Veronica's Story - 3 Boston Terriers Later...

Sep 17, 2018

Written by Veronica Asanza

Bruno
Boston Terrier
Date of birth 11/22/2012 (almost 6yrs)
Was born on Thanks Giving Day (special little detail)
Weight: 30lbs
A little on the big side for the typical Boston Terrier. Parents were 19 and 20 pounds. Boston’s usually range between 15lbs. But it is not surprising that once in a while one grows bigger since their ancestors used to be much larger in size compared to today.
Bruno is our first Boston and the one who started the addiction!

Heidi
Boston Terrier
Date of birth 04/25/2018 (4 months old)
Weight: 10lbs
She’s the wild child of the house. She loves to get in to everything and anything. Nothing intimidates this little one. She has been the easiest out of the three to teach anything to. Usually after a few tries she catches on.

Shiloh

Boston Terrier
Date of birth 04/25/2018 (4 months old)
Weight: 12lbs
He’s the sweetest little soul and the most affectionate little puppy. He has a special marking known to the breed. It is called haggerty spot or gods kiss. ( a spot on the top of his head). He’s also the only one out of the three that can wiggle his nub.

WHY I DECIDED ON THIS BREED ?..
I was not familiar with the breed 6 years ago. It all started with us deciding we wanted to add a fur baby in to our family. We looked at several breeds and after reading about several and looking at many photos we decided to go for a Boston. I had never met one but fell in love with their look.
I still remember walking in to the room where Bruno and his siblings were. We played with all the puppies for a while and even his mom. She was the sweetest.
There was just something about Bruno that made me know he was the one. We originally thought we would name him Oscar or Max but the moment we saw him and held him we said he was a Bruno.

After having Bruno for about 2 years we decided we wanted to add a second Bostie to our family but knew it wasn’t the time. It took us 5 years after getting Bruno to add Heidi.

Heidi's process was little different. We knew we wanted a red female Boston. Red Boston’s is not a standard color for the breed so it took a little more research to come across a breeder. Once we selected one we stayed in touch through the entire process. We were notified when the litter was born and first saw the puppies through photos. We drove out that weekend to meet them and picked out little half white face Heidi. We thought we knew we for sure wanted one with the standard markings but the moment we met Heidi all that was out the door. We fell in love with her.

We stayed in touch and got updates throughout the weeks until she was old enough to bring home 8 weeks later. The longest wait ever!
After a couple of weeks of Heidi being home I was messaging the breeder update pictures of her and during that conversation she let me know there were still two puppies left. She sent me the photos and I forwarded them to my boyfriend. I never thought we would get a 3rd one. He jokingly asked if we were going to get one more and I said can we?! An hour later I was heading out to pick our 3rd Boston....Shiloh. The first few days were wild ones. Our first wasn’t used to having puppies around. He was finally getting used to having Heidi around and surprise! We brought home a third!!

I can say life has changed with three. To keep thing together were in strict routines during the week. But when dad comes home for the weekend its a party at our place! I can say our lives revolve around these little guys, We wouldn’t have had it any other way. We always plan our vacations so that they can tag along, I hate being away from them. Having Bruno is amazing help! He’s such a good big brother, It’s because of him I’m sure they were potty trained so easily and pick up on everything super quickly. It also gives Bruno play mates. We get to have three little clowns at home so we are constantly entertained. A win all around!

BOSTON TERRIER CARE...
Out of the three I can say Bruno is the highest maintenance baby. Maybe it’ll change as the little ones get older?
Bruno’s daily care routine consists of wiping his wrinkles and cleaning his tail pocket. He tends to have allergies. His skin can easily get irritated if he’s in a different environment than usual or eats something he’s not used to.
I use hypoallergenic wipes on both his face wrinkles and tail pocket and usually follow up with a cream.

The two little ones have nubs so they don’t have tail pockets. They only have to have their face wiped down to prevent any irritation. I have yet to experience this with them yet but I’m sure the wiping down regularly keeps it this way.

Heidi has a half white face so we feed them a natural supplement (angel eyes powder) to prevent her from getting any tear stains.
We find that the supplement in combination with the paste has worked wonders for Bruno’s face. He hasn’t had irritated wrinkles in over two months.(when we started him on the supplement) This was all learnt by trial and error and talking to our Vet.

SHILOH AND RHINOPLASTY...

We first noticed the issue about a week after we brought him home on 4th of July. All three of them were rough housing and aside from the regular snorting I started hearing more of a gasping for air sound. I got all three to calm down and realized Shiloh kept opening his mouth in order to breath. I wanted to tell myself that it would get better in a few minutes after he would cool down from all the playing. Eventually they all took naps and while Shiloh slept on my legs I kept watching him and saw he kept slightly opening his mouth to breath. I called my mom to tell her I’d be taking Shiloh to the vet because he was having trouble breathing. She got here pretty quickly and together we drove the the emergency Vet to be seen. Once we spoke with the Veterinarian, she told us he was fine and would be fine for now but suggested rhinoplasty. She proceeded to explain what the procedure involved and assured us he’d have a better quality of life if we decided to go through with it, but would have to wait until he was old enough for the procedure. (Rhinoplasty is a reconstructive surgery that can dramatically improve the dog's quality of life.)

Shiloh before surgery. Completely closed nostrils.

Rhinoplasty is performed in brachycephalic dogs with obstructive airway disease, to enlarge their nostrils. This will allow him to breath properly without having to open his mouth.

We took him to his regular vet for a second opinion and she told us the same thing. The research started at home. We read every post, blog, website, article we could find and decided we would go through with it. We for sure want Shiloh to have the best life we can possibly provide for him. Shiloh had been pretty limited on his activity until the procedure was done as the vet suggested. He finally had his Rhinoplasty on the 6th September 2018. We can’t wait for him to recover and be as rambunctious as his siblings.

MY ADVICE FOR NEW OWNERS...

• be ready to continuously be laughing. They are such little clowns.

• they are super smart so they are very easy to train. But watch out cause they can quickly learn to train you lol

• be ready to share your bed. They’re bed hogs. If you have more than one you’ll probably want to get a bigger bed lol

• you’ll never be lonely. Shower, use the rr, eat, sleep alone never again.

• super easy to potty train. As long as you set a routine and stick to it.

• although grooming/care maintenance might sound a bit much. As long as you are consistent they’re pretty easy to take care off. Remember not every puppy will be the same and sometimes trying out different things will be necessary until you find out what works for each individually.

• Your heart will be ruled by your Bostie! Once you have one you’ll probably will end up having a second at some point. You’ll find yourself super in love with the breed. I could never imagine my life without these three.

Veronica Asanza

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