Happy Birthday Cheetah & pups!

[pictures to follow later]

I can't believe it has been almost a year since I helped Cheetah whelp in my bedroom closet. Feb 2, Cheetah will have her honorary 2nd birthday (since we don't really know her actual day) and 7 of the puppies will turn 1. Feb 3 the youngest will celebrate her very own day to herself :-)

I can't begin to tell you the impact that Cheetah and her babies had on me. It was not something I wanted to share at the time, but with a little time, I am ready to share a pretty intense story how our lives intertwined. In many ways I feel that Cheetah saved me as much as I saved her.

January 2009 I got a call from the head of our rescue. We had pulled a dog who was not on the list but she was so pretty and sweet that the transport could not resist saving her from certain death. She was chunky and a little shy, and her name was Anastasia. She was adopted immediately off of the transport by a nice single woman who lived nearby. But when they took her to the vet - surprise! - Anastasia, now renamed Cheetah, was expecting "at least 7 puppies." I was the only one Kristina (rescue founder) could think of that could possibly take this on. We were still a pretty tiny rescue at the time. Poor Mr PM listened to me on the phone knowing something was up. I had to help - there was no one else to do it. But I cautioned, I was in the middle of an invitro cycle and these puppies had to be out and with other fosters the second they were weaned. (yeah right)

So into our house entered what Mr PM dubbed the trojan dog; sneaking 8 additional dogs with her! I was immediately taken with her. She was sweet natured and very sedate (ha!) and followed me everywhere. I took her in as we suspected her labor would approach so that she could get used to me and the house before giving birth. I would sit and watch her belly undulate and twitch and she would just look at me as if wondering what in the world had happened to her world. I read everything I could get my hands on about whelping. For some reason I was entirely confident we could do this despite the fact I had never done it before. She was a larger breed, unlikely to have complications and by the time she had her puppies, I felt like a certified midwoof.

In the mean time, I was going through my own pregnancy fun. I was taking my hormone shots to stimulate egg production so we could start ivf. The big day arrived and I went in for the procedure, where they put you under general anesthesia and aspirate your egg follicles with a needle. Turns out I was a bit prolific and we had a good showing. :-) They took the eggs and proceeded to fertilize them all and would report to me the next day that we had 10 embryos out of the over dozen eggs they had gotten from me! To put it in perspective, the woman in the bed next to me yielded 3 eggs. So we were pretty pumped. But I am getting ahead of myself.

I came home on vicodin because it was pretty painful - and I was supposed to stay in bed the rest of the day. But I had a funny feeling about Cheetah, who insisted in burrowing into my closet. So instead of laying in bed, I hauled a bunch of boxes out of my closet and moved all of my clothes, lined the closet with newspaper, and got out my whelping supplies while Mr PM was out at the pharmacy. He was none-to-pleased with me when he returned to discover my little moving job. Before my procedure we had prepared the spare bedroom with a place for Cheetah, but she wanted none of it.

My mom called to see how I was doing and I looked down and there was a puppy in the closet with Cheetah! That puppy was Mocha and she was being dragged around by her umbilical, as Cheetah had not yet birthed the placenta. So I basically hung up on my mom and began my long vicodin filled night of delivering puppies. And so went the day Button was conceived. All went really well and we delivered 9 live pups - a few of which I had to stimulate into breathing but they all made it! I put them all in a laundry basket lined with soft towels and blankets and a hot water bottle. It completely amazed me how trusting Cheetah was with me – not to mention what she let me do to her in the way of examination, etc. She sat in my lap for a lot of the labor and pushing.

Cheetah wanted nothing to do with nursing the puppies and was snapping at them. A breeder I spoke to said that was fine until she finished birthing (turns out this was bad advice). We took Cheetah and the pups to an emergency hospital when she continued to push and there were no puppies (she was, in fact, done; but better safe...) and while there, we lost the smallest pup. At that point I had Kristina and the owner, who both attended most of the whelping session, hold her down and I latched all of the puppies. I wasn't screwing around anymore. We also had the oldest and smallest pups tube fed to make sure everyone was hydrated and fed. I still blame myself for the loss of that one little female. I made the mistake of entrusting her to the vet on duty, who was, quite honestly and frankly - a complete ass. (I later saw her not be able to differentiate Cheetah’s uterus from her intestines on x-ray!!! *I* could do that and I did not attend veterinary school.) I feel I could have done a better job of re-stimulating that puppy. But in the end I guess it is what it is (and I am a control freak). Now I know for next time, if there is one.

Following is a list of the pups to refresh everyone’s memory:

PUPPY 1: “Mocha” (now still Mocha) Born 2/2/09 at 8:55pm – 11.5 oz female. True to her name, Mocha is a red merle. Mocha seems like she may be the first to walk – classic overachiever first child! :-) She became very talkative and loved to try out her voice in growls and barks. She led the pack in learning how to scale the fence of her enclosure (thanks a lot Mocha). She was adopted by a great guy in NJ who I have known for years and he is wonderful to her. She is very social and playful and is doing great!

PUPPY 2: “Hoover” (now Zibby) Born 2/2/09 at 9:07pm – 10.5 oz female. Hoover was named after a famous seal, who could mimic human vocalizations. She reminded me of a seal when she crawled around and was definitely the most talkative of the bunch! She was the larger black and gray merle with the smaller spots. Hoover was the loudest of the bunch and also one of the smartest at the time. She was the first to figure out how to drink water without submerging her nose :-) She was adopted by a great couple who live in a townhouse in DC and take great care of her. She is an exact replica of Cheetah from markings to personality, and she seemed to remember me when I saw her at the dog park months after her adoption – a testament to her smarts.

PUPPY 3: “Junior” (now Schroeder) Born 2/2/09 at 9:19pm – 7 oz male. Junior had the exact same markings as Cheetah, down to the white blaze on her chest. He is very pretty. He was the smaller black and gray merle with the larger spots. Despite being second smallest, Junior really caught up to the rest of the group. He was the calmest of the merles and was pretty low key. He was Mr PM’s favorite puppy. He was adopted by a wonderful family with older kids, and a mom who is a dog whisperer in her own right. He has an elderly sister now and keeps her young, and gets a long great with his kitty sibs as well. All of the pups are high energy dogs, but he still strikes me as having a mellow streak the others don’t have.

PUPPY 4: “Mouse” (now still Mouse) Born 2/2/09 at 10:06pm – 5.5 oz we originally thought female, then hermaphrodite, now we know MALE! Mouse is our surviving runt and we spent lots of time being paranoid for him. But he got in there to nurse with the best of them and always had a lot of heart! He looked and sounded like a mouse, and was is all black with a little bit of white on his chest and paw. Mouse later developed a white muzzle and multicolored paws. He was adopted by a lovely family who didn’t give a fig about his gender confusion :-) He is the family clown and they adore him. He definitely caught up with the rest of the puppies on size!

PUPPY 5: “Blondie” (now Poppy) Born 2/2/09 at 10:25pm – 10.5 oz female. Blondie was the lightest of the all blonde puppies. She had some undefined white on her head and had the pinkest nose. Like all of the blondes, she slept well and was laid back. Blondie was affectionate and you could put her to sleep almost instantly with a belly rub. Pawpads were pink rimmed in black. Poppy was adopted by a single woman who is also a vet at a prestigious local animal hospital. She gets to go to work with her owner every day, has made multiple news appearances and is often the subject of her owners blog!

PUPPY 6: Angel Puppy (never got a name): Born 2/2/09 at 10:37pm – 5.5 oz female, brown and black merle. She really struggled and it took me a while to get her breathing when she was born. For the next few hours she labored. At about 4am, we took Cheetah to the emergency vet to make sure there were no remaining puppies. While there, this little one passed on. We believe her lungs were underdeveloped.

PUPPY 7: “Cuddlebug” (now Belle) Born 2/2/09 at 10:59pm – 12.5 oz female. Cuddlebug was one of the 3 blonde puppies. She had a defined white star on her head. She was one of the first to separate herself from the group to sleep and would whimper. When I picked her up she snuggled right in, quieted down and was completely content to sleep in my arms. She was the smallest of the blondes, slept the most and is still very cuddly - pawpads were black. Belle was adopted by a family with two small children. They could not handle her and returned her. However we almost immediately found a fantastic couple who now dote on her the way she deserves. She sounds happy as a clam!

PUPPY 8: “Mugsy” (now Charlie) Born 2/2/09 at 11:51pm – 12 oz male. Mugsy is the third blond puppy. He was named for the black 6 o’clock shadow he had on his muzzle. He also had a defined white star on his head and he had really cute teeny pink and black pawpads. His 6 o'clock shadow went away, but his paw pads were pink and black alternating. He was adopted by a family with a lot of land, and loves to explore every inch of it.

PUPPY 9: “Velvet” (now Maddie) Born 2/3/09 at 1:30am – 13.5 oz female. Velvet was completely black. She was born the largest and works hard to retain that title! Truly she was last but not least! Velvet developed neat, merle colored socks, but I think they have since gone away and she has similar markings to Mouse. She was super friendly and always came over to say hi to the people first. She is now a little more picky about who she likes and she is a whopping 80 pounds!!!!! She was adopted by a teacher who lives in a group house and they all adore her. She gets to spend summers playing with her owner, loves the beach and is a sweet dog.

* * *

For the next 4 or 5 weeks you all watched the puppies in my bedroom closet. I could see them from my bed and they were pretty low maintenance. Once Cheetah got the hang of nursing, she really did all of the work and was a good mommy. She did develop some soreness, and I would occasionally get in there with her to encourage her to nurse. She would sit on my lap and I would pet her while the pups nursed. In the mean time, I had the embryo transplant and was expecting! Mr PM and I were absolutely thrilled. I was tired, but overall I felt surprisingly good (first indicator of a problem).

I think the puppies were about 4 weeks old when we transferred them to the pen in the spare bedroom due to size and their ability to scale the board keeping them in the closet. We weaned them on a combination of puppy kibble mixed with puppy milk formula, and as the weather got warmer we started taking them outside to explore the yard. Cleaning that pen was no fun! Nor was getting up at the crack of dawn with them. But they were so sweet and so happy to see me whenever I came in, I barely noticed it.

When the puppies were about 4 weeks old, we went for our 6 week pregnancy ultrasound and there was no heartbeat. As it turns out, we had what was called a blighted ovum. There was a pregnancy sac, a placenta, a yolk sac, but no baby. It took them a couple of weeks to convince me that there was really no baby in there. But my body apparently liked being pregnant and I had plenty of time to learn to accept it. I was so happy at that point to have the puppies to nurture and throw myself into their care. It was devastating news after thinking we had been successful after three years of trying to conceive and it helped a lot to have those little beings to love.

At around 7 weeks old, they were fully weaned and Cheetah went home to her owner. It took about a week to start getting reports that Cheetah was not doing so hot in her home. By this point she had spent more time with me than the owner. She was also still dealing with postpartum hormones, and was left alone in the apartment for 11 hours a day while her owner worked. She decided to do some redecorating by ripping up the carpet and eating some expensive textbooks and became very people aggressive and barked a lot. Her owner sadly decided she could not keep her without getting evicted, so I agreed that after the puppies were placed, I would take her back and find her a new home.

In the mean time I started doing interviews for the puppies. That was incredibly difficult for me because I felt a huge responsibility to make their lives as great as I could. I had a few applicants that were very bad choices, although I could not have told you why at the time. I learned to follow my instincts and I think that in the end, everything worked out for the best!

When the puppies were 8 weeks old, they started going home. This was about the time that I also had to have a D&C to terminate the pregnancy that wouldn’t go away on its own. For those of you who watched the puppy cam – you saw exactly how emotional I was. It was a lot of loss all at once. Mocha went a little before she was 8 weeks, and everyone was home by 9 weeks. A day or two after the last two puppies left, Cheetah came back to me fresh from having her spay surgery. She had a lot of trouble with her incision and I was giving her multiple pills a day and putting warm compressed on her incision to nurse her through. I think this is when the bond between us really solidified. I was in terrible grief and she was in trouble (again) and needed me. She could read me like I can’t begin to explain and responded just the way I needed.

Cheetah stayed with me until we were ready to try again. She was adopted again during that time, but it didn’t work out. As most of you know, she took a great amount of energy for me to train and rehabilitate. She had a score of issues, but by the time she left, we had addressed most of them. I was so proud of her. I often had to shut her out of the room when Mr PM gave me the shots to prepare for another ivf pregnancy, because she did not take very kindly to something she could tell hurt me. But I started holding onto her when I took them (they were intramuscular and very painful) and she would sit still and look at me while I hung onto her fur for comfort. Then on August 26, we finally had the procedure to transfer one of the frozen embryos we had conceived on the day she whelped her own puppies. I immediately became exhausted.

In the mean time Belle was coming back. I knew that Belle and Cheetah together would be too much for me. And Belle needed me just a little more in the immediate. So I made arrangements for Cheetah to go into foster care elsewhere. There were a couple of days of overlap when I had them both, and Cheetah was very jealous of Belle. It was the right decision not to have them here together. While I had Belle, Cheetah was desired for a foster to adopt situation. I *knew* that it was not going to work out, much as I liked the people. But I figured it was a good temporary option. By the time the people realized it wouldn’t work and Belle had been placed again, I was so sick with being pregnant that I couldn’t take her back. So Cheetah ended up in a no-cage boarding facility that works with the rescue. She also spent some time at the rescue founder’s house.

All reports were that she was doing very well. I saw her occasionally at adoption days, but it was hard for both of us – when I would leave we’d both cry (and I would throw up). Finally I was told she was placed. I had horrible guilt for my lack of involvement, but I was *still* completely incapacitated with being sick (this lasted through 18 weeks – very healthy pregnancy this time). I did communicate via email a little bit with the new owners, but I was getting reports that a lot of her old behaviors were resurfacing and I was very concerned. I gave as much advice as I could and promised to visit as soon as I could manage it.

This past Sunday I finally made it over there. I have to tell you – these people are FANTASTIC. I could not have picked better owners for my Cheetah. They are so patient and committed to her that I know she will be OK and work through her issues once more. When I saw Cheetah again she was so excited she whined and peed all over the place. She was clearly beside herself. We played and went through our tricks and I petted her and petted her. Eventually she laid down on my feet so I couldn’t move without her knowing. I spent two hours with her and had a great talk with her owners. She clearly loves them and they her. Finally I said “well I should probably get going” and I swear she understood me. She undoubtedly felt something in my demeanor shift, because she immediately started jumping on me and whining again. She always read me so well. But this time, I felt no guilt – she is in a perfect home and I know I will see her again.

I love Cheetah with all my heart and miss her every day. I will never forget what she gave me during one of the most difficult times in my life. She gave me purpose and a love like only a dog with a soul like hers could give. She understood me and comforted me in a way that even Swiffer could not. I helped her through the worst time in her life and she did the same for me.

Thank you Cheetah. I love you always. Happy birthday.

Latest on Cheetah

Just want to make sure you all saw this:

Lisa & Brian said...

Current update on Cheetah... she has her forever home! My husband and I are very smitten by her and she isn't going anywhere. My husband had an Australian Shepherd named Elvis for many years when he lived in NY. So, he's familiar with the breed. I went last night and bought her her very own dogbed for the living room so she'll also have some place comfortable to lie down on. She also loved the new toys I got her. I had no idea I'd take to her so quickly! We will send Melanie photos and updates for sure!

November 19, 2009 9:12 AM

Lisa and Brian said...

FYI, she already had a bed up in our room, the second one is to keep her off the new couch.

November 19, 2009 9:19 AM

Minor Cheetah update

I don't have much information but after visiting multiple homes on Foster-To-Adopt and being returned every time, it appears that Cheetah is about to have an adoption finalized. She has not been with me in a couple of months and in the last few weeks I have been letting the Rescue handle it. So I don't know much except it is a couple nearby and they have grown "very attached" to her and it sounds like a two-way street. I will wait to contact them until a final decision is made. This is a huge relief to me as I wake up worrying about her every day.

New Foster cam

When I am sitting in there, you will see Cheetah and Cuddlebug at play. At least until tomorrow when Cheetah is off to a different foster.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pell-mel-foster-puppy-cam

Sadie, Cheetah, Belle and Swiffer update 8.30.09

I saw Sadie today and she is like a different dog. She is so much more confident, she has some meat on her bones and she wants to play with the other dogs. She has that doggy sparkle back in her eye. What a difference from the tail tucked entirely under her, wouldn't stand up, emaciated little thing I first met.

I have to tell you, Cheetah was pretty cute with her. There were a good 15 dogs or so in the enclosure today and if someone got too rough with Sadie, Cheetah took it upon herself to herd them right away from her. Cheetah was the enforcer generally. If someone was barking too much - she would get right in their face and bark once sharply and back away. It was as if someone whistled through their fingers (I always wished I could do that) bc that dog would be shocked right into silence. It was fun to watch.

Cheetah was unamused that I was with Belle today. She did not like that one bit. I am HER person and that is that. She has been staying the last few days with Kristina, head of the rescue, to give this household a break. She has always like Kristina and literally (I kid you not) rolled down the car window and jumped out when she saw Kristina when I was dropping her off. Luckily I was going about 1 mph and she was leashed by her harness as opposed to her collar. I was able to release her from the seatbelt quickly and Kristina grabbed the leash with Cheetah none the worse for wear. I usually keep the child locks on the windows bc while she has never jumped out, she has done the roll down the window trick before (damn smart dog), but I had rolled down the front window to talk to Kristina so the child lock was off.

Anyway, she was herding dogs away from Kristina too when she was in the pen. She is crapped out on the floor right now - busy day of protecting everyone for her!

Kristina said she did awesome at her house and wasn't even territorial! Woo hoo! I declare her cured. I think she really would do best in a household with another dog. So Cheetah will be with me for this week, and then Sat night she is going to another senior foster's house so I can take Belle, who needs me more right now.

Back to Sadie, she has had all of her bloodwork and this week has the actual heartworm treatment. This treatment is painful so please keep her in your thoughts. She will also be on pain meds for her hip - I spoke to Kristina about it today. And we are investigating specialists to work on her leg. Our goal is not to amputate, but follow Ashley's suggestion of the procedure with the big long name that will stop bone from rubbing on bone. She is already functioning with the leg. The musculature has healed around it and she has figured out how to work with it. So we just want to deal with the pain it must be causing her. My guess is that it would be cheaper to amputate, but no one really wants to do that.

So Belle. She is a tiny little thing! She's only 35 pounds and looks so little to me next to Cheetah. She is smaller than the other puppies I have seen as well. She is cute as a button and I know there will be a ton of interest in her. As a matter of fact, we already had one application! (3 kids though). I spent about 20-30 minutes with her just getting her used to me, and before we were done, she turned her back to me (I was flattered by this!) and she jumped into my lap and licked my face. So we are buds. I brought chopped up hot dog with me to offer as a high value treat, but she was slow to accept it. She did finally eat out of my hand and we started some basic targeting training. She is not super food motivated, which will make training a little more difficult. But certainly not impossible.

She is very fearful, but not as bad as Cheetah was, nor as reactive. Add to that that she is younger, and I am very confident that I can get her where she needs to be. Here is my plan:

1. Get her spayed ASAP. Her owner was advised by her vet to hold off bc she was so skittish. I don't agree with that evualtion, but regardless, I am of the opinion that now, hormones are exacerbating the situation. Plus, it needs to be done.
   
2. Once she is spayed I can take her to an off leash park - I found this helped Cheetah immensely. Fearful dogs are often more fearful on leash, bc they can't run away if they are scared. This can mean they feel they have to defend themselves, which is never good.
3. Change her food! She is currently on Puppy Chow, a corn based dog food. We have discussed before how corn can block seratonin uptake in a dog, increasing anxiety, fear and aggression. The Rescue has changed over to Blue Buffalo - to which I say BRA.VO. Cheetah has been getting Solid Gold, but I will probably switch Belle to Blue Buffalo for consistency. We'll see how I feel when I go shopping :-)
4. I will start a basic obedience regimen with her. This will cause bonding with me and increase confidence. It will also help me to control situations better and distract her more effectively when we are facing her fears.

Swiffer is still limping :-( We are still on pain meds and I have scheduled an appointment with a different vet in the practice for Saturday. My biggest fear is that she has an injury which is healing improperly. We will likely need to do some x-rays next. She and Lexy had a very nice break while Cheetah was visiting. Lexy followed me from room to room like a dog and Swiffer did too, come to think of it :-)

Rescue Angels Adopter Reunion BBQ

Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Yesterday was the Adopter Reunion and it went well! Cheetah was pretty good about all of the chaos. She got a little nippy when people she didn't know kept coming in and messing around in the kitchen - particularly the fridge. But she only outright nipped I think once. I caught her at it and she did not do it again.

Sadie was there and she hid under the big bush for most of the party, but after most of the people left she came out and explored all around the yard. Foster said she never does that, so I feel like it was a good experience for her. She looked really good. She wasn't shaking at all and she was really curious.

Schroeder and his sister Marci came with thier family. He was joyous as usual :-) Right at the end Poppy's owner came as well. She came sans Poppy because I guess Poppy was feeling a little off. But we had a nice visit and Poppy may come for a play date sometime soon! I am getting reports from her and some of the other puppy owners that they are going through a shy phase. I am hoping it is adolescence and will pass. Cheetah was shy when she first came to us but she got over it. I am pretty convinced if Cheetah can get past it, the puppies will too. This is a tough phase in many dogs' lives.

As many of you know, Poppy's owner is a vet and she had some alternative ideas to amputating Sadie's leg. We had Sadie's xrays at the event and so she was able to look at them and make some suggestions. We can minimize her pain without losing her leg. That would be great. In the mean time, she showed us exactly what she thinks would be causing Sadie to be in pain (there is bone rubbing up against bone) and we realized that the vet Sadie went to last weekend did not prescribe pain meds. This is an issue that makes me absolutely insane. I am a big believer in pain relief to animals. Just becuase they can not say "it hurts" does not mean it doesn't. So we will be revisiting that vet to get a Rx.

Overall the party was a success. I think we had around 30-40 dogs. It hit 100 degrees though!! We had three doggy pools and a sprinkler going for the dogs, as well as lots of water bowls and a couple of tents for shade. Kristina made doggy cupcakes, which were a big hit with the dogs I saw eating them :-) Cheetah was not interested in dinner last night and completely turned her nose up at breakfast, but I think it could be because she had at least 2 hamburgers, a piece of hotdog, and many cupcakes yesterday. She was completely pooped. Between the heat, the excitement, the anxiety of strangers messing with the den, and all of the crazy food, she is a bit sedate this morning as well. I won't worry about it unless she isn't drinking or is still not eating tomorrow.

Swiffer made an appearance for a little while, but was pretty intimidated with all of those other dogs, and I didn't make her stay out that long in the heat. Her foot is still bothering her a little too, although it seems better.

I, myself, never felt such an extreme need for a shower in my entire life after running around in that heat! Too bad you can't really have air conditioning outside. I wish we had a pool. We have enough room for it but 40k for installation plus 3k a month during the season is a bit much to contemplate right now :-/

Cheetah 8.11.09

Saturday night Cheetah did something to Swiffer out in the back yard. The last I looked, Cheetah was occupied chewing a bone about the size of Swiffer on the deck, and Swiffer was wandering around in the yard. But she must've started trying to play with Swiffer bc Swiff was covered in spit. All of a sudden Swiffer started screaming and Cheetah was slinking away - they were behind the big bush so I am not sure what happened. I bolted out there pretty quickly from preparing dinner. I suspect Swiffer pulled a muscle while executing an avoidance maneuver - possibly with Cheetah's paw on her back. She has been favoring her left hind leg ever since, so I made a vet appt for her tonight. Of course she is more terrified of Cheetah than ever. I am keeping them more separated. I can tell it isn't broken or dislocated, and there was no blood to indicate a puncture wound and I checked her foot pads for thorns etc. So it has to be a ligament or muscle. She can put weight on it, but mostly hobbles around on three legs. Poor boo. Cheetah was only trying to play with Swiffer I'm sure. She tends not to know her strength. Swiffer is also a bit of a drama queen, but this is a long time to be in a snit and play on our guilt so we're getting it checked out.

Cheetah is learning not to stalk the cat, which is good. I have found a squirt of water in the snout with a spray bottle is fabulous aversion training. As you know, normally I go for positive reinforcement. But there are certain instances where aversion is the way to go. In this case, Cheetah gets so focused on the cat that her ears don't even twitch when I talk to her. Now, all I have to do is look in the direction of the bottle on the counter or say her name sternly and she will immediately relinquish her post at the basement door. Of course that cat has figured this out and is taunting her. I swear to god it is like having kids.

Note on aversion training - timing is absolutely imperative. If your correction is off by even a tiny amount, you might as well not do it it at all bc the effect will be lost. The dog will not associate the punishment with the crime. You absolutely must read the dog's body language and anticipate their actions so that you can correct the split second they start to do thing you are trying to prevent.

Maddie visited Cheetah 8.9.09

Maddie and Cheetah had a fun visit on Sunday. This was the first time I have seen Maddie since her adoption and she is bigger than Cheetah! Not by much, but she's bigger and still growing. I expect that her frame won't get too much bigger, but now she will start to bulk up more. Her paws are big! But I would put them at about the same size as Schroeder if I remember correctly. I bet they end up about the same size and Schroeder (7.5 oz) was the only one bigger than Mouse (5.5 oz) at birth! For the record Maddie was biggest at 13.5 oz. (Do not ask me why I know that off the top of my head.) Maddie was also the only one born after midnight, so she has her own birthday too :-)

Anyway! She seems to have gotten over her chicken incident just fine. She was wary of me at first and barked, which mortified her owner, but it was fine. She doesn't remember me and she was in a strange place. God knows I am used to dealing with Cheetah when she does that to other people. I just turned to the side, averted my eyes, crouched down and let my hand be where she could sniff it. She calmed down pretty quickly.

We went straight out to the back yard and she sniffed around a bit while I went in and got Cheetah. Cheetah was SOOOOOOO excited she practically dragged me out the door and down the deck steps. (I always have Cheetah on a lead when introducing her to new dogs and people in case she takes offense to them. We have had big issues with her being territorial in the past.)

No worries though - Cheetah was crazy excited to see Maddie and she had zero problems with Maddie's owner or her friend that she brought along. So far, Cheetah is fine with her puppies' owners. She is also improving with other strangers in the house. She was very good when Kate visited and was good with my mother-in-law. I am careful about introductions - she always starts out in another room or meets the person outside and I can control her and her environment better as the inside introduction happens. She is not absolutely perfect but she is definitely getting better. She also did very well with her last owner when introduced in the house, but she had also seen them a few times in other places. I will be interested to see how she does when I have some people over on Wed night from the Rescue, and then on Sunday when we have the Rescue Angels anniversary celebration at my house when there will be approx 50 adopters and dogs coming and going from the back yard. If she can't take it I will confine her to my bedroom.

Anyway, I got off track. The pictures I took aren't fabulous (they are in with Cheetah post puppies), but I also got some video, which is posted in the usual place. Maddie looks absolutely beautiful - she is sleek and shiney and clearly happy. Her owner also is very good about guiding her and setting limits for her. I think she will probably get a little bigger than her owner hoped, but she is totally in love with her and it won't matter beyond some practical considerations.

Cheetah - pass it on

Should you know anyone who might be interested, please click on the little envelope below and pass it on...

Cheetah is a wonderfully sweet and loyal 1.5 year old Aussie mix. She is still young and playful like a puppy, but has the disposition of an adult. She is full grown at about 45 lbs. She knows multiple commands, is entirely housebroken, spayed and current on all shots and preventatives. She likes to romp with most other dogs, and would do well living with a playmate or on her own. She is protective of her home and her people. She is energetic and would do best with an active, experienced dog owner. She would be a perfect companion for a runner or biker with a large, fenced back yard. She is very smart and would likely make a wonderful agility dog as well. Ideally one of the owners would work from home or have a modified work schedule as she loves to be with her person! But she is used to a full time work schedule with her fosters. Favorite activities: following her foster mom around; the dog park!!; watching birds and squirrels from her window seat; chasing them outside; playing with her treat ball; playing fetch, tug and chase games; extracting squeakers out of her toys. No kiddies or kitties please.

Contact: melanie@rescueangels.org
Application: http://www.rescueangels.org/Pages/AdoptionApplication.html

Cheetah Pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/melrescueangels/CheetahPostPuppies?feat=directlink

Cheetah Videos (after puppy videos):
http://picasaweb.google.com/melrescueangels/CheetahAndPuppyVids?feat=directlink

Return of the Cheetah - The Aussie Strikes Back

As the title implies, I have decided to have a sense of humor about this. Your emails, comments and support have really helped, and last night - I took one of those perspective showers. You know - where you get in the shower and you have an "aha moment" and suddenly everything shifts for you. I have no control over this so there is no point in worrying about it.

Cheetah is coming back tonight to my place. Poor Lexy and Swiffer will go back into semi-hiding, but as many of you have said - the right person will come along and it will work out eventually. I think Mr. PM is of the opinion that Cheetah has hatched a plot to return to us indefinitely. I believe there was a moment there where he actually thought she planned it out. :-) But I have learned from this, and I will just keep plugging along until I find a good fit. In the mean time I will enjoy her while I have her and step up my training efforts.

All of the new videos I took are now posted, and new pictures are up as well, although not yet labeled. There is a particularly cute vid of Cheetah hunting a fly.

Finally, I wanted to show you the pretty flowers Mr. PM gave me last week, and the "chocolate decadence" my mom sent me on Friday to make me feel better about Cheetah's departure.

Cheetah 8.4.09

Well. Where to begin. I took Friday off from work to spend the day with Cheetah. We went to the dog park and who do you think we ran into but Zibby and her owner! I happened to be filming when I first noticed Zibby, so you will be able to see that as soon as I get it uploaded. I filled the camera that day so I have a lot of material to sort through. Zibby is almost the same size as Cheetah and they are so similar in both looks and mannerisms is it downright freaky.

Then she got a bath and we had lots of cuddles. I dropped her off on Saturday and unobtrusively melted away so she wouldn't notice me going. Things have gone semi-OK since then, but she snapped at daughter a few times, and is at her herding and nipping activities like crazy. She downright refused to let them have other people into the house. I'm so bummed because we had made such progress on this front when she was with me. But the transition was too much and new owner feels it is not safe to have kids coming and going in the house. She fell in love with Cheetah and just didn't realise the extent or areas in which she was likely to backslide.

So Cheetah is coming back to us. Despite the fact that I did everything I could think of to prepare her for her new environment, I feel like I failed. The head of the rescue is going to take her for a little while to give my poor Swiffer and Lexy a break. They have been following me around and cuddling up to me like crazy since Saturday afternoon. Now that Cheetah is gone I can see the extent to which they were really surpressed with her there. Also - I went though the entire grieving process, and I just need a break before I dive back in.

I have decided that moving forward with adoption applications - no kids, period. I don't think she poses a danger to them, but the reality is that there will be a ton of friends coming and going and Cheetah is a handful to manage visitors to the house. A child is not equipped to lead Cheetah the way she needs to be led - particularly as it comes to her herding instinct. An experienced dog owner can handle it, but when you throw kids into the mix, you are just asking for trouble. I think we all saw what we wanted to see with this one. No negative comments toward the new owner please. She feels bad enough and the daughter is heartbroken. The decision to act quickly was made so that the daughter would not get further attached.

We are still figuring out timing on her return, but it will be this week. As I said I have tons of new pictures and video on her (and Zibby), so I will get that up soon.

Cheetah 7.29.09

I am feeling much better today. PA and Daughter came over for dinner last night and for some reason it settled me down a lot. Cheetah did amazingly well having them in the house. It was my hope that since she had met them twice before in various settings (and is sleeping with PA's shirt to familiarize her with the smell) that she would be less reactive about them being in the house. This proved true and we only had once or twice when she scared Daughter with insistence that she remain seated. But she eventually settled down enough to let everyone move freely and she was even doing tricks for Daughter! It was great. Hopefully I can hang onto this feeling until Saturday. I don't expect it to be easy that day, but it would be great if I could remain at peace until then. This is going to be so good for her - after playing with Daughter all evening she conked right out at bedtime. And I find I am never at a loss for things to talk about with PA. :-)

Cheetah 7.28.09

Yesterday, Cheetah was challenging. It started when I let the dogs out after I got home from work. I went and changed my clothes and went outside and there was Swiffer, but no Cheetah. So I did my loud come here whistle, and she comes trotting over the other side of the back fence. Sigh. She hopped it like a gazelle, and I just didn't have it in me to yell at her. Also, she did what I asked by coming when I called her, and I should not have let her out on her own, so I had no real reason to yell at her. I just thought with Swiffer out there too, she'd stay put. No dice. Ah but she had been hunting. She carried with her a mini soccor ball that likely belongs to the kids behind and a house down from us. She had the time of her life playing with it. It was better than her own balls because it was hard won - she had been successful on the hunt! Even when she is bad she makes me laugh.

So we came in and I fed them and decided to take a shower. As usual she hid in the bedroom while I showered. Afterwards, while I was drying off I noticed a spider on the bathroom floor. I am not one to kill bugs, but Cheetah has a ball chasing flies, so I thought this might interest her too. So I went and got her and she came slinking in with her tail tucked (please don't give me a shower). I pointed out the spider, but she was too worried to see where I was pointing. I kept saying "Cheetah, look!" but she thought I wanted her to get in the tub. She kept going and looking in and pacing back. She alsmost jumped in at one point, which I did NOT want bc we have a slow drain and there was still water in the tub! It was cute though because she was trying so hard to please me and just decided to brace herself and do what she thought I wanted. Finally I gave up on the spider and just dismissed her so she wouldn't work herself into a total frenzy. I plan to bathe her Friday before she goes and I don't want to traumatize her.

So then I grabbed the book I was reading and invited her back outside. I sat on the deck and watched her sniff around the yard and then got engrossed in my book. The next thing I know, I hear her start barking and look up in time to see her ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE again running toward the neighbor's house and the other barking dog. I hear a guy's voice but not what he was saying. But it didn't sound good. This time I did not whistle. I yelled for Cheetah in the "OK you really screwed the pooch now" voice. She turned on a dime and came back over to the fence. I said "what are you doing over there?!" "Get back over her now! COME!" Now, this is not the advisable way to get your dog to come to you. It never ceases to amaze me that a dog will come when someone is yelling at them. Would you come to a crazy angry person screaming at you in a language you did not understand? But she did. And she went directly into the house as I stomped in after her. Thank god PA has a 6 foot privacy fence.

Later I was sitting on the couch and she started mouthing me and trying to get me to play. I have really been enforcing the no teeth rule, because of Daughter. So she out and out nipped the front of my ankle. I have a very fast reaction time for that sort of thing (which is handy for corrections) and immediately said HEY! I can scare a 300 lb linebacker when I do that because it is sudden and it comes right from the diaphram. She went and laid down as soon as I did it. She chooses NOW to get nippy?

Oh but there's more. We went down to the basement to watch some TV and I shut the door to where the cat was and invited her down. Mr PM caught her starting to pee on the carpet!! WTF?? OK so now I am getting concerned bc she just doesn't really do that. He took her right outside and she did not go. He caught her early in so it wasn't much, but still... I have a few theories.

1. She was marking right outside the cat room (for obvious reasons)
2. She is getting sick
   
3. She is really picking up on my grief and being reactive
4. She is being selfless and trying to make her departure easier on me :-P

I suspect #3 is the answer. But I am keeping an eye on this in case she is getting a bladder infection or something.

She then proceeded to try to eat Mr. PM's backback, so we got her a toy, which she ripped to shreds. She investigated the garbage, which she never does, and she decided to harrass poor Swiffer, which had me standing over her a good part of the show. In her efforts to appease me, she managed to knock over my drink with her tails sweeping back and forth at coffee table level.

The whole night was just one thing after another. I finally lost my patience when the drink went over. Then everyone calmed down and laid down - and of course the show ended around that time, so we went to bed.

This morning she came in and woke me up with her usual enthusiastic nose in the face and some licking and snuffling. I have resolved to try to calm down more and thus calm her down. She is SO attuned to the emotions around her.

So I started to talking to her in the bed this morning. She does this thing where she will look at me and woof, like she is talking back. She wakes me up in the morning so I can get up and come feed her. Really she just wants me to get up, but she seems to find the breakfast a nice bonus. My goal until Saturday is to just be in the moment with her as much as possible, so that she can relax as well.

Fostering

After Cheetah leaves Aug 1, I will be taking the month off from fostering. I expect I will have a lot of Cheetah updates, and on August 16, there is going to be a Rescue Angels reunion taking place at my house, so I will get to see some of the dogs I fostered before, plus about 100 I haven't! I will likely have some pictures and stuff from that. It is my hope that when I start up fostering again in September, we will fire up the webcam again so you can have live pictures when we have a puppy (or two). I won't always have puppies, but I have had quite a few in the past, before the litter.

Cheetah's first visit to new home

I find that I am having a hard time reporting on this, so please forgive if the posts become a little sparse.

Cheetah's visit went well yesterday. She was nervous but we stayed until she calmed down (a little over 3 hours). She showed a real affinity to Daughter, although she got carried away and nipped a few times. I am working with them on how to handle that and nip it in the bud (no pun intended). Her excitement level was particularly high as both my and PA's anxiety level was up (I was sad and she was nervous about what I thought), and I am sure that was revving her up even more. It was also about an hour car ride, which was super stimulating, and I gave her Dramamine. Cheetah seems to have a reverse side effect from drugs you would expect to make her sleepy.

She did manage to sneak away and poop in daughter's room (!!) but PA was very cool about it and understanding. It was actually my fault because Cheetah was barking at me - which usually means she is telling me something - but I took it as excited barking and failed to let her out.

But they had fun toys for her (just the kind she likes) and PA made her chicken and rice for dinner, which she of course thought was AWESOME. We ended by taking her for a walk around the neighborhood, and she was downright impressive with little Daughter holding the leash. She was walking loose lead and often healing. I am here to tell you - that is a big accomplishment. She never ceases to amaze me with her progress.

It was neat for me bc I got to see the video of Daughter finding out about Cheetah, and I got to see the house and neighborhood. There are a lot of dogs around, which she will love, and PA has a bench seat in front of her front window, where Cheetah can perch during the day and watch the world go by as she enjoys doing.

It was a reality slap for me though - I am not handling it too well. I know she will be in good hands and I will see her again eventually, but at the moment it is not any easier. This morning she came and hopped into the bed (placing her head right on Mr. PM's pillow - it is pretty cute) and gave me a lick on the face and I woke up to her tail going a mile a minute waiting for her morning scratch. It's just hard.

I will try to take a lot of pictures and some video of her this week. I will be focused on spending time with her though so I don't know how successful I will be. PA and daughter are coming to our house to visit Tuesday night to give her yet another chance to get used to them. Then she will go home Saturday. I will take her and stay with her until she calms down enough for me to slip out. I think it will be more traumatic if she sees me leave, since she does not understand goodbye, so I will say my goodbyes to her before that, so she doesn't get aggitated when I go. The goodbye is for me, after all. And I will not handle it well if she is crying at the door when I leave.

Cheetah's adoption

Well, it sounds like all went really well and Daughter is super excited by her birthday surprise that Cheetah is coming to join her family. I have to admit I was a little worried that she might want a puppy instead or something along those lines. But PA tells me she is giddy with excitement. That makes me really happy - and I suppose really sad too because it solidifies everything. But knowing how excited they are and how much Cheetah is wanted and will be loved makes it a little easier. It is really nice to be able to tell PA what mixed feelings I have about all of this and not worry that it will put her off. She is very understanding and I appreciate it. It helps not to have to try to hide it.

We are going for a visit tomorrow. I have been prepping Cheetah with a car harness the last couple of days. She doesn't love it, but she also doesn't bark her head off in the car! That is pretty bonus. Anyway I will let you know how it goes.

Happy birthday to Daughter!

lesson for the day

Do not try to teach "off" with a peanut butter sandwich. It is both futile and messy.

Cheetah - a complete history

For all of you hard-core Cheetah fans out there - I thought you might enjoy this slightly redacted letter that I wrote to Cheetah's prospective adopter after she asked me a few initial questions. (I do nothing half assed.)

* * *

OK here we go.

History:
I do not know very much about Cheetah before she came to me. All I know is that she was pulled at the last moment by the person who does our pulls for us. I tend to stay out of the shelter side of things or I would have a pack of 500 dogs. But she was not a scheduled pull, I do know that. We always pull from high kill shelters and she came from North Carolina. The person just thought she was sweet and grabbed her the night before she was due to be euthanized. She was adopted right off the transport by a woman named ["FO" first owner] who fell in love with her right away. A few days later I got a call from Kristina, the Exec Director of the rescue telling me that surprise! Cheetah was pregnant with "no less than 7 puppies" and what in the world were we going to do. FO had no intention of giving her up, but she could not handle the puppies in her apartment. Somehow I talked my husband into letting me take her in and help her whelp. I immediately bonded with Cheetah and she trusted me from the get go. She came a few days before she whelped so she could get used to the place. I had the spare bedroom all set up for her, but she decided my bedroom closet was more to her liking and started nesting in there. So at the last minute I cleared out my closet and threw a tarp and some newspapers in there and gave the closet to her. I had never whelped puppies before so it was quite the experience for me! I read everything I could get my hands on and she had 9 beautiful little puppies. The entire time she laid in my lap and had no problem with me handling these strange little things coming out of her. The vet estimated her to be about a year old at that time - it was probably her first heat cycle. We took her to the emergency vet when she continued to push for over an hour after the last puppy with no results, but it turned out she was just pushing. Unfortunately while we are at the vet, one of the puppies stopped breathing and we could not get her going again. But the other 8 thrived. Cheetah and the puppies lived in my closet for 4 or 5 weeks before moving to the spare bedroom when it got too cramped for them. I would often sit in there with her in my lap while she nursed. The puppies really tore her up nursing so it must've been painful but she would lay there if I stayed with her.

Once the puppies weaned, she went back to FO. As I mentioned briefly, FO lived in an apartment. At this point in time, Cheetah still had raging hormones and had been through a lot of transition. When left alone in the small apartment all day she tore up the carpet and ate a bunch of school books. She also barked a lot. Then when FO came home, she was not very active with Cheetah and Cheetah did not get enough exercise, which exacerbated the situation. She became leash aggressive and snapped at any man or child she came across, and wasn't too thrilled with strangers in general. So, upon threat from her landlord, FO made the heart rending decision to surrender her back to the Rescue, knowing she would end up back with me. She went into boarding for a week as the last of the puppies went to their new homes. I took her back right after her spay surgery. She had some trouble with her incision (she should not have been spayed so close to having just whelped) so I was applying warm compresses to her twice a day and giving her antibiotics. She was very cooperative and extremely easy to pill.

Thinking back to when she first returned to me, she is not even the same dog now. Her fear of most people is gone. I do take control of the situation when she meets someone and tell them how to approach her. I have read a ton and went to 16 hours worth of seminars on how to work with fearful and/or hyper dogs. I have desensitized her to many things, changed her food, and she is well trained in a few key areas. We have a little way to go, but taking her to the dog park, I always get compliments on what a sweet, well-adjusted dog she is. I love her very much.

Dog Door/Crate Training:
She has neither a dog door, nor a crate. Despite FO's experience with her, Cheetah has never destroyed ONE thing in my house. In the beginning I was completely paranoid and she always had a treat ball and a bone of some sort and a new stuffed toy every day to keep her busy. But after changing her food and learning a few other calming techniques, and after she got into the routine of us going to work every day, I have noticed that she spends most of her time sleeping during the day. She likes behind the couch, in the bay window, and in our bedroom on the floor the best. So now, while I do try to rotate out her toys to keep her occupied, and I still give her a treat ball and the occasional chewy, it is not with the maniacal fear of her eating my furniture I once had. In other words I do not dump a truckload of stuff on her every morning anymore. She likes to have the room to move around in the house, and we have a finished basement to which I can shut the door (ranch style house). She she hangs out on the main floor all day (about 1500 sq ft) and Swiffer and Lexy, my Pomeranian and kitty, hang out in the basement. I am comfortable enough to leave Cheetah and Swiffer alone, but I still don't trust her alone with my cat (who is elderly and doesn't need the stress so I just keep them apart). We don't have a dog door but if we did I would not use it with Cheetah. This is because while we have about 1/2 acre fenced yard, the fence is only about 3 1/2 ft tall and she could go over it any time she felt like it. She generally doesn't, but I wouldn't leave her unattended with a fence that short. Initially I might be concerned about her barking until she got used to the environment.

Kids and Men:
Right now I am not worried about men at all. I would show you how to have people approach her to make sure she doesn't feel cornered or threatened. I feel pretty much the same way about children, but I don't get to observe her around them as much, and am just plain old more cautious when it comes to kids, so I would make sure she looks comfortable and relaxed. If there are a ton of kids running around that might be a situation for her to get used to. In my opinion, children are freaky to her because they tend to move quickly and unpredictably. They also tend to be higher energy than most adults. That is what a dog might pick up on and get riled up about. Cheetah is also a herding dog, and might try to herd them. She definitely prefers it when Me, my husband and Swiffer are all in the same room. When a dog herds sheep, they nip at their heels. If she tries to herd a bunch of kids, I could see that happening. But she hasn't been tested with that many kids, so I can't say exactly what would happen - that would just be what I'd watch for as it is common behavior in a shepherd breed. Introduction is everything for her I think.

MOTIVATION:
Cheetah likes treats, and loves her toys, but I would say her primary motivation is praise and attention. She responds very well to positive reinforcement methods. I do use treats for training, but generally I determine what she wants the most in that circumstance to get her to do something. For example, when she was torqued up on the gentle lead the other night, and barking her head off, she quickly learned that barking meant stop and silence meant we could proceed. Since that's what she wanted, she figured out within about 1/2 a block that no matter how excited she was feeling, she was not going to bark. By the way, since then I have determined that the gentle lead is more of a distraction than it is worth because she HATES it on her face, so I switched her to an Easy Walk halter with good results. She is a puller on the leash so she needs something to discourage her from doing so - I am not a fan of prong collars or other pain based deterrents. She absolutely knows I am in charge and I am the leader, but I do not pull "dominance" moves on her. I am very aware of my body language and of hers. I anticipate her and control her environment. She trusts me and feels I protect her, so she is obedient.

SLEEP:
She is a love bug and if I am home, she is at my side. She is not allowed on furniture and does not understand why Swiffer, her foster sib, is. I just try not to allow fosters into situations future owners my not like. She will make a play for the bed if I am in it alone (I admit that I have let her up there). But has never tried to jump on the couch or anything like that. She sleeps in our bedroom on the floor. She has a bed made for her, but she more often sleeps between the wall and the bed over by my husband. It must feel safer over there - she tried to move her puppies there once too. If she has any trouble calming down, turning out the light does the trick. She will stay put in the morning until my husband gets out of the shower and let's her out in the back yard at around 7:30. We go to bed around 10:30 or 11 most nights. Around 10 she is likely to head into the bedroom, assuming she has had enough stimulation during the day.

TOYS & PLAY:
She loves stuffed squeaky toys - she likes to play with them for anywhere from an hour to a few days and then rip them apart and extract the squeaker. She has never swallowed a squeaker. So I spend a lot of time at the sale bin at the pet store. :-) She never rips apart my stuff, so if she wants to rip apart hers, I figure that is her prerogative. This is something to keep in mind if your little girl has stuffed animals though - she is not likely to know the difference. Keeping them off of the floor will probably be enough of a deterrent. She doesn't even pull her own toys out of the box i keep them in, which is easily accessible to her. But anything on the floor is fair game.

She also likes plastic squeaky toys and balls - she doesn't rip those apart. She likes a variety of treats - I usually get a selection and stuff a treat ball. I have a few of those and she LOVES them. I think the molecule ball is her favorite. She has some rope toys she likes. Her favorite chew is a jerky stuffed pork bone. She'll spend quite a bit of time on those. She likes bully sticks too. She is a smart dog, so I focus on changing things out for her often and giving her variety.

She adores it when you get down on the floor with her to play. She likes to fetch, but really loves a good game of tug. Note: I like to "play rough" a little bit and wrestle around. She likes to use her mouth and has never once clamped down on me inappropriately. However, we all make mistakes and she has amazingly strong jaws - she can crack apart her bones like they are crackers. So I do not allow her to put her teeth on me, even gently. I am not worried about myself, but if she were to get carried away playing with a child it could end tragically. I do not believe she would ever bite on purpose, and like I said - so far she has never made a mistake. But I strongly recommend if you take her, that you continue this no teeth policy 100% of the time. She understands "no" perfectly well and stops what she is doing instantly if you say it.

Another game we play is chase. I never play this with her outside. But inside I will do a play bow and take one of her toys and run with it. She will chase me around and I will eventually throw it, and then I will chase her for it. Then I will do things like hide behind a door and jump out at her as she creeps by looking for me, and chase her for the toy. She LOOOOOVES this game. I never ever ever ever chase her outside bc I do not want her to get the idea it is ok for her to run away from me when it is important. I give her very clear signals as to the beginning of the game when we play inside so that she knows when I am playing and when I am serious.

FOOD:
We have been experimenting with food. She is currently on Solid Gold, which contains no corn or byproducts. Since switching her off of Science Diet (a corn based kibble) she has become a much more calm and stable dog. I am currently playing with the ratio of canned to kibble she gets.

Breakfast: I've been changing this up lately for various reasons, but right now she gets about 1/2 cup of high protein kibble, mixed with about 1/2 can of either Trader Joe's wet dog food or 1/2 can Solid Gold wet dog food. I add 2 capsules of probiotic supplement whenever she seems a little "off" or if I know she is going to be in a stressful situation that day and (sometimes) a dropper full of Rescue Remedy. The canned food is significantly lower in protein (9%) than the dry food (44%). There are unofficial implications (not scientifically proven) that lower protein levels promote a calmer dog. The corn/serotonin correlation has been scientifically determined. Canned food is historically nutritionally sub par to kibble, so I try to strike a balance as I continue to study this stuff.

Dinner: 1 to 1 1/2 cups (depending on activity level that day) Solid Gold kibble at a regular protein level (22%) topped with 1/4-1/3 cup (I eyeball it) nonfat yogurt (either Greek or Vanilla flavored).

She is significantly calmer and easier to manage since I switched her away from a corn based dog food (I am happy to tell you about that if you are interested). For a while she had some awful gas but as I have played with her diet, that has mostly subsided. So I think I am at about the right level now. She is eating less lately too (reflected in the amounts mentioned), so I think she is self regulating after recovering from nursing the giant puppies and trying to gain back some weight. She looks to me to be at a healthy weight now. She burps after she eats, which is pretty hysterical.

She is well behaved and so far does not beg. She did counter surf one time, but a) we should not have left it out; and b) she was still nursing and ravenous all the time. Overall, she is not that food motivated and has not done it again.


Routine:

• (my husband) lets Cheetah out in back yard after his shower. She doesn't go out alone bc she could jump the fence if she wanted to, but won't if we are watching her. She is less inclined to do so when Swiffer is out there with her, and now that it is summer and there is more shrubbery blocking the view. She also knows it makes us very unhappy when she does it (it's only happened a handful of times and she always comes back).
  
• After 9husband) lets Cheetah back in, he takes Swiffer (my dog, who is meak in nature and generally does not enjoy Cheetah, despite Cheetah's attempts to play) for a walk - Cheetah watches them leave and then comes and complains to me that they went without her. Sometimes she tries to get in bed with me.
• I get up and feed Cheetah breakfast (Dan feeds Swiffer and Lexy, my cat) and freshen her water bowl in the kitchen. I prefer to feed Cheetah myself (Lexy and Swiffer are often covered by Dan - esp in the morning). Before she eats she must sit until I put down her bowl and release her. If she jumps the gun we start over. Occasionally I interrupt her feeding by making her sit, petting her, sticking my hand in her bowl or taking her bowl away, just to make sure she is not developing any food aggression issues (she's not). However she will take assets away from Swiffer. She doesn't mess with her bowl, but the other day she stole a pizza crust from Swiffer and barked at her. So just keep an eye on that sort of thing. I corrected her and she didn't fixate at all when I took it away from her. But purely dog on dog, I could see her getting possessive with a bone etc.
  
• I play with her while I am getting dressed. This usually consists of some tug of war and or/fetch. Sometimes she just sits and watches me, follows me around, or goes to her post at the bay window.
• I fill her treat ball and leave it on the kitchen floor
• I rotate out her toys or sometimes add in a new one - she loves to destroy stuffed toys. Lately I have noticed she doesn't play much while we are gone. She sleeps. All of the playing and destruction happens while I am there to supervise :-)
• Sometimes I leave her with a jerky stuffed pork bone or other chew. Again, she usually waits until we come home to actually eat it. Chewing is a great way to relieve excess energy.
  
• I often turn on her CD "Through a Dog's Ear" and leave it on low volume/disk repeat. If I remember to do this at breakfast, I do, as I do not want her to associate it solely with me leaving.
• I tell her good-bye and that I will be back later. She usually just looks at me (unlike later in the day when she would show interest in coming with me.)
• She hops up into the window and watches us drive away. Based on the times I work from home, she spends her day wandering to various nap spots. She might play with her treat ball a little or grab a drink, but that's about it.
• Most of the time she is in the window when we return from work. She greets us at the door when we come in. She clearly knows our car because she will bark at a strange car.
• I let her out in the back yard and she hops around for a while, chases any birds dumb enough to stick around, and does her business. Lately we let Swiffer out with her and they have a good game of chase. Cheetah then helps me get Swiffer to come back in the house! (It is my one failing with Swiffer - she does not come reliably.) Cheetah responds very well to calling her and especially whistling.
  
• (husband) or I feed the cat in the basement and I feed the dogs in the kitchen - they eat the same thing and I set them up at different ends of the kitchen at the same time. So far no problems or thievery with this system. I stand in the middle in case anyone is tempted, but I can walk out with no problem.
• If it is dog park night we get in the car, which Cheetah is always raring to do. I limit dog park to 2 or 3 times a week to control adrenaline levels. Note: she is a nutball in the car. She loves it (she used to hate it) but she barks at everything. I tried a citronella bark collar and that had some effect, but the battery immediately died after the first use, so there wasn't consistency. Since I can't really pull over and stop every single time she barks I am looking fro other motivators. It has occurred to me recently that she loves having the window open. SO I am going to try closing the window every time she barks and putting it back down when she stops to see if that works.
  
• If we do not go to the dog park, I will often let her back out in the yard to play a little more. She never goes out unsupervised, as she has proven ability to jump our fence if she feels like it. However she is well trained in recall when I whistle.
  
• At some point during the evening I usually try to take her for a significant walk. I had been using a Gentle Lead and I use a very light weight cat leash to avoid unnecessary pressure or pulling sensation on her face. She usually expresses a lot of frustration for about a block (she rears up and does this high pitched bark, as well as dipping her head trying to get the thing off her face). I simply tell her no and continue walking when she struggles and stop walking if she barks. Lately she is controlling herself in the presence of birds when we walk!! This is a huge deal. She is also getting the idea about sitting at a curb. We will stand there until she does it - sometimes she is more ornery than others. I just say "sit" and if she doesn't initially do it i will gently touch her about where her tail is attached. (I do not push her down.) I do this once every 30 seconds or so until she sits. Then she is rewarded with verbal praise, petting and progress. I JUST started her on Easy Walk harness and since we have such an easy back yard, I have not walked her on leash enough yet to tell you how well it works, but it is promising and I would recommend it for her.
  
• If it is crummy out I make a point of running through extra training exercises. Sit, Down, Targeting, Paw, Up (on hind legs), we are working on Stay (I forgot to release her the other day and Dan called my attention to the fact that she was still sitting in the kitchen! haha), and we are just starting Off (don't eat the treat sitting in front of you until I say so).
• She usually takes a bit of a nap near where I am sitting. At some point I turn off her CD.
  
• I play with her or sit on the floor and cuddle her
• more sitting and napping or she self entertains.
  
• I get ready for bed and she usually plays around or sits in her bed. She usually follows me back and forth as I prepare for bed. I freshen the water bowl in the bedroom.
• I tell her it is bed time and most of the time she lays down. If she is restless, this is usually remedied by turning out the light.

Remaining Triggers:
I think we have narrowed the field of triggers quite a bit. Things that still bug her seem to be as follows:

• someone running will often bug her, especially if she cannot investigate or attempt to herd (is on leash or behind a barrier). Note: *I* do not like to run, so I have never run with her. But I strongly suspect she would be fine with it if I did it and she could be with me while I did.
  
• things that look out of the ordinary to her - bicycles and motorcycles are particulalry offensive but cement trucks, a pick up that has something big in the back, an open window in the car next to us, a man in a business suit... all fit that bill. She doesn't really care for seeing people move from one place to another under any power other than their own two feet, at a walking pace. However, they laundry list of things that look weird to her is shrinking.
  
• most wildlife: birds, rabbits, squirrels (I don't expect to ever fully remedy this one as it is based in pure instinct)
• territorial: no one is welcome in our house unless you live there and certainly not if she has not met you before (she has been fine with Kristina, the Rescue Exec Director, entering our house in the past and she did great when one of her puppies visited with owners so we are making progress.) This is a tough one to desensitize bc we don't have people over very often except cleaners every 2 weeks and occasional family visits. This is her worst remaining problem from our perspective. In a new house I would recommend having a lot of people over initially before she decides the house is hers, to get her used to the idea. Part of the problem may be that she had her puppies in my house. She was not territorial until the cleaners scared her and she felt the need to defend them one day. I saw the whole thing on webcam.
  
• She is generally excited beyond belief in the car and barks at "everything" - other dogs being walked, the things that look out of place as mentioned above, people, etc. My theory on this is that it is not unlike the fence or the leash - she can't get to the thing that is exciting her. AFTER the dog park she is less barky than before.
  
• Big thunder and lightening storms - not as bad as Swiffer but seeks comforting. We use DAP spray, dryer sheets, Rescue Remedy and a calming collar. In my opinion only the Rescue Remedy is significantly effective.
  

Former Triggers (or at least mostly former) and other accomplishments - hooray!

• Men - seems gone
  
• People of any ethnicity other than Caucasian - seems gone
  
• Children - huge strides, not yet sure if it is gone but she has been doing great - it might be gone
  
• More responsive to recall under excitement or distraction (she has always been good under no stress to a recall command.)
  
• More self control on a leash in the presence of exciting stimulus (like a bird)
• More well behaved on a leash (still needs work. she is of course more likely to be well behaved if she has had a chance to blow off some steam)
  
• Faster sits at the curb (still needs some work)
  
• Reliable automatic sit/stays until release before eating
• Generally not hyper anymore
• fences - if there is a fence and there is someone on the other side of that fence - it was offensive. I think this was a subset of the territorial problem, but I am not quite sure how it fits. Anyway, she seems much better with this at places like the dog park. She definitely likes one of our neighbors better than the other (but so do I so she is probably picking that up from me)
  

HOUSE TRAINING & CRATE:
She is very well housebroken - the only time she has ever had an accident in the house was right after she had the puppies and she had very little control. She will tell you when she has to go out - if she has to go badly, she will come up to you and bark. I just sort of know now when she has to go. She mostly goes twice a day and that's it. She always poops the second she gets to the dog park no matter what so be prepared for that!

She has never been crated while with me. I have never seen a need. She spends most of her time looking out the window or sleeping. She is alone for 8-10 hours a day. She adores sitting in the bay window. She absolutely needs stimulation and exercise after a day of inactivity, but she does fine on her own.


HEAT & DOG PARK:
She does OK in the heat - the dog parks I take her to always have water available and she will drink a lot if she is hot. She does like the water, but she has not shown an interest in full out swimming - once she got in up to her chest, she turned around. She is terrified of baths - i must have done something wrong there. I took her in the shower with me (something her pups have done with their new owners all on their own so I thought it would be less traumatic. No dice.) I don't think she would mind if you put water on her though, as long as you do it in a non-confrontational feeling way. If she gets hot or tired she will take a break and lay down as long as she feels safe.

She does very well at the dog park with most dogs and most people. The only time she has gotten into a skirmish is if she feels she has no escape and the other dog comes at her. There has never been a time when I have been unable to predict that response coming. But overall she has good social skills and will avoid confrontation when possible. I keep a close eye on her, but I try to see what she is going to do before I call her off or step in. Usually she makes a good choice. She likes to stalk other dogs and then leap out at them. But she doesn't attack them, she pulls back before she reaches them. It's a throwback to her herding instinct. It freaks out the owners of little dogs, but she never hurts them. I only call her off if the owner is getting freaked, never because she has hurt or threatened a little dog. The owners are way more freaked out than the dogs. When dog fights break out at the dog park, I always call her to me (dogs all go running when they hear that happening just like people) and she will do a u-turn on her way to the show to come back to me. Of course I always praise her like crazy for that.

TOWNHOUSE:
One of her puppies went to a townhouse so I asked the owners what they thought about that now that they have had her a while. Here is what she said. I will tell you up front that Cheetah is not as hyper as her puppy, who is about 5 1/2 months old right now.

"I've been thinking about how to answer this. It is really hard to separate [puppy] from being a puppy and her being a very high energy breed. But, for what it's worth, this is my two cents:

As far as having [puppy] in a rowhouse, it is not a problem. I don't feel that it is too small of a size for her. However, we do have the benefit of having a nice, fairly large (for a row house), fenced in backyard that she can play in whenever she gets too crazy. Also, we live 1.5 blocks from [a park], which is a hopping dog park. She goes there almost every night. And, when we don't do that we're taking her running in the Arboretum or to Shirlington. We have found that we HAVE to do something very active with her every day or she goes crazy. She hasn't destroyed anything, but she drives us nuts until she gets at least 1-1.5 hrs of activity. We don't have a dog walker that comes because [husband] works from home and can let her out/spend time with her throughout the day. She may benefit from several long walks throughout the day instead of one big block of play time, but we've found it works better for us to spend and hour or two doing something very active with her.

Also, we've found that several people at the dog park also have Aussies. They have similar sized homes and it sounds like it hasn't been a problem for them either. But, they are all runners and take their dogs for a long run each day.

I'm not sure how active Cheetah is, but if she's high energy and the potential owner can give her a good bit of exercise each day, I think she should do fine in a rowhouse. "

Please let me know if you have any other questions. As you can see, I am happy to answer. No matter what you think of anything I have said here, I hope you will meet her and get your own impressions, and make sure that nothing was lost in translation.

Oh, one more thing. When Cheetah had her puppies I had her on a webcam so we could watch them from work. As such, she has a VERY devoted following (as you saw from all of the updates). Would you be open to keeping us updated on her progress and how she's doing if you adopt her? I am also planning to do a litter reunion in April 2010, and she would be invited to that.