He is of sire Morpheus (Rodriguez’ New World Abs of New Britain, CT) x dam Sheba (Huggins’ of Vernon-Rockville, CT), grandsire is Poitras’ Ox (Ron Poitras of Thompson, CT) IWPA ’01 Gold Medalist Weight Puller. 

Hammer has never been tied up; he routinely runs a mile each day and is extremely well cared for.  Nutrition has been a huge part of Hammer’s development (as shown in detail on the Health & Maintenance page). He will not touch dry food unless it’s enhanced. His vocab for food is “Chop-Chop” (provided early on to all my dogs by my friend Sundance).

Hammer is a very sweet natured, cuddly couch potato and great teacher to his pups. He’s extremely gentle around them. His hobbies include sneaking up on the bed during our showers, running at the college track nearby and chewing his Kong (or largest bone available at the store). He enjoys his baths immensely and does not like to get dirty. Towels are very dangerous. You must keep your wits about you after bath time. This is when he will display every definition in his vast muscular structure to get that towel and destroy. Motorcycles are heard from no matter where he is. This is very exciting because it’s DADDY!!! Whoops, that’s Harleys only … he can tell the difference and could care less if it’s another manufacturer.

Important Tip - Must be careful using the word “college” around him; if you do, you must prepare yourself for a trip to the college or the idea will not leave his mind. He knows everyone who works there, maintenance dept., certain faculty and students. This is where he feels most popular.

Hammer is a wonderful door greater; to the extent he will lift very heavy folks off the floor by the crotch if he doesn’t know them. Needless to say, we have very few visitors. At night, no one can come to the door unless they announce who they are. Jeff Jr. attends UCONN and cannot come home late without properly introducing himself “it’s only me”. It is only then when both dogs resume their sleeping. When someone is not known by either dog, they are not safe on the property without one of us present. Neither dog has been taught to behave this way. They are naturally protective of us and the property.

Walks are nice but, must be handled correctly every time. None of us can walk Hammer with shorty leather gloves or a training (inward spiked) collar even though he is 3-1/2 years old. We have tried to wean him off of his training collar, however, that is impossible and we’re resigned to this forever. He will not tolerate someone approaching us. Approaching must be his idea or the walker’s idea. Then he is a perfect gentleman. Otherwise, it is not appropriate to him and he makes this abundantly clear.

Hammer has never had a fight. He has had lots of incidents where small, loose dogs have run up to him. He stands very still, has allowed them to run under his legs and even jump up at him with no incident. He looks at us like he saying, what is this stupid thing thinking? We’ll tell the intruding dog in a soft, nonchalant voice, to go away now, time to go home for you (kind of singing when we do).

We are the luckiest people in the world to have Hammer.