Picking out our Presa
We reserved a male puppy from Crown Presa Kennel's Chingon and Bantay litter born Feb. 2, 2010. Out of the litter there were five males, all brindle, so at four weeks we made a trip up to see the available pups and choose which one we wanted. One of the pups had already been spoken for, leaving only four. After looking over the remaining pups, I had made my decision. I chose the pup which was the darkest of the litter, which also happened to be the largest male with the broadest muzzle. We agreed to come back in two weeks to pick him up.
Argus comes Home
We returned two weeks later to pick up our puppy, now named Argus. At six weeks Argus weighed 13 lbs. He was already heavier than our 7 yr. old Jack Russell.
Ear Cropping
At nine weeks it was time to get his ears cropped. I called around to all the local vet offices to see about getting it done here in town. Only two offices did ear cropping, and of the two only one offered laser cropping. The laser cropping done locally would have cost eight hundred dollars, so although I didn't want to have to make another trip to Topeka for a vet visit, I did take him back and got the laser crop done for two hundred. It was worth the forty dollars in gas to save six hundred dollars. He stayed overnight with Larry and Edith of Crown Presa until his anesthesia wore off and I came back to get him the following day.
The Stitches Come Out
After two weeks it was time for the stitches to be taken out. Rather than take him in to the vet, we opted to take them out at home. It was quite a task getting him to hold still long enough to remove all of the stitches but we finally managed to get them all. While the stitches were in his left ear wouldn't stand completely upright like the right one, but with them removed it didn't take long for the left to stand up also.
Growing Fast
At fourteen weeks we were able to get Argus in to get his rabies vaccination, this allowed us to finally be able to register him with the city and get his tags. He has his UPPCC registration and pedigree. He has also been registered with the UKC, and will probably be registered with the AKC Foundation Stock Service. We last weighed Argus at nine months, he was 105 lbs. He is great at tug of war, fetching, and loves to play with a frisbee.
Our Second Presa
We contacted Larry at Crown Presa to see about getting a female sometime next year. After describing to him what we were looking for, he replied that he had two dogs available at the time that we might be interested in and sent us some pictures. Although we hadn't planned to get another Presa just yet, we really liked one of the females that he had and made arrangements to get her. We met Larry Thanksgiving afternoon to pick up our pup and to let him see Argus in person to see how much he had grown.
