Xenobia
Sweet Georgia X Nigel Bear
Born:June 20, 2008
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011
Subject: Re: XenobiaJune 20,08,
Lucy,
Here is an update on Xenobia. It’s been quite some time since I sent you anything. We had her in for shots on Jan. 22nd, and at that point she was 35.5″ tall, and weighed 188lbs.She may not be as tall, but she is definetely built along the lines of her daddy Nigel Bear. Over this last year her recall has been getting better and better, plus she never goes too far away when we are at a dog park. Like Hank she turns lots of heads when we are out walking, and when we are walking both we tend to get a lot of comments on how beautiful and well behaved our dogs are yelled to us out of passing car windows.
I have over the last few months been working on some reactivity with Xenobia (most of which I am beginning to understand is stemming from me being uncomfortable around some neighborhood dogs) but despite that she has like Hank about a dozen doggy pals in the neighborhood that tend to meet at the schoolyard each evening. Unlike Hank though she is a favorite of 4 puppies. A Springer spaniel, a Portugese Water Dog, a French Bulldog, and a Cairn Terrier. They all delight in running circles around her, and jumping up and licking her lips, and when they have tired her out and she lays down, she will still let them caper around her. It is really very sweet to watch. They are all about 7 or 8 months old and she has known all of them since they were about 3 months old.
She had lots of fun in the snow yesterday, I’m just sorry that it was already melting today. Like me she tends to like to go stand out in the snow as its coming down, but we’ve had so little of it the last 2 years she hasn’t really been able to enjoy it.
Hope you enjoy the pics and hope to see them on her webpage soon.
Maria and Rick O.
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Subject: Xenobia ( Sweet Georgia X Nigel Bear)
Dear Fredericka and Lucy,
How was your Christmas? It’s been about 6 months and I thought it was time I gave you an update on Xenobia who just turned 19 months old on Jan 20th.
All is going well. At her vet check for her 1 yr booster shots she weighed 175 lbs and she stands 35 inches at the shoulder. She is indeed an impressive sight walking down the street. She has lots of doggie friends in the neighborhood including an 11 months old Beagle named Bingo that was adopted by neighbors just down the hall from us.
In the summer Xenobia discovered that she liked the water, and whenever we went to Trout Lake she would spend most of her time standing neck deep in it instead of playing with the other dogs. In August we went on a camping trip to Lake Selmac in Oregan with a number of other American Mastiff owners from the West Coast including Izzy (Elizabell V) and Xenobia learned to swim.
The fall unfortunately was very wet this year and we had only one afternoon of snow so she didn’t have the same winter fun she did last year chasing snowflakes.
As she has gotten older she is slowly losing her puppy silliness, although she still has a bout of “zoomies” at some point during the day and she still looks gangly when she runs around. People on the street (especially guys) are always so surprised to see how easy it is to walk with her even though she is so big and she has made a number of people friends in the neighborhood, including one or two people who were afraid of dogs.
As you will be able to see from one of the pics sooner or later we are going to have to invest in a king size bed, as neither one of us has the heart to push her off at night unless she’s really in the way (and she always tries so hard to be tiny as a mouse when she climbs in)
Thank you again for such a wonderful dog!!!
Maria and Rick
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Subject: Xenobia
Lucy and Fredericka,
Thought I’d send you a few more pics of Xenobia.
On June 20, ’09 she was 1 yr old, weighed 150.6 lbs, and was 33 1/2 inches at the shoulder.
On Canada Day we took her to the Dog Park at one of the local beaches, and she had a blast. It was a beautiful sunny and windy day, so it wasn’t too hot, and there was a pretty good surf to play in. She didn’t know what to do with the water at first, but finally decided that foam was fun to try to catch. She also found some fun dogs to play with, and had some rough and tumble time. We managed to coax her up to her ankles into the water, but, she was still a little unsure about it even though there were lots of other dogs rushing right in.
A week later we were back at Trout Lake, and lo and behold she decided it was too hot to stand on the shore, when all the other dogs were in and out looking mighty cool, and she went all the way in to her elbows. She spent most of the 2 hours we were there running back and forth along the shore, and following the other dogs in. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera, but just before we left, she stuck her head under water until only her ears were left sticking up. The first time she did it she looked extremely confused, but she must have liked the feel of it, ’cause she did it twice more right afterward.
Everything else is going very well. She has over the last 10 months won over several of the people in the building that did not like large dogs, and she is becoming less bouncy and more quiet when meeting new dogs on the street, which usually means she doesn’t scare them and gets to say hello more. As you can see from the pics, she is turning into a beautiful girl, and we can’t walk her without getting stopped at least once by someone who just wants to touch her. My daughter Virginia (16) walked her by herself for the first time when I was sick last week, and didn’t have any problems with Xenobia minding her, and also had people questioning her on the street about what kind of dog she was.
Maria and Rick O.
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009
Subject: Re: Xenobia (Sweet Georgia X Nigel Bear) June 20,08 Spay
Fredericka and Lucy,
On Monday Xenobia will be 10 months old so I thought I’d send this to update you.
She weighed 140 lbs and is32 1/2 inches at the shoulders.
She is walking very well on the leash, and we are taking more obedience classes starting next week. She has a number of doggy friends in the neighborhood, as well as some human admirers. We might have to breakdown and buy a King-size bed though. It’s not so bad when she gets on the bed after Rick gets up at 5:30 am to go to work, but it gets a little squishy when she tries to do the same thing on Sat. and Sun. when he’s home, even though she tries to make herself as small as she possibly can. Weather is starting to clear up, now that spring is here, but she doesn’t mind taking walks in the rain.
Thanks a bunch for my loving Xmas present.
Maria
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Subject: Re: Xenobia (Sweet Georgia X Nigel Bear)
Lucy and Fredericka,
Here is an update on Xenobia. She was 8months old last week and weighed in at a lean 123 lbs. She stands 31 inches at the shoulder. She is according to one of my daughters friends the cutest mastiff around, and everybody at Trout Lake (a local park with an off leash area) love her.We are running into a lot of people who have either owned, or have friends that have owned mastiffs, so when they see us doing training in the park they are very encouraging and helpful. She can be very rambunctious, and is in the “all knees and elbows” stage, and is very funny to watch especially when she tries to play with a more agile smaller dog. Over the last month my 16 year old cat who recently developed diabetes has finally decided that she’s not too bad to be around and they can sometimes be found on the couch or the bed together. And… since we made a point of introducing her to our Mailman just after we got her home in August and he always has a pocket full of Milkbones, she has come to associate all mail carriers as dear friends, and was very excited to see our mailman after a couple of weeks when he was back from his vacation.
Dashing through the snow!Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009
Subject: Xenobia (Sweet Georgia X Nigel Bear) June 20,08
Lucy and Fredericka,
We had a break in the snow so were able to take Xenobia to the vet for her weighing.
As of Jan 3rd (28 weeks) she weighed 102 lbs. Here are a couple more pics that wouldn’t fit last time.
We look forward to seeing her on the website some time in the future.
Rick and Maria
To: [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008
Subject: Xenobia
Lucy and Fredericka,
I thought I’d sit down and give you another update on Xenobia.
Most of the pictures I’m sending are from 5-6 months, I added the one at 10 weeks as a comparison.
I don’t know if you remember, but Xenobia was my Christmas present last year, so it was especially fun to buy a couple of Christmas toys for her this year. She is growing well, not too fast and with nice straight clean limbs. We take her into the vet once a month to be weighed. The first time we had her in after her rabies shot the vet came out to look at her after he heard his assistant take her weight because she had grown so much he thought we had maybe been overfeeding her, but no, he was very happy to see she was growing nicely. At five months we took her to visit a vet that specializes in rodents as my daughters degu was ill, and he tried to pry her over to his clinic because he thought she was so sweet.
People have all sorts of reactions to big dogs, but by and large dog lovers always think she is so…….. cute and good natured. When she was about 4 1/2 months old and we had her out for a little walk we had a woman cross the street to see her because she had heard there was a mastiff puppy in the neighborhood. We have had her through her first obedience classes, and will be doing the advanced class at some point in the spring, and we are giving some thought to training her as a Therapy dog, as she is so gentle and quiet with both elderly people and those in wheelchairs.
She has several dog friends in the neighborhood, and her best friend at her puppy class was a 6month old Border Terrier. There is an English Mastiff that lives in our area, but we have only seen him once. She had a lot of fun playing with him, and you could tell by the way they greeted each other they seemed to see distant cousins in each other.
Unlike most Christmases, this year as you can see by the picture we are in the middle of a very white Christmas. We currently have about 12 inches of snow, and Xenobia loves to jump around in it both in our backyard, and in the schoolyard down the block. As the snow has built up she has also taken to burying her head in it to get to the clean stuff, and when she pulls her head out she is munching on a mouthful of snow.
Thank you for my lovely ’07 Christmas present.
She has her appointment to be spayed on Jan 8th, 09. We will let you know that all is well.
Maria AND Richard