Bonita of Bwana
Posted : 11/29/2008 6:57:46 PM
Thank you the black nose is Zion, He thinks he is rather amazing himself! He is a Horse however and will have to be carefully matched to prevent breeding over sized pups down the road. He will also have to be kept in condition since he is a large boned boy if he gains weight to quickly he can blow out his joints very easily. He will be a challenge as he would happily eat any and everything !
Some RRS tend to hold every calorie since they go from racing companion to couch potato in a flash. Wyatt has such a lovely head and his chest is strong and deep (That chest also will hide his weight gain .) It would be a challenge to coax some of his "couch" pounds off , He may need to simply adjust to a maintenance diet? Because of their metabolism a simple gain of 10 -15 pounds can really alter the way they move and appear. I had offered to keep Kota for a year while his mom moved to New York City, she was starting a business and would be working very long hours. Kota came back to me at 93 pounds!! He went home in September at 78 pounds he is muscled and happy. His mom loves him to death and did not realize he had picked up all the extra weight until she saw my face LOL it was so funny. same thing with my darlin Mtzee and Miranda they were skinney minnies one day and chunky monkeys the next. Until I saw it in a photo it just did not dawn on me. Mtzee I have been able to bring down to a correct weight, but Miranda will most certainly carry 10 too many no matter what I do. She is not into running and at 10 years old I am not going to go boot camp on her.With a large pack it is a constant challenge extra weight is really hard on a deep chested dog so I had to struggle to avoid the family traps that chunk them up. I only feed one meal a day and all snacks are very small bite sized , I trade ice cubes made from bullion and frozen chicken wings for all higher fat treats in the summer. In the winter they have a bone meal once every 10 days , a large venison bone in their crate for the older kids and the younger ones get a bowl of roasted veggies . And I had to insist the dogs be crated for every meal. Otherwise the kids tend to share a lot of items they did not want to finish. Multiply that by 5 and that is a bunch of calories every day !! Wyatt is young and healthy and he has an amazing profile and headpiece, I admit it I am a Head hunter! Heads and movement make me swoon.
Bonita of Bwana