Oh The Carnage! No More Babies For Bentley

Bentley one. Baby nothing. Apparently, Bentley is not a 'baby' kinda guy. We gave him this baby to play with in the back seat of the car. Although the screams from the squeaker were indeed horrifying,the struggle was brief. Approximately six minutes and the baby was halved and eviscerated. No more babies for Bentley.

He is an amazing guy though-in every way except his babysitting abilities. We got him from a rescue. The person that had him before us got him as a pup and trained him really well and took good care of him. He is housebroken, crate trained, knows a lot of commands and is very calm and gentle. He leaves the cat and the rabbit alone. He loves people and other dogs. He is only one year old and is a lab/boxer mix and is as healthy as the small horse he is! His original owner had to give him up because he was moving away and couldn't take care of him. Lucky for us!

The only thing we have to work on is leash training. He was never on a leash before. He was so well trained that his previous owner walked him without one. But since that's illegal here, we will need to train him. When he and I went for a walk early this morning, there were minimum distractions and I was fresh off a nice, big, dose of Cesar Milan's dog training book. He walked like a champ. He's very smart and it won't take long I don't think.

Already we've taught him to sit before any door until we go first and invite in or out. He will also sit before crossing any street until we say it's OK to go. He stays in the living room while we are preparing food or eating a meal-although he's still a little whiney about it! It's all about calm assertiveness and establishing yourself as the pack leader. He responds really well to it. We've taken him to the dog park twice and he is off leash and has his run of the place but always comes loping back when we call him. Pretty good since we just changed his name yesterday and it doesn't sound anything like his original.

We are thrilled with him. We miss Wee Doggie like crazy and appreciated the no shedding, low maintenance, no drool factors a lot. Despite his inherent 'doggieness' Bentley brings a whole different deck of cards to the table! This should be one interesting ride!