Hey guys.  Sorry for the long delay in an update.  I was out of town for an extended long weekend over Memorial Day weekend and been busy catching up on things since then.  Also, Mongo has decided he needs nonstop attention when he's not sleeping, so finding time for non-mandatory computer tasks has become quite a challenge (more on that later).

So overall it's going well.  We stayed with my mom again over Memorial Day weekend, and for the most part it went much better this time.  My sister watched Berklee (my mom's dog) so that helped quite a bit I'm sure, but even so it's still a good step forward.  He even did well enough that my mom left him out in the house all day while she watched him when I was at the Indy 500 (the previous trip we put him up in "my" room).  Unfortunately there was another food aggression incident right as we were getting ready to leave and head back home.  My mom was chopping some food up to put in the crock pot for dinner and a sealed box of Keurig cups ended up on the floor (I think she opened a cabinet to get something else and the box fell out). When she went to pick it up Mongo growled and snapped at her .  He didn't get her and showed a ton of remorse while I was giving him his tongue lashing, so fingers crossed this is the last time.  Maybe I need to do some leave it work at home while dropping things on the floor, but he has never gotten aggressive with me over picking up anything (especially non-food) so not sure how effective it will be.  But it can't hurt to try I suppose.......

Something else that's gotten pretty annoying is how demanding he's gotten on getting attention.  Just about anytime I sit down at my desk he'll come over for some petting and butt scratching.  No big deal, but whenever I stop he'll start some non-aggressive growling, and if I ignore him then he'll start barking non-stop.  And unfortunately his bark is head splittingly loud.  It's probably a good problem to have, but it'd be nice if he would be happy with a few minutes of butt scratches throughout the day rather than 16 hours straight that he goes for, lol.

Anyway, that's my Mongo update.  On a sad note during the week a FB memory popped up from a year ago where I had grilled up a bone-in ribeye for Wally on his ~10th birthday.  I knew it was probably coming up, but it hit me a little harder than I thought it would.  Just the sadness on how much better life was on that day and that I didn't get the chance to grill up another steak for him on his 11th .

And back to a lighter note here's a pic of Mongo on the love seat.

Hi Renee.  Thanks for the response. Yeah, I go to the Indy 500 last year.  I've made it to 20 straight now as long as you don't count last year against my streak (they didn't allow fans).  Race day for the 500 is my favorite day of the year.  Probably one reason why the Wally memory hit a little harder b/c I was having the post 500/vacay blues.  I certainly hope that you're right about the next life and that I'll get to see my best buddy again.

As for Mongo he has been doing well on not chewing on things he's not supposed to.  He did grab ahold of one of my flip flops a couple of times over the weekend, but I think that was more of an attention grab than anything else.  I think the thing with my mom was still food aggression.  I didn't get to see the whole thing, but as stated she was cooking and he was in the kitchen helping.  When the box of coffee ended up on the floor he probably thought it might be food and lashed out when my mom tried to take it.  Either way though, you're right about getting some professional help with this.  I should have done it before, but I'm planning on asking the trainer I had talked to.  Hopefully she'll have some things to work on with him there.  I reached out to the lady who trained Wally and Benny for a recommendation, but unfortunately she hasn't gotten back (hope she's ok).  So I guess I need to do a little research on a local trainer.

Anyway, thanks again and have a good one!!

Hey guys.  Sorry for the long delay in updates.  Busy with work and then out of town again for a short family vacay.  Racine, WI which was really nice.  I highly recommend it if you're within driving distance.  Also, I did try to post an update the previous weekend, but I got pulled away from my computer by Mongo a couple of times, so I got timed out and lost my post

Anyway, things are going well I'm happy to report.  Mongo stayed with his Uncle John for the few days that I was out of town and that went really well.  Things seemed to go so well that I even jokingly said that Mongo should maybe stay with him full time, lol.  We paid John a short visit the weekend before, and we both stayed at his place for 2 nights prior to me leaving town.  I think that helped a lot although probably unnecessary as Mongo made himself at home pretty quick.

I was also happy to see that he was super happy to see me and also to be back home (not that I was expecting anything else, but it was still obviously welcome.).  Well I had better get going.  His normal crate doesn't fit in my trunk unless the back seats are down, so I had/have to make 2 trips to drop him off and pick him up.  Since it's been awhile I load you guys up on pics.  The first 2 were at John's and the last 2 are last night after we got home and unpacke.

Take care and hope you're both doing well!

Hey guys.  Sorry I've been away for awhile.  I didn't realize it had been over a month.  I've been in and out of town a lot lately (both with and without Mongo) and super busy otherwise as I've been working to get to go back to my former employer, who is now rehiring, on top of my current full time job.   

Anyway, things are going really well with Mongs (as I've nicknamed him).  He stayed with his Uncle John for a long weekend late last month when I was out in Las Vegas, and he was great there.  He was so well behaved that Uncle John gave him free reign of his house when he was out with no issues.  So since then I've started giving Mongo free reign at home when I go to work as well (I was previously leaving him out when I was going to be out running errands, etc.) and happy to report that it's going really well.  I have yet to come home to any accidents in the house or anything being torn up, so he's doing really well.  Also, we visited my mom last weekend for the first time since May and Mongo did really well there as well.  No food aggression issues or anything like that at all.  In fact my mom kept telling me about how good he was during the visit.  

The only bad news to report is that after FINALLY getting in touch with the place I was hoping to take Mongo to group training, I learned that they're probably not going to start until the beginning of the year.  So I need to do some research to find a new place I suppose.  Will probably reach out to the president of the rescue I got him from and see if she can suggest anyplace/anyone.

Also, on a sad note 7/26 was 6 months since Wally passed .  I was planning on posting a topic on the Tripod Alumni page, but I was flying home from Vegas that day.  I did try to post something via my phone, but when I started the tears started really welling up and I didn't want to start crying in the middle of the airport in front of a bunch of strangers.  Since then I really haven't had it in me to post something so thinking I'll give it a try later on this month for 7 months.

Well enough of the depressing stuff.  Here's some good pics of Mongs!!