My first (pet) dog

[jbot]

Yup, he'll usually respond to "gats" or "i'll fucking kill you if you do that again"

[RVTPilot]

Mandingo. Thick, black, and will soon be pushing an oriental kid out of his bed wif his girl.

Congrats on the new pup, and good luck with the training. I have a 4 month old English Mastiff at home now, and she's done real well so far. My $.02...socialize, socialize, socialize. That is good for them.

Then again, being that he's black and needs to be socialized, you should call him Obama.

[jbot]

lulz

yeah, he's about 2~2.5 years old now (when we got him he was somewhere around 1~1.5yrs) and he's pretty good with other dogs. the only thing is, he like nip at puppies when he's at the dog park... almost like he enjoys hazing them. not sure how to stop that to be honest. otherwise, he's friendly to all animals, including humans.

i noticed that, unlike most dogs i've known, he doesn't really stick around to get petted unless he's laying down to rest or sleep. i'm definitely not used to that, but maybe it's a good thing that he's not too needy.

he won't jump up on furniture (couch, bed, etc) although, if you're sitting on the ground, he'll plop down next to you, usually resting his back on your leg or something. when he does that, it almost looks like tod whipped his dong out and set it down next your thigh, except my dog isn't that big.

[jbot]

4 to 4.5 years old update. skip down to the pics if you dont want to read the long long story of him getting sick and almost dying and me being a little bitch about it

earlier this year, we had a pretty bad scare when he developed autoimmune hemolytic anemia. ever since we got him, he would just absolutely inhale his food like his life was the puppy hunger games (where it involves actual hunger, and not killing each other) and one day, he just wouldn't eat as much. and then the next day, he didn't finish his food (totally unthinkable for gatsby) and then he just stopped eating altogether by which point we were very VERY alarmed since he was so food driven before. he had no energy at all, wouldn't greet us at the door, slept in his bed all day, walked very slowly outside to go the bathroom etc etc.

by day 3 of him not eating like he usually does, we took him to his vet and he got a steroid shot and anti-biotics (seems to be the usual first response for illness in pups). after the steroids, he perked up a bit and started eating better, but then reverted just a day or two later. in that time, we started monitoring his poo and pee and found that his pee looked orange, like it had blood in it. we took him back in for his follow up visit, and told him about the weird pee and showed him pictures.

at this point, the vet ran more tests and started him on high dosages of corticosteroids because he suspected hemolytic anemia. by this point, gatsby had stopped eating altogether and would barely get up for anything and sometimes, when he went out to go to the bathroom, he would wander off a bit like he was looking for a place to lay down and die. seeing this change in our normally always-hungry always-happy puppy-faced youthful energetic dog... we were pretty devastated and almost started grieving. we thought he was going to die, and my then-fiance and i had a couple long alone times with the dog to prepare ourselves in case the worst happened and just sat with him in silent love and despair. I know that sounds weird, but i'm not sure how else to describe those moments.

a few days later, the test results came back, and it confirmed the diagnosis. the vet upped the dosage of steroids even more (just as a comparison, someone we knew dealt with still's disease for a long time and was on lighter doses of corticosteroids than our then-50lb dog was) and after a few days, his appetite slowly started coming back over the course of several weeks and would actually get out of bed once in a while. 3 months and several tests and retests later, the vet finally cleared him and by then he was normal and had gotten back to his "healthy" weight of 55lbs.

just in time for thanksgiving dinner

anyway, here he is, more recently:

gatsby serving as a mattress for my niece

gatsby, the ring bearer

[jblosser]

happy for you that your pup is back in fightin' shape! :trophy:

[Habi]

delete

[madcat6183]

Glad all is well, I figured you'd at least through a picture of a turkey all done up and say he was dinner for Thanksgiving. But for real man, glad he's okay, Basco and I have a lot of moments together and my wife and I would/will go crazy when the time comes.

[conn-e-rot]

I am impressed that he hasn't been eaten

[baptizo]

Glad to hear Gatsby is back to his normal self and he's a damn good looking Lab, too.

[OsuMj]

Glad to hear Gatsby is back to his normal self and he's a damn good looking Lab, too.

agree! beautiful dog, glad he's back to normal