Hi everyone, Tito here again,

Doesn't time fly, I can't believe it's 4 months since I last posted an update here. Things are going really well with me, I'm learning lots and lots and having a great life down here.

All my training is paying off and mum and dad are really proud of me, both how I behave and how I look, as well as the obedience stuff mum and dad also take me out to lots of different places so I get to experience lots of things and meet lots of other dogs and people.

As the weather is improving the other dogs get left out in the garden when mum and dad go out for a while and recently they have started to leave me out with them as well. It was a bit strange at first but I'm used to it now and it's so much better than being shut in my crate.

One thing I can't get used to though is being left the run of the house at night, mum and dad will leave me on the dog beds or in my crate with the door open, depending on where I have fallen asleep. However, after about an hour I wake up and then spend the next hour going in and out of their bedroom till one of them will get up and put me in the crate and lock the door. I guess I'm just not ready for it yet, I seem to like to feel safe and secure when I'm sleeping.

I have to go now but I wanted to say hi again and let you know how I was getting on, below are some photos dad took of me a couple of weeks ago when I was 9 months old.

Tito.

Now to be called 'Preglington hound' (hound by the pound). In which we examine the physical and mental challenges faced by a family with a Corso growing by the day

I have been slightly remiss in not keeping a better account of her pregnancy, and there is much to ponder. I'll admit that the initial mating seemed more of a giggle than anything, we genuinely didn't think she'd take. Well she did! And then some!

Pres and I have an odd relationship. For someone so closely involved with dogs, and their happiness, I don't consider them in the way that a lot of owners seem to. Pres is, of course, part of the family; but a canine part, and therefore subject to different treatment than the humans. When she initially arrived, and for the first year, I was ready to give her up if her hips were bad. And that's an odd situation for an owner, you have to keep something back, in a strange way, this is part of the reason she's such an amazing dog now. She was treated very much as 'the dog' lest my heart implode at the news of a bad score. Bugs was (and is) very much the baby of the family and as such, was seen by Pres as a natural pack leader (heaven help us!)

So, fast forward a few years and a belting hip score later (she's a 12 doncha know....!) and 'the dog' is going to have babies. Having recently given birth myself I have an enormous amount of sympathy for how she's feeling now (uncomfortable, eating frozen bread rolls...hang on....that was me....) but my mind strays more to the aftermath.

As with my children, I am now responsible not just for her, but for her children, and her grandchildren. Are the owners out there who will have these babies come to live with them as dedicated as me? Will they be healthy? Am I unleashing a chain that will result in five years time in me descending on a rescue centre to find one of my grandpups emaciated and alone? Am I the measure of this?

I am as responsible as Jo for what happens to these future generations, and my life has been shaped by it. We recently purchased a house. We could have afforded a nice 3 bed with a tiny garden which would have seen our family right for 5-10 years. Instead we have a 5 bed house with an enormous garden and room for kennels, and it's taken every penny we have, and some of our close family's too. Just in case.

I suddenly feel for Jo in a way I never have before. Watching my girl huff and puff and wobble her way around, the way she tries to run and decides she'd much rather lay on her back in the sun (which we did today, together, for the last time in a long time) the pain I know she must now go through, the pain I must now go through, and the grim determination that it is worth it. I am handing my dog over to the only person I trust to whelp her safely, and that includes myself. We are contributing.

Any minor sympathies I had for someone who 'churns' out a litter or two and doesn't seem to understand the implications has now evaporated. Anyone who cares an iota for their dog would never put them through this for money; or without the knowledge that the end justified the agony. Without the inherant guilt that comes with being a parent.

So Mrs Lueck, I salute you. I respect you, and I'm with you. Every day, every dog.

In which Presley reminds me why I LOVE Corsos so much...

Pres and I went on our first unaccompanied jaunt into the park in the sunshine, Pres on her Dogmatic at first, then her flat collar, then off-leash; and it was during this off-leash moment that she gave me the chance to use a phrase I'd never have dared without her beside me!

As we tramped up a hill we encountered a group of teenage boys who decided that a lone woman with a pushchair was fair game for a bit of showing off...

They half-heartedly blocked my path (to set the scene, Pres is invisible at this point, having decided to go and investigate a rabbit warren in the forest) in their gangly teenage glory (purleeeeeese - they can't have been more than 10 stone sopping wet) and blurted as I passed "Fancy a 5-some darlin?"

Oh dear.

Now, had I been a lone Mummy out for a stroll I might have been mildly intimidated by that. Me being me I let out one of my piercing whistles (ask Jo - they're deafening) and Preslington hound came bounding out of the undergrowth on cue looking for all the World like an angry bear and planted herself dutifully at my feet.

I like to diffuse tension with humour, so grinned up at the boy who blurted out the comment and winked "not so brave now are you? Eh? Big boy?"

And invited them all over to say hello, with my usual response to the comment 'is she gonna bite me?'

"Well, she's friendly until I tell her not to be - take a chance!"

More grinning.

After supervising them cleaning up all their rubbish, which was blowing everywhere, we continued on our stroll. During which I thanked Miss hound for letting me utter those words....!

Well we are now into week four, for me this the make or break period in a puppies life, they are developing their senses and need to be constantly stimulated.

They sleep in their whelping box, but in the daytime and during feeding they are placed into their indoor play pen by the window in an almost indoor outdoor situation. Their diet now is the key, I must give them a varied range of foods so that they are not fussy eaters when they grow up, so far they have had:

Scrambled eggs with shells
Chicken carcasses
Liver
Deer
Lamb mince and ribs
Minced rabbit
Tripe (by the bucket load)
Carrotts raw
Mince and veg mix
Herrings raw whole (which they left as gave them a bit too young)

They are growing well but are not huge puppies, which is good, they remind me very much of Rumba's litter at this sage, so am a bit excited about that and I am very impaitent - I am wanting them to be bigger and running around outside, which will be done around 6 weeks, depending on the weather.

They are very active, agile and playful, not overly dominant with each other and of course little Susa is the one with bags of personality, she may be small but that does not stop her standing in the middle of the food bowl so that no one else can eat from it.

Clio is much much much better, still painfully thin but now that I am in charge of feeding the puppies hopefully she will gain back her condition quickly.

My days are spent on the phone dealing with enquiries, I now know what people are 'good' owners and who not, jack the lads (which there are many) or hooray henries really are not what I am looking for and my first rule is to join here, which is not a lot to ask and the amount that say they will and then do not is astounding, but for me this community is as equally important as the puppies themselves. I want to keep in touch, I want them to be part of this wonderful group, the support here is invaluable and those who do not take me up on the offer always are the ones that ring me with behaviour problems down the line.

I am very proud that one of my puppies is off to Dubai, from all the breeders in all the world this pup was chosen, so I am sad she will leave me, but happy that great owners will be getting a great puppy.

Its 7.08 on a Tuesday morning and they have just finished their scrambled egg so now I have to go change their box before they go back inside...

Puppies are sheer bliss

After giving the brave soldier George his medication and the results of his CAT scan and LAB report......



Nurse Sofia settled the little man down to rest whilst she kept a close and worried eye.



B