This is 'Food', one of Thor's caretakers. I've managed to crack Thor's password and hack into his blog. I want to provide a little perspective on Thor's life, our life with him and our experiences.
Thor turns 6 months old next week and its been an incredible experience for both 'Love' and I. If you've not already surmised, he is a pure-bred French Bulldog, and at 6 months, he should be at the end of his growth cycle - except for his head.
We're hoping for a bigger head. Many posts and articles on the 'net say that it can take up to 2 years for the head to fully fill out. He's is still a little small for his body.
He, at least to us, is the most handsome, beautiful looking French Bulldog on the planet...but we're obviously biased.
He's a bit over 28 lbs at the moment - the top of his breed class weight. If he goes over, oh well, we won't be showing or breeding him anyway.
Choosing a French Bulldog was a 6 month long 'negotiation' for the two of us. I've had a Boxer, Newfoundland, Norwegian Elkhound, Mastiff and Bullmastiff. So I like BIG dogs and got really hooked on the Bullmastiff and a gentle, smart, brave giant. Love, on the other hand, likes smallish dogs: shih tzu, pekingese, pomeranian, etc. (sigh).
We finally met in the middle with the French Bulldog. Love was not sold on the ears at first, but after enough texts of Google'd Frenchy pics, she got hooked.
Frenchy's are stocky, short legs, strong, brave, smart and stubborn...but we really had no idea.
We wanted to find a rescue. And for another 6 months we looked and looked. Between us being too picky on color, gender, age and quality, and that they are just very hard to find as rescue dogs, we failed to find exactly what we wanted. The other thing we found, that while this is a fairly uncommon breed, rescue shelters either have very long waiting lists, or they are snatched up as soon as they photo is posted. I ran into this with a local shelter. I saw the 'perfect' Frenchy for us on the web site one afternoon (from checking it every day). By the time I got home, he was gone. Didn't even get a chance to show Love his photo.
Thor Stocky:
Our Son, Toys (as Thor calls him), and his wife, Toes, have an American Cocker Spaniel (Twinky)
Thor is noticeable smaller than Twinky, but weighs the same. And none of it is fat.
Thor has Short Legs:
Ground clearance for Thor is a tight 4 inched. This made putting in the Dog Door a challenge. When he sits down, his chest is barely 2 inches off the ground. And when he runs in hunkers down like a a sports car gripping the road around tight corners. I'll try to get some video, its fascinatingly funny.
Thor is Very Strong:
He can knock you over if you're not watching. While he is only 12" high at the shoulders, he can stretch up to almost 3 feet tall on his hind legs. With his weight, density and powerful back legs, he can knock over much more that you'd think.
Thor is Brave:
He has only showed fear once to thunder, now it doesn't bother him anymore. He's not aggressive to other dogs, cats, people, or cars, but never misses a chance to check them out whenever possible, no matter how big, small or loud. And Thor gets into everything and anything he can - totally without fear. That gets him in trouble sometimes.
Thor is Very Smart:
In fact, we'd say he's too smart. We've taught him sit, down, roll-over, speak, high-five, shake hands, and some Chinese words - all before he was 3 months. But if you don't have food in your hands, he'll just ignore you. No gain for him, so why bother. And he's managed to get out of his crate before as well...still not sure how.
I was struggling getting a box spring into the storage closet the other day. While I was pushing, grunting and cursing trying to get it in the door - Swear to you! - he came over, sat down next to the box spring and put his left paw against it and started pushing and grunting with me. Wish I hand my camera!!
Thor is Stubborn:
OMG! We read about the breed extensively before deciding on a Frenchy. We knew they were stubborn. We had no idea just how much so. If he is fixated on something (a toy, food, a leaf, etc) he will not pay any attention to you whatsoever. He need to poke him in the side, or stick a treat in his face. If he is doing something bad, forget yelling at him. I've yelled, screamed, pounded on the floor, trying to show him I'm upset and he just thinks I'm playing. He has never showed fear or remorse for anything (unlike my Boxer who had a conscious and actually felt sad for upsetting me). This makes it very hard to train him with anything other than food. And the only way we've found to get him to stop bad behavior is to give him something else more interesting to do.
I was going to embed some audio of Thor snoring and whining, but that appears to be next to impossible in blogger. (Of course, Thor may have caught on to what I'm doing and disabled it...I dunno
In the end, though, we both feel we made the best decision getting a French Bulldog. Naming him Thor was also equally appropriate.
He is a real people dog. Always wants to be around you. Misses you desperately when you are gone and hardly ever barks. We look forward to have a very long, healthy life together.
Now, I better go before the Thor Beast finds out what I have done...
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