FEBRUARY 2008

Yes, it's been a while since our last update and we must apologise for that. It's been a hectic few months in the Schimmel household. October to January is a manic time for us work wise as a lot of our clients' web sites that we manage are gearing up for, and in the middle, of the major Christmas rush and New Year sales so there's very little time to do anything other than work on the computers. In addition to that we have had quite a few kitten litters but now things have started to return to normal and at last I can finally get our Jag's website up-to-date.

So, where to start? Well I'll try and go back over what has happened since last September. The "Jagerman" has really grown up in a big way since then. We were a bit concerned when it appeared that only one of his testicles had dropped and it was an anxious wait during September to see if number two would drop, eventually it did and he's now a real man!

We weighed him just recently (and will weigh him properly at the vets shortly) but he's now coming in at a massive 42KG (approx.).He has developed into a very strong, tall and muscular dog, in fact when he stands on two legs against me, his head is almost above mine and I'm 6ft tall .

Despite his size and huge presence, he is still the most gentle dog you could wish for, he still plays with the cats, and the Bengals love him (in fact we have a second Bengal in the house now!) Some of the Siamese and Oriental cats are still not too sure about him but they all get along in the house and as he now has free reign and there is never a problem with him being around them. Even the little kittens come up to him for a sniff and Jag will just let them sniff him and run around without any fuss.

He does like to chase the Bengals a bit, but then that's because they like to stand on a shelf and tease him, but he never gets aggressive with them in any way. His temperament is truly superb and we have a lot to thank his breeder, Robert, for that.

Training wise, he is also coming along well, he has just started his obedience training, a bit later than we wanted, but due to our own workload, the fact that we had no car for two months and a few health problems with myself we relied mainly on the our own training at home. He's proved to be a quick learner, he's very obedient, waiting to be told before he does things, sitting patiently for our next command. For example if we have been out and he stayed at home, on our return he will sit and wait for us to come in, take our coats off etc and then he gets his big cuddles as soon as we are ready.

He loves his twice daily trips of out the house, during mid morning he gets to run in the field behind the house, chasing his ball, which he retrieves about 70% of the time. He's allowed off the lead in the field to run off some energy and he is quick to come back as soon as you call his name. Out on the road, he was for a short while quite scared of the cars and other dogs, however that has now dispelled and although still a little cagey at times, he is adapting to the traffic and everything around him very well. He's also quite happy with other dogs and shows no signs of aggression at all, only a willingness to play constantly.

Food wise he's on two meals a day, with breakfast every other day as well. A good diet of Hill Science Plan Puppy biscuits, tinned food and Roast Chicken. He also gets his fair share of bones and chews, and of course little reward biscuits when he's doing his training.

Even when eating he's gentle, we did have a very short spell where he would growl if anyone went near him went he had his bone, but that was quickly taken care of and now you can even sit down with him and stroke him while he's enjoying his bones, which is an excellent achievement and one we constantly keep on top of.

He can be a bit boisterous when we have visitors in the house, but again this has improved hugely, and he will now sit and wait to be made a fuss of, but it still needs a bit of work in that department. As always, it is never Jag who is at fault, it is always we owners who sometimes give him confusing commands.

At night he still sleeps in the main room leading to the garden, with Shelley and a few cats here and there. He is very alert if anyone is out in the field late at night and his bark echoes throughout the whole house. He stays indoors at night now and I can't even remember the last time he had "an accident" indoors.

Overall, we could not wish for a better dog, he's loving, listens to what he's told, learns very quickly and it just wonderful around the cats. Unfortunately Shelley has never really taken to him, she's past the stage of being a playmate for him and although they get on without any problems, it's clear she would much rather sleep all day that be pestered by him.

He keeps himself amused with his toys and has on a few occasions chewed things he shouldn't have but you wouldn't call him destructive at all.

Once he's completed his first round of obedience training we are going to be looking at putting him on the show bench to see how he does, and we are also looking at some agility training. It's going to be fun next few months with him as he goes from a puppy to a young adult.

This time we promise to keep the site updated on a monthly basis.

For JAG'S 2007 diary click here