Update ....

Wow, how time flies! I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated this! Sorry about that folks. A lot has been happening around here: Kane is recovering from his TPLO surgery and I've started a new job working with a bed bug sniffing dog!

I work for a pest control company which employs dogs trained to sniff out bed bugs as one of the services they offer. I'll be working and training with one of the dogs. Her name is Aggie (or Agent 99), she's under two years old, and is a golden retriever. I haven't actually met her yet, as she is still in training, but from what everyone else has said, she is smaller than their other golden (a male named Magnum), has a deep reddish color to her coat, and is sweeter and more laid-back than him.

I've been studying for the past two weeks to pass my state certification tests on Tuesday; two thick binders full of pesticide information, laws, and identification of pests. Even though I won't actually be applying the pesticides or even doing anything with them in my job, they want me to be certified to make sure I have the information down for any clients that might ask me questions. The pay is several dollars above what I was earning at my previous job, comes with full benefits, a company car, a gas card, and everything I spend on Aggie (toys, crate, grooming, etc) is reimbursed.

The only thing I'm a little nervous about is the fact that Aggie will be living with me. Kane is going to lose his mind with happiness about having another dog around the house to play with, and he's not allowed to lose his mind with happiness for another 3 months.

Kane's recovery has gone well, for the most part. He's using his leg better than he was before the surgery, although he's still preferring to toe-touch when he stands. He's putting weight on the leg and actively using it when he walks, but he still has a limp, which I'm hoping will go away over the next couple of months during recovery. He has an x-ray scheduled for the end of the month at MSU to make sure his leg has healed properly before the surgeon signs off on a "return to activity" directive.

We had to wait an extra week to take his stitches out because at some point, he managed to lick at his incision without me noticing, despite the inflatable donut collar he was wearing. Sneaky dog. So I had to switch cones to a bite-not collar. Have several pictures I snapped during the first couple of weeks he was home.

This is the cone collar they gave him at MSU. It was huge and it freaked him out. He'd sulk with it on, lowering his head, and get it caught on a crack in the pavement. He'd freeze and look at me for help. So, I'd have to reach down, free it from the crack, and nudge him to keep walking. Rinse, lather, repeat.

I could barely fit his cone through the door of his crate. And then when he laid down, it ballooned out. I knew he need a different cone, so off to Petsmart I went.

I came home with this. An inflatable, donut-type collar. He liked this much better, probably because he could see around him.

After the first week, I allowed him out of his strict, 24/7 crate rest because he was making the both of us crazy.  On the condition that he would lay down on the air mattress and BE. QUIET. I'd bought the air mattress because there was no way I was carrying him upstairs to bed with me and he yodels if he has to sleep by himself.

His incision, 2-3 days after I took the bandage off. Sorry for gratuitous weiner. 

He didn't like his bite-not collar because he couldn't turn his head.

You can see how much they shaved here. Down his surgery leg and over one hip to the other. But they left his tail alone.

The collar gave him a lot of bad ear days. :)

I was going to include some APBT history in with this post, but it's already longer than I expected with the pictures and such, so I'll save that for tomorrow.

I'll feature another legendary APBT, Garrett's Jeep ROM  (son of famous CH. Crenshaw's Honeybunch ROM) as well as the "keep", or conditioning, James Crenshaw followed for all of his dogs. Each dogman has a different "keep" he follows to get his dogs in fighting shape for their matches and I hope to compare them.