I have seen this many times before but last night I decided to take a picture of it. We all went to the kitchen to sit down for dinner and Axl took up his place right beside his Mom. He never leaves her side. Nothing special here but my wife never gets to see these things from my point of view.
Our friend Lucy came by for a visit a few days ago and took my wife out for lunch. Lucy never travels anywhere without her tiny little long haired Dachshund named Tinkerbell. Restaurants frown on pets in the dining areas so Tinker had to stay home with me and the three Rottweilers. That was OK with us and it gave me another opportunity to take more pictures. It wasn't so good with Tinker because she spent most of the time by the front door waiting for her Mom to return. As usual, Ruff was at her side every minute.
The word babysitter is misleading because Tinker is almost twice as old as Ruff, but anyway, we all had a good time together.
I started to write this post around a picture of Ruff that I took a few days ago that reminded me of a photo of my first Rottweiler, Mocha who I always called Mo. That is the photo I had titled Porno Puppy because of her habit of sleeping on her back like a nude centerfold in a men's magazine. Then looking at some early shots of Ruff I came across some of his more relaxed poses that preceded his current pleasures. These are the photos I'm writing about. The first one is of Mocha and her mother Felony taken 10 years ago, when Mo was six. Felony is the one on her back.
It must be an inherited trait. Here is Mocha the Porno Queen posing in 2005.
And now we come back to our big baby Rottweiler, Ruff, who used to be a real baby 4 1/2 years ago when we brought him home. This is the same hassock he is laying on in yesterday's post about the Mugwump.
Ruff, by the way, was a precocious little baby. Here is an accidental photo of one of his nasty little habits.
All baby Rottweilers are adorable as this photo shows. And he did grow up to be such a big love. He only nibbled on noses when he was a wee little thing, Thank God.
So now we see Ruff all grown up and still doing something every day to make us smile. Just by being natural.
And, Yes, Ruff is a centerfold porn star, only this time he belongs in a girl's magazine. LOL. Hey, girls, Ruff has his own email address so you can write him Ruffin@fuse.net
During the 1884 presidential campaign, Mugwumps were often portrayed as "fence-sitters," with part of their body on the side of the Democrats and the other on the side of the Republicans. Their "mug" on one side of the fence, and their "wump" on the other. Today, we call people who cannot make a decision mugwumps because they take up both sides of an issue.
Leaving politics aside for other blogs, I want to tell you about our own resident mugwump, Ruff. One of his favorite positions to watch television is laying across the hassock, just like a mugwump, because his mug is hanging over one side and his wump is hanging over the other.
Last night we watched a double feature that I rented from Blockbuster. We saw the BluRay version of Paul and Mars Needs Moms and they were both very entertaining movies. Of course we didn't watch them alone, we never do. Our faithful companions are always at our sides, ever vigilant in performing their duties to keep us safe and protected. Here are some pictures to prove it. LOL. By the way, if you rent Mars Needs Moms stay watching as the credits stream by at the end. There are several video inserts that show how live actors were used for the computer animation.
Click the pictures for a larger view.
You all know what a couch potato is. That's a person who spends too much time sitting on the couch watching television. Well, in our house the Rottweilers do everything that we do, including watching TV, so that also makes them couch potatoes. Here are a few pictures taken on various nights in recent days during and after we had the TV turned on.
Click the picture to see a larger view.
The real trick is to sneak out of the room to get the camera without waking them up.
Our friend Lucy came over for a visit and brought along her long haired Dachshund named Tinker. They all sat inside and watched a movie while I went out shopping by myself. When I came back, I found Tinker laying on the couch with Ruff while my wife Jackie was sitting next to her best friend Axl on the other couch. You can click this picture for a larger view and you may have to if you want to see how little Tinker is.
One thing the Rottweilers have taught me is that size doesn't make any difference in their world. They have accepted Tinker as a little friend that sometimes comes to visit them. And once in a while they even run around the house playing with each other.
To be precise, we took both Ruff and Axl to Petsmart yesterday, but Axl is so quiet and reserved that he gets very little attention. Ruff, on the other hand, is by no means a wallflower. Ruff loves to meet people and he goes out of his way to do it even when they don't expect it. Today, when we were finished with our twice monthly shopping and picked up our usual 80 lbs of dog food, we got on the checkout line behind a woman who was writing a check to pay for her purchases. Ruff stood up with his front feet on the conveyor belt like he always does so he can greet the cashier but this time he was looking at the woman as she wrote in her checkbook. The woman, who was leaning over to write her check had no clue Ruff was standing behind her, almost looking over her shoulder. She finished and turned to her left and noticed Ruff for the first time. She was face to face with him and she gave him a big smile and Ruff gave her some licks on her cheek and her neck. The woman told Ruff how gorgeous he was and said to me that she used to own a Rottie. She let Ruff give her a few more kisses and then she left the store. Ruff enjoyed his visit to Petsmart as he always does.More good PR work for Rottweilers. ARC ought to put Ruff on their payroll. (ARC is the American Rottweiler Club)
I know some people will say that because the normal body temperature of a Rottweiler is 102 degrees that they are not affected by a 99 degree heat wave like we humans are. Never the less, to see my 120 lb baby Rottweiler Ruff laying out by the pool sunning himself is enough to make me worry that he has already baked his brains. The photo below was taken at high noon today with a telephoto lens from our kitchen window. I apologize for the weeds in the garden, this has not been a good Summer to work outdoors.
My apologies for the misleading title. My over enthusiastic and extremely lovable, 120 lb baby Rottweiler, Ruff, just loves me too much. My wife came in my den and was followed by her two shadows. Her favorite companion Axl came over to me and gave me a lick and this made Ruff try to reclaim his property that he thought Axl was marking for himself. One thing led to another and while I was trying to keep Ruff from climbing on to my lap I asked my wife to grab the camera. Now we have a few more pictures to add to our collection.
This reminds me, did I ever tell you about my theory about Rottweiler saliva helping to make wrinkles go away? I really believe it does.
Wherever Mom goes, her two shadows follow her everywhere. When she visits me in my little den they all come with her, and promptly fall asleep on the floor. I just had such a visit and when I turned around from my computer this is what I saw. Mom is sitting on the chair in the lower right of the photo but my wide angle lens couldn't fit her into the picture.
I know I've said it before but this is what it is like Living With Rottweilers. I wouldn't have it any other way.
I took a photo of my wife Jackie sitting on the couch a few days ago with my "baby" Rottweiler, Ruff, sleeping next to her and it reminded me of another photo I took some 5 years ago of her sitting on the same couch with my first Rottweiler, Mo, sleeping next to her. Hope all of you Rottie lovers enjoy this.
By the way, "baby" Ruff is no longer a "baby" and he is all scrunched up in this photo. When he is by himself on the couch and stretches out he takes up the whole couch. He is much bigger than my old girl Mo used to be.
Celebrating our nation's Independence Day is a big thing around here. We are all ready for it.
Very rarely, once in awhile and for not particular reason, everyone manages to stay awake after a night of watching TV. I still can't explain it. I can play a movie on the BluRay player filled with explosions and gun fire and car chases and everyone sleeps right through it. Other times there may only be some drab, dull programming on TV and it keeps everyone awake. That is the way it was last night.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The weather outside is terrible. What we had for Spring turned out to be almost all rain. April dropped 14 inches and May had 22 days of solid rain. The last two days the afternoon temperature climbed into the low 90's and summer isn't supposed to be here yet. So we all stayed inside and enjoyed the company of our Rottweilers.
After a one-day heat wave, when yesterday's temperature went to 90-degrees, Friday the weather was more like Spring than mid-Summer. After dinner we all went for a walk down to the back of our property and the boys, Ruff and Axl, got to run around. Mom and Sassy came with us, too. Here are some more pictures, including a nice group shot.
Click the pictures for a larger view.
Of course, Ruff got there first and waited for everyone to catch up.
Then Axl decided to show Ruff how fast he could run. Axl is 9 1/2 years old and he still runs faster than our Ruff who is 5 years younger than him.
We have waited to see the Sun for several weeks so the saturated ground could dry out from the near record rainfall we have had. Tuesday was a gorgeous day, temp was in the mid-70's. I managed to do a quick mowing of the grass in spite of the soggy ground. Wednesday started out nice but the temperature climbed to 90 degrees by mid--afternoon and the weatherman said it was like mid-July instead of mid-May. One good thing is we have been able to get the Rottweilers out of the house to play in the backyard. I got some new pictures, too.
Here is a picture of Ruff in front of the Fir trees I planted four years ago. The rain has been very good for them and you can see the abundant new growth on the branches. I took this picture after dinner, about two hours before sunset.
Click the photos for a larger view.
This next picture shows the mud tracks from my lawn tractor after I managed to cut the foot-tall grass a few days ago. That is our boy Axl checking it out.
And here is a very goofy looking picture of Ruff. He decided to shake his head just as I was taking his picture and he turned his face into a rubber mask that just flopped all around. I know this effect can be done in the computer but this is not a photo-shoped image. This is how it looked when I unloaded the camera,
When we came back in the house Ruff climbed up in my lap for a belly rub. I just realized this is the second picture of me in less than a week. I guess my wife got tired of being the only human to be photographed with the three Rottweilers.
