. The lady helping us told us a couple possible concerns that I will get into shortly.
Sunday we got up, took care of morning stuff and arrived at the humane society at about 10 minutes after 11am ... 10 minutes after they opened. You all may not be surprised to learn that there were other people already there to see her (from her being posted on their website) and we were hearing the volunteers taking calls about her at the same time while we waited. We took her out for a walk on the paths and unleashed her in the play area, just generally trying to get a sense of how she was with us all, especially the kids (10 year old twins and a 5 year old). She was fantastic and we decided we wanted her even considering the concerns.
What we were told about her:
She is about 4 year old, and her name was unknown so the humane society just called her Lilah. We like the name so she gets to keep it.
They had her in possession for 5 days, available for adoption the previous day (we originally went on the first day available) due to them having her spade before adoption.
Her previous living conditions (as we were told) was quite sad. She and another dog were kept locked up in a room, not even allowed to go outside to do their business so we needed to expect to house train her. The other dog did not get to eat and suffered malnutrition.
She likes walks but does not handle well on a leash.
Is a little overweight (66 lbs)
Does not like other dogs.
One of my biggest concerns was the house training but I decided I was up for the task (I work from home quite a bit and my wife is a full-time student). We brought her home and they were not well informed at all in my opinion. She has not even been the slightest concern with having an accident, in fact while I was at the office today my wife sent me a message that she is going to the door and scratching to get outside. If she was going indoors then I'm convinced it was due to human laziness and not her at all. We don't have any other dogs so that was not a big concern but we do go on walks as a family and last night during her first walk with us we passed probably 15-20 different dogs that would bark at us/her. She barely looked at any of them, was completely uninterested and this included both small 'yappers' and larger dogs. She does want to pursue cats though. While she pulled a lot initially with the choker style rope the kennel gave us, once we got a harness then her performance vastly changed (still work to do though)
All-in-all, I think we got pretty lucky and am super excited for the newest addition to our family. My wife was not aware of the gas and snoring ... the snoring she thinks is cute though
I'm not real sure about the weight. She looks thick and strong to me but I don't know what ideal is. The other, I guess, "immediate concern" I have is that at about 5 this morning I suddenly awoke to what sounded like her choking on something in the twins room (she snuck in there and climbed in bed with one of them). I ran in immediately and she would make like a cough/sneeze like sound a couple times then almost gag like she was about to throw up, nothing came out and then she would look at me and start wagging her rear. This happened for about the first 15 minutes of the morning and then mostly subsided with a couple very random occasions throughout the day. What research we've done so far seems to point to maybe kennel cough or something called "reverse sneezing" both of which sound mostly harmless from what I've read. I'll be calling for first vet appointment right after I finish writing this but since she appears OK after a minute or so then I didn't think it warranted an emergency visit.
Right off the top of my head that's all I got ... sorry there isn't more. Thanks everyone!
And probably the part of my post you're really looking for :D :
to EBN.... what a beautiful lucky girl! thank you for adopting her and giving her a new chance at a great life!
to the site.
