We just brought our new dog home! His name is Meeko. He is half german shepherd and half mastiff. It has been one year to the day since we had to put Nova down. Meeko reminds us so much of Nova, it’s crazy. Nearly identical temperament, very smart, loves to snuggle, and he plays the same way. He’s just a LOT bigger. He’s the size of a wolf, and he sorta looks like one too, especially at night. It’s like picking up where we left off…and it comes with so many emotions. He is a very good dog with nearly identical training to Nova, so it’s almost like we got him back in a different body. Anyway, here is Meeko!
I'm gonna hope he has NONE of the mastiff hip dysplasia (CHD) nor cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) weakness/commonality genes. CCL repair used to be 5K, can't imagine what they are now. The mix makes for a really cool looking dog though. Hopefully without the drooling all over.
He appears to have mostly shepherd dna, with nice beefy hips. Nova was a shepherd and bernese cross and he was solid as a rock. Both of them are very similar in activity level, so no issues there. Meeko can play and play and play. He chased his ball through the house for over an hour last night. We called it quits, not him. We were told he used to sleep in a kennel crate. It had a hard plastic floor. We folded an older quilt into quarters and put it by the bed. He started on it, then up on the bed, then to the other side of the bed and worked his way around the bed over the course of a few hours, and then went back to the quilt where he stayed until we got up. He slept pretty well once he got back on the quilt. There wasn’t much room on the bed with him up there. He takes up half, so we were crammed onto the other half. We like to snuggle, so it wasn’t bad, but there was no option to roll over if we got too hot.
Update: Meeko is settling in nicely. We got him a new bag of food that he loves and picked ip some other goodies for him. I splurged on some fresh food in the refrigerated section. He had roast beef and veggies for supper tonight and a homemade pizza crust with a piece of pepperoni. He had eggs for breakfast (yesterday and today) and a few slices of cheese for lunch. He got a shower/bath today and I brushed him for an hour. His fur is getting shiny and soft. We took him on his first firewood hoarding trip. We had an oak tree to take down so a friend could drill a new well. We loaded up the van and “hitched up the wagon”. We came home with a half cord or better of nice red oak. We even made enough to pay for Meeko’s food and stuff tonight. We got him a new collar too. The old one was welded chain and was pulling/messing up his fur. He didn’t seem to enjoy the old one at all so we got him a nice new soft one. Our friend with the tree has a golden doodle. A very nice dog. He wanted to play with Meeko, and even brought him a stick, but Meeko ‘had work to do’ and didn’t give him the time of day. The golden doodle finally had enough of the cold shoulder treatment and charged Meeko, jumping in the air and body slamming into him. There was a collective gasp and moment of silence as we envisioned the ensuing battle, but it never came. Meeko shifted his weight just a little and the golden doodle bounced right off and landed in a heap. Meeko looked at him with a look that said “nice try, amateur” and walked away. He definitely likes sleeping on the bed.
You got your dog on 1 bed Those are rookie numbers. Our dog owns every bed in house is his! Plus couches and recliner. He sometimes shares his space with spare humans, but not his dog bed next to the stove. IME mixed breeds have less hip and knee issues than the good ol mutt, Keep training your humans Meeko
I was measuring him for a harness last night. I had made one for Nova, but he died before he could really use it. He was a german shepherd/bernese mountain dog mix. An absolutely wonderful dog. His harness barely fits over Meeko’s head, so he needs his own.
