Our New Dog: Meet Bullet

Hubby and Kiddo have been asking me for a long time to get a new dog.  It's been about 3 years since the older of our two dogs passed away, and about a year since the second one passed away, and I have to admit it's been mighty quiet around our house.  On the other hand I've really enjoyed not having dog hair everywhere, or worrying about who will care for them if we're not home, or the myriad other things that go along with dog ownership.

Still, we are dog people and we always will be so it was only a matter of time before another dog came into our lives.  We knew we wanted an adult dog because puppies are too much work.  We also knew we wanted a big and/or strong dog, since that is what all three of us like the best (our previous dogs were 90 lbs and 140 lbs, though the bigger on was a bit overweight).  No little yippy pooches for this family!

With that in mind Kiddo and I have been watching Dog Whisperer and It's Me Or The Dog! on TV for the past few months.  I didn't want to make the same mistakes with a new dog that we did with our previous ones, and I also wanted to be sure that there would be nothing to scare people about our dog other than the way he looks.  Little dogs can get away with bad behavior because they really don't seem that scary, but if you have a big dog barking and jumping at you, you're most likely going to be petrified!

Things just have a way of coming together, don't they?  Amidst all this dog talk, my sister informed me that her neighbors were looking for a new home for their 2 year old Rottweiler.  The family has three children plus the mom watches my sister's three kids a few days a week, so they really don't have time to care for such a big dog.  The dad is a police officer so he's on shift work, and that makes things all the more difficult.  The dog came to them as a little puppy; the dad adopted him after he was seized during a drug raid. The dog, Bullet (the dad is a police officer so of COURSE the dog is named Bullet!) had puppy training classes and is great with people and other dogs, according to the family.

SO we decided to do a weekend trial and see if Bullet would be a good fit at our house.  He came home with us on March 17 (that's St. Patrick's Day!) and has been here ever since.

Oh, did I mention that he JUST turned two on March 19 and that he already weighs 120 lbs?  I haven't measured his height, but this is THE BIGGEST Rottie I've ever seen.  He's fantastic!

Of course things did not go quite as smoothly as they could, but I was prepared for this and had already lined up a trainer in advance.  I'll tell you more about Bullet's issues and how we're handling them in another post (which I promise will come soon).

I know that many people are very afraid of Rotties (and Pit Bulls) as a breed , and though I understand why, I also hope to change that perception both through sharing Bullet's experiences here and getting people to meet him in real life.  I hope you'll keep in mind that it is often the owner and the lack of training (or the wrong kind of training) that make a dog mean rather than the breed that makes it that way.

Stay tuned for more on Bullet coming soon!

(Kiddo isn't home or I'd take a picture of him with Bullet so you get a better idea of the dog's size ...)