Brave New Dog

Paige has become quite the watchdog! She's learned from Sheba that all people approaching the Kennel must be greeted with manic barking. I actually don't mind it since it gives me a "heads up" that someone is approaching. And to be fair, it stops once the person enters the lobby - or goes over to pet her. Anyway... a few days or so ago Paige started to bark, too. Not always, and not as loudly, but she was helping. Now Paige will bark on her own! A couple of times it's been at my husband (who Paige is very, very wary of) but not always. She has a nice bark (not too piercing and not raspy). This is not to say that Paige isn't still timid. But every break through is so great.

Yesterday Paige jumped from a standstill up to my eye level (I'm 5'5")! I was carrying meat out to feed her and Sheba which made her very, very happy. But I was still shocked! Later that evening she was still in such a good mood she played "chase" with me! That means that I play-tag her and she runs in a h-u-g-e circle furiously! That went on for 5 or 6 rounds. So while Paige still won't chase a ball, she seems to understand playing.

A few days ago the dogs started to pick up something on their paws that would not brush out. Added to the little green burrs that Paige gets covered in every single day, I couldn't take it. I had to bathe her off. She's still not crazy about the bath but is soooo much better. Sheba came in to check on her (and then got out of the way so as not to encourage a bath for herself!). Turns out the black stuff was soot and ash from some huge tree limbs my husband cut off and burned in the way back of the property. She's nice and clean and under my desk now. I've never been so manic about clean dogs but here in FL the ticks are horrible and I'd rather bath and make sure the dogs are tick-less than just treat with toxins. I do treat them with a preventative, but I would need to apply it twice as often it to make sure it was working.

Another break through with Paige is that for about 10 minutes she ate out of my hand. I have some kibble that was given to us as a sample for the Kennel. I don't feed kibble to my dogs so the only time it gets used here is if a boarding dog has run out of food during its stay. So I opened it up. Both dogs loved it! And it kept Paige at my side. These are the treats I'm going to use for the next few days. I hate feeding kibble, but I'm going to look at it like Halloween candy - not great for you, but it won't kill you once in a while!

Last night was had some excitement: the dogs were out in the yard for "last call". Sheba started barking furiously. I could see Paige was running between Sheba and the back door when I looked out. I went out and realized that they were after some critter in the bushes by the pool. They came in right away as it was too dark to see anything. I went out to the pool area after just to see (who knows why) and there was a SNAKE! I hate snakes. I only got a quick glance. When I looked it up it was one of 2 possibilities. Either poisonous or not. Great. I think it's the non-poisonous one since it was out at night and the explanation said this snake was active at night. I hope so. When I head into the house for lunch I'm going to have a "look-see" and then again tonight. Actually, tonight I'll have my husband look. He's the one who's going to have to kill it anyway! Yuck. I wish I could teach these dogs to signal a snake but leave it alone. But that would require working with a snake, no?

Well, off the find the snake!

Moving right along...

These have been a very hectic few days. My older daughter, who works for me in the Boarding Kennel, has been out of town with my younger girl so I’ve been here holding down the fort on my own. We don’t have so many dogs in that it was impossible, but we do have this little Maltese who is – I kid you not – 22 years old! I thought Chrissy was dying on me Friday and Saturday when she stopped eating (always on the weekend). Which was all sorts of fun. But she’s still here. Anyway, now that I’ve got a few moments I’ll try to catch up here.

Paige is making great strides and becoming more balanced everyday – even when that means misbehaving. On Friday, after she was fed, she actually made her way into the trash!! There was a little bit of kibble in there from one of the kennel dogs. I was speechless – for a few seconds. Then, of course she got corrected. I have found this to be a little difficult, that is, finding the right balance between a correction and not coming down too hard. (You see, I’m a German Shepherd Dog person for so long that transitioning to Rini was an education and even MORE so for Paige). Any way, after the fact I thought that as unacceptable as it was… misbehaving (or at least testing the waters) was not a bad thing.

Then on Saturday a couple looking to adopt an ES rescue stopped by. They are true dog lovers and have a BC, Jessie, now. They lost a second dog about a year ago. Paige kept her distance but stayed with the group, albeit on the fringe. I could tell she was thrilled when the “strangers” left. She’s so great with other dogs, though. This Jessie evidently does not like other females (according to the owners). Well, there was no sign of that with Paige. Not a whole lot of interaction going on, but a good exchange of butt-sniffing introductions did take place. I don’t know if they are really interested in Paige. I guess we’ll see.

We started a little obedience training finally. I’ve really cut her a lot of slack, but probably shouldn’t have. She’s such a basically good dog, it hasn’t seemed imperative. But I think everything will move forward better once she has some basic commands under her belt. On the lead, and off, she’ll come for a treat. Getting her to come straight on and take (not snatch) a treat is the challenge. We also worked on “sit” a little bit. THAT was a challenge in that I had one hand on the lead, one hand with a treat and no hand left to ease her bottom down. Paige succeeded twice – yeah! We’ll try again today now that my girls are back and one of them can hold the lead while we work. Once I can get her to sit I’m going to work on the recall/out send exercise that Heather H. recommends. It looks brilliant.

Overall Paige improves every day. On Sunday she walked in and out of the house AND the kennel right with me. No hesitation, no lead, no need to leave the doors open and wait for her to skulk in. I was thrilled! It didn’t happen every time but it happened several times. She’s barking more; “playing” more (even if it’s only with me and not Sheba who is d-y-i-n-g to play!). She even bolted out the gate once which petrified me for a few seconds until I realized she just wanted to get into the Kennel and went straight to the front door and waited. Walked right in after I opened up! Yeah!!

Well, it’s nail trimming day so I guess I should round up both Paige and Sheba for that. Paige could use a good brushing after this weekend as well.

Paige update, mostly

It’s been a few days since I last blogged. And there have been some interesting changes.

First of all, Paige has hit that “magical” 3 week mark. There have been great improvements but also a few set backs. I’ve been greeted for 2 mornings now with a “interesting” gift from Paige. Yesterday morning I wrote it off as a touch of diarrhea. Paige gets fed a raw diet and on days with little bone, it’s not uncommon for a dog to have loose stools. But I would have appreciated and whine to go out. Today there was no such excuse. So we might start crate training today.

On the other hand… the raw diet has done AMAZING things for her teeth and gums. When Paige first arrived her teeth were in horrible shape. Even the vet noted how much tarter there was for such a young dog. They were very, very brown. I’m happy to report that they are REALLY pearly white now! And her breath is better.

The other set back is Paige growling at people. It started once towards my husband. While I corrected, her I wrote it off as just being startled. It’s more than that. But only happens in the evenings. Not in the yard, but in the house and only in the evenings. She always gets a severe verbal correction and snap... but she tries to get the last word in (but doesn’t).

Paige is also bold enough now to take food from Sheba. Or tries to. Luckily for Paige, Sheba is very nonchalant about most things, including food. So I usually have to call her off. I don’t think Paige realizes that food is not rationed here, who knows if she ever will trust that. But Paige does have her likes and dislikes. She’s not crazy about raw eggs. Sheba loves them but Paige will only eat the insides. She completely leaves the shells – which is fine by Sheba who LOVES the shells.

Paige has started to run the fence (tail up and even barking once in a while) along side Sheba when there’s a Boarding dog out in the play yard – who is a fence runner. For the past few days it was Maggie (a husky mix) who thinks running the fence with Sheba is the best thing since sliced bread! Then she discovered Paige and by running at Paige (who has since learned that the fence is her friend) she can get Sheba really riled up! And the three of them are then off!

There’s family near here looking for an ES. I invited them over this weekend (due to illness in my home, we had to cancel this past weekend). Who knows? Maybe they’ll fall for Paige. I’m glad I’m not responsible for finding Paige her forever home. I’d be horrible at it! Too, too critical.

This weekend it’s just me and my DH – our son is still at school and both girls are headed out of town together. I’ve got Boarding dogs so I’m stuck on property. Ah well, I guess I should look at it as a “stay-cation”.

Laura

It’s been an interesting few days. Saturday morning my husband I had to get up very early to block a place in the fence where Paige was going and could get out. There was no way Sheba could have gotten in or out, but since Paige is so small I got worried. Mind you, she has about an acre and a half of fenced yard (no including the front yard which is not fenced nor The Barking Lot’s – the kennel – play yard. You would think it was enough! I actually don’t know if she was trying to get out as much as she was looking for a small place to get into. After the space was closed off, I found Paige in one of the dog houses later that day!

Twice now, during the past 2 nights, she’s growled at my husband. She’s been fine with him during the day but each evening, as he’s come out of the bedroom after a shower, she’s growled – seriously. I was caught off guard by it Saturday night, but last night I gave her a real verbal correction and a “knock it off” snap. She stopped. Let’s see what happens tonight. Any suggestions??

Thanks to Sheba we now have a new hole in the yard. And by “hole” I mean crater. Sheba never does anything half way! And it looked like Paige joined in. At least the thick coat of wet sand/dirt all over her legs and underside says she did!

As I wrote last time, Paige is getting more comfortable and bold here, which is great. Last night at dinner she was down-right cheeky! I put Sheba’s food down first. There was a turkey neck and a half in her bowl. When she started in on the first piece, Paige tried to steal the second one! I had to “shoo” her away and immediately put her bowl down. She’s lucky that Sheba is so very tolerant about food. Rini would have put an end to that before Paige’s teeth touched the meat! I am glad she’s building confidence, though!

Besides that, I’ve found that daily brushing is a must. When Paige arrived she has a VERY bushy tail and hindquarters. Sheltie-like. Now she lost that and her coat is looking good. But she does pick up a lot! Her top coat is that great ES Velcro… but her legs still pick up EVERYTHING! Brushing is still not fun for her. But she has no choice in the matter. She’s not panicked by it, but obviously would rather be almost anywhere else.

If I can figure out how to do it, I'll post some photos here. If I can't I'll post a link to some photos next time I write. For now, feel free to check out the web site for my Boarding Kennel - The Barking Lot - there are some nice pictures there!

www.barking-lot.net

Laura

I know it's not much but...

Last evening at meal time we had a breakthrough.

I've been feeding the dogs with Sheba's gate closed and Paige's gate open. Fine. All was well, the dogs were hungry and got right to their respective turkey necks (which by the way each weigh about a pound!). When they were both done I let Sheba out. As usual she made a bee-line to Paige's dish to check it out and lick it clean (like it wasn't already!). For the first time, though, Paige went into Sheba's run to check out and lick out Sheba's dish! Every time Paige acts more like a "normal" dog (or rather a dog that had been brought up normally) I want to get up and dance!

On a sadder note, we just found out that Sheba has hypothyroidism. This would explain her litter that went bad this summer. Of course there's no way we are going to try to breed her again and she will be on medication for ever. It's not a catastrophe, but it is sad. She'll get spayed later this year.

Baby steps

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Well we did it… trimmed Paige’s nails. Not so horrible but it did take 2 of us. The only one hurt was Sheba – poor girl. I cut one of her quicks – badly. I still feel so bad about it. And we were doing so well, too! I’ve got to bite the bullet and start dremmeling and not clipping. Thank goodness that all but one of Paige’s nails are clear!

Right now the dogs are in runs, (still feeding them separately) working on some beef necks. This is the third time I’ve offered this to Paige and the first time she’s taken to them. In fact, she is half way out of her run gnawing away! Good for her!

The weather is still cool (for Florida) so I got out to weed in the yard a bit. I could only do it for an hour, I guess I really am getting old! But the dogs hung out near by. The only thing Sheba likes more than chasing weeds being thrown is chasing snow being shoveled. Since that’s not happening here, she makes do with the weeds. I have no idea what Paige thought of all that. But I think it was good for her to be out in the yard with us, with no one really paying any attention to her. It seems to have made it easier to call her in to eat. We’ll see if that continues to hold true.

The kennel is very, very empty which is horrible for business but good for Paige. It’s given me more time with her and the few dogs that have been coming and going (mostly for grooming) gives her a chance to see people coming and going with no interest in approaching her so she can just observe without pressure. She watches everything so I’m hoping she’s picking up on positive cues from the other dogs.

As I close this I see that Paige has followed the bone almost out of the run. I just spoke to her, which stopped her only for a second. She doesn’t seem panicked that I can see her. Baby steps!!

Daily Diary about Paige, the foster dog from MT

Later on Tuesday:

The vet was fine. Paige did very well in the waiting room and basically took her cues from Sheba (who gets very board and lays down very quickly). Once we were in the exam room, Paige laid under the bench and had to be dragged out – too many new people. Once out again, she was fine.

As for the car… I had to lift her in but once in she was relatively calm. Not serene, but not panicked either. Both at the vet and at home she waited for me to take the lead before she jumped out on her own. Well done!

Wednesday September 30, 2009

The weather is FANTASTIC and the dogs are loving it! This morning started out in the low 70s and little humidity and we were all rejoicing! Paige literally ran and bounced she was so happy! Right now it’s 1:15 and it’s still cool enough to leave the girls out. She wants to come in – just to be with us – but I still don’t want to leave Paige alone in the yard.

My goal today is to get their nails trimmed. Not a big deal for Sheba – but will likely be quite an ordeal for Paige. I’ll probably do it after dinner when she is usually quiet anyway.