Poppy Blog 6.30.09

Time to Spay Poppy

I think she meant less than 1% chance.

You'd bite too!

So we tried the calming collar on Cheetah again last night. Both dogs got agitated around 9pm, but especially Cheetah. Not sure what it was about. I think it might've been bugging Cheetah that Dan and Swiffer were in the basement and I was upstairs watching TV. The pack was not together! Anyway, my impression this time was that the calming collar made her worse. I gave her some Rescue Remedy and that helped. After I took the collar off of her, I put it on myself for a while! I figure if I am going to subject the dogs to it, I should see what it is like. It made me sneeze and gave me a headache. Dogs have a keener sense of smell than I do, and I found it overwhelming. I know it works extremely well for some people, but so far I can't buy in. Neat concept though.

My soap box moment for the day:

I have to get this out. I have been thinking a lot lately about what makes a good trainer (and a good owner for that matter). I don't necessarily think there is one correct school of thought, although I am more inclined toward the positive reinforcement methods, especially when dealing with a fear case. But I do think that an indespensible element is the ability to see the world from the dog's point of view. They are not people and they do not think like people. But it is possible to put yourself in their shoes once in a while.

Imagine, if you will, that you are in a foreign country. You do not understand them and they do not understand you. You are in an environment that is unfamiliar, surrounded with strange people. The tour guide with whom you are familar just introduced you to a new guide and walked away. There is a lot going on around you so you are trying to be as alert as possible. Shortly after your familiar tour guide walks away, a strange & daunting man walks up to you, gets in your personal space and puts his hand on your shoulder. You yell, "hey! get off of me right now!" and push him away. With that the new tour guide comes up behind you and immobilizes you, putting his hand over your mouth so you can't speak or defend yourself. What would you do? Personally I would struggle, bite and try to get away. I would be terrified.

This weekend I dropped off Cheetah at the adoption event. I handed her leash over to another foster (we'll call him Foster A) and started discussing her care for that evening. In the mean time another foster (Foster B) walked up with one of the other dogs. I felt like I was in a bad dream because I saw that the body languages of the other dog and Cheetah were not good, but I was positioned poorly to do anything about it or say anything fast enough. Sure enough a fracas broke out. The two other fosters pulled them apart and foster A clamped his hand down on Cheetah's mouth and held her mouth shut. At this point I got between Cheetah and the other dog, and knelt to calm her. I said "please take your hand off of her mouth." No movement. She was wide eyed and struggling. So I grabbed his hand and got in his face and said "do not do that" and stroked and calmed her back down. I left feeling very uncomfortable and watching foster B + dog getting too close to foster A + Cheetah again. I still feel guilty that I left. It was reported to me that she had one of her worst adoption days ever and nipped at multiple people.

My point in this is not to put down the other fosters. Everyone does the best they can. After the event, Foster A took Cheetah for a two mile walk and played with her all afternoon. I think she probably had a grand old time with him. And I am certainly not without fault in the whole scenario. I let social ettiquette get in the way of protecting my dog.

Those negative interactions could have been avoided. I want to find a way to raise awareness and need to think of the best way to do it.

• If you are handling a dog, pay attention 100% of the time.
• It is your responsibility to protect your dog and make him/her feel safe.
• Read the body language of your dog, the dogs around it AND THE PEOPLE.
• Think about what you are doing and how the dog might interpet your action and the actions of those around you. Remember - your dog is always in a foreign country. All they have are gestures.
  

The Big Visit!!!! 6.27.09

It was wonderful to see Schroeder on Saturday!!! He looks JUST like Cheetah, only prettier (don't tell Cheetah I said that). His markings are more bright and defined. And he is almost as big as she is!


He was feeling slightly under the weather on Saturday, so he wasn't as bouncy as he can be apparently, but he still managed to give Cheetah a run for her money! She was out cold after he left. It was hard to tell if he recognized her or not, because he is a friendly little guy anyway.

As promised I took little videos and pictures so you can all share in the visit.

When they arrived I put Cheetah in my bedroom to keep her out of the initial excitement. I wasn't sure how she'd react to visitors since she usually threatens to eat whoever tries to come in the house. I met Schroeder and owners in the driveway and it was really hard not to run right up to him and shower him with affection. But I didn't want to overwhelm him so I let him sniff me and I bent down with my side to him and let him approach me. Then we went in the house and he immediately found Cheetah's big goofy yellow flower. He walked around with that for quite a while - he really took a liking to it.

After we got acquainted, we all went out in the back yard and I went and got Cheetah out of the bedroom. I won't lie that I wasn't nervous about her attacking either Schroeder or his owners. So I brought her out on lead - she practically dragged me across the yard! First she ran up to Schroeder with no incident, and then as I held my breath, she ran up to his owners. Now, they are very savvy dog people so I am sure that helped. They did not make eye contact or any move to reach for her. In fact, Mrs. Owner kept her hands behind her back... and Cheetah licked them!!

So I let Cheetah off the lead and started filming. I suspect she recognized Schroeder because since having the puppies, there has not been ONE TIME where someone (including my own mom) has come onto our property without her having something to say about it. I can also hope that maybe she is getting better about this.

So they had a grand time. They spent quite a bit of time under the big bush by our deck, because it was very hot. I also refilled the water bowl twice. Of course Schroeder decided to play in the third bowl :-) That was pretty cute.

Then we went into the house. Once again I held my breath because I wasn't sure if being inside the house would change the dynamic. It did a little, but not enough to cause concern. Cheetah was still very friendly to Mr. and Mrs. Owner. While she initially played with Schroeder with a new toy that the Owners brought for her (that was so thoughtful!), she became possessive of her stuff pretty quickly. Schroeder was a little nonplussed by this, but did finally go find another toy to play with. Actually he found Cheetah's bone, which she eventually commandeered as well. Poor Schroeder.

I really want to thank Mr. & Mrs. Owner for offering to bring Schroeder to see me. It really meant a lot to me and did a lot to get me out of my funk. He is every bit the dog I could have hoped and it is clear he is extremely well loved and cared for. Cheetah would also like to say thank you for the great toys they brought to her. She loves them and brought a couple of them with her while she visited another Rescue Angels foster on Sunday when we had our housewarming party. More on that later.

Schroeder will be having his last set of shots on Thursday so I'll be thinking about him. I hope he doesn't have any more reactions.

Calming Collars

I got the dogs each a calming collar. This is to help them calm down, particularly during thunderstorms. They came today and we are expecting a huge thunderstorm tonight. Great, right? So I put the collars on them this evening, so that they could acclimate before the storm comes in. They are pretty darn fragrant let me tell you. The two of them are walking potpourri.


Are they more calm? Hard to say. It doesn't seem like it to me. But of course, it is still not raining. It rained in the city. The sky looked ominous. But because I have these damn collars it is not going to storm by my house. GREAT. Well, they are more calm then, right? So I guess the collars work!

Seriously if it storms I will let you know what happens. In the mean time here are some shots of them modeling their glorious new collars.

A couple of weights

So I heard from a couple of the owners and it seems that both Maddie and Schroeder have hit 40 lbs!! WOW. I'm willing to bet Cheetah put on a couple of pounds herself. She has filled out since she recovered from nursing her giant puppies! She looks really good. I am really curious to see Schroeder on Saturday - he must be about as big as Cheetah! It will be so neat to see him again.

Cool thing 6.25.09

So I doubt I have ever mentioned before that I struggle with depression. As such, I have a high intensity full spectrum light. Long story short, I took a sick day today and wasn't in the best shape when Dan got home from work. So he went and got us take out and we sat on the couch and watched bad TV and he flipped on the light box. Now, when this light box is on, it looks like there is a mad scientist performing experiments in our house. This thing is BRIGHT. It is currently located in our basement, where we have our primary family room. Our basement is a raised basement and we have large windows. So we are sitting on the couch watching TV with the light box blaring and I look up and there is a face in the window not 10 feet away!!! I managed to keep my wits about me enough not to shriek or make any sudden movements. I said in as calm a voice as I could manage, "Dan, there is a fox in the window right next to you right now!!!" This little guy (or girl, I couldn't tell) was extremely interested in what we were doing. He almost seemed like he was trying to get in! We sat there looking at each other for at least a full minute before he moved on. He was very neat looking and I was really curious what made him so interested in us. Maybe the light, because it is like sunlight. Anyway, it lifted my spirits a little and was really cool, so I thought I would share.

Cheetah potential owner

OK so this woman who is interested in Cheetah asked me some good questions that made me think she is interested in the well being of the dog, and that she knows what she is doing. So behind the intense sadness and continual lump in my throat, I feel a little bit of excitement reminiscent of when I would find the right owner for one of the puppies. I am realizing that I can let her go if it is to the right place. So I simply will not be letting her go until I am convinced I have found that. I guess I was sort of hoping that would be in 15 or 16 years and oops, I kept her for her entire life. But honestly, if I have to let her go (and I am told I do) I need it to be soonish. I can't take the roller coaster and constant anticipation of losing her anymore. It's too much. :'-(

Cheetah 6.24.09

Well, I got a call about Cheetah from this woman who wants to meet her this weekend at the adoption event. Every time this happens I feel like I have an ulcer burning through my stomach wall, I can't catch my breath, and I become completely morose until they go away.

Cheetah has been having a rough couple of days. Maybe I should say *I* have had a rough couple of days with her. She seems to be experiencing an energy spike. I changed up her food a little bit two days ago and wonder if there is a correlation. I cut back her canned food because girlfriend has some horrendous gas. Thus I increased the kibble, which is extremely high in protein. This could be making her a little more hyper based on some unofficial science. Guess the only way to tell is don the gas mask and go back to the way we were doing it before.

I'm off to acupuncture. Maybe I should take Cheetah. She certainly lives quite the spa-life for a foster dog!!

Mocha 6.23.09

Mocha update. Sorry I haven’t written one in a while, Mocha and I have been busy. She is doing great. As of June 22, she is up to 32.5 lbs.

Weather permitting, we go on a 2 mile walk every morning and a 4-5 mile walk every evening. She loves walking and is usually well behaved. We spend a lot of time working on “not pulling” the leash. We also always do a special “sit and stay” once the leash is on and the front door is opened. That took a while to learn, but now she understands that she has to be good before the walk will start. J

She has another set of puppy shots tomorrow, I think this is the fifth set. They seem to be never ending. She loves going to the vet because they make a fuss saying hi to her and it’s the same building we go to Puppy School in. She graduated from Puppy Kindergarten with “exceptional merit”! Not sure exactly what that means, but the diploma is on the fridge door, front and center. We are now attending the follow-up puppy course. She enjoys it, but gets too excited when another puppy starts barking or acting up. The instructor seemed amazed that I adopted an Aussie after I had helped raise two other Aussies. J Yeah, she’s a bit high-energy and can be a spaz, but come on! Aussies are awesome, and she’s a very fast learner if I am consistent and engaging with the lessons.

Special thank you to Melanie and the others who warned about the bad reaction some of the other puppies had to that one shot. I had the vet put the printout in Mocha’s file and they gave her a shot of Benadryl before the other shot and she had no reaction at all! They also said that the first shot would make her drowsy, and the Benadryl would make her doubly sleepy that evening. No such thing. J She was her usual wonderful crazy self that night.

Mocha naps in the crate every workday morning and afternoon. I live 5 minutes from work, so I come home for lunch every day and we spend some time together and usually go outside. She is great with the crate. She knows when I am ready to leave for work, and she comes in from last potty break right away, cause she knows she will be getting two puppy biscuits when she goes into the crate for nap time. She always does her peepees when I tell her to go potty or do peepees. I don’t want her in the crate with a full bladder, THAT wouldn’t be fun.

She gets along great with my three cats. They have accepted her into the pack. She is a bit rough with them sometimes when she is all excited, but she is usually fairly careful to not squash them when they play.

Yesterday a large buck (male deer) had jumped the fence into the back yard and Mocha stood stock still for 30 seconds when she noticed him. Luckily I had noticed him first and had taken her collar first. When she started looking more excited than afraid I released her to go and chase him out of the yard. She really enjoyed that. It was fun to watch this huge buck go running away from Mocha. She didn’t bark until he was over the fence and she had to stop chasing. I wanted her to chase him because I have planted a garden this year and it only has rabbit fence protecting it. Deer wouldn’t break stride stepping over it to eat my veggies. Hopefully this will keep them out for a while.

I let her sleep out of the crate since she stopped having accidents in the house. She sleeps on the floor near me or on a half of the couch with a puppy blanket on it. Every morning she wakes up with the sun and comes over to wake me up. Sometimes she just licks my face or arm, but other times she climbs up and walks on me a while then lays down on me somewhere to really get a good angle for face licking. That usually wakes me up pretty good. Sometimes she lets me go back to sleep after lettering her out to do her business.

She loves playing with Jester and Quin, my friend Kim’s two male Aussies. She adores them both. Quin enjoys playing with her, but Jester is more grumpy around her. I think it’s because she won’t give him proper alpha-dog respect. Hopefully she’ll develop proper dog respect when she gets a bit older. Jester looks and sounds vicious as he tries to intimidate her or scare her away, but she doesn’t buy it. She seems to just know that he won’t really hurt her and just ignores all his theatrics as she torments him. It would be scary if it weren’t so funny. J I can always tell when she has been playing with Dah Boyz, because she sleeps like the dead on those nights. Serious puppy play is hard work!

We haven’t gone swimming yet, because it has pretty much been raining the entire month of June here so the water hasn’t warmed up enough, but when we get a few sunny days in a row the water will warm to the mid 80’s and I will take her swimming. She will love that. She doesn’t mind getting baths and she never seems to mind or even notice the rain. Unfortunately she also seems to really enjoy mud. J You win some, you lose some.

I’ll try and get some more recent pictures posted also.

-Brian.

Miracle Stuff

OK, you've all heard of Rescue Remedy right? Well, last night both Cheetah and Swiffer were a mess. Cheetah was feeling contrary all evening. She was barking so much on her walk I thought I was going to lose my mind. So every time she barked I would immediately stop cold in my tracks. It only took about 1/2 a block of this (once it occurred to me) before she got the clue that we were going nowhere if she was barking and she stopped. But she was clearly keyed up anyway.

By the time we went to bed she was all over the place, putting her paws up on the bed, trying to jump in with us, and clonking around with one of her bones on the hard wood. The sound of the bone dropping freaks Swiffer out to no end. So she was on the bed quivering away and could not sit still. So I got up and got two little pieces of wheat bread, and dropped Rescue Remedy onto each of them. I gave one to each dog, and sprayed DAP on our bed and Cheetah's bed. I kid you not when I say they were both out cold in under 5 minutes!! This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Swiffer did hurl in the middle of the night at some point, so maybe I gave her too much. But they both completely relaxed so fast, it was like I gave them tranquilizers! I was pretty amazed.

Very Exciting news 6.22.09

I actually have a couple of exciting things to share.

First, my baby brother Jim (11 years my junior) and his long time girlfriend Emily got engaged last week during their trip to Grand Cayman!! I think Em is great and am very excited to have her as a sister-in-law to be. I am looking forward to hearing all of the details as soon as they recover from the travel.

Second, I am getting a visit from Schroeder next week!!!! Saturday to be precise. I am ridiculously excited about this. His owner contacted me and offered the visit and I could not be more thrilled or grateful. I will be sure to take plenty of pictures and a short video or two. I know he won't remember me, but I wonder if the smells will be familiar. I am also curious if Cheetah will recognize him. As we know, she has territorial aggression issues. I have prepared Schroeder's owners for this and they are being very cool about it (his primary owner is very dog savvy). My current plan is to have Cheetah in another room until the initial excitement is over and then bring her in on loose lead. I wish she was a little more food motivated than she is and it would make it much easier. Anyway, I am crazy excited to see Schroeder.

Finally, Cheetah was at the dog park this weekend and there was a group of about 3 kids there. They were running and screeching in their maybe 10-year-old way. A girl and two boys. When I initially saw them I called Cheetah over very cheerfully and tried to keep her distracted. But she trotted over toward them at one point and my blood froze. I was fully prepared to make a heroic leap between Cheetah and a kid. But one of them threw a ball for her and she went running after it! She treated them like any other person!!!!! This was the ultimate proof. A playground at a distance is one thing. A kid in her immediate territory, running and playing, is QUITE another. I am utterly beside myself. Dan was annoyed with her in the car for barking in his ear (it can be very loud and startling) but I was like - are you kidding? SHE WAS GOOD WITH KIDS!!! She is not going to be perfect all at once. One thing at a time.

I have definitely noticed a significant difference since changing her food. She is a much calmer dog.

Here is a blog entry from Nicole Wilde - the dog trainer I heard when I went to that seminar a few weeks ago. She expresses a notion I have long felt to be true and I thought you might enjoy it too. http://www.dogstardaily.com/blogs/must-dog-every-dog-he-meets And an excellent follow up to that: http://www.dogstardaily.com/blogs/angels-and-expectations

Progress 6.18.09

Guess who walked past a PLAYGROUND today and hardly even gave it a second glance????? I am SO PROUD of Cheetah. She is almost entirely resocialized. Now we just need to work on things that don't look right to her (people on bikes, weird looking trucks, stuff like that). That will probably take longer. Chances are, she was not exposed to much as a puppy. So it will be an uphill battle.

I have also discovered she does not like it when people run. This was probably a large part of her issue with kids - since they are so prone to sudden and fast movement. She saw some women jogging around the park parking lot and did not like that one bit. I think she desires to herd them. A running sheep is never good right? Since I am completely against the idea of running myself, I do not know what she would do if she saw me do that. If I do that, it will be a bigger deal than getting muddy and dirty at the stream in the dog park by far! For being such an animal person I do not like exertion, nature or dirt very much.

On another note, we had some more storms today. I worked from home and was in the basement (which is our primary family room) and she stood at the top of the stairs whining. I normally do not allow her down here so that Swiffer and Lexy have a place of solitude. But I couldn't leave her up there scared. So I invited her down and she was so good. She just sat next to the couch and the one time she saw the cat, she was most certainly interested, but she listened to me when I told her to leave Lexy alone and sit back down.

She has really progressed. I still wouldn't leave her alone with either my cat or a little kid, but why would I do that anyway? I am sure she will backslide here and there, but she has really come a long way. Now if only someone could come in our house while she is here without her trying to eat them, we'd have her at a highly functional place.

Thunderstorms 6.18.09

We must've had 5 thunderstorms roll past last night. I know this because right before each one hit, Cheetah would come and paw at me bedside, and Swiffer would start trying to climb me, Dan, the blankets, the pillows... It was a good time. Finally they woke me up enough to remember I have some DAP spray. So I hauled myself up and went and got it and also rubbed them down with some dryer sheets. It did seem to help - but the storms also passed so I am not sure what did the trick. Now I have the spray next to my bed, so it won't be such an effort next time. They are all sound asleep right now. :-/

Welcome to Pell-Mel

Hello!

I am moving news posts about Cheetah & puppies here. For now I will continue to cross post on the Google Site as well, and I will leave that up for archive purposes, should I decide to move to this format exclusively. But this way you can make comments if you want. As such, I am going to stop checking the U-Stream site. I am leaving it up for now, since that is where some of the videos reside, but if you write something in the comments section on the U-stream page, from now on, I am not likely to see it.

Finally, while I will likely write mostly about dogs, I reserve the right to use this blog to talk about whatever I want. :-) I will be sure to accurately label each post, so you can skip over the things that do not interest you.

Enjoy!