My boys

This is Frank and Bruno. Bruno arrived first as an eight week puppy we rescued. P was doing some contract work in the UK leaving me alone here. With three cats and various chickens and ducks. I cannot say I was too bothered by it but he felt a dog would be good. We have never had a dog before, mainly because I will not take on any animal I cannot look after properly. We have both always worked apart from my few weeks off for each child. As I was a nurse I worked nights so we could manage the child care 'in house'. It would not have been fair to leave a dog on its own. Now we are retired and felt we could give a dog a home. We have the space here too for a dog to roam. P suggested it whilst he was away and I started the search. I found an English run rescue centre and saw  a photo of Bruno on the website. His mum had been brought into the rescue centre and shortly after gave birth to six puppies. Bruno and a sister had been homed with a couple who decided after a short time they could not cope with them. By the time I found him he was the last puppy to go. P came back and we set off for Brittany to collect him. I had bought a collar and lead to bring him home. We also had a puppy cage. It was love at first sight. He was so good on the long journey home, we stopped once to see if he would wee but the collar I had bought was too big! Once home he settled in very well and never made a fuss. At night he went in his bed in the cage and never cried. We knew he had Boxer in him as he had the look and color. We had him vaccinated and snipped and his passport and documents were changed to my name. Our sil named him, as he was part Boxer! The first few weeks were easy, I googled for information and bought a couple of books on dog training. I was determined to do things properly. Then a friend told us about an English couple running obedience and agility classes. We signed up. It was here we were told Bruno was a Boxer/Mastiff cross. We did the classes for a year knowing  it was us that needed training more than Bruno. He did really well and loved the agility part. We came away confident with handling him and with a good understanding of his character. Our trainer kept telling us he would be quieter by 18 months. Almost to the day he calmed down. He has taken a lot of work to keep him under control but now at 3 1/2 he is a lovely gentle dog. We have continued to use the kennels our trainer runs and Frank came from her. Frank is a Tekel/Yorkie cross. He was one of three puppies rescued from a litter being drowned. He was homed but it was discovered he was being badly treated and came back to our trainer. Again it was love at first sight. She was happy for us to take him. She kept him a couple of weeks to be sure there were no personality problems resulting from his bad experience. She also helped him get used to being with big dogs. When we went to collect him we took Bruno so she could see how they reacted to each other. They were fine and have been ever since. Bruno is very gentle with Frank. Bruno is 44kgs and Frank is 4kgs!
They are both very much part of our family now.