Happy 9th Birthday Bob!

Nine years ago we welcomed the cutest, tiniest, bulldog puppy into our lives:

I'll admit Bob hasn't always been the easiest dog.  Despite early training and an excellent background he has always been a nervous nelly.    When he was about a year old he got into several fights with Ping that really scared us and lead to my husband getting bitten and us contacting a behaviorist who helped us work things out.  He has never been a social butterfly and has always preferred to stay home rather then go out on adventures, but he still managed to pass his GCG, canine good citizen, test.   Bob has made all of our efforts more then worth it.  I am eternally grateful to his wonderful breeder Mary Jo for bringing him into our lives.  Sadly Mary Jo passed away a year and a half ago, on the some day that our Norbert passed, at the much too young age of 47.    She was an amazing breeder, trainer, and dog advocate and I'm so honored to have one of her dogs.  

Anyway, we celebrated nine of Bob this Saturday and I think he had a pretty great time.  There where presents, Bob is are only dog who opens his own presents:

I was really excited to find  a retro Gumby dog toy

and cake.  

Actually the cake was a pup pie

I got on amazon and I wasn't completely happy with it.  It was a little hard and while Bob ate it, he didn't appear to love it and this dog loves to eat.  I felt a little bad his cake wasn't more special.

We also took some pictures on our front porch:

 

We also took Bob for a little solo outing downtown, but I forgot my camera.  Bob can be nervous when out in public, though he doesn't typically show it. When we take him out we take him out alone or with just one or two other dogs so we can really focus on him.   We also never take him to places that are two crowded or stressful.  On Saturday we went on a walk by the pier and it wasn't too packed.  I try to stay hyper aware of everything and Bob was doing very well until we passed a cafe where a large poodle mix dog was sitting with its owner.  The dog had a long leash and was able to lunge out at Bob, who was passing politely on a short leash.  The dog was barking and snapping aggressively and Bob responded in kind.  Thankfully, since we had Bob on a short leash we were able to get him away, not easy as he is strong.  The owner of the other dog had not been paying any attention until the explosion of barking and he responded by hitting his dog.  It really bothered me.  As I said we are always extremely careful with Bob, because despite his polite on leash behavior and thanks to lots of training he actually appears better behaved then our other dogs, I know he has the potential to bite another dog, or person, out of fear.   It is my job to protect by stopping things that upset him from happening, and I do feel like I failed a bit.   I do wish the other owner had been more aware though. 

All in all it was a good birthday though.  Nine is a pretty advanced age for an english bulldog, but we are hoping for many more  years together.