All American Rejects, featuring Corbin

Otherwise known as the Corbinator. Ahh why oh why did I want a third dog? I dunno, they're like potato chips I swear. I wake up to these monsters and I think "NEVER again, I never get another dog again!". Yeah right. Did you read about the boxer in PA that was tied to the train tracks and left to die? Yeah it's stories like that, people like that that will keep me a dog owner. If I were out there I swear I'd have been the first one on the list to adopt that dog. Well maybe the second, dh would probably be the first.

So Corbie, why did we end up paying for a dog on purpose? Yeah I know just nuts. After a few months with both big dogs the dh mentioned that it'd be nice to have a small dog the kid could snuggle with. The big dogs SMOTHER her when snuggling and the kid wanted a dog to sleep with too. And we never indulge the kid right? Did I ever tell you guys the pink snake story? NO? Well another post perhaps and yes we have a pink snake, her name is Sarah. But Corbin, well the search was originally for a smaller dog that the kid could handle. We don't like little dogs, we wanted a big dog in a little dog body. Went through a mental list of all the small dogs and came up blank. Thought about a pug, looked at one at the shelter we got Roxy from. He was great but a little timid so they wouldn't adopt him to a home with a child younger than 5, the dd was 4 at the time. I should have lied on my application but they still had our old one so that wouldn't work real well if they checked back. At this time I was part of a raw feeding group in So Cal (So Cal BARF, largest one in the nation) and one of the local women was a frenchie owner. She was throwing a 'graduation' party for her youngest pup of her 3 and we were invited. Oh yeah party of all frenchies and 1 english bulldog puppy. Is anyone out there envious? You should be, it was cute beyond belief. Of course the dh thought I was a loon but he always does.

Come to find out that these dogs have the coolest personalities and what they don't have they make up for in cute factor, big time. Also the host, Linda, was part of FBRN and they were needing volunteers. Well all rescues always need volunteers but they really did at this point. It was right before we moved to TX and when we got here we got our first foster within like 2 weeks. Higgins is in our family picture on this blog, he's the dark brindle and white pied in the picture. He was with us for 8 long long months. We fell in LOVE with that dog but he was placed in a home in Houston a little over a year ago. After that we really needed one of our own so I kept my eye out on the FBRN website for one that would work with our family. Now remember we have Jayne, he's not so good with other dogs so it was really important that we got a submissive dog. He brawled with Higgins on occasion because The Hig was not submissive, he'd push Jayne's buttons just for entertainment and it got ugly a few times. Jayne is big, frenchies are not. Fortunately Jayne has insane bite inhibition, he's all sound and fury, very little actual bite.

I applied for at least 3 frenchies on FBRN, didn't get any of them. I got a call back on 1 but it was the same week I bought Corbin, no lie. I would have taken her but the foster mom doesn't like me, never has. She called me out of guilt I think, since we worked so hard for the rescue but was never even called up for an adoption every time we applied. Makes the organization look bad and this woman was all about image. She always treated me like something she found on the bottom of her shoe, the dh doesn't like her at all.

When I had basically given up on adopting a frenchie I started calling reputable breeders. If you've ever tried to do this you'd be surprised how hard it is unless you've got an in somewhere, they are a very selective group and don't really like giving up their dogs. At all. Very hoity toity. You can get a back yard bred frenchie no problem, with enough money. But they'll have medical issues galore. Oh it's bad. Just like english bulldogs they are all artificially inseminated and birthed through c-section. Good breeders put in way more money than they get out of these dogs. Bad breeders will give you a dog so backwards you can't tell their front end from their ass and the inbreeding causes serious medical issues.

I had a few things I was looking for that was going to make it hard to get a frenchie 1. I needed something submissive, this basically means I needed a boy, girl frenchies are notorious beeotches and 2. I don't do puppies, I know everyone else loooves the puppies. Oh hell no, no puppies in my house thank you very much. The older the better for me. I love the old ones who have their tongues hanging out, just adore it! Give me an old fogie any day but no puppies for me. So after a few phone calls I was able to find some retiring bitches but they weren't exactly what I was looking for. The breeder lady was so sweet though and she gave me some leads on other breeders around me that bred the colors I like. Black mask fawn anyone? Yeah our household has matching dogs, so cliche.

And that brought us to Shelley's website. She has a small link there if you look, available adults. Oh yeah soo exactly what I was looking for. Right now she has a retiring bitch named Mocha up. Dang Shelley keeps her dogs fat, that looks like a short cow to me, whatcha think? When we were looking she had Corbin up, his name was Jericho and he was 9 months old. A bit young for my taste but I emailed anyway. Turns out he was super duper submissive, oh yeah we were sold. I could deal with slightly young, he was going to be an adult soon so it was ok. She also told me why she was selling him, get this, he was actually from a breeder in Florida and Shelley got him as a wee puppy, pick of the litter, and he was to be a show/stud dog. Oh if he only knew what he was missing. He grew up a bit and guess what? He got freckles on his front white socks. Oh the tragedy! This is one of the things that classifies him as one of the All American Rejects, breeders don't like freckles on those clean white socks. Shelley had paid $3000 for that pup, gah! That is the going price, btw, for a show dog. If you ever buy a frenchie please, for the love of God, email me first and we'll talk. Don't go paying astronomical amounts for a dog from a random breeder or even worse, a pet store. Oh please just don't. A companion frenchie from a good breeder should cost in the neighborhood of $2000-2500. And that's the cheapest thing you'll ever pay for with that dog, they get medical expenses, big genetic defects that they are.

So after a few emails back and forth we bought Corbin, for the low discount price of $1000. Yeah I actually paid for a reject, I couldn't help it, he's so damn cute! Plus he already had all of his shots and was to be neutered by her vet at her cost, that and avoiding having a puppy in my house in his younger months? Priceless. Shelley is located a bit of a drive away from us, about 6 hours I think. I was with dd in San Diego at the time of his pick up (he had to be neutered first) and our friend Mike in San Diego was out visiting the dh. Mike has family up in Dallas that he wanted to see so they made a day of it, drove up in the morning, picked up Corbin, then went by Mike's sisters house and had lunch. Then they drove right back down. Looong day of driving. Where the dh got a speeding ticket. Did you know they are much less expensive in TX than in California? Didn't surprise you huh? Yeah we weren't surprised either.

Now remember Corbin was owned by a breeder, she had lots of dogs so this one (along with a few others I'm sure) was a kennel dog. I suspect he was raised in a run and had interaction with her and the other dogs during free time in the yard. He didn't know the inside of the house. He barked at his reflection in the glass oven door (I suspect he thought we were cooking a frenchie), when dh went in to the bathroom and closed the door, when the toilet flushed, when he came back out of the bathroom, you name it, it surprised him! I'm sure he thought dh was going to disappear and the toilet would swallow him up when it flushed. Then he'd magically appear when the door opened, wow! Yeah they breed them real smart in these here parts. I've seen him walk into walls in the house, walls he's well aware of and haven't moved since he's lived with us. Frenchies, you don't buy them for their brains, what they don't have they make up for in cute and affectionate! These dogs will stick to you like glue.

They do have their downsides though, they are notoriously hard to potty train, Corbin has his moments. When it's cold outside he decides that it's much easier to sneak to a dark corner somewhere in the house to do his business. We then have to go through the whole strict parent routine where he goes out on a schedule (under duress, picked up and pushed out the backdoor) and in his crate when he comes back in the house. He's better after about a week of that but can randomly digress at no moments notice. Oh but his worst foible? That would be another frenchie thing, he's a poo eater. So gross on so many different levels. You would not believe what we have to do to keep the brat from doing this. We're very good about keeping the yard clean but he'll go after it right after going so it's this uphill battle chasing around that little anvil before he can woof it down. Oh yeah, they have their drawbacks, the little buggers. Not all of them of course, just those of us lucky owners get the special ones. There was a thread on our FBRN Yahoo group about this just recently, the verdict? It's almost impossible to stop, no one has found a good cure yet. Of all the frenchies to choose from we end up with the poo eater, figures.

At least this one doesn't challenge Jaynie, instead he challenges Roxy. Who totally ignores him since he's so dang stumpy/vertically challenged she barely notices his annoying little fly biting short man syndrome self. She just looks at us as if to say, "Can you remove him from the premises please? He's taking away my affection with the parents time!". She's an attention hog like that, Jayne's polar opposite.