a blog about dogs

im haley, and this is a blog about my family's fifteen year old Bernese mix, Rocco, and eventually, any other dogs i have. i have over ten years experience working with dogs, including five years at a vet office, and a degree in biology, specializing in ecology and neuroscience. main blog: probablywolves.tumblr.com

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a old boy’s walkabout.

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He can’t stay in the sun too long, due to his laryngeal paralysis, but we had a nice little walk to the grape vines and back.

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rocco’s (limited) background

my family adopted rocco in 2006, when i was 8 ears old. he was housed with a three legged lab/pit mix. we wanted to adopt the both of them, but the lab mix had already been adopted.

we never exactly knew what had happened to Rocco in the first six months of his life before he came to the SPCA, but we speculated that he may have been abused and neglected. he was very poorly socialized, and has always had an intense fear of men in white vehicles.

that was, at least until a month ago. i reached out to the SPCA branch where we adopted him, and luckily, the volunteer that had brought his litter into the shelter and the veterinarian who treated him were still there!

they told me that Rocco’s litter had been brought in as an owner surrender. they were incredibly neglected, malnourished, and had very obviously lived their entire lives outside. they were diagnosed with rickets and juvenile arthritis.

because Rocco was never properly socialized, and because of the breeds we believe make him up, he is extremely dog aggressive, and especially same-sex aggressive. he is also very reactive to new environments. we did our best to socialize him, but that window in his life had already closed, and so, unfortunately, he has never been able to experience much of the outside world.

we did not to bring an aggressive, reactive dog into public spaces that made other people feel unsafe. instead, he got plenty of space to run in our 2.5 acre fenced yard.

to be clear, Rocco LOVES people. he is an attention whore, and is incredibly patient and calm with children. he’s just not a fan of being in new places around other dogs.

will post again very soon with descriptions of his behavior, and then hopefully we can get into come anecdotes!

Rocco in 2012.

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this is a blog about dogs

more specifically, my dog, Rocco. Rocco is about fifteen, and he’s not all together anymore, but I have so much love for him in my heart.

Rocco in May 2020

we got Rocco fourteen years ago, when he was approximately nine to eleven months old from our local SPCA. they thought he was a St. Bernard, thus the name Rocco. St. Rocco is the patron saint of dogs.

we weren’t ever sure of Rocco’s actually breed. we thought St. Bernard, but if you look at him, and a St. Bernard, there is little similarity besides coloration. you are welcome to form your own opinion based on his photos and description of behavior, but after working with dogs for over ten years, i believe he’s a mix of shepherd, malamute/other northern breed, and Bernese mtn dog. he has the recessive red Bernese mtn. dog coloration to a t. his ears resemble those of a Bernese.

physically, his size, paws, and tail resemble a malamute: his paws are thickly furred and act very well as snowshoes. While he does not anymore because of aging, he used to carry his thickly furred tail high and over his back. I

n his prime, he weighed approximately 95-100 lbs. His muzzle and some of his coloration resembles a shepherd, especially the markings around his eyes.

not that it matters. i just like speculate. i’ll make a separate post about his behavior, and his background.

in the meantime, here’s a picture of him when we first got him, and he hadn’t grown into his ears quite yet:

Rocco in 2006