At ten weeks of age, Henry our Newfoundland puppy weighed in at 13 kgs. It was becoming clear that we would not be able to pick him up for much longer.
Here, Henry (rear) and sister Niamh (pronounced Neeve) share a kitchen stool.
When this photo was taken Niamh was about a week away from moving to her new home in Dunedin. For Henry, there were only eleven more days before leaving Newfhaven Newfoundlands and meeting his 'new' Newfoundland big brother, Wellington, aged almost ten years.
After the initial few hours when Wellington pretended not to notice Henry at all, the two began to get on well and within a very short time Wellington had a second shadow...everything he did Henry did too...
The next chap of note to meet was Kiwa, who lives with our friend Hadyn. Kiwa was also bred by Ellen & Mick of Newfhaven Newfoundlands...
...The two hit it off pretty well, but after all they are blood brothers. Kiwa is two years older than young and upside-down Henry.
Here,
Henry is almost four months old.
Our boys are pictured on a protest march, which was their first and our first too.
It seems that many NZ politicians believe that implanting microchips in dogs will prevent people from being bitten.
We believe that dog attacks are the result of irresponsible owners, who in all likelihood will not register their dogs, let alone have them microchipped.
Surely introducing compulsory microchipping can be nothing more than a political side step away from addressing the issue properly. Unfortunately the approach potentially hurts innocent dogs like our boys and no doubt yours too.
Implementation in New Zealand has now proved that microchipping achieves absolutely nothing in reducing dog attacks.
On June 12 winter really kicked in and our young Newfoundland puppy experienced his first snow, which turned out to be what we in the South Island now call "The big snow". Although he seemed to relish the experience, spending a lot of time either with his head in the snow or springing around in it, the snow was too deep for Henry to be able to move around comfortably in. Anywhere is a good place for a chewbone though...
At eighteen weeks of age, Henry weighed in at 31.5 kgs. We think that Henry will grow to be a very large Newfoundland, probably bigger than Wellington. In his prime, Wellington weighed in at 70 kgs. These days he is 64 - 66 kilos.
Here's Newfoundland pup Henry at five months and two days old. At this age Henry weighed in at 36.5 kilos.
Henry's breeder was pleased with the way he is developing and we are really thrilled with him in every way. Besides being a great example of a Newfoundland dog visually, Henry has a wonderful temperament with us and with 'big brother' Wellington.
He loves to carry things and at this point was learning to bring the paper in, a task he now relishes.
Note that Henry's white blaze has almost disappeared.
One of the questions we are frequently asked is how the Newfoundland boys get on together...
...They say a picture is often worth a thousand words.
