Now on to teething

Remy just turned 4 months old on the 28 of Dec. and she is obviously teething. I have noticed her appetite has diminished a bit and she wants to chew anything and everything. She is also sleeping a lot.
As for the chewing I am very fortunate that my wife is so excited to have and care for Remy, because she purchased almost every kind of chew toy Petsmart had from teething rings to chew sticks.
Since Remy is teething I have added alot more chicken leg quarters to her diet so that she can have the bones to chew on I am also giving her apples and carrots out of the freezer, so far Remy seems to be dealing with the teething well be sleeping quite a bit. As you see in the picture she still loves play time it just seems she loses interest a little sooner.
Remy is my first Boerboel and I have been doing a lot of reading on the breed mostly courtesy of the Boerboel forum , thanks to Casper the board moderator and the rest of the Boerboel community I have been very well prepared for Remy's teething behavior, and we are getting thru it together.

House training

Wow!! It seems like things are happening so fast.
We have been working on housebreaking Remy using the crate method as I mentioned before, things were going well then not so well but that is what I expected but I blame us (the family) because when she started doing so well we got away from our program of taking her out at scheduled times and did not pay enough attention to the signals she was sending at potty time. So I should rename my previous entry people and puppy training. I now know it is just as important to develop and stick to expectations for everyone in the house. i have not noticed anymore of the involuntary leaking around the house and my assumption is that Remy has become more comfortable and confident in her own environment and the people she shares it with.
To clean up the spots where Remy used the potty in the house we have been using a product called Urine Off and I think it has help prevent her from marking and peeing in the house. That along with the praise when she performs her business properly has made things begin to roll along smoothly again. Hopefully things will continue and we can call the housebreaking a success.
Remy has been spending more time outside of the crate as a result of her good manners and last night as I was laying down on the couch to watch t.v. she seemed to be tired and automatically went to her crate. I am going to leave the crate in the house for a few more weeks and then I am going to remove it and leave her bedding so hopefully she will know that is her spot.

Beginning training

Before I go to far I need to amend somethings, as I stated we are using the crate method to train house break Remy, I said things were going great, I just wanted to let you know I may have overstated things, so I will correct myself and say things are going well. I just do not want to give anyone the impression that my dog is super duper yet. Remy has an occasional mistake but so far it has only be a little pee pee. When she makes mistakes we do not strike her but admonish her with a stern "bad dog!!!" which seems to shame her and let's her know we are displeased.
As a family (my three boys and my wife) we have been working on basic commands such as sit, come, stay and wait. She is doing alright so far sometimes she is a little hard headed, when she is not listening we try to get her attention by stomping or making a loud noise and then repeating the command in a firm but calm voice, when she listens we give hearty praise and offer treats on alternate consecutive positive responses. We generally work with her for 15 minutes at a time twice a day., and we try to make it fun for Remy and the family, and so far it seems to be working out for everyone, I have noticed that after training the kids are more involved with her during freestyle play time which generally follows our training sessions. We are having a harder time with the stay and wait commands but I am noticing improvement in those areas as well. At feeding time I will generally set her food out in the garage before I let her out of the house and have one of the kids let her out before she gets at the food I will block her call her name and say sit, and then wait I will continue to block her until she complies and the give her some more of that hearty praise she seems to love so much and the set her loose on that tripe. Lately I have also been trying to meet her at the door and give her the stay command backing up two steps at a time until we reach the food and then giving the wait command. I am trying to work in small steps but continuing to build upon what we have been learning.

Finally got my dog

Let me introduce you to Remy, my beautiful South African Boerboel. Remy is four months old(4) as of Dec. 17. I got Ms. Remy from Exotic Boerboels (www.superbreeds.biz) located in Cleveland, Ohio. Remy is a product of Pluto (sire) and Penny (dam). The Boerboel is a member of the Mastiff family and the breed originated in South African. The breed is gaining a following here in the states as a excellent companion and protection dog.
I chose this breed because of it's temperment and its reputation for being extremely good with children. The Boerboel is also known to fight to the death in order to protect its' family.
I was fortunate enough to know Remy's breeder personally,( I highly recommend him if you are interested in this breed he is a very knowledgeable and responsible breeder), so I was able to observe mature Boerboels and one of the thing I noticed and like was the fact that I never really heard the dogs barking but I was aware that my movements were being cautiously observed, even after I became more familiar to them. I did not feel threatened at all in fact I was very comfortable. These are some big dogs and I have seen videos on youtube with these wonderfully powerful animals in full protection mode. I also did alot of research and my conclusion is that these dogs are very intelligent, mild mannered and the ultimate protector.

Remy so far is exhibiting all of the traits that I learned about and observed so far she is learning basic commands and we are in the process of house breaking her, which is going surprisingly well. We are using the crate method with great success so far. We are also training Remy with a release command so that we can enjoy uninterrupted walks. Remy is very curious and observant on walks she is taking everything in, one thing I have noticed and really like is when we encounter other dogs on our walks she quietly watches them and doesn't even appear to be phased by their presence even if the other dog is barking at us.

On the breeders recommendation we are feeding Remy using the BARF (Bones And Raw Food) diet. Her diet consists of raw green tripe and chicken leg quarters. She seems to enjoy her feeding and I have not noticed any bad side effects. I will keep you up to date on the raw feeding as time goes on.



Yesterday for the first time we had company Remy was barking very loud at the unfamiliar adults (who were attempting to be overly friendly but was very receptive to the children, I was very impressed with this reaction and encouraged by her response to strange children. Although she appeared very nervous around the adults I have to remember she is a puppy and they have got to look like giants to her.