Just thought I'd give you a quick update on Calvin.  Everything is going very well.  His training is becoming much easier now that he feels comfortable with me.  He learned to give paw in about 5 minutes last night!  Clever boy.  He is keeping me very active and is a celebrity on my block.  He loves kids and is very gentle with them.  With adults, he still likes to jump.  It's almost as though he knows who can handle his strength and weight and who can't.  We're working on the jumping though.

Daycare has been an enormous success with him as he is learning a lot from the more mature and calmer dogs there.  As for obedience class, he is doing very well.  I refused to use the prong collar that the school asked me to use and I have decided not to use his slip collar because it doesn't seem very nice and I think he actually is less responsive when using that tool.  He responds very well to his Cesar illusion collar and we'll continue using that.  

His recall is still terrible, but the good news is that he doesn't ever go more than 30 ft away from me, thinking that he may lose me.  But we're working on that too.  

I've attached a couple of pictures (of him being mischievous and one of him watching the Dog Whisperer).  But he is great and I am very happy that you guys gave me the chance to adopt him.  I know he'll be a fantastic companion for many, many years to come. 

Update January '14

Despite stealing and eating a couple of mittens from little kids at the dog park, he's made leaps and bounds in terms of development.  Initially, he got kicked out of pretty much every daycare in the city early on, but now has been welcomed back to all of them with open arms.  His enthusiasm seems to be infectious and they love having him around.

He spent the holidays at my parent's house with me and the fam.  I was worried about how it would go, but he was a little angel the entire time.  After we went home, my parents called to tell me how much they miss him!  (They didn't say the same about me though....lol.)

In any case, if you were to see him today, you wouldn't even recognize him.  He listens, he is respectful, he is clever, he is gentle with people and dogs (when commanded) and he seems to be loving the winter (except this past week - had to get him a new coat).

He's a good boy.  He was a crazy little nutjob for the first several months, but now he is a good boy and I'm so happy to have him around.

 

Update May '14

We're coming up on a year now since I adopted Calvin from you guys, and I just wanted to let you know that he is doing amazingly well and is loving life. For all the ups and downs we had this year, we've come out on top. Thank you for letting me adopt him and I know we will have many more very happy years with each other!

Here are some pictures of Hurricane Calvin chilling out, being dumb and playing with his best friend. He's even a bit of a "model" now because his picture won a contest to be on a dog daycare/groomer's facebook page!

P.S. HE IS HUGE NOW. Almost taller than me if he stands up on his hind legs!

Thanks again and I'll try to bring him by for a visit sometime soon!

Update February '15

This boy has always been a character. Sometimes for the wrong reasons :).
But I'm really happy to say that he is now the dog that I knew he could be. He still has tons of energy, but just a fraction of how much he had when I first adopted him. He is polite and sweet now, but when engaged in play, he still shows his boisterous and rambunctious puppiness.

He has become super obedient and hangs on every word that his "people" say
to him.  I've been very lucky in meeting an amazing lady during the past year who not only puts up with Calvin's nonsense but, more importantly, helps me every day in working out Calvin's final kinks. Also, we've made some great friends who live in the area (with their own playful rottie pup) who have been really great in helping Cal become such a good boy.

Things at first were very hard with Cal, to the point where I did actually
question my decision in adopting such a hyper and crazy boy, but in retrospect, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. He taught me about patience and hard work. He taught me that something worth doing is never "easy". And in the end, when all your hard work shows in his behavior, you start to swell with pride.

And over the past several months, I have been so proud of Cal.

Thanks for letting me adopt him.

Update July '20

“Calvin” is doing great. He is a wonderful dog and such a big part of my family. My two year old son loves him dearly and our daughter (coming  soon!) will no doubt love him as well. Thankfully Calvin has chilled out a fair bit as he has gotten a bit older, but he still gets bursts of puppy energy here and there.

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