Nature vs. Nurture?

The age old question continues. After seeing all the traits that were passed down to Oscar from his birth parents and grandparents in the previous post, here's a little trait that may be based more upon nurture (although, I believe in my heart, he was born a Sox fan!):

Oscar's Family

This post is long overdue, but by request from my husband, I'm finally posting it!

Oscar's parents names are Billy (on the left) and Zena (on the right):

and another one:

Here's Zena as a puppy:

And here's Billy as a puppy, notice the white tip tail and the stick in his mouth - two common traits of his son, Oscar:

Zena's mom- Leah:

Doesn't this look like Oscar from the back?! Also this is where Oscar got his brown nose!

source: http://www.smittysbullies.com/leah.html

Zena's dad -Taz:

source: http://www.smittysbullies.com/taz.html

Billy's Parents: http://americanbulldogglory.com/Zeus.html
Billy's mom - Naya (also a brown-noser) :


Billy's dad - Scottie 2 Hottie


Billy's Pedigree:


Zena's Pedigree:

source: http://www.bulldogsofnj.com/

Now that Oscar's bigger, if Chris and I are both on the couch, after some time, Oscar will jump off the couch in a huff and pace around the living room and eventually call it a night in his crate. He loves the new bed we got him for christmas. The door to the crate is usually open during the day when we're home, so at night if we're watching TV, we'll leave it open for him to go in and out, and also to grab his toys.
One night while watching TV, we noticed him snoring away, sleeping like this:


He LOVES to sleep with his head hanging... he used to do this on the couch, and we'd cradle his head so it wouldn't eventually dislodge off his neck! Now his head's too heavy...


Oscar is big... like 65 pounds big.

He's 5 1/2 months old.. that's it.

A few months ago this was him:

This picture was taken the first day after we brought him home. Chris was watching TV on his leather chair with ottoman, and Oscar fell asleep on his lap.

Close up of his sweet face:


Sleeping with Chris on the couch:


And picture from the first night we brought him home:


Wow, that blue toy is in all these pictures!

Happy Holidays.....

like two weeks ago. :(

It's late I know... but I really wanted to post about our holiday cards.

My very talented friend and wedding collegue came over for a mini photo shoot and took photos of us for our card. He took a lot of images, and after lots of thoughts, arguing, and negotiating, we agreed on these 3 for our family card (it was originally supposed to be ONE image).

Here are some close ups:






All photo credit to Jeremy Evans Thomas - at www.lifeinblue.com

In these photos, we're wearing our traditional Korean outfits, to symbol a formal occasion (Christmas and New Years) but more importantly Oscar's 100 day birthday (which was back in early Nov, so we're a little behind!).

Once we get the other photos, I'll post them - maybe even enroll Oscar in the cutest dog ever contest at Daily Puppy... which he is!

Rocky

A while back I posted about Oscar's other siblings...

One of them was Rocky:

From Diary of Oscar

This is Rocky now:



















Wendy from Gittingers sent me this photo as an update on Rocky. This picture was taken at 1 year old - over 100 lbs!!! But what a great looking dog he is! He has the same "tail dipped in white paint" as Oscar.

Here are more pics of Rocky:
http://www.bulldogsofnj.com/goliath.htm

WAYYYY overdue post....

Back in Early December, Oscar's girlfriend Rory came over for a sleepover... for one full week! It was heaven for both of them, but it definitely kept us on our toes. We tried to find ways for them to calm down TOGETHER.

One thing that worked were any chews - at this point, we were allowing Oscar to gnaw on shark cartiladge (supposed to prevent cancer, and other cool stuff), and it smells like fish, and Oscar and Rory both loved them. So we got two, one for each, but they each just wanted the same one each time!

Here is Rory gnawing away and Oscar looking sad....

I did finally get them to calm down... they eventually learned how to sleep on the couch , but I had to keep them separated. Rory is a much more delicate sleeper. I think Oscar's loud snoring kept her awake all week... sorry.


Here there are on the couch with noone between them... I swear, if I leave them alone just for 1 minute, they figure out a way to play together instantly.


Around this time, Oscar and Rory were both losing baby teeth and teething. This is Oscar's first lost baby tooth. You can see the hole.


Here is Oscar pretending to be sleeping, with Rory in the background.


A random picture from Adina of Queenie's Pets... I think Oscar was being naughty and digging!!!



But I still love him...


His head is SO big! I just make up at least 30% of his total weight!


Silly photo courtesy of Noah our dog walker.


Bat or dog? Bird?


Normal looks so much HUGER compared to Oscar! Same age... Normal is a mastiff.




For Christmas, we all packed up the car and drove 8 hours to Ohio to see Chris' family. Oscar had the whole back seat to himself, with his new doggy bed (which is super comfy). It took him a total of 20 minutes for him to finally lie down and sleep.


Which he did for the rest of the trip. We had to drag him out of the car for potty breaks and lunch.


He was usually like this...



Jealous, I wish I could've slept like that in the car!

Oscar's bottom lip has been sticking out a lot lately... more often when he's tired or has been napping. It's so cute. It makes him look like he's pouting.







All the pictures for now!

He did great on the car ride to Ohio, and wonderful at their home. He didn't get much of a chance to play with Sophie, my mother in law's dog, but once the snow finally melted in Ohio, he did get a chance to run around their huge backyard.

We also went to his first official dog park yesterday. There must have been at least 10 other dogs at one point, and he got along with everyone, including humans. Sometimes, it was sad to see all the dogs playing, and Oscar in the middle by his lonesome, just waiting patiently for someone to give him food.