It's hard to stay awake watching the TV.

 

Another night watching television. The excitement must have tired everyone out. This is what I found when I turned off the TV to go to bed.

Rottweilers celebrate the 4th of July.

 

Here is a picture of my baby Ruff sitting in front of our new Rottweiler flag. That isn't him on the flag and Ruff isn't a baby anymore.

 

Spring and Summer still waging a battle.

 
This will be a year for new records in the weather book. Spring was a washout, literally, with 20+ days of rain in April alone. So far this year we have surpassed the average rainfall for the entire year and stand only a few inches of the all time annual rain. But the good news is we have managed to squeeze out a few good days with temps in the mid-80's.

That means some time to take more pictures outside. Here are a few taken with our best friends on the back porch.

This is a rare photo of Axl giving his Mom a kiss.

Then I put the camera in Jackie's hands and she captured a few of me.

Next up will be the 4th of July. And the possibility of some more rain.

 

The animal population is exploding.

  
In just the past two days we have seen unusual activity with our local animal population. There seems to be more of them and they are everywhere. This must be a result of the abundant rainfall we've been having and the growth of vegetation. Yesterday, we took the guys for a walk down back after dinner and something very funny happened.

Ruff and Axl were doing their usual nose-to-the-ground tracking - following every scent they could find. I spotted two rabbits running across the back of the property but they were so far away that I knew Ruff and Axl couldn't see them because they hardly look up from their tracking. I commented to my wife Jackie that Ruff couldn't spot a rabbit unless one popped up under his nose and less than 10 seconds later (literally) a rabbit popped up from under the Blue Spruce right in front of Ruff and it took off running. Ruff was startled for a few seconds but the he took off right after it. Ruff was no match for the speedy rabbit and he gave up after about a few hundred feet. I was afraid he would run too far so I stopped him from chasing it with some loud calls. I don't know how far he would have gone if I hadn't. By the time Ruff stopped the rabbit was a couple of hundred yards ahead of him and was still going.

Then this morning I was standing at the kitchen sink looking out the window and saw a Chipmunk in the bird feeder we hung outside the window. We put small pieces of old bread out for the birds and enjoy watching them. While the Chipmunk was cleaning up the scraps a Blue Jay flew down and landed at the feeder and both of them scared each other and jumped off.

Last year Ruff and Axl spotted a deer come out of the woods and they ran after it but didn't get too far. Luckily the wild critters can easily outrun our dogs.

   

Even watching movies in the daytime makes them sleepy.

 

We started out this morning watching the movie Open Season 3 on the BluRay player. I planned on returning the films I rented right after lunch but when the movie ended I was the only one still awake. So every time I saw the Rottweilers sleeping while we watched movies at night I thought it was just getting late that made them tired. Now I know, it is the movies.

 

What do your shadows do when they're not working.

People who own Rottweilers (and who are owned by their Rottweilers) know that this amazing breed has two notable characteristics. One, they listen in on all your conversations, and Two, they follow you everywhere like a shadow. Same here in our house. This is the reason for the catchy blog post title. Yesterday afternoon my wife was in her bedroom straightening up her dresser and as I passed by the door I spotted our two boys, Ruff and Axl, sound asleep on her bed with their heads resting on the pillows. I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures and after a few Ruff opened his eyes and started to wake up. I think this picture looks cute.

To answer my own question, what do shadows do when they're not working? They take a nap.

I just had to throw in one more picture here on the subject of napping because they also sleep when you are watching television. Like Ruff.

  

 

A few words about Breed Specific Legislation and the forgotten history of the Pit Bull.

This blog is about my Rottweilers but apart from my love and interest in this breed I am concerned that my best friends share a misdirected connection to a list of what some people claim are "dangerous dogs". Most people only know what they read about in the newspapers or see on TV. Surprisingly, many lawmakers fall into the same category. Take Pit Bulls, for example. They are banned in Cincinnati and in many cities in Northern Kentucky because "everyone" knows they are vicious and dangerous. Really! Have you ever heard of the term Nanny Dogs? You will be very surprised to read some 100-year old history on Pit Bulls in America and see the photos contained in the stories below. The first is a story on Yahoo News but the second contains more info and a lot more photos. 

Pit bulls’ surprising past: Nanny dogs

By Claudine Zap | The Upshot – Thu, Jun 2, 2011

Try to quickly summon an image of good-with-small-children dog, and chances are you'll picture something adorably Benji-shaggy. Or maybe a sweetie-pie golden retriever, or a loveball of a lab. It's not likely, at least not in today's perception of the breed, that an American pit bull terrier leaps to mind.

But not so long ago, pit bulls were brought in as "nanny dogs," the trusted caretaker pups to watch over kids.

Vintage photographs recently posted on a personal blog show off the breed as babysitter.

It's striking--and quite sad--to see such documentation of how beloved the now-maligned dog once was. The very same American pit bull is now more often associated with Michael Vick's dogfights, and stories of household pets gone bad, sometimes tragically involving kids.

In the case of Vick, who was convicted of running a dogfighting ring, 47 of the pit bulls from his kennel were taken to animal sanctuaries or adopted. One rehabilitated dog named Mel, who moved to Dallas with a new owner, even received an edible key to the city.

But back to the breed's history as a family dog: Helen Keller had a pit bull. Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote "Little House on the Prairie," owned one, too. And Petey, the mascot pup with the black eye patch in "The Little Rascals?" Pit bull.

Over time, the breed, which was also bred to battle bulls and fight other dogs, picked up a reputation for a nasty nature. Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who is around the breed every day, says it's people who should be blamed, not the breed. He writes on his website, "Pit bulls get a bad rap because of irresponsible owners."
Responsible owners include Jon Stewart, Alicia Silverstone, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel, and Jessica Alba.

FOR OVER ONE HUNDRED YEARS AMERICANS KNEW PIT BULLS FOR WHAT THEY DID BEST. BABYSITTING.

Posted on May 4, 2011 by YWGROSSMAN 

Astoundingly, for most of our history America’s nickname for Pit Bulls was “The Nanny Dog”. For generations if you had children and wanted to keep them safe you wanted a pit bull, the dog that was the most reliable of any breed with children or adults. 

The Nanny Dog is now vilified by a media that always wants a demon dog breed to frighten people and LHASA-APSO BITES MAN just doesn’t sell papers. Before pit bulls it was Rottweilers, before Rottweilers it was Dobermans, and before them German Shepherds. Each breed in it’s order were deemed too vicious and unpredictable to be around people. Each time people wanted laws to ban them. It is breathtakingly ironic that the spotlight has turned on the breed once the symbol of our country and our national babysitter. 

In temperance tests (the equivalent of how many times your kid can poke your dog in the eye before he bites him) of all breeds the most tolerant was the Golden Retriever. The second most tolerant was the pit bull.

Read the rest of this interesting story and see the great pictures.

The American Temperament Test Society has conducted over 30,000 temperament tests on over 175 breeds of dogs since 1977. The latest test statistics are posted on the link to their web site. The web site explains the way the tests are conducted. Pit Bulls and Rottweilers are closely matched in their range of temperament with 83.7% of Rottweilers passed and 86.4% of the Pit Bulls tested passed. Consider some of these other test results of common breeds.

Breed Name	# Tested	# Passed	# Failed	% Passed
American Pit Bull Terrier	804	695	109	86.4%
American Staffordshire Terrier	627	528	99	84.2%
Beagle	72	58	14	80.6%
Bloodhound	32	23	9	71.9%
Chihuahua	38	27	11	71.1%
Cocker Spaniel	227	186	41	81.9%
Golden Retriever	764	649	115	84.9%
Jack Russell Terrier	63	53	10	84.1%
Labrador Retriever	773	714	59	92.4%
Rottweiler	5,446	4,558	888	83.7%
Staffordshire Bull Terrier	117	105	12	89.7%
Standard Poodle	249	215	34	86.3%

Many lawmakers have opposed Breed Specific Legislation after reading the true facts in these temperament tests. Unfortunately, too many lawmakers have either not seen these facts or had some other agenda in passing the breed bans.

If you are against Breed Specific Legislation please send these links to your local lawmakers. Common sense says the only fair measurement is to "Punish the Deed, not the Breed".

I also remember the case about Michael Vick, the NFL quarterback who went to jail for running a dog fighting ring with his Pit Bulls. While the story got a lot of publicity because it focused on the ferocity of the Pit Bulls and the notoriety of who was involved, what didn't get a lot of press was the story about what happened to the 49 Pit Bulls that were taken from Vick and turned over to a dog rehab facility. Read about them here. Those abused Pit Bulls were given a lot of love and kindness and in less than a year were all adopted out to families, many with children.

State governments, like Kentucky, have insurance regulations that are written to protect the interests and profits of the insurance companies.  Insurance companies are in the business of selling risk but when they can eliminate coverage for a risk they can maximize their profits. Those big political contributors representing the insurance companies have persuaded our legislature to allow insurance companies the right to refuse to issue homeowner's insurance policies to people who own any breed of dog that is supposed to be vicious. Not by the actions of the particular dog but by some preconceived image such as what you get from some sensationalized news story. Likewise, many jurisdictions have no laws that hold the owner of a dog responsible for the actions of the dog even though it has been shown that any dog who is abused or neglected or denied love will become mean. Interestingly enough, human children react the same way.

Please pass this on.