A trainer friend of mine lost her GSD to bloat last night. Many people do not know the dangers or preventions for bloat - a very dangerous and often fatal condition. For example, did you know that you should NOT raise your dog's food bowl? This is news to me! Be sure to learn the facts. You have to act fast if your dog shows symptoms.
http://petmd.com/blogs/dailyvet/2009/July/16
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
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 r
eally 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 t
he 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.
eally 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 t
he 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.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Sadie 8.4.09
Wanted to let you know that Sadie did finally relieve herself under Foster's dining room table. He said he never thought a dog pooping and peeing in the house would make him so happy! LOL She has since even gone outside! She started moving around slowly and cautiously, making her first big foray onto the couch - haha. No problem hopping up there. She has been slowly emerging from her shell and even took a little unexpected tour of the neighborhood, which about gave Foster a heart attack. She still has a very extreme fear response, and even peed when Foster
approached her to retrieve her from her little adventure. She clearly exhibits a higher comfort level with women than men, but Foster is very gentle with her and he is fantastic at drawing her out and gaining her trust even though he is male. He is doing a great job with her. He says she seems much less sad and depressed than when he initially got her.
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.
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.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
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