My golden oldie, Gander Bear, still acts like a three year old even though he turned 10 years last month. With my recent loss of Belle he is now the patriarch of the kennels and along with his litter sister, Grace, whom I co-own with a family in Indiana, the main guinea pig for my efforts to learn how to keep Newfs living fully to their genetic potential.
With Belle, the challenge was to prevent cancer, especially bone cancer, which took her dam at 11 and a litter sister at eight years. Gander Bear poses a different challenge however as he has the body type most often connected with bloat and his sire died of this at age 11.
Gander Bear and Grace are on the latest kibble that I am testing, EVO Herring & Salmon. This kibble has the advantage, among other things, of only needing a small quantity, in their cases, two cups a day; they also get a can of sockeye and two large Milk-Bone biscuits daily.
This past weekend, a photographer came out with his kids to take pictures of two hard to adopt rescue fosters to show on the website how good they are with young children . The kids, a five year old boy and an eight year old girl, were so darling that I offered them dog cart rides after the photo shoot. Gander Bear was only too happy to oblige both the kids and the photographer and when I get the pictures I'll share.